Consider all the prepositions that are draped onto verbs that don't need any help. We no longer head committees. We don't face problems anymore. We face up to them when we can free up a few minutes. A small detail, you may say - not worth bothering about. It is worth bothering about.
Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of thins we can keep out of it that shouldn't be there. Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.
Clutter is the laborious phrase that has pushed out the short word that means the same thing.
- example : "now" - > "currently", "presently", "at the present moment"
- example: "are you experiencing any pain?" vs. "does it hurt?"
Clutter is the ponderous euphemism that turns a slum into a depressed socioeconomic area, garbage collectors into waste disposal personnel, and town dump into the volume reduction unit.
Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistake.
- layoffs -> involuntary methodologies
- missile crashed -> impacted with the ground prematurely
- plant shutdown -> "volume-related production-schedule adjustment"
- company that belly up -> "a negative cash-flow position"
Is there any way to recognize clutter at a glance?
Here's a device my students at Yale found helpful. I would put brackets around every component in a piece of writing that wasn't doing useful work.
Look for the clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly. Be grateful for everything you can throw away. Reexamine each sentence you put on paper.
- Is every word doing new work?
- Can any though be expressed with more economy?
- Is anything pompous or pretentious or faddish?
- Are you hanging on to something useless just because you think it's beautiful?
Simplify, simplify.
Reference:
- On Writing Well : William Zinsser