Clear, Precise, and Concise Writing, and Reducing Word Count in Scholarly Writing

Writing articles for publication requires writing skills that require a level of precision, attention to detail, and clarity that may not be expected in other forms of writing. Clear, precise, and concise writing allows you to say more with fewer words and to be technically more accurate with what you are saying. This kind of writing also allows you to stay under word-count guidelines.

Typically, attending to clarity, precision, and conciseness are done later in the writing process. This is after you have a working draft and have your basic ideas written down—the point where you turn your attention to your audience and start to consider their needs and how to make your writing the most accessible possible. This page offers an introduction to these three concepts and how to achieve them in your scholarly writing: 

• Clear Writing: This is organized writing where the direction, meaning, and overall arguments are clear, and the reader does not have to work to understand what you are trying to convey.
• Precise Writing: This is writing that uses precise language and technical terminology accurately and to say exactly what you mean to say.
• Concise Writing: This is efficient writing that uses fewer words to convey meaning, making the writing shorter and more accessible.  

The three principles apply to all levels of your writing. This handout will cover both the macro level, the level of the work overall and at the paragraph level; and the micro level, where we examine individual sentences. We recommend beginning with the macro level and using reverse outlining techniques, then moving to the micro level to examine your sentences.

The Micro Levels of Clarity, Precision, and Conciseness

At the macro level, we consider the role of the overall information presented, the structure of the paragraphs, and how the overall work proceeds. We suggest using this handout in conjunction with our argument handout as clarity, precision, and conciseness revisions often go hand-in-hand with strengthening your argument. Here are some areas to consider at the Macro level:

What information is needed for an audience to understand what you are sharing? How much space do you want to dedicate to certain works, data, or arguments? Consider the minimum space to get the point conveyed—how much detail you provide about sources and how much elaboration should be tied to the importance of the work and to your purpose.   

For articles: What is the overall length or word count you have to work with?

For dissertations: What is the expected length?   

Length is directly tied to comprehension. The longer that the paragraphs are and the longer that the entire work is, the harder it is for readers to comprehend. Shortening the overall presentation of the work, especially if you are beyond your limits, is a good way to increase the clarity and accessibility of your work.

If you find yourself over that length, start with the questions above and the reverse outlining technique (below) to see if there are full areas you can remove. Once you’ve done the macro-work, you can move on and do a full conciseness edit using the paramedic method as a guide (below).

Consider the following common redundancies:

• Describing the same thing in multiple ways: Some writers may find themselves describing the same thing in two or three sentences in multiple ways or even returning to the same ideas in different sections. The reverse outlining strategy can help you remove this redundancy.
• Throat Clearing: Be on the lookout for “throat clearing” writing. This is writing that you usually do—usually, the first paragraph or so, where you are “getting going” but not saying much. This technique is useful for brainstorming, but this prose can be removed for more clear, precise, and direct language.   
• Over-Quotation: Over-quotation can bog down your writing; select only the most salient quotes from previous research and/or from your research participants.

Reverse Outline Activity

Reverse outlining allows you to go through your work step by step and evaluate the whole work for areas you can remove, condense, or rework. This technique asks you to create an outline from the existing work that you’ve written. You can do this for sections of your work or for the entire work. It is particularly useful to do for literature reviews.

To create a reverse outline:

1. First, go through your work step by step and review each paragraph. In a few brief words or a sentence, summarize the overall purpose of the paragraph.
   1. You can use a separate file/sheet of paper or MS Word’s comment feature.
   2. A good paragraph should have one clear purpose, a clear topic sentence, and supporting evidence. 
   3. If there seems to be more than one purpose in your paragraph, note that.
2. Once you have reviewed each paragraph, look at each overall section and consider the purpose. Write this at the start of each section.
3. Now, examine the outline you have created and ask yourself:  
   1. Does the order of the work make sense? Is it organized and clear?
   2. What extraneous information is present that can be reduced or eliminated?
   3. What information is needed that is not present?
   4. What signposting, transitioning, arguments, and other audience-centered features might be present?
4. Now, consider your paragraphs. For any paragraphs with more than one main point or idea, make a note to split, reduce, or revise.
5. Based on your reverse outline, revise accordingly.

The Micro-Level: Sentences and Vocabulary

We now move to the level of the sentence and individual words to continue exploring how to convey meaning with clarity, conciseness, and precision.

Examine your terms and terminology: Terminology is a big area that many writers have difficulty with, and this leads to less precise prose. Be thoughtful in your choice of vocabulary, sentence construction, and organization so that you convey a very specific meaning. This includes:

• Clearly define and explain all field-specific terms and jargon.
• Check that you have defined your term, the first time you use it, in a clear and precise way.
• Spell out all acronyms the first time you use them and use them sparingly (too many acronyms can be hard for readers to follow).
• Don’t use more than one term to describe a phenomenon. Stick with a single term and make sure you use it well.
• Avoid the use of idiomatic expressions.

Look for repeated Words/Phrases: Be on the lookout for repeated words and phrases (sometimes we like to say the same thing in multiple ways—cut it down to one concise way of saying it)

Use graphics and models: Consider how visual representations may strengthen your work and allow for more accurate information to be presented. A well-placed graphic can often convey more meaning in less time than a block of text.

Voice and style: Try to keep your writing in the active voice when appropriate, as this is often more clear and precise. This will be based on the conventions of your field.

The Paramedic Method

The Paramedic Method is a technique that teaches concise writing and is adapted from Richard Johnson-Sheehan’s Technical Communication Today. The method basically trains your brain how to examine sentences to increase their clarity, conciseness, and precision. Once you’ve worked and practiced with the method, you can internalize it and use what you learned to do a full, concise edit of your manuscript. 

1. Circle the prepositions (of, in, about, for, onto, into).
2. Put a box around the “is” verb forms.
3. Ask, “Where’s the action?”
4. Change the “action” into a simple verb.
5. Move whoever is doing the action into the subject.
6. Eliminate any unnecessary slow starts or throat-clearing.
7. Eliminate any redundancies.

We will walk through an example sentence:

This paragraph is a demonstration of the use of good style in the writing of an article for publication.

Here is our sample sentence with steps 1–3. We have identified both an is-form verb (which is passive) as well as a string of five prepositional phrases.

Now, let’s apply steps 4–7.

This paragraph demonstrates good style in writing articles for publication.

We took a sentence that had 19 words and reduced it to 10 words without any loss of meaning.

Here is a second example of the paramedic method:

Original (35 words): After reviewing the results of our previous research and in light of the relevant information found within the context of the study, there is ample evidence for making important, significant changes to our operating procedures.

Revision (15 words):  Our previous and current results demonstrate evidence for making significant changes to our operating procedures.

Use the paramedic method as a tool to read your writing. Go through your prose sentence by sentence, applying the paramedic method. Consider the usefulness of each word and work to reduce them.

One of the things that this does is create very concise language, but some writers find it too dry. It isn’t that other constructions can’t be used that have more words; it is that you want to make those decisions consciously. So, conciseness is also a matter of style and preference.

Final Strategies for Employing Precision, Conciseness, and Clarity

• Before doing this kind of work, let the writing rest. After you have written it, set your writing aside for a few days and work on other aspects of the project (or a different project). Come to it fresh.
• Revision is multiple processes. “Revision” is not a single process but a series of processes. In some revisions, you might review additional literature and shift an argument. In other revisions, you might clarify and extend some discussion. In still others, you might refine your vocabulary.
• Learn to see your writing from different angles. Different “lenses” can help you work on your writing in terms of clarity, preciseness, and conciseness. Perform a “conciseness edit” towards the end of the drafting process—where all you do is work to eliminate excess and verbose prose.