Tag Archives: trim the fat

Feb 08 2021
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diction, editing, self-editing, writing

Trim the Fat: Verbs

Trim the FatAnother way to trim textual fat is to carve unnecessary verbs.

Review your manuscripts for generic verbs (italicized below) that introduce a phrase in which a working verb (in bold) becomes a noun (underlined). Cut the bland verb and replace the noun with its strong verb counterpart:

Change “do a study of the results” to “study the results.”
Change “have a tendency to” to “tend to.”
Change “is suggestive of” to “suggests.”
Change “make changes in” to “change.”
Change “make determinations about” to “determine about.”
Change “make progress through” to “progress through.”
Change “provide an analysis of” to “analyze.”
Change “serve to make amendments to” to “amend.”

Other verbs to pare crop up in noun-modifying clauses. You can often cut these weak verbs along with the pronouns and helping verbs that introduce them:

Change “the marbles that are contained in” to “the marbles in.”
Change “the teachers who are concerned are” to “the teachers are.”
Change “the quotation that is referenced in” to “the quotation in.”
Change “the steps that are included in” to “the steps in.”
Change “the words displayed in” to “the words in.”
Change “the falsehoods provided in” to “the falsehoods in.”

Trim the fat, and your prose will profit.

Source: Edit Yourself by Bruce Ross-Larson

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Feb 02 2021
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editing, self-editing, writing

Trim the Fat: Nouns

A great way to keep your writing lean is to trim the fat by reducing words or cutting them altogether. This is the first article in the “Trim the Fat” series, tackling flabby nouns.

Don’t wrap nouns in fatty prepositional phrases. Use a strong noun and let it stand alone. For example:

Change “the field of politics” to “politics.”

Change “the level of water rose” to “water rose.”

Change “the process of editing” to “editing.”

Change “the volume of vaccines increased” to “vaccines increased.”

Cut these phrases that nestle a noun between “the” and “of”:

  • the amount of
  • the area of
  • the case of
  • the character of
  • the concept of
  • the degree of
  • the existence of
  • the extend of
  • the field of
  • the form of
  • the idea of
  • the level of
  • the magnitude of
  • the nature of
  • the number of
  • the presence of
  • the process of
  • the purpose of
  • the sum of
  • the volume of
  • the way of

Trim the fat, and your prose will improve.

Source: Edit Yourself by Bruce Ross-Larson

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