Write Lean

Welcome back. Gina Cole Whitlock and I were wed Sunday, May 22nd. As we stood before relatives and friends, we both said, ''I do,'' two short words that change lives. To avoid wordiness, get to the point, just as Gina and I did last Sunday. Getting to the point does not require that you get married. It requires a commitment to expressing what you have to say in as few words as possible. This month: Tips on avoiding wordiness. Note: We are honeymooning in Paris for two weeks. We arrived safely today. I am sending you this EWA from our charming apartment at No. 1 Rue St. Hyacinthe in the 2eme arrondissement (Opera Vendome). How lovely! This is not a 12-step program designed to help you kick the wordiness habit, but if it were, step #1 would be, ''Admit that you write wordy, and that it sometimes gets out of control.'' You're not alone. Everyone writes wordy prose from time to time, and experiences moments of clarity when they write the equivalent of ''I do.'' This EWA explains why you should avoid wordiness. It covers strategies you can use to break your wordiness habit. It is a habit. You can break old habits and learn to write lean and say what you mean. Why avoid wordiness? Wordiness bores readers. They quickly lose interest and stop reading when writers obscure their meaning. Don't make them muck through knee-deep prose. Effective web writing uses as few words as possible to deliver the most meaning. Search engine optimized web content, for example, is always lean and clean. It weaves together key words and terms simply and logically. Lean writing attracts readers. It is authoritative. It shows respect for your readers' time and intelligence by delivering the most meaning in the fewest words possible. It is simple and logical. It holds up to rigorous scrutiny. Why are writers wordy? 1. They want their ideas to be taken seriously so they use overblown rhetoric. Wordy example: Due to the current election laws, Republicans have become dependent on PAC money that only encourages negative campaigning and personality attacks at the expense of the public discourse on palpable issues. Democrats are emulating the dependence on PAC money as they encourage contributors and donors to give the lion's share of their donations to the PACs and reserve a much smaller percentage to actually support their candidate. The entire electoral process has become poisoned. Lean example: Today's election laws cause both parties to encourage PAC contributions over donations in direct support of candidates. PACs on both sides have used donations to air negative attack ads that have served to poison the electoral process. The wordy example editorializes by larding on adjectives, adverbs and idiomatic expressions. Words such as ''current,'' ''dependent,'' ''palpable issues,'' makes me suspicious. I trust the writer of the lean example more, don't you? 2. They want to play it safe (and avoid being original), so they use wordy clichés and mixed metaphors that dilute meaning and leave readers in the dark. Wordy example: If you want to catch a rat you have to come up with a better mousetrap. That's what the Congressional Oversight Committee found when they began to smell something fishy over at the General Services Administration, what with million-dollar meetings in Las Vegas which netted them a bountiful catch of leopards with larceny on the prowl at wild parties and lost weekends that the Las Vegas Tourist Commission had only rivaled Hangover II for seediness, and caused them to think ''What happens here, stays here.'' Well, in this case, that's not how it turned out. Lean example: Congressional Oversight began investigating the General Services Administration when unnecessary million-dollar Las Vegas meetings came to light. Summary: Avoid clichés. Say what you want your readers to know as simply as possible. Next month: More specific strategies that will help you break the wordiness habit. Until then, remember the power of ''I do.'' Strive to make your meaning as clear as Gina and I were last Sunday.