English: economical writing: Canadian Writer’s Companion

Tutoring English, word economy is a topic. The tutor mentions some hints.

I mention in yesterday’s post a situation where I had to become very economical with my words. What are some quick hints on how to do so?

The other day I noticed, sitting on a shelf, a copy of Canadian Writer’s Companion, 1995. It was a perennial textbook for high school students for perhaps decades, maybe even at present in some schools. I flipped through it and discovered it’s packed with helpful hints.

One problem the text mentions is “Wordy sentences” – sentences with more words than necessary. It gives some everyday situations, one being similar to this:

Wordy sentence: Ottawa, which is the capital of Canada, is on the border between Ontario and Quebec.

Repaired sentence: Ottawa, the capital of Canada, is on the border between Ontario and Quebec.

In the wordy sentence, “which is” isn’t needed. Doing so cuts two words from a fifteen-word sentence, which represents a reduction by thirteen percent.

Another great example of word cutting is the following:

Wordy sentence: Some people say Margaret Thatcher, who was a woman leading the UK through some very troubled times, saved it.

Repaired sentence: Some people say Margaret Thatcher, leading the UK through some very troubled times, saved it.

In the situation just above, the redundant four words “who was a woman” can be cut out to produce the repaired sentence. The word economization in this case is over twenty percent.

Canadian Writer’s Companion mentions numerous other common, wordy sentence structures with their repairs. They’re on page 76 in the copy I’ve been studying.

Source:

Luengo, A. (1995). Canadian Writer’s Companion. Prentice Hall Ginn Canada.