Module 1 — Effective
writing: Strategies
and principles
| Course Guide | Module 1 | Module 2a | Module 2b |
Avoiding wordiness
"It is the responsibility of official writers to be intelligible — not to confuse people and make their lives difficult with unfamiliar words and longwinded, impenetrable sentences..." Roz Kelly MHR, in a foreword to Robert D. Eagleson, Writing in Plain English, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1990. |
Another common complaint about ILO writing is its verbosity or wordiness. This tendency is often excused by stating the need for formality in many documents, especially those involving governments. More often though, the wordiness is caused by falling into what is called 'formula writing': it may seem easier to piece together well-worn phrases rather than think about how to write clearly. Wordy writing is difficult, boring and slow to read. It can also be inappropriate if it is more formal than the writing context requires.
Examples
- It is noteworthy that a partnership mode of working became the modus operandi of the Initiative at the national, provincial and community levels.
- We make reference to your fax of 9 June, advising us of further details of the situation with regard to the nominated venue for the above training. In response to the queries you have raised therein, I should like to respond to them serially.
- With regard to the hotel brochure we have received from you, we are assuming that we do not have to make a selection of a menu therefrom for the week's lunches and that the brochure is for our information only. Please advise if we are in error concerning this matter.
Apart from taking a lot of time to read and not being particularly clear, the kind of very formal writing in the last two sentences does not suit the content. But what is it exactly that makes these sentences so wordy and hard to read?
- Using padding phrases and words that do not add to the meaning (noteworthy, mode, modus operandi, situation, in respect of, with regard to, therein, therefrom),
- Using verb phrases instead of simple verbs (make reference to instead of refer; make a selection instead of select),
- Using complex words when simple ones will do the job better or could simply be left out (serially instead of in turn or one by one).