Ways to Cut the Clutter in Your Sentences

Clutter is a broad term for unnecessary words and phrases that take up space in our sentences, or inflated ways of making a point that could be rendered more simply and concisely. It means the same thing as the more common term wordiness.

Why be concerned about wordiness? Unnecessary words take up space and make demands on the reader's time. If you cannot come to your point concisely, your reader may not be patient enough to keep reading. Or, if your reader is a course instructor, she or he may become exasperated and assign a low mark to a piece of writing that is padded with unnecessary wordage. Minimum word limits on essays and assignments, as necessary as they are to indicate the need for a substantial answer, may lead to cluttered sentences by students anxious about their word count. If you are using words that do not provide new information to the reader, the best advice is to cut them out. Add to your word count only words that count toward your meaning.

When One Word Will Do
Redundant Words
The Problem with Passives
Inflated Sentences
Eliminating Wordiness