The Elements of Style page on concision - William Strunk:
Writing Concisely - UNC Writing Center
Concise Writing - from Capital Community College Foundation
Tightening up your writing
Video: Writing Clearly and Concisely 8:27
Handout: Concision
Exercisesuizzes:
Answers to Concision Exercise - Purdue OWL
Revise for Concision - Handout exercise
Clear Writing Samples of Revisions
From Stephen King interview:
Lahey: In the introduction to Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, E.B. White recounts William Strunk’s instruction to “omit needless words.”
While your books are voluminous, your writing remains concise. How do you decide which words are unnecessary and which words are required for the telling?
King: It’s what you hear in your head, but it’s never right the first time. So you have to rewrite it and revise it.
My rule of thumb is that a short story of 3,000 words should be rewritten down to 2,500. It’s not always true, but mostly it is.
You need to take out the stuff that’s just sitting there and doing nothing. No slackers allowed! All meat, no filler!
Lahey: By extension, how can writing teachers help students recognize which words are required in their own writing?
King: Always ask the student writer, “What do you want to say?” Every sentence that answers that question is part of the essay or story.
Every sentence that does not needs to go. I don’t think it’s the words per se, it’s the sentences. I used to give them a choice, sometimes:
either write 400 words on “My Mother is Horrible” or “My Mother is Wonderful.”
Make every sentence about your choice. That means leaving your dad and your snotty little brother out of it.
Lahey, Jessica. "How Stephen King Teaches Writing".The Atlantic. 9 Sept. Web. 29 Sept. 2014 014.
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