Tailor your writing to who will be reading it, and the situation they will be reading in. There may be things you want to communicate, but are they things that the reader needs to know, or even wants to know?
Consider how each concept can be rewritten to be clearer. Shorter and more direct writing will be easier to understand and faster to read, increasing the likelihood it will be read at all.
Limit text to three consecutive nouns.
Look at the nouns in your sentence--can any be verbs instead?
Can any of your verbs be made active?
Consider reading a guidebook on concise writing in your language even if you are already fluent--for American standard English, try the Bedford Handbook or A Plain English Handbook.
Make the audience connect with your writing by focusing on writing to them with the use of "you."
The goal is not to be as short as possible--just as clear as possible. Remove words that do not add meaning, or replace them with more precise language.
This is not middle school English where you are penalized for repetition.
If you are writing a blog post on your website, people reading it probably know the acronym for your organization.
Conversely, define words, phrases, or abbreviations when you first use them, if they are necessary.
Write the most important information first, and then move on to more specific details. This allows your readers to quickly determine if they need the rest of the information or not. It also makes it more likely they will read the most important information before stopping.
💡 GRIDBit: People only spend 10-20 seconds looking at a page. That is how long you have to convince them you have something to offer!
Bedford Writing Handbook. Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers, Integrated Media, 2014.
Dyslexia Friendly Style Guide. British Dyslexia Association.
Federal Plain Language Guidelines. The Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN), 2011.
