Treat what you write like an exclusive club

I'm editing an article written by a consultant. He clearly knows his subject and the structure of the piece is absolutely fine. His problem, and it's a common one, is that he uses too many words. To be precise, he uses too many unnecessary words.

If you want your reader to understand what you are saying, give them the space to think and absorb your words. Telling them twice in the same sentence, repeating yourself, or saying the same thing in different ways, doesn't help. See what I mean?

Editing is a really important step in any writing (I will keep coming back to this subject in future blogs). For now, I'll look at one aspect. When you are rereading what you have written, only keep words that deserve their place. George Orwell suggested that writers should take out every adjective they've written and only put back the ones that are absolutely necessary. For a business piece, try taking out words and phrases in the longer sentences and see what effect that has. Unless your meaning evaporates like taxis on a rainy night, leave them out.

So treat the words you use like members of an exclusive club. No deadbeats or freeloaders, just those that add value and you couldn't do without. If your writing has an open house policy, get some bouncers on the door before it's too late.