Rewriting Digital Content for Brevity

There are few things more personal than the writing process. Even when writing for a professional environment, your words may feel like they’re a part of you. That’s why the first step of the revision process is to distance yourself from your work and “kill your darlings.”

Traditionally advice given to creative writers, this saying applies to all manners of writing, including UX. The expression means to separate yourself from the emotional aspects of your work and get ready to let go of specific phrases, words, and paragraphs you love. Writers often get attached to a particular element of their work and edit around it, ignoring the problems it causes.

Take, for instance, an article about implementing inclusive practices in UX research. The author feels very strongly about this topic and starts their conclusion with the following:

The first two sentences perfectly capture how the author feels. However, they are not necessary to the conclusion and add length. The author should consider removing these “darlings.”

Next, look for clutter or words unnecessary to your meaning. These words can be hard to identify if you’re not used to looking for them. So, we’ve compiled a list of common style mistakes.

1. Expletives

Expletives are words that take up space but don’t add much to your writing. (‘Swear word’ is another meaning for expletive, but not using those goes without saying.) These words are most common at the beginning of a sentence. For example:

• It is/was/will
• There is/was/were/will

Luckily, expletives are easy to correct. Just rearrange the sentence to remove the expletive.

2. Unnecessary Determiners or Modifiers

Determiners are words added to a noun to create specificity. Articles like the and quantifiers like many fall into this category. Modifiers refer to any word that modifies another word in the sentence — for example, the word good in the phrase good design.

Most determiners and modifiers are not errors. However, some count as clutter and should be removed. To find these problematic words, pay special attention to adverbs such as absolutely, actually, very, or exceptionally, which, in most cases, are unnecessary.

3. Using Nouns Instead of Adjectives

In English, there are many ways to modify the meaning of a noun. The most common and efficient way is with adjectives; however, it is possible to do the same thing with noun phrases. While not inherently incorrect, using noun phrases in place of adjectives makes sentences longer and more complex and should be avoided whenever possible.

4. Passive Verbs

Of all the style issues, passive voice is the most common. In passive voice, the subject of a sentence is acted upon, rather than doing the action itself. Using passive voice is not an error, but it does add to the length and complexity of a sentence. So, when editing for brevity, look for passive verbs and see if you can make them active. This edit can be achieved with some rearranging and sometimes may involve adding an extra word to make explicit the agent of the verb.

Finding passive voice can sometimes be harder than correcting it. One way to find these instances is to look for verbs paired with different forms of the verb to be (e.g., is, was, is being). Another way is to add the phrase by zombies to the end of your sentences. If the sentence still makes sense, then it is passive.

The next thing to look for is redundancy, or words and phrases that reiterate the same idea. Redundancy can be present anywhere— from multiple clauses to an individual word.

Unlike in the previous examples, where you could look for patterns or specific parts of speech, identifying redundancy requires a thorough reread of your content. When reading, ask yourself if any parts of your writing repeat an idea you already stated. Don’t neglect sentence-level editing either, as many redundancies occur at the word-choice level.

In the example below, so on is redundant because such as already implies that the listed examples are only a part of a larger list.

Clauses are the building blocks that make up sentences. Every sentence contains at least one clause but oftentimes features more. Clauses can be grouped into two categories: dependent and independent clauses. Independent clauses are clauses that are already sentences, while dependent clauses must be joined with independent clauses to create a sentence.

Since dependent clauses are not essential components of a proper sentence, they can sometimes be removed for brevity. Much like many of the previous suggestions, however, this should be done sparingly and only when it does not impact the information of a sentence.

Take for instance these dependent clauses, marked by the bolded text. In the keep example, the dependent clause offers new information. In the remove example, the dependent clause offers nothing important and is better off removed.

Form follows function, even in writing. Consider the purpose of your writing as you edit down your words. If you’re writing a simple how-to article, do you need excessive amounts of detail? Consider your audience as well. What is the amount of prior knowledge to assume? By thinking like this, you can easily find portions of your content to cut down.

For example, a description for a short video does not need excessive amounts of detail, because the video will cover that for you. A longer blog post, however, will need detail.

Keep in mind that the assumptions and purpose of your writing will change from company to company and even project to project. Reassess every time you start writing so you can tailor the content to your specific function.

Now that you have your audience and purpose in mind, look for excessive details. The removable information will change based on your project, but in general, paying attention to your audience and purpose will help you identify these errors. Constantly ask yourself if your reader will need this information to understand your point; if not, it can likely be removed.

For example, in an NN/g article, we assume people know what UX is. Since most of our articles contain UX-tailored advice, it seems silly to assume someone looking for this kind of information wouldn’t be aware of the acronym.

Finally, if you’ve exhausted all the other tips in this article, try rearranging the words in your sentences. For example:

Although rearranging words can be time-consuming, it will often reveal excessive words. Additionally, it can uncover a clearer way to phrase your sentence.

When you’re in a time crunch and still cannot reduce your word count, single out sentences that feel long or poorly phrased to rearrange. Oftentimes your gut feeling will be correct, and you will find a shorter way to make your point.

When writing for brevity, ask yourself: Does the reader need this to understand me? Even if you don’t remember all the tips mentioned in this article, or still find yourself confused, keeping this question in mind will help guide your editing process.