Medical Writing Writing better How to shorten a text by up to 30% and improve clarity without losing information

Volume 26, Issue 1 - Writing better

How to shorten a text by up to 30% and improve clarity without losing information

Abstract

What if everything you read was up to 30% shorter and more easily understood? What if everything you wrote was up to 30% shorter and more easily understood? Would that be a skill worth developing? Would  your employer or clients notice if your work improved this much? Would their opinion of your skills change if they did? Reducing the number of words in a text without losing information is easier than you might think. Reducing or eliminating nominalisations (verbs turned into nouns or adjectives) and the passive voice can substantially improve the clarity of the text as well as shortening it. In this article, I review these two grammatical constructions, describe their strengths and weaknesses, tell how to recognise them, and explain when you can change them to improve your writing.

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References

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Articles

Writing Better
President’s Message
EMWA News
Advancing the Medical Writing profession: The Joint Position Statement on the Role of Professional Medical Writers
AMWA-EMWA-ISMPP Joint Position Statement on the Role of Professional Medical Writers
EMWA’s Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Finding the action in your writing: Avoiding nominalisation
Removing the dead wood
Writing economically in medicine and science: Tips for tackling wordiness
How to shorten a text by up to 30% and improve clarity without losing information
Troublesome words
Can you recognise the four main ways that English sentences can be structured?
Three strategies to help you write clearly for a lay audience
Structuring paragraphs
A checklist to improve your writing
Results of the 2016 EMWA member survey
News from the EMA
Getting Your Foot in the Door
Teaching Medical Writing
In the Bookstores
Lingua Franca and Beyond
The Webscout
Good Writing Practice
Medical Communications
Profile: An Interview with Michael Markie - an open science and open data advocate
Out on Our Own

Links

The Write Stuff Archive Contact Instructions for Authors Article Template (Word) Journal Policies

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Raquel Billiones

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Getting Your Foot in the Door

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Good Writing Practice

Alison McIntosh 

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Maria Kołtowska-Häggström

Lingua Franca and Beyond

Maddy Dyer

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Lisa Chamberlain-James

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Payal Bhatia

Medical Devices

Evguenia Alechine

My First Medical Writing

Anuradha Alahari

News from the EMA

Adriana Rocha

Out on Our Own

Tiziana von Bruchhausen

Pharmacovigilance

Clare ChangZuo Yen Lee 

Regulatory Matters

Sam Hamilton

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Claire Gudex

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Louisa Ludwig-Begall / Sarah Kabani

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