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| 'You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences.' - Anatole France Actually (whisper it), you don't become a good joiner by planing down your sentences. But the theory is sound: the most effective way to edit a document is to look for unnecessary words. In cutting out the dead weight, you'll unearth a multitude of sins. Or, as the wordier version has it: 'A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail, but that every word tell.' [my colour] - William Strunk Jr.more |
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