Research proposals, business reports, articles, scholarly books—no matter what type of nonfiction document you write, you must respect the reader’s time. To do so, use the most effective way to communicate information by aiming for correctness, clarity, and concision.
When you edit your draft, examine your writing and see if you can spot any of the following signs you’re wasting the reader’s time. If you don’t know how to fix them or don’t have the time to do it, ask the help of a freelance editor.
Thinking simple language cannot express complex ideas
If you believe you need to use pretentious language to express an important idea in writing, reconsider your choice. Using plain language doesn’t mean you’ll “dumb down” your writing. You can use plain words to express complex thoughts, because important ideas don’t need fancy wrapping. Plus, a person takes less time to read a plain-language text than a sophisticated one.
Here are some plain language resources you may find useful:
If you need help editing a text into plain English, consider hiring a freelance editor.
Using weasel words
Using intensifiers such as very, quite, undoubtedly, and clearly is often a sign of careless writing.
Experienced freelance editors know that the so-called weasel words can change the meaning of a sentence and confuse the reader. A text without weasel words is more concise and easier to read.
Befriending adjectives and adverbs
A nonfiction text sprinkled with adjectives and adverbs is likely pretentious and verbose.
To make your writing more powerful, write your message in a clear way, with few embellishments. If you’re not sure what good writing looks like, hire a freelance editor to make your document fit for purpose.
Expecting non-specialists to understand jargon
Technical idioms that belong to your specialized field have no place in a document meant for non-specialists. Jargon will leave the reader wondering if you meant to reveal a message or hide it. Using jargon in writing may be a time-saver for you, but deciphering jargon is a time-waster for the average reader.
You can learn about writing for non-specialists from these resources:
Professional language editors will remove the unnecessary jargon from your document while preserving its meaning.
Avoiding short sentences
A text with only long sentences is not necessarily eloquent. Not only are extremely long sentences boring to read but they are also fertile ground for miscues and ambiguity.
Instead, aim at creating a mix of long and short sentences. To make your text clear and easy for the reader to understand, use long sentences only when you have to. According to Gov.uk, sentences with more than 25 words are hard to read.
Here are two useful resources on ideal sentence length:
A freelance editor can make sure your writing has a good rhythm that neither bores nor overwhelms the reader.
Not knowing your thises and thats
An antecedent is what words such as this and that point at. The antecedent can be a noun, phrase, clause, or sentence. The reader must be able to identify the antecedent of pointing words (this, that, those, it). If these transition words have vague antecedents, the reader may misinterpret what you meant, or will miss your point entirely.
Antecedent errors are just some of the flaws an experienced freelance editor will remove from your document, so ask for help if you need to correct your document.
Being a fan of noun stacks
Using two or more nouns as adjectives to modify other nouns decreases readability. Here’s a nice example I found in a blog: “data bound control table row action links”. All but the last noun are adjectives, but the readers will have to keep reading until they reach the noun. They may have to read the sentence twice to grasp its meaning.
These are two useful resources on noun stacks:
- Fun (or not) with noun stacks (the blog I borrowed the example from)
- Stacked modifiers and nouns
A freelance editor can ensure your document is easy to read and free of noun stacks.
Writing a number and then putting figures in parentheses
Some authors spell out a numeral and add the figure in parentheses. For example, I have more than twenty (20) years of experience in the industry. I don’t speak legalese, so I’m not sure if this is a requirement for legal documents. But in all other kinds of texts, you don’t need to write numerals as words and then as figures.
A freelance editor will ensure there is no unnecessary repetition in your document so it is clear and concise.
Writing in bureaucratese
Expressions such as with regard to, in connection with, and in the event of are a sign of bureaucratese. If you use too many of them in your everyday writing, you make it unnecessarily complicated. Strong writing is clear and direct.
If you know you tend to use convoluted language, hire a freelance editor to help you simplify your writing while making it more powerful.
Using too many empty phrases
Phrases such as in my opinion, the fact of the matter, and in terms of bring no value to a written sentence. They add no meaning to it; all they do is take up space on the page. Using such phrases sparingly can do no damage to your draft, but if you use too many, remove most of them when you self-edit your document.
If you hire a professional language editor, they will ensure your document is free of empty phrases that add no value to it.
Stating the obvious
Another thing to pay attention to when you edit your own writing is the beginning of paragraphs. Avoid starting too many of them with it is interesting to note, important to emphasize, important to mention, worth mentioning, worth highlighting, and so on. “These sentence nonstarters merely gather lint. They should be abolished”, says Bryan Garner. In general, these expressions bring no value to the text.
If what you note is important, it will be clear to the reader. In some contexts, though, these expressions are somewhat useful to draw the reader’s attention to a part of a long and complex argument.
If you need to perfect your writing, ask the help of a freelance editor.
Not noticing redundant phrases
Redundancies—such as see the finish line in sight, final result, and combine together—have no place in careful writing. They’re useless space-fillers.
To save the reader time, remove redundant phrases when you review your draft, or hire a freelance editor to do it for you.
Being generous with abbreviations
Abbreviations are time-savers if both you and the reader are familiar with them. If you’re not sure if the reader will remember what the abbreviation stands for, avoid it. Make a small effort to use the non-abbreviated term and you’ll smooth the path for the reader.
If you have a paper with many abbreviations and are not sure if it is effective to use all of them, ask a freelance editor to review your document.
Good writing skills come with practice. But knowing how to avoid the common pitfalls will make you a better writer. If you don’t know how to edit your writing, seek advice. Do you need to hire a freelance editor for a nonfiction document? Send me a message at editor@languageediting.com.
If you prefer to work with another editor but don’t know where to find one, please consider checking my LinkedIn List of Freelance Editors and Proofreaders.
Related posts:
- What are some common errors in nonfiction manuscripts?
- Should I edit my own research paper?
- What is language editing?
Last revised on 20 June 2023
