Write Plainly

Habakkuk 2:2 says "Write the vision: and make it plain upon tablets."

Even though assignments come with length requirements, it is important to write as plainly and succinctly as possible. More is not necessarily better.

How can you write "plainly"?

• Either use the one word form or omit the following phrases
  • for the purpose of-use to
  • in the near future-say soon
  • due to the fact that-write because
  • owing to the fact-use since
  • at this point in time-say now
  • with regard to-write about
    
    
• Avoid there is, there are, and it is
  There is, there are, and it is add unnecessary words to a sentence and take the emphasis away from the subject.
  
  Compare:
  "There are many students at the seminary who believe that their flowery words are as good as Solomon's
  and       
  "Many students at the seminary believe that their flowery language is good as Soloman's."
  
  The word students is the subject of the sentence and, consequently, should be an important element, not buried in the middle of the sentence. The words there are don't add any information to the sentence.
  
  
• Omit needless words
  The sentence "There is certainly no way anyone can deny it: people who are male go about thinking in different ways from the ways people who are females think,"
  could be shortened to
  " Men and women think differently" (a savings of 82%!).
  
  
  Longer is not better; it's just longer and often just verbose.
  

  printable version

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