Writing Rule: Keep It Simple

Write to express, not impress. Clear communication is the whole point.

Photo by hannah grace on Unsplash

For 34 years, I tried to unteach what high school teachers taught: wordiness. Too many assignments were made by word count. “Write 500 words on…” “Write 750 words on…”

Now, I understand we have to give guidelines on how long an essay or research paper should be. But word count puts the emphasis on quantity, not quality. It encourages wordiness, which is using as many words as possible to say what could be said more succinctly. Wordiness obfuscates (there’s a vocabulary word for you) the very purpose of the piece. It buries the point under a mountain of useless words, making it much harder for readers to figure out what the hell you’re trying to say.

“If I had more time, I would write you more briefly.” (Thomas Jefferson)

Good writing gets rid of garbage. It also does not use pompous language to try to impress readers. Good writing uses the KISS method: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Let me give you some examples of phrases you will see all the time in word-count influenced writing:

at this point in time (now)

an unexpected surprise (If it wasn’t unexpected, it wouldn’t be a surprise.)