Improve Your Writing by Eliminating Wordiness
If you've ever read a style guide, you've probably read that the best writing is concise writing. Even academic writing, though it may include unfamiliar vocabulary, should always be clear and concise. It's actually a myth that the best academic writing should be verbose. The word, "verbosity" comes from Latin, verbosus, meaning "wordy." Wordy writing can be confusing writing.
Read the following example, and judge for yourself:
In spite of the fact that it is an extremely common occurrence, both in the secondary and post-secondary level, that applying verbose, extraneous, inflated language to our academic discourse, most specifically written compositions, in the quest to elevate our standing in the eyes of our peers and those who would evaluate our discourse for a grade, only serves not only to confuse and confound the very audience we hope to impress, but to also significantly frustrate the reader that our attempts often are met with disapproval, and often contempt, but more importantly, an unsatisfactory mark.
This is an example of wordy writing. Overly verbose and “puffy.” While reading a passage like the example above is obviously over-the-top, how can we edit our own writing to eliminate wordiness?
