Writing and Publishing Techniques

How to Trim Your Writing Correctly and Effectively

Even if you think you had written a piece correctly with all those reader-friendly words and haven't been trimmed correctly, then your work will be slightly horrible to read and understand.

Trimming your writing in an exact way can attract your reader's attention since they can benefit from it as they continue reading your work. If you don't have enough time to write and if you don't have a sufficient place to work for, it is best to make your writings as short as possible but not that short as well. It should be written directly and should be more informative, that is, in some cases.

You don't need to write longer phrases or paragraphs. It will only be rejected by some employers or readers if they find it too long for them to read on to. As long as possible, it should be stated openly and clearly for them to understand your point. Or not, maybe you are just using a lot of unnecessary words in your sentences or maybe the main point is nit stated directly. These things will surely lead to a longer piece and needs to be trimmed right away before your submission period ends.

How are you going to trim your work correctly and effectively?

While most writing instructors will tell you to begin trimming long pieces of writing by omitting unnecessary words, I like to go about it a different way. Taking out one word at a time does have its merits, but let's face it: it will take you forever to effectively cut down word count when you ditch by dictionary entry.

Here's a better way of doing it:

Take a break. After writing a piece, no matter if its 300 or 3000 words, you'll likely be attached too attached to it to edit successfully. Take a short break before you start the editing process so you can conduct it with a bit more objectivity.

Remove large blocks of text. The key to really trimming copy is to remove entire sections first, drilling down into paragraphs, sentences and clauses, before even considering looking at it word per word. During the editing process, try to evaluate each section to gauge its actual relevance to the copy. Can you afford to remove it without affecting the overall message? Can you integrate its main points to another section? Do the same for each paragraph and sentence.

Re-evaluate your favorite parts. Is there any part of the text that you are particularly proud of, so much so that when you read it, you just can't help but exclaim, "Hell, I'm good" over and over? Consider that section of the piece a major candidate for omission. Parts you are particularly boastful of always tend to be exercises in self-indulgence.

Run a writing software. For most people, I recommend skipping the part about inspecting individual words to omit. Many sophisticated English writing software can now take over that role, finding word pairs and phrases that you can trim down without losing any part of their meaning.