Concision (also called brevity, laconicism, or conciseness) is a writing principle
of eliminating
redundancy.
[UNT Writing Lab. "Concision, Clarity, and Cohesion." Accessed June 19, 2012]
Link.
/ref> For example, this:
* "It is a fact that most arguments must try to convince readers, that is the audience, that the arguments are true."
expressed concisely, becomes
* "Most arguments must demonstrate their truth."[Program for Writing and Rhetoric, University of Colorado at Boulder. "Writing Tip #27: Revising for Concision and Clarity." Accessed June 19, 2012]
""It is a fact that most arguments must try to convince readers, that is the audience, that the arguments are true." Notice the beginning of the sentence: "it is a fact that" doesn't say much; if something is a fact, just present it. So begin the sentence with "most arguments..." and turn to the next bit of overlap. Look at "readers, that is the audience"; the redundancy can be reduced to "readers" or "audience." Now we have "Most arguments must try to convince readers that the arguments are true." Let's get rid of one of the "arguments" to produce "Most arguments must demonstrate (their) truth to readers," or a similarly straightforward expression."
Statements of the principle
Polymath Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer.
He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pa ...
wrote in a 1657 letter:
William Strunk and E. B. White's '' The Elements of Style'', an American English style guide
A style guide or manual of style is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. It is often called a style sheet, although that term also has multiple other meanings. The standards can be applied either for gene ...
, says:Joseph M. Williams Joseph M. Williams (18 August 1933, Cleveland, Ohio – 22 February 2008, South Haven, Michigan) was a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago where he promoted clarity in writing for many years. ...
's '' Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace'' suggests six principles:
# Delete words that mean little or nothing.
# Delete words that repeat the meaning of other words.
# Delete words implied by other words.
# Replace a phrase with a word.
# Change negatives to affirmatives.
# Delete useless adjectives and adverbs.
Concision is taught to students at all levels. It is valued highly in English writing, but less by some other cultures.[Mark Newell Brock, Larry Walters, ''Teaching Composition Around the Pacific Rim: Politics and Pedagogy'' (1992), p. 4-5, . ''"in expository prose English places a high value on conciseness... e value placed on conciseness... is not shared by all cultures"'']
Succinctness is a related concept.Laconia
Laconia or Lakonia ( el, Λακωνία, , ) is a historical and administrative region of Greece located on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparta. The word ''laconic''—to speak in a blunt, c ...
n people. In computing, succinct data structures balance minimal storage use against efficiency of access.[Jacobson, G. J (1988). Succinct static data structures.] In algorithmic game theory, a succinct game
In algorithmic game theory, a succinct game or a succinctly representable game is a game which may be represented in a size much smaller than its normal form representation. Without placing constraints on player utilities, describing a game of ...
may be accurately described in a simpler form than its normal representation.
See also
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References
External links
* Charles Fabara. "The Concise Expression Handbook" https://archive.org/details/concise-expressions/mode/2up
*{{cite news , url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/19/opinion/write-shorter-messages/ , title=Write shorter messages / Research confirms: Simpler communications are much more likely to be read. , work= The Boston Globe , author1=Todd Rogers , author2=Jessica Lasky-Fink , date=19 Dec 2020
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