I recently started re-reading William Zinsser's
On Writing Well
It's not only dry corporation speak that you should worry about. Actually, what I mean to say is that a little bit of wordiness totally creeps into informal writing way more than you'd think. If you do any sort of writing on the web, you seriously need to think about editing, and more often than not, this tool can help point out some bad habits.
You might be concerned that your writing will lose its personality. Zinsser goes on to say:
You don't want your blog to wear a toupee, do you? Writing style isn't about needless words. Once you remove them, your thoughts will shine through, clearer and more powerful, and then you can then build them back up. This takes time, but your readers will appreciate it.
By using sources on the web, I came up with about 600 simple substitution rules to cut out wordy phrases, and encoded them into a python script.
Along with other sources, I used Jeff Atwood's Coding Horror blog to train it,
Try it out above. Paste your entire blog article, essay, or email into it. Download the python source here.
Unfortunately Internet explorer 6 has some problem with my code...
"I might add," "It should be pointed out," "It is interesting to note that" how many sentences begin with these dreary clauses announcing what the writer is going to do next? If you might add, add it. If it should be pointed out, point it out. If it is interesting to note, make it interesting. Being told that something is interesting is the surest way of tempting the reader to find it dull; are we not all stupefied by what follows when someone says, "This will interest you"? As for the inflated prepositions and conjunctions, they are the innumerable phrases like "with the possible exception of" (except), "due to the fact that" (because), "he totally lacked the ability to" (he couldn't), "until such time as" (until), "for the purpose of" (for).
You will reach for gaudy similes and tinseled adjectives, as if "style" were something you could buy at a style store and drape onto your words in bright decorator colors. (Decorator colors are the colors that decorators come in.) Resist this shopping expedition: there is no style store. ... Style is organic to the person doing the writing, as much a part of him as his hair, or, if he is bald, his lack of it. Trying to add style is like adding a toupee.
[edit] as he seems to have a high wordiness factor, because I wondered if I could get a web celebrity to notice my little blog, and it totally worked.
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xoxo
steve
HELP! *wags tail*
I like music that rhymes.
I am only a fraction of the population but equate for half of the crime.
Who am I?
if ur new here, read the comments. all of them.
IM GONNA COME AND FUCK YOUR DADDY BITCH
FUCK YOU STEVE HANOV
stevve hanov more like steve shitty
boom
XOXO, an 8 year old with a big heart
-@iluvhailo
Also the racist jokes aren't funny grow tf up and come out of the closet already
(the comments section has me cackling though. Grind on gamers)
(never take Ib btw)
I agree with you
DO NOT RECOMMEND IT!!!
im trying 2 apply 2 some award thing and it has 2 b under 250 words n i have 300.. wth
became
"And it makes me wonder with wonderment how this could work with effectiveness and I have concluded at the end of it all that this program does nothing and is indeed worthless."
IT worked about 2 months ago but seems like it has changed...
An increase of nearly 45%.
i wish that i could do better because i wish that my work was better so i wish i could do better.
ummm is it me or does this not work
i would definitely use this more if it were to work so steve good luck working on this web if i find it again and it works you will have one more user
F I F T E E N
I have a word limit and I'm way ABOVE IT
HMM....
also who said it is supposed to make your writing shorter??? It removes wordINESS to make your writing more coherent and readible... please if you cant read a website you have no hope in life. This is a good app as it is very informative and works very well.
This website did absolutely nothing. I would recommend not using it if you need to shrink your essay. Doing it yourself would be easier.
Please watch the language.
ALSO PLEASE MIND YOUR LANGUAGE WITH THE COMMENTS.
and please mind your language
To everyone after Steve: what's the point of leaving so much hate behind? If you don't like the app just leave. if you come to the comments just to hate on Steve you're wasting the time you should be using to edit your essay instead of trying to find an online generator to do your work for you. Get to work.
"He looked back, but the man had gone, with nothing left but a shimmering, very faint fox tail hanging in the air, which soon disappeared. "
Whenever you are discussing about doing something in a group, there is a question you should ask. It is the most important question. It will make or break your work.
It is NOT “Who all are interested in the idea?”
It is “Who all are not really interested?”
The people who are not interested in doing something great, people who are pissed off by the idea of being great, and lazy people, and great eaters, and great sleepers, and people who do not talk, can lower the morale of your group significantly, and eventually you will drop your great idea. Better, drop those people.
My approach only substitutes or eliminates words. It can't revise a lot of your text, because it goes beyond simple substitution. Only the author can change a sentence from the passive to the active voice. For example, to change "M was given", we need to decide who did the giving, and then write something like "The company gave M..."
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