Writing Tip - Get rid of clutter

A huge problem in writing today is clutter

If you can get rid of clutter, you will improve your writing enormously.

An excellent piece on clutter and its negative impact appears in a book by the renowned writer, editor and teacher, William Zinsser entitled “On Writing Well” (Harper Collins 2001 – ISBN 0-06-000664-1). I can do no better than quote these few lines from what Zinsser presents so well:

“Consider all the prepositions that are routinely draped onto verbs that don't need any help. Head up. Free up. Face up to. We no longer head committees. We head them up. We don't face problems anymore. We face up to them when we can free up a few minutes.

Then, take the adjective ‘personal’, as in ‘a personal friend of mine’, ‘his personal feeling’ or ‘her personal physician’.

‘Personal’ is typical of the words that can be eliminated nine times out of ten.

Clutter is the ponderous euphemism that turns a slum into a depressed socioeconomic area, a salesman into a marketing representative and garbage collectors into waste disposal personnel.

Clutter is the official language used by the modern corporation—in news releases and annual reports — to hide mistakes. When a big company recently announced that it was ‘decentralising its organisational structure into major profit-centered businesses’ and that ‘corporate staff services will be realigned under two senior vice-presidents’ it meant that it had had a lousy year.”