How can you balance clarity and conciseness when revising documents?

1 Identify your purpose and audience

Before you start revising, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to communicate and who you are communicating with. Your purpose and audience will determine the tone, style, and level of detail of your document. For example, if you are writing a memo to inform your colleagues about a new policy, you may use a formal and direct tone, and provide only the essential information. If you are writing a report to persuade your manager to approve a project, you may use a persuasive and engaging tone, and provide evidence and examples to support your argument.

2 Use plain language and active voice

One way to improve clarity and conciseness is to use plain language and active voice. Plain language means that you use simple and familiar words, avoid jargon and technical terms, and explain any acronyms or abbreviations. Active voice means that you use verbs that show who is doing what, rather than passive verbs that hide the subject or the action. For example, instead of writing "The meeting was attended by 15 staff members", you can write "15 staff members attended the meeting".

3 Organize your document logically

Another way to improve clarity and conciseness is to organize your document logically. This means that you use headings, subheadings, paragraphs, and transitions to structure your document and guide your reader. You should also use a clear and consistent format, such as fonts, colors, spacing, and alignment, to make your document easy to read and scan. You should also use lists, tables, charts, or graphs to present complex or numerical information, rather than long sentences or paragraphs.

4 Eliminate unnecessary words and sentences

When writing, it's important to avoid using unnecessary words and sentences, which can reduce clarity and conciseness. Examples of these are fillers like "actually", "basically", or "very"; repetitions such as "first and foremost" or "each and every"; modifiers like "extremely", "totally", or "completely"; vague words like "some", "many", or "a lot of"; and redundant phrases like "advance planning", "free gift", or "end result". Additionally, it's best to use short and simple sentences that only convey one idea at a time, instead of long and complex sentences with multiple clauses, commas, or conjunctions.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?