Saturday, March 22, 2014

Omit Unnecessary Words

This is the most significant rule from William Strunk's and E.B White's Elements of Style: omit needless words.


To be able to achieve this without breaking the meaning of a sentence, you just have to remove unnecessary words such as the articles a, an, or the, and the theys and whichs.

You can also achieve this by revising your sentence all over again until you reach the point of diminishing returns.

In blogging this is very important because the more concise your sentences are, the easier for them to read. When you write a post, see to it that there are no redundancies. While omitting needless words, try to revise your sentences to make it briefer, shorter and crisp.

For example: Instead of saying: I as a janitor have to deal with the mess everyday. You can say: Mess a janitor like me has to deal everyday. Minus two words. The fewer the words, the clearer and easier the sentences to read.

Here are Strunk’s and White’s clearer examples of violations. So watch out for the grammar police when doing these:

You can also apply this rule not only in sentences but in paragraphs. While you remove useless words, better still you also remove unwanted sentences and paragraphs. As White told us this rule is for the same purpose as drawings don’t have unnecessary lines, and machines no unnecessary parts.

White also said you don’t have any intention of breaking the thought of the sentence but that every word you write tells something.

I always ponder this rule when I'm writing but sometimes failed to apply. You have to always remember it and always apply it. When you practice this and you get the hang of it, you will write better and better.

This rule is very essential for good SEO, even the best SEO. This is the most effective search engine optimization for your blog, even much more effective than forced link building. Natural, organic inbound links will gradually accumulate when you write concisely.

To know more about this rule you can hop into this page.

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