The Tyler Hayes

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“Omit needless words.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

- William Strunk, Jr. (1869–1946). The Elements of Style. 1918.c

It’s not: Omit unnecessary words, or Cut out useless words, or No need for needless words.

It’s: Omit needless words. Get it? Good.

Strunk continues:

Many expressions in common use violate this principle:

the question as to whether whether (the question whether) there is no doubt but that no doubt (doubtless) used for fuel purposes used for fuel he is a man who he in a hasty manner hastily this is a subject which this subject His story is a strange one. His story is strange.

Great examples.

My opinion

I love to write, I always have. But, I’m not the world’s greatest writer.

There is no such thing as the world’s greatest writer. But, concise and specific writing are great pursuits.

There is not always a reason to “Omit needless words.” Nor does Strunk suggest there is. After all, where would Dan Brown be otherwise? Or Penelope Trunk? (BAM! Also, go read both.)

Consequently, this sentence sticks out: “This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

So, omit needless words. And make every word tell.

Realistically, this means…

• Better filtering mechanisms are needed. 900,000 blog posts are created every day. Less publishing is good, more filtering is better, finding salient knowledge instantly is just right.
• Blogging schedules are stupid. “I will blog daily.”
• Write about your passions.
• Be passionate in your writing.
• We have enough Top 10 lists.
• Twitter users can go outside again.
• There are more reasons, add your own!