Designed by Freepik

This is part of a series by editor Barbara McNichol to provide tips for writing like a pro.

Let’s say you have to fill out a form online and you’re restricted to 100 words. You absolutely cannot add one more word; the system won’t allow it.

So you work it the best you can, but what can you search for in your quest to meet the magic number of words? Tag-ons and redundancies (which aren’t needed, anyway).

In these tag-ons, you can get rid of the second word. It’s tagging along, not adding meaning: [Read more…]

This is part of a series by editor Barbara McNichol to provide tips for writing like a pro.

Ever wonder how to make your sentences less verbose and more direct? This works like magic: Change long nouns to short verbs. Consider the differences in these examples from a manual:

“They remain in contradiction with themselves” vs. “They contradict themselves.”

“He made an acknowledgment of her success” vs. “He acknowledged her success.”

“We get closer to the implementation of leadership practices” vs. “We get closer to implementing leadership practices.” [Read more…]