3 tips to write succinctly

Academic writers are often told to “write succinctly”…but what makes your writing succinct? Use short, concise words, and short sentences.

I was looking for writing resources online that would be helpful for English academic writers and found Columbia University biology department’s guide on “Writing a Scientific Research Article.”

In order to write succinctly, Columbia’s page suggests five things:

1. Use verbs instead of nouns
2. Use strong verbs instead of “to be”
3. Use short words
4. Use concise terms
5. Use short sentences

I’ve talked about the verbs (points nos. 1 & 2) in “3 ways to cut the clutter from your writing.” In this post, I’ll talk briefly why you should use short, concise words and short sentences (nos. 3-5) and what specifically to look out for.

Why use short, concise terms & short sentences?

As a reminder: why should you use short, concise terms and short sentences?

Think about why you’re writing in the first place. It’s to share your ideas so that your readers “get” what you’re saying.

Difficult words—including most jargon—and long sentences force the reader to work hard. And that will make them less interested in what you have to say.

TIP Using clear and simple language will also help you establish your credibility.

That’s why you need to be clear and understandable: so that your readers can follow you, without frustration.

If you’re worried that you’re “dumbing down” your content, aim to have your papers “understandable to an educated audience,” as a former editor in chief of the American Journal of Epidemiology reportedly said.¹

3 things to look out for

So let’s look at the specifics of using short, concise words and short sentences.

☑ Use short words

If you have a choice, use the shorter, more direct word rather than longer, harder (supposedly “academic”) words.

Short words can be understood quickly. Using them will help your readers immediately understand your sentence, rather than using extra energy to process your words.

Here are examples of short words to use instead of their multisyllabic relatives:

Instead of:	Write:
possess	have
sufficient	enough
utilize	use
demonstrate	show
assistance	help
terminate	end
Source: Columbia University biology department, Writing a Scientific Research Article

☑ Use concise words

The same is true for choosing concise words instead of long phrases.

The following are some phrases that you could replace with simpler, shorter words.

Instead of:	Write:
prior to	before
due to the fact that	because
in a considerable number of cases	often
the vast majority of	most
during the time that	when
in close proximity to	near
Source: Columbia University biology department, Writing a Scientific Research Article

(BTW: there’s a great quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., on Columbia’s page about using a short word whenever possible. Do look for it!)

☑ Use short sentences

The Columbia guide says: “A sentence made of more than 40 words should probably be rewritten as two sentences.”

Plain language proponents suggest that sentences should be no more than 15 to 20 words long.²

For the writer, you’re more likely to get lost and make mistakes if you try to write long, complex sentences. Keep it simple for yourself and stick to short sentences.³

For the reader, it’s easier to process short sentences that are to the point than long, complicated, meandering ones.

One final reminder: don’t let these points slow you down when you’re writing your draft—well, except for the tip to write short sentences. Go back to them when you’re in the editing stage.

Resources

• Columbia University, Department of Biological Sciences. n.d. “Writing a Scientific Research Article.” (There appears to be another version of this article; however, the lists are not in the latter.)
• Plain English Campaign‘s plain English tools are both useful and hilarious. I particularly like the A-Z of alternative words, which gives you plain-English alternatives to words/phrases like “advantageous” (use “useful” or “helpful” instead) and “by means of” (use “by”), “due to the fact of” (use “because”, “as”), etc.
• Ernest Gowers. 1954. The Complete Plain Words. See especially “Chapter VI. The Choice of Words: (2) Avoiding the superfluous word.” (The book is in the public domain in Canada.) There is also a 2014 update with Rebecca Gowers.
• “Plain Language Guidelines: Write short sentences” gives some nice examples and is one page from their more extensive (but easy to read) guidelines.

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