Discarding Excess Verbage

It started with technical writing, then became the standard for business writing: a slimmed-down style, with absolutely no baggage. 

Two things are needed when writing memos, emails, procedures, instructions, web content:

1. Precision

2. Extreme editing.

Take the following copy:

Well, it's easy. All you have to do is just find the arrow button - either direction will do - and push it until the three-digit identification number appears on the screen.

And transform it into:

Push the arrow button until you see the 3-digit number.

What a relief not to have to slog through a huge conversation, right?

Here's another "before":

Team Members: It has come to my attention that we are still putting items on top of the toaster oven. Please remember that this is a fire hazard, and put your stuff in your desk, or even in the bottom file drawer which is usually empty. Thank you.

And its "after":

Team Members: Anything placed on top of the toaster oven will be annihilated immediately.

How to do it: Write your copy just as you normally would, complete with excess commas, emotional rants, and run-on sentences. Then go through it like we've done here, and take out anything that is not absolutely necessary. Keep in mind what you want to tell people, and save everything else for your novel-in-progress.

(c)2014 Suzann Kale

Tags: business writing, technical writing, grammar, syntax, editing, proofreading, verbage, precision