{"id":423,"date":"2015-12-11T09:53:01","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T20:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/?p=423"},"modified":"2015-12-11T09:53:01","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T20:53:01","slug":"writing-concisely-a-few-tips-for-cutting-out-unnecessary-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/2015\/12\/11\/writing-concisely-a-few-tips-for-cutting-out-unnecessary-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing concisely: A few tips for cutting out unnecessary words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are a few ways of using fewer words:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>use <a href=\"http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/academic-writing\/sentence-fragments.php\">verbs<\/a> instead of nouns where possible<\/li>\n<li>cut out abstract nouns where possible (e.g. In reality\u2026 In truth\u2026)<\/li>\n<li>remove filler words\/phrases (words fill gaps in a spoken language, e.g. well, then, you know).<\/li>\n<li>remove hedging words\/phrases (words that signify hesitation\/uncertainty, e.g. it seems that, kind of, pretty much, sort of)<\/li>\n<li>avoid repetition (e.g. \u201cThree sorts of X exist, the three sorts of X are\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Use the <a href=\"http:\/\/www-ist.massey.ac.nz\/plyons\/799%20HonoursProjects\/Writing%20Reports\/Writing%20In%20The%20Passive%20Voice.pdf\">active voice<\/a> (the subject performs the action, e.g. \u201cJo loves university\u201d) rather than the <a href=\"http:\/\/www-ist.massey.ac.nz\/plyons\/799%20HonoursProjects\/Writing%20Reports\/Writing%20In%20The%20Passive%20Voice.pdf\">passive voice<\/a> (the action is done to the subject, e.g. \u201cUniversity is loved by Jo\u201d).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For further help with writing concisely see:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/academic-writing\/writing-concisely.php\">http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/academic-writing\/writing-concisely.php<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/pdf\/studyup-writing-tips.pdf\">http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/pdf\/studyup-writing-tips.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/pdf\/studyup-writing-tips-handout.pdf\">http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/pdf\/studyup-writing-tips-handout.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apastyle.org\/learn\/faqs\/effective-verb-use.aspx\">http:\/\/www.apastyle.org\/learn\/faqs\/effective-verb-use.aspx<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are a few ways of using fewer words: use verbs instead of nouns where possible cut out abstract nouns where possible (e.g. In reality\u2026 In truth\u2026) remove filler words\/phrases (words fill gaps in a spoken language, e.g. well, then, you know). remove hedging words\/phrases (words that signify hesitation\/uncertainty, e.g. it seems that, kind of, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4,14,11,7,9,13,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albany","category-distance-study","category-exams","category-first-year","category-internal-study","category-manawatu","category-postgraduate-study","category-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions\/425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}