Comm. Tip: Kill Filler Words

January 2nd, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

If you want your written communications to be easier on your audience’s attention span, write shorter letters/memos/e-mails, etc.

How? Here’s a simple self-editing tool…

After you’ve written your letter/memo/e-mail, etc. go through and delete every "that" and "the". Now, read it again. If you find a sentence crying for a "that" or a "the, and all sense is lost without it, by all means add the word(s), but I bet you’ll add fewer than you deleted. Measure your success by checking your word count before and after editing.

This little ditto just went from 108 to 98 words.

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Comment by Doug on 4 January 2008:

That’s an excellent tip. I’m trying to become more aware of bloated diction in my writing. Of course, that sounds bloated itself.