Omit Needless Words

from TheElementsOfStyle

Strunk recommended that writers omit needless words. Not that subjects should be treated only in outline, but that one should LetEveryWordTell.

This is the prose version of DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork.

Shouldn't this page just be titled "OmitWords?"? :-)

Only if all of your words are needless.

Or is it? Because editing is rarely trivial, omitting words is not simple, especially when you are writing. The simplest thing to do when writing (depending a little on personality here) is to write words as they occur to you. This will result in many needless words, but it will also result in a document that contains all the thoughts you felt worthy of paper.

Omitting needless words is closer to OnceAndOnlyOnce, if you have to make the analogy to ExtremeProgramming.

The extension of OmitNeedlessWords is bound to be OmitNeedlessPages?. Is our bum sticking out here at all?

-- WaldenMathews

Strunk is arguing for precision, not parsimony.

Strunk argues for precision, not parsimony. ;-)

Oh, my. How embarrassing! Of course; how unStrunkian of me!

Feh. Words that don't add meaning can still add flavour, and that can make them worthwhile. You'll note I'm also using the passive voice, because I think it sounds better. So ha! Tone is the second most important thing in writing, after conveying the intended meaning. Stylistic suggestions are tertiary, at best. => feh. No! Besides, with the original still there, it's one more word than you need. Look at the above sentence, duplicated almost entirely in a feeble quest to remove words. The medicine is worse than the disease! => No! => You are not using the passive voice.

HOWEVER, the phrase 'Strunk is arguing' indicates that it is correcting a previous statement, while the revised version is a neutral statement. In this case, precise trumps concise, and the first version is correct.

Strunk is not arguing for parsimony. Strunk is arguing for precision. It depends on the situation. This last version in italics takes up even more space, but makes the point even more clear and more effective. A brain can remember and understand things in point form easier than it can a combined sentence or line, or paragraph. Too often we hear "everything should be made short and simple" or "code should be uncommented and should contain shortest amount of lines possible". One solution is to have TheBestOfBothWorlds. Offer a summary of the information, or code, and offer a long version. Same goes for help files and documentation (quick references, long drawn out books, etc) . Examples of summaries are indexes in books quick references, and search engines on the web. These are essentially short forms or summaries of information. They point to a longer version of information, without replacing or discontinuing the shorter, or vice versa.

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Strunk argues for precision over parsimony saves a character and eliminates an instance of punctuation, and also allows Strunk to argue for parsimony as well if he so chooses. Plus it's a better sentence than either of the above two.

...After "let there be light", here we have the freedom of "let there be speech".

There are not only benefits of having light, but also disadvantages (e.g., we need the dark for having a good sleep). The same principle applies to speech.

Speaking is a good thing only when controlling the amount of words, when and what we say. OmitNeedlessWords is as important as the message we want to communicate.

It really, truly is necessary and needful to remove and expunge needless unrequired extra redundant wordy verbiage in the interests of responsible economy of expression and communication since verbose overwording of one's desired intended message frequently can often lead toward a condition where the message constructed in this way is poorly grasped and understood by the recipient who receives such a thing.

So there.

A balance between using the smallest amount of words that describes what you want to describe and adding words to make your text pleasant to read is in order. I could've said the previous sentence as 'don't type much but make it fun to read' (short words, quickly jotted down, simple and to the point, but it makes me look illiterate, as would the target audience)

Every word in a document increases the "transimission cost" -- eg, the amount of time it takes to absorb it. Only SOME of those words actually add value. Many are filler. Some extra words can actually DETRACT from the meaning by creating confusion. But this is definitely about maximizing knowledge sharing and reader efficiency. On the writing side, I definitely agree with the above comment about the work required to focus/sharpen/edit the text. Remember the Mark Twain quote: "I'm sorry this letter is so long, I didn't have time to write a shorter one."