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Are you struggling to shave words off of your writing?
I am weirdly good at this, so let me share some of my tricks. #AcademicTwitter #phdlife #gradstudent
1. Make things plural to omit articles. They can add up.
Ex: "The teacher needs to know..." --> "Teachers need to know...."
2. Turn some prepositional phrases into adjectives.
Ex: "Schools in urban communities" --> "Urban schools"
3. Some multi-word phrases can easily be turned into one word.
Ex:
"Due to the fact that" --> "because"
"In order to" --> "to"
4. If you are describing something with two adjectives, pick one.... maybe a new one
Ex: "Classrooms are blooming and buzzing" --> "Classroom are hectic"
5. Get rid of passive voice.
Ex: "This study is focused on... " --> "This study focuses on"
6. Plain(er) language is your friend.
Ex: "Consistent with the theoretical perspective that learning is fundamentally situative..." --> "Aligned with our view on situative learning"
7. If a multi-word term is going to be repeated a lot, use an acronym. (And this is from somebody who loathes acronyms! But they help with word count.)
8. A common writing quirk: Writing a thick, dense sentence followed by "In other words," with a lucid explanation. Get rid of the first sentence and start with the second.
9. Omit unnecessary intensifiers like “very” or “extremely”.