Visual Reminder Sign Fresh Fish Sold Here
Says It The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. -Thomas Jefferson
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. -William Strunk, Jr.
There you have a short, valuable essay on the nature and beauty of
brevity -- sixty-three words that could change the world. -E. B. White
Exercises
1. These items and other epigrams in class handouts (hardcopy) or web pages
may not be in the established files (ten categories - see pointers at the end of
Inspired Words).
For extra credit, locate where to place a saying, after demonstrating
that it is not yet in the ten groups posted to the web.
2. Rewrite a paragraph - something you wrote or read last week - to
eliminate at least one word or to shorten the item without changing its
plain meaning.
3. Most authors feel that editing implies criticism, but it really is an
assist to enable rapid communication. Vary the following statement to
make it suitable for a visual for a talk. That is, isolate keywords or
shorten the text.
I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do
better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than
under a spirit of criticism. -Charles Schwab