Scribd
Upload
16 views3 pages

btw4 3

Joseph M. Williams emphasizes the importance of concision in writing, advocating for the elimination of unnecessary words to enhance clarity and effectiveness. Key techniques include removing redundant words, avoiding nominalizations, and cutting empty phrases, which are especially crucial in professional documents like resumes and cover letters. By applying these principles, writers can improve readability and ensure their messages are communicated effectively.

Uploaded by

shijie an
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
16 views3 pages

btw4 3

Joseph M. Williams emphasizes the importance of concision in writing, advocating for the elimination of unnecessary words to enhance clarity and effectiveness. Key techniques include removing redundant words, avoiding nominalizations, and cutting empty phrases, which are especially crucial in professional documents like resumes and cover letters. By applying these principles, writers can improve readability and ensure their messages are communicated effectively.

Uploaded by

shijie an
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Apr/04/2025

Tianyi Shu

Executive Summary

Williams’ “Concision”:

Introduction

Joseph M. Williams, who is a well-known expert in writing and style, emphasizes concision

as a vital element of quality writing. Concision makes writing concise, straightforward, and

unwasteful of words. Williams opines that sentences ought to contain no unneeded words,

and paragraphs ought to contain no repetitive sentences. This is a cardinal rule in business

and scholarly communication, where effectiveness and clarity are highly valued.

Concision

Williams describes concision as the practice of eliminating unwanted words without

sacrificing meaning or clarity. A concise sentence is not necessarily short, but rather one in

which each word serves a purpose. He describes some of the most essential concision

techniques:

Eliminate Redundant Words: Writers often utilize words that fail to add value. Expressions

like "advance planning" or "end result" contain redundancies to be cut.


Avoid Nominalizations: Replacing verbs with noun forms reduces sentence length. Instead of

"make a decision," one may use "decide."

Eliminate Unnecessary Modifiers: Adverbs and adjectives weaken writing when there are too

many of them. Instead of "very important," simply using "important" will do in most cases.

Eliminate Empty Phrases: Expressions such as "it is important to note that" can be deleted

without loss of meaning.

Avoid Use of too many Prepositional Phrases: Instead of writing "the report of the

committee," say "the committee's report."

All these practices not only improve readability but have a greater effect as they are more

direct and more interesting to read.

Application to Professional Writing

Conciseness is particularly crucial in work settings such as resumes, cover letters, and

business communications. Executives and hiring managers often read documents hastily, and

verbose, confusing writing can weaken a candidate's message. Through the application of

Williams' principles, writers can be sure that their ideas will be communicated well.
For example, on resume bullet points, they should be action-based and not with extra detail.

Instead of stating, "Was responsible for managing a staff of five individuals," the statement

should be made that, "Managed a staff of five." Similarly, on cover letters, wordy beginnings

must be abandoned in favour of concise statements with excellent qualifications.

Conclusion

Williams' concision lesson teaches the importance of clarity and simplicity in writing.

Eliminating unnecessary words ensures easier reading and better communication. This is

particularly relevant in business writing, where clarity is essential for creating a lasting

impression. With practice in concision, writers can refine their style and improve overall

writing quality.

You might also like