Fancy word writer8/31/2023 → Joe ran up the hill and fell back down.Ībsolutely, Certainly, Completely, Definitelyĭelete. Use the structure “A… and B…” Sometimes, readers can understand sequences because of causality implied in the sentence’s context. While you can revise words and phrases in many ways, we’ve prepared some suggestions that work well in most situations. To help you strengthen your writing and editing skills, we have compiled a list of common fillers and other unnecessary words and phrases, below. Amazing, right? Wait until you apply our other word-count reduction rules! How to Identify and Revise Fillers Now imagine it 25-30% leaner by eliminating fillers alone. Īs shown in the examples above, eliminating filler words can significantly reduce your word count! On average, we’ve cut the word count of the sentences above by 25-30%. We should perform a local test before applying the new method to our system.In order to apply the new method to our entire system, perhaps we should perform a local test.This is actually an interesting question.There is an octopus sitting on top of my car.In order to apply the new method to our entire system, perhaps we should perform a local test.Ĭan you spot the fillers and other unnecessary words in the above sentences? Grammatically, these sentences are correct, but they would be shorter if we remove some unnecessary words.This is actually an interesting question.There is an octopus sitting on top of my car.(Have you found some of the fillers we’ve used?) While it’s okay for us to do so (since we’re not worried about word count and are aiming to deliver you informative and fun editing advice), if we were writing an academic or research paper, however, we would be more careful to write concisely.įor general and academic writing purposes, avoid fillers and other unnecessary words and phrases. We’ve intentionally written this in a conversational tone. (By the way, if you’re wondering what our other categories are, we’ve written about two others so far- nominalizations and preposition errors-and we’ll share a few more with you over the next few weeks!) What are unnecessary words (filler words)?įillers are words that add no substantive meaning to a sentence and merely “fill the space.” Why are we discussing fillers (typically a habit from spoken language) when we’re writing about editing? Simply put, more often than we realize, we write how we speak. If you look at the last sentence of the preceding paragraph, you’ll find us guilty of our category 3 wordiness offense! That is, we used many filler words that we should have eliminated. So, if you want to draft more powerful sentences, read on! Removing Fillers & Unnecessary Words For example, take a close look at this very sentence because there are some things we did here that you probably weren’t aware were problematic! By reading this article, we hope you realize how toxic fillers are to your writing. Why You Should Avoid Filler Words in Writingįiller words are unnecessary words that many writers use, either intentionally or unintentionally, that do not contribute to clarifying their points or arguments. In this article on writing and editing for wordiness (i.e., how to reduce word count), we focus on something you may not know you are doing: using too many filler words. Whether you are writing a research paper, a dissertation, or another kind of academic writing, creating sentences that are strong and concise is important in conveying your message and arguments to your audience.
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