Ways to remove irrelevant wording
Imprecise Phraseology
It’s perfectly fine to babble when writing your first draft, as long as you have the sense to cut out irrelevancies later. When crafting a piece of work, it’s easy for imprecise phraseology and long-winded explanations to creep in as you put down your thoughts. Consequently, one of the most important things you can do to improve your academic writing is to read through your piece once it is completed. Be sure to remove irrelevant wording and specifically search for unclear, unnecessary, or excessively lengthy phrases and sentences.
Academic writing does not necessarily need gentle introductory sentences. You can cut straight to the chase by stating your key fact immediately before discussing it. Be brutal about deleting comments. Here are two examples: 1) ‘The research showed up some interesting results’. 2) ‘Through the course of the research we found evidence to both support and undermine the premise’. These add nothing of any importance and use up valuable words.
Reduce your Word Count
Additionally, it is helpful to see if you can reduce your word count by tightening up your sentence structure. Instead of: ‘The evidence which has been presented above shows that the hypothesis which was advanced at the beginning of the study has been proved’ try: ‘The results of this study prove the hypothesis posited.’ Cut out parentheses which interfere with meaning. Also don’t be afraid to use short, clear sentences where they convey meaning as adequately as something more convoluted. So… keep your text precise and remove any irrelevant wording!
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Some helpful resources:
BBC Learning English – Improve Your Writing
The BBC Learning English site provides useful lessons and resources to help you write clearly and effectively, reducing irrelevant wording and improving readability
Readable.com
Readable is a great tool that provides readability scoring, helping you determine whether your text is clear and concise enough for your audience
