words to get rid of in an essay

43 Words You Should Cut From Your Writing Immediately

by Diana Urban | Sep 8, 2015

When revising any piece of writing — a novel, a news article, a blog post, marketing copy, etc. — there are certain words I delete to make the text stronger and cut my word count. When I’m writing a novel, one of my last drafts focuses on cutting these “filler” words. Removing them helps speed up the pacing of both action and dialogue. In my business writing or blog posts, cutting these words makes the content feel more polished (at least, IMO!). While this might not be the ultimate list of all words you could remove, these are the ones I personally look for when I’m revising, so I thought other writers out there would find this helpful! Also, my examples below might be exaggerated, but I hope they get the points across.

Always remember, though, that there is no one correct way to write. Writing is art, and it’s always subjective. If you want to include these words in whatever context (e.g. to make dialogue sound more natural) that’s 100% your call! This is just my personal list of words I try to limit my usage of as much as possible, and I’ve shared it here in case it’s helpful to anyone else.

Words you should delete

Really, very. These are useless modifiers. You should be able to find stronger verbs or adjectives for whatever you’re trying to enhance. For example, “He ran very quickly along the really long field.” can be, “He sprinted across the vast field.”

That.  If a sentence still makes sense after removing “that,” delete it. For example, “This is the most amazing blog post that I’ve ever read.” can be, “This is the most amazing blog post I’ve ever read.”

Just. I have a hard time removing “just,” especially in dialogue. But for the most part, you don’t need it, and too many can make your dialogue or prose repetitive.

Then. When showing a sequence of events, either remove “then” or try using “and” instead of “then.” Using “then” frequently sounds repetitive and even juvenile. “I shut the car door, then tripped over the sidewalk. Then Bob pointed and laughed, and then my cheeks flushed.” sounds better as, “I shut the car door and tripped over the sidewalk. My cheeks flushed as Bob pointed and laughed.”

Totally, completely, absolutely, literally. These words don’t add information to a sentence. For example, “The box was completely full of clothes.” reads the same as, “The box was full of clothes.” or better yet, “The box was stuffed with clothes.”

Definitely, certainly, probably, actually, basically, virtually.  Again, these words don’t add information. If the sentence makes sense without these words, remove them.

Start, begin, began, begun. These words are unnecessary unless an interruption to the action soon occurs. But for the most part, you can remove these words.

Rather, quite, somewhat, somehow. A movie doesn’t have to be “rather dull,” it can just be “dull.” Delete!

Said, replied, asked, and any other dialogue tag. Dialogue tags slow your pacing and distract readers from the conversation. You can keep these tags for the first couple sentences of dialogue, but once you established who says the first couple lines, readers can follow the conversation back-and-forth for themselves. Also opt for surrounding dialogue with action instead of dialogue tags. Action will let us see what the characters are doing besides talking, and offer character trait information as well. For example:

“I don’t know where I’m going,” said Derek.

“You have a map,” said Ramona. “Figure it out.”

“Haven’t you been here before?” asked Derek.

“It’s been twenty years,” said Ramona. “How am I supposed to remember?”

Derek frowned at the street sign overhead. “I don’t know where I’m going.”

“You have a map.” Ramona took a drag from her cigarette. “Figure it out.”

“Haven’t you been here before?”

“It’s been twenty years. How am I supposed to remember?”

Down, up. Usually, these words are unnecessary and you can remove them. For example, “I sat down on the floor.” could be, “I sat on the floor.” and “I stood up.” could be, “I stood.”

Wonder, ponder, think, thought, feel, felt, understand, realize. When you add any of these terms, you’re removing readers from the introspection and adding useless words. For example, “I wondered whether Johnny was the murderer.” could be, “Was Johnny the murderer?” If the narrator questions, “Was Johnny the murderer?” it’s self-explanatory that the narrator is wondering it. This also helps readers feel closer to your narrator, and more involved in the speculation.

Breath, breathe, inhale, exhale. These are far too commonly used by many authors to describe character internals, including me! Instead of deleting, you’ll have to find an alternative way to describe how a character is reacting to whatever has made them breathe quickly, exhale sharply, or “Let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.” Ick! I highly recommend The Emotion Thesaurus  in paperback, not digital, so you can skim through any time.

Shrug, nod, reach. Every author has her own quirks, and over time, you should become familiar with your own. These are a few of mine — in my first drafts, I have characters shrug, nod, and reach for things way too often — and I know a lot of other writers include these, too. Always have second readers, whether you’re writing a novel or blog post. They’ll be able to point out actions that happen too frequently better than you can, because you’ll usually be too close to your own writing to notice.

How to find these words in your writing

If you’re using Word, it’s easy to find these useless words. First, make sure to select a highlight color from the toolbar besides white.

Click Edit > Find > Advanced Find and Replace . Click Replace and the little down arrow.

Enter the word you’re seeking in both the Find what: and Replace with: fields. When your cursor is still in the Replace with: field, click Format > Highlight .

Click Replace All . Repeat this process for every word you want to find in your document. Then you can scroll through your writing and easily spot these words, and decide if you want to delete them. Doing a Find/Replace to delete these words isn’t a good option because there will be some instances when simply removing the word muddles the meaning of your sentence. Sometimes a sentence will need to be reworked.

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Essay Trimmer: Reduce the Word Count for Free

Reducing the number of words is not easy, especially in the content that you have created yourself. Use the free essay trimmer to cut down any text.

Looking for an essay trimmer?

Take the 3 steps to remove clutter from your paper:

The word limit for each academic paper is set for a reason. It helps us focus research on a particular number of issues, plan writing, and communicate ideas clearly and concisely.

But what to do if you have reached the limit and still have ideas to write down? Use our Word Count Trimmer! Read the article below to discover its main advantages and ways of using it in your favor!

🤔 What Is a Word Count Trimmer?

• ️⚙️ How to Use the Trimmer?

✂️ Words to Cut out of Essays

🔻 how to reduce word count.

• 😀 Essay Trimmer: Benefits

❓ Sentence Trimmer: FAQ

🔗 references.

Essay Trimmer is an online tool that can help you reduce the length of any text to a specified number of sentences. It picks the most important sentences, thus decreasing the word count without changing the core message of the piece.

This online word cutter can be especially beneficial for those working with a lot of written content. As a bonus, you can also use the app to summarize books, novels, and articles on any topic.

⚙️ How to Use the Paragraph Trimmer?

Using Word Count Trimmer does not require much effort! Just follow 4 steps below and get the result within a second:

• Paste the text. The first step is to paste the text you have chosen into the appropriate field of the Essay Word Cutter. Ensure that your piece of writing does not exceed 20k characters.
• Adjust the settings. You can choose the length of shortened version and whether you want to receive keywords from the text.
• Click the button. Then, give our summarizing bot a second to produce the outcome.
• Get the shortened version. You can copy the final result in just one click!

When reducing the word count, you should primarily target phrases that do not add any value to your text. Below are some types of words you can easily cut out from your essay.

Apart from removing the unnecessary words listed above, you can use several more effective ways to cut down the number of words in your essay. Read on to gain some new insights!

Use the Shortest Forms of Words & Phrases

If there is a choice between a long phrase or word and a short one — choose the latter! This recommendation is especially critical if you must keep your writing within a specific character count instead of a word count. For example, instead of “give consideration to,” you can use “consider” or “think about.”

Don’t Repeat Yourself

Unfortunately, repetition is a widespread mistake among college students or even experienced writers. You can convey the same thought a couple of times using different words, which can irritate your readers or make them bored. Therefore, express each idea in your essay clearly and briefly.

Choose Active Voice

The active voice comprises fewer words than the passive one. As a result, using active voice makes your writing more straightforward and more appealing to readers, allowing you to tell a more impactful story. Check out the example below.

Begin Sentences with the Subject

If you begin sentences with the subject , your writing will be easier to comprehend because it will be evident who or what the statement is about. Moreover, you’ll have to remove all unnecessary introductory phrases before the subject, thus reducing your word count. Just consider the most crucial element in the statement and build a sentence around it.

Here’s an example:

• ❌ It was found that after an earthquake, the largest building in the town survived.
• ✅ The largest building in the town survived an earthquake.

Focus on the Message

When your writing lacks focus and you don’t clearly understand what you want to say, it is easy to write too much. You will jump from one idea to another, and your paper will become messy. To avoid it, focus on your thesis statement and logically arrange your main arguments to support it. A carefully structured outline can help you with that.

😃 Essay Trimmer: Benefits

Don’t miss a chance to try our Essay Trimmer! It has so much to offer to its users:

❓ Why Is Word Count Important?

Having a specific word count puts you in control. It makes writing more manageable because it lets you plan how much research you should do and how to structure your paper. Word limit also allows you to allocate the appropriate amount of time to writing and focus on the core message you want to highlight in your text.

❓ How Many Words Should an Essay Be?

The essay’s length depends on your assignment type, professor’s instructions, and education level. Here are sample word counts for common assignments:

• High school essay – 300-1000 words;
• College applications – 200-700 words;
• Graduate school applications – 500-1000 words;
• Graduate-level papers – 2000-6000 words.

❓ How to Cut Down Words in an Essay?

Use the tips below to cut down words in your essay or paper and strengthen your writing:

• Use active voice instead of passive.
• Utilize the plural when possible.
• Remove redundant transition words.
• Turn some nouns into verbs.
• Use possessive nouns.

❓ How to Check Word Count on Google Docs?

Take these 4 steps to check the word count in Google Docs:

• Open the Google Doc and paste your text.
• Click “Tools” in the header menu.
• Choose “Word Count” from the drop-down menu.
• Check the word count in a pop-up window.

Updated: May 17th, 2024

• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count | The University of Adelaide
• Eliminating Words | Purdue Online Writing Lab
• Writing Concisely | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Strategies for Reducing Word Count | University of Georgia
• Cutting Out Lard | University of Massachusetts Amherst

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20+ words to avoid writing in your essay.

   Posted on March 13, 2018 by Jessica Velasco

   2 Comments

Essays, assignments, admissions…

These words implicate the pain of students from all over the world, don’t you agree? They yet sound like a creepy snake whispering, “You shall not passsss!”

Most students hate writing essays. It’s difficult, time- and energy consuming, and challenging to complete them. A thesis, arguments, references, and conclusion are fundamental to every essay. But what makes yours stellar is words you use to convince readers. Words are your powerful weapon to prove critical thinking and knowledge of the topic. Words help you stand out in a crowd of other students writing about the same topics.

But here’s the problem:

Not all words are useful. Some are clunky and redundant , while others make your writing mumbling. Some you use for word count rather than meaning, and they make essays sound complicated yet empty.

For concise and meaningful writing, do your best to avoid these words and phrases in your admission essays.

1) Contractions

In essays, avoid abbreviations such as “ don’t ,” “ can’t ,” and “ won’t .” Academic works suppose using full words, so write them rather than contractions.

Set phrases enrich a language, but leave them for personal stories, blog posts, or fiction books. An admission essay is a task to check your skills of formal writing, not your ability to entertain or wow professors with flourished vocabulary. Stay clear and concise.

3-5) “ So on ,” “ etc ,” “ and so forth “

These run-on expressions demonstrate nothing but your inability to work with arguments, details, and examples. They scream, “I do not know what else to say!” Avoid them in your essays.

Phrases a la “ it’s an open secret ,” “ we all know ,” or “ sleep like a baby ” are clichés used so often that have lost relevance far long ago. They are a poor attempt to strike as clever, but such words sound false in sober fact.

7-11) “ Thing ,” “ stuff ,” “ good ,” “ bad ,” “ big “

The problem with these words is colloquiality and vagueness, inappropriate for academic language. It’s okay to use them in everyday talk; but when in essays, they sound too elementary and make admission officers think of your poor vocabulary. Do your best to master paraphrasing and synonymization for writing more sophisticated words in academic papers.

12) Slang, jargon, teen speak

Remember the audience. Even though admission officers might read Buzzfeed articles in spare time, they will hardly appreciate such writing style in your formal essay. Leave slang where it’s appropriate.

13) Rhetorical questions

Asking them, you assume that readers know the answer. But why then do they need this information? What’s its value? Rhetorical questions don’t expect explanations, which is inappropriate for academic writing. What seems evident to you might not be so for a reader, that is why you should provide clear statements in essays.

14-17) “ In terms of ,” “ needless to say ,” “ in conclusion ,” “ it goes without saying “

Parenthetic words bring no surplus value to your writings. They may serve as transitional phrases in informal works but become redundant when used in academic essays. Professors will consider it a trick to complete a word count rather than add value to your work.

Quoting and referencing are a must-have for academic essays, but this rule is about starting your work with a quote from a famous person. First, this trick is so overused that drives professors nuts; and second, they want to hear from you, not Hemingway, Musk, or Obama. It’s your essay, so its tone of voice and personality should be yours.

19-26) “ Very ,” “ quite ,” “ really ,” “ totally ,” “ already ,” “ fairly ,” “ actually ,” “ just “

All they are weak modifiers or redundant – ly adverbs with no meaning. When you need to write a 2,000-word essay, you might fight against the temptation to insert them; but the result will be poor because such words are irrelevant and bring no surplus value to the statements you use in essays. “ Very unique ,” “ really interesting ,” and “ quite enough ” have nothing to do with efficient academic writings.

27) Passive voice

Most educators ask students to avoid passive voice because this grammar construction 1) weakens wiring and 2) “ lacks explicit reference to who the actor is .” Use active voice to make all statements clear to readers.

When writing essays, let words be your allies. Use those powerful words to communicate your message to admission officers and overtake other students. Be concise, enhance your vocabulary, consider active verbs and clear sentence structure, and do not plagiarize ideas and texts from peers or online sources. Convey your skills and highlight strengths in your academic writings.

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 Category: College Essay      Tags: college admission , College Essay , Essay , Guest Blog , Guest Post , Lesley Vos

2 Comments on “ 20+ Words to Avoid Writing in Your Essay ”

Pingback: What Words Are Excluded In A Word Count: Unveiling The Limits

what about if they essay is about a book?

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Remove These 30 Words and Phrases from Your Writing Now

Becoming a better writer is an art form. It requires patience, research, reading voraciously, and above all—practice. In the process, a writer's lexicon should be consistently curated, since words are the basis of the writing profession, and words that are vague or superfluous should be replaced with better ones or deleted.

If you want to sharpen your craft, here are 30 words and phrases to remove from your writing now.

Down, up (if following sat or stood)

In most cases when you see these two words following "sat" or "stood", it's superfluous. "She sat down in the chair" could be "she sat in the chair," and "they stood up to sing" could be "they stood to sing." The point here is to keep your writing as sharp as possible.

In many cases, use of "that" is either superfluous or incorrect. "The book that is on my bookshelf" could be "the book on my bookshelf" and retain the same meaning. "The night that we're going to the baseball game" should rather be "the night we're going to the baseball game."

"That" is also incorrectly used when referring to people. For example, "I have a friend that plays cello" is incorrect. You don't have a friend that plays cello. You have a friend who plays cello. In the same sense, "My aunt that is visiting from Florida" should be "my aunt who is visiting from Florida."

Said, asked, replied, whispered, demanded or any other dialogue tags (after the first few sentences of dialogue)

Instead of using dialogue tags, which slow the pacing of the story, reserve them for the first few sentences of dialogue then ditch them afterwards. After your reader understands the order that the characters are speaking in, they'll catch who's saying what without these distractions.

You can also use actions taking place between and around dialogue to help note who is saying each line. Consider the two examples below. Which one has the better pacing?

"What time is the meeting tonight," asked Steve. "I have no clue," said Terrance, "but they sent out an email this morning." "Yeah, my email inbox is swamped with complaints," said Steve. "Complaints?" said Terrance. "Don't ask," said Steve.

Steve stopped, knowing now why he felt like he was forgetting something all morning. "What time is the meeting tonight?" "I have no clue, but they sent out an email this morning." Terrance didn't bother to look up from his work. "Yeah, my email inbox is swamped with complaints." "Complaints?" At least now Terrance was interested. "Don't ask."

Think, thought, felt, feel, realize, wonder

Using these words in your story is a great example of telling vs. showing. You don't have to tell your reader that the main character is thinking something. Simply put it in italics to show that it's a mental process within the narration.

Or alternatively, state it. If your protagonist wonders whether the love of his life is gone for good, don't write "he wondered if the love of his life is gone for good." Instead, write the question: "Was the love of his life gone for good?" The fact he is wondering this is implied in the narration, so the reader sees what the character is wondering about without being told that the character is, in fact, wondering.

This is one of those lazy words that should be replaced with something more descriptive and compelling. Instead of writing, "She went to church" you could rather write "she drove to church." Instead of writing, "He went to soccer practice" you could rather write "he ran to soccer practice." See how that changes the image? Not only did you avoid a vague word, but you used the same word count to offer more detail for your reader.

This word might be more often used in nonfiction or blog articles, but if you're a writer, you should immediately strike it from your vocabulary unless you're using it to describe how someone else has spoken or done something.

While it's mostly used to add emphasis, when it's used for this purpose, it immediately implies that the other words you've written are not honest. "Honestly, I'd rather watch a Netflix show than go to the movies" is exactly like saying "I'd rather watch a Netflix show than go to the movies," except there is implication that you're only now being honest. Additionally, as mentioned for "that," extra words should always be removed for sharper writing unless you are going for a purposefully chatty, informal vernacular.

Absolutely, totally

While usually intended to add emphasis, these words are the epitome of redundancy and are almost never needed. If something is important, it's important. Making it absolutely important or totally important doesn't change anything. In the same sense, if something is essential, making it absolutely essential doesn't make it any more essential than it was before adding "absolutely" to it.

Very, really, rather, quite

These words are modifiers but should always be replaced with a better word to sharpen up your writing. For starters, they signal a young and/or inexperienced writer. If you're using them in dialogue between young people, that's another story, but if it's coming from you—the narrator—find a better, more engaging replacement.

For example, you could describe a "really beautiful day" or say it is a "dazzling day." You could mention that a road trip will be "very long" or you could rather describe it as "immense," "far-reaching" or "lengthy." Regardless of what you're describing, you will always be able to find a more suitable replacement for "very" and "really." If you choose the right adjective, it shouldn't need to be qualified. If you're stuck, simply pull up an online thesaurus and get unstuck quickly.

Writer and humorist Mark Twain had a useful solution to removing unneeded modifiers from your writing. "Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'. Your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

Florence King , American novelist, essayist and columnist, put it like this: 'Very' is the most useless word in the English language and can always come out. More than useless, it is treacherous because it invariably weakens what it is intended to strengthen.

At one time, "amazing" was just fine to use. It means " causing astonishment, great wonder, or surprise " and is used constantly in everything from slogans to speeches to social media posts to conversations about sports or the weather. Simply put: it's overused. Here's a list of less-overused words that express the same (or nearly the same) concept.

• Fascinating
• Unbelievable
• Mind-blowing

Always, never

These words create absolutes and can make your writing seem inaccurate or even closed-minded. To say that something always happens is to claim that you have an omniscient view of an incident, across locations, situations, and even time periods. Obviously, this is not the case.

Women don't always nag their husbands and dogs don't always torment cats. It doesn't always rain in Seattle and children don't always say mean things to each other. In the same sense, claiming that it never rains in the desert or love never lasts makes the writer seem unprofessional, overly confident, and simply wrong. That's why using these words in your writing should be avoided.

If this word is used correctly, it denotes something that happens exactly as stated, in the literal sense. However, you'll often see it doing the opposite, or used with a figurative expression (as in, "That literally scared me to death!"). If you "literally" thought you were dying, be sure that was the case before using the term. Or even better—don't use it at all and simply note how you thought you were dying. Rarely does the use of the term add important information and as mentioned regarding several of the words on this list, extraneous or vague words are best left unwritten.

This is another filler word that adds nothing to the meaning of the sentence, unless it is used to describe an action that is based on, or person behaving according to what is morally right and fair (the literal definition of the word). Think of it as sugar. It's best to leave it alone entirely, but if you must use it, moderation is best. It's nothing but empty calories.

Stuff, things

We've all met that person who overuses "thing" when they can't remember the word for the object to which they're referring. "Stuff" falls into the same category and neither should be used by writers who would be expected to have an above-average vocabulary. Be specific!

Irregardless

This is one of those words the majority will get wrong, since many who use it don't realize that its meaning is "regardless ." Although it is a word, it is nonstandard in that its prefix (ir-) and suffix (-less) create a double negative. Since its meaning is often misunderstood, combined with a double negative that's confusing, it's best to avoid using it at all.

Words and Phrases to Avoid in your College Essays

When it comes to college essays, sometimes the words you choose not to write make just as much of an impact as the words you do choose to write.

Readers get bored with seeing the same old clichés and run-on expressions over and over again. And adding in fluffy language or confusing idioms can leave them feeling lost in your words.

So how do you know exactly which words and phrases you should avoid in your writing assignments?

To start, you can seek inspiration from college essays that worked for other students. But ultimately it's nice to have a list of what not to do to help you avoid potential mistakes along the way.

What you Should Avoid

1. contractions.

Contractions may seem informal or lazy to the reader. Take the time to write the full phrase out.

NO: It's been a journey.

YES: It has been a journey.

Idioms can be confusing and are often overused. Clearly state what you mean in your own words.

NO: I thought the fancy-looking house was going to be awesome, but all that glitters is not gold .

YES: Even though I thought the new house was going to be incredible with its fancy appliances and enormous windows, I was proven wrong as the appliances all broke within the first week and the windows all leaked.

Also, phrases that introduce idioms are overused. Avoid using phrases like: You know what they say ... But we all know ... As we've heard over and over again ...

Clichés are so... cliché. Everyone is using them, and the words have lost their power. Choose specific and illustrative examples to use so your essay isn't lumped into a pile with all the essays that use worn-out clichés.

NO: I knew I had to give 110% if I was going to win the race.

YES: I knew I needed to train harder than I ever had before—before school, after school, every weekend—if I was going to win the race.

Phrases like “ Every cloud has a silver lining ” and “ Better late than never ” have no place in a creative and original college essay. This is your chance to paint a complete picture of yourself and your personality. Use descriptive language to let the reader hear your voice in your writing instead of an overused, out-of-date expression.

4. Slang and Abbreviations

I hope u r 2 smart to write something like this in a college essay. Abbreviations are not at all acceptable in formal writing such as a college essay.

Also, slang needs to be avoided. Use common language that people of all ages will understand. Remember your audience; you're writing for your professor, not your friends. And tone should reflect that.

NO: The party was lit , and everything was Gucci .

YES: The party was lively, the music was loud and fun, and everyone was having an amazing night.

5. Vague or Elementary Words

Use words that show you're capable of a deeper, more thorough understanding of topics. Avoid words that are vague or simple when there is a better way to demonstrate your meaning.

NO: The thing I read showed that the environment is bad .

YES: The article I studied concluded that the environment had been devastated by the recent occurrences of hurricanes and flooding.

If you find yourself using words like thing, stuff, bad, good, shows, and gives , challenge yourself to replace these words with stronger, more descriptive language.

6. Run-On Expressions

A run-on expression is a phrase, usually at the end of a list, that indicates you could add more examples ( and so on, and so forth, etc. ).

If something needs to be added to your list of examples, add specific examples. Don't add expressions such as etc. and and so on . These are vague and add nothing of substance to your essay.

NO: I love many sports: basketball, baseball, etc.

YES: I love many sports: basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, and lacrosse.

7. Filler Words or Weak Modifiers

Increasing your word count by adding filler words will make your essay actually, very, very, very weak.

If you can get rid of a word and it makes no difference to your writing, get rid of it. Or better yet, rephrase it to demonstrate what you truly are trying to convey.

NO: I totally believe that we should actually make the laws much, much more strict very soon.

YES: I believe we should urgently make the laws more strict.

8. Exaggerated Words

Not everything you write about needs to be about the best or the worst . When you exaggerate in writing, it can come off as being insincere. Words like always and perfect also fall into this category.

NO: My team was the best team ever because we always played well and our shots were always perfect .

YES: My team was gifted at the game and played well. We could make some amazing shots.

9. Unnecessary Words

Sometimes writers don't even realize they are adding words that aren't needed. Compare these two examples:

NO: She has got four little puppies.

YES: She has four little puppies.

NO: This lotion helps to smooth the skin.

YES: This lotion helps smooth the skin.

Eliminating unnecessary words makes writing more clear and coherent. This is also an easy way to cut down when you're trying meet a word count requirement .

10. Grammatical Errors, Fragments, and Run-on Sentences

When your college essay draft is complete, make sure to proofread it thoroughly. And have a teacher or talented writer proof it again for you.

Avoid any spelling and grammatical errors, but also avoid fragments and run-on sentences. When it doubt, use an online sentence fragment checker or a grammar checker such as Grammarly to triple-check your work.

When writing, choose your words carefully. Pick the words that will make the greatest impact on your message and keep the reader's attention. Avoid the words and phrases that will make your essay weak and boring.

With careful consideration of your word choices, your essays will stand out for all of the right reasons. You'll be submitting advanced writing assignments that will help you ace your coursework!

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Edit Yourself: A Checklist of Words to Add and Delete From Your Writing

• Written By Chels Knorr
• Updated: May 17, 2023

The secret to making your writing sing is word economy. That’s the article. The end. And an easy way to improve your business communications is by removing unnecessary words in writing.

However, economical does not mean shorter. William Strunk, in The Elements of Style , so eloquently states:

“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.”

So simple, and yet examining your writing to ensure every word does major lifting takes a tremendous amount of work and willpower. It takes the willingness to trim, tune, and tighten until the shape of the narrative is precise.

In writing practice, you hammer in good habits, but you also reinforce bad habits too.

11 tips for removing unnecessary words in writing

To  break bad writing habits  and adopt good ones, use this checklist to examine your drafts and cut fat. Once you have experience identifying these common culprits to clunky writing on current full-length drafts, implement the techniques as you write new pieces.

1. Delete redundant phrases.

You never need to say two words consecutively with the same meaning, so examine your writing for accidental redundancy. For example: “Close proximity.” Proximity means close, It’s either close or not close. Here are some other common repetitive phrases:

• Basic necessities
• Unexpected surprise
• Personal opinion
• Added bonus
• New innovation
• Regular routine
• Each and every
• Past history
• Blatantly obvious
• Period of time
• Advance warning
• Sudden impulse
• Absolutely certain

Smart Blogger  offers almost 300 on its list.

2. Trade adverbs for punchier verbs.

If you’re looking to remove unnecessary words in writing, adverbs are a great place to start since they often act as a crutch, propping up limping verbs. Adverbs aren’t all bad, of course, but the more you rely on them, the weaker your verbs become.

Consider these examples: The sentence “She wholeheartedly believed in hope” is made stronger by deleting the adverb and replacing the weak verb with a stronger, visceral verb: “She clung to hope.”

One strong verb for two weak ones (adverb + weak verb) is a great exchange, and it gives you and the reader more bang for the buck.

Adverbs can also cause overwriting, telling the reader how to feel or act. Take the sentence “She smiled fearlessly,” for example. Rather than telling the reader how the woman smiled, let the reader decide based on the scene or situation.

Show what a fearless smile looks like instead of simply stating it.

3. Evaluate your gerund use.

Gerunds — verbs ending in -ing — are weaker, especially when used en masse, than their simple present or past tense counterparts. Roy Peter Clark, author of Writing Tools  55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer , offers two explanations as to why.

He says gerunds add a syllable to the word, dampening its impact. Also, the addition of -ing to several verbs in a paragraph makes them all resemble each other, creating a monotony of sounds.

Gerunds often make their way into titles, and many fall flat as a pancake. Make titles carry their weight by nixing the -ings altogether.

Not all -ing verbs have cooties, especially in moderation. If you find you have several gerunds in your piece, cut them with the same spirit you do for adverbs. Use, don’t overuse. Replacing some will make the piece cleaner and more direct.

4. Eliminate filler words and unnecessary qualifiers.

Removing unnecessary words from writing is simple when you eliminate filler words.

Filler words are easy to identify in speech: “Um,” “Ah,” and “Like” are a few that are easy to pick out in an everyday conversation. But imagine a speech where the speaker’s ideas flow from one to the other, and they never fill the space with unnecessary noise.

Even the most elegant writer uses filler words and unnecessary qualifiers (at least in the first few drafts). Deleting these common fillers can refine the delivery of your writing.

• In order to
• When all is said and done
• Needless to say
• For what it’s worth
• In my humble opinion
• For all intents and purposes

5. Tighten common conversational phrases.

In an effort to make writing sound conversational, marketers sometimes pick up the excess words people use unintentionally when speaking. In written copy, we have to learn to say it in fewer words. Here are some examples and how to shorten them for the page:

• As to whether = whether
• Due to the fact that = because
• For the purpose of = to/for
• In spite of the fact that = despite/although
• In the event of = if
• In the process of = when/while
• Has the ability to = can
• With regard to = regarding
• With the possible exception of = except

6. Delete the preface.

The dreaded author’s preface is often seen in conversational writing, but marketers have to be aware of important details and trust readers to recognize those details as well. Avoid prefacing statements with “It’s interesting to note” — shouldn’t the reader, not you, get to decide if it’s interesting?

7. Kill your darlings.

Here’s an easy way to remove unnecessary words from writing: kill your darlings. Every author has written something they think is too beautiful or too worthy to delete but that they couldn’t get right. They force the lines into places they just don’t belong.

Marketers can also use this writing trick to tighten up blog posts , ebooks, email marketing, and more. Copy the content over to another document and save it for another time.

8. Highlight all your to-be verbs.

This exercise will show you, in neon ink, just how often and how heavily you depend on these boring verbs and where you need to plug in better, brighter ones. Once you’ve replaced your verbs, read over your piece again. You’ll see with just this one change, your piece is tighter and stronger.

Here’s a refresher on to-be verbs:

9. Order words for emphasis.

Put your strongest content at the beginning and end. Teachers and journalists sometimes refer to this as a 2-3-1 rule — put the second strongest images and words at the beginning, the boring bits in the middle, and the best details at the end.

A great example of this comes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “The Queen, my lord, is dead.” The most important part of this short sentence  is dead . The second most important is  the Queen,  and Shakespeare just hides the title in the middle. This packs a punch at the end and leaves the reader wanting to know what’s next.

Practice this same technique within paragraphs and even for full articles. Put the best stuff at the end for emphasis, but don’t let the beginning suffer for it. A long sentence full of commas and tangents, followed by a short two- or three-word sentence, is like power-loading a spring and a great way to end an important paragraph.

10. Don’t commit thesaurus crimes.

While this won’t help you remove unnecessary words from writing, consulting a thesaurus can help you improve your content overall — as long as you don’t overdo it.

The point of a thesaurus is not to find a longer, more sophisticated word; it’s to find a better word.

11. Employ the 10% rule.

William Zinsser, author of “On Writing Well,” says: “Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it that shouldn’t be there… Examine every word you put on paper. You’ll find a surprising number that doesn’t serve any purpose.”

Zinsser proposes you can cut 50 percent of a draft to remove unnecessary words in writing and say the same thing. But if cutting 50 percent of a draft makes you want to hyperventilate, aim for 10 percent. You can almost always cut two words out of a 20-word sentence and not miss a thing. See?

Clear and concise doesn’t mean shorter. It means efficient and economical. Be intentional about your word choices, save the best for last, and whittle away 10 percent. Force your verbs to do the heavy lifting and cut the clutter. Make every word tell.

Make every word count. Talk to a content specialist at ClearVoice about developing engaging content for your brand today.

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11 Phrases to Eliminate from Your Writing

Edit away un-necessary words.

Rachael Hope

The Writing Cooperative

I spent 9 years off and on doing ghostwriting work for a company that provides blog posts and articles for online marketing to its customers. I learned a lot during that time both about how writing for online sources differs from other types of writing, and about writing in general. When you need to catch someone’s attention in the first sentence to compel them to keep reading, you get good at making those words count.

Conditioning myself to edit out un-necessary words has made a huge improvement in my personal writing. In ghostwriting, we had specific word counts to be followed, so if our articles were too long we’d have to really examine if all of the words we’d put down needed to be there. Eliminating filler words, or phrases that don’t actually add anything to the piece of writing, is the number one way to do that.

I now spend most of my free time writing for myself on a variety of subjects. After I “finish” writing a piece, I spend a good amount of time reading and re-reading it, refining sentences, and deleting these extraneous words. It’s not that they don’t make sense where they are, but they take up space and more importantly, they use up some of my reader’s limited attention span.

Written by Rachael Hope

Polyamorous, loud laughing unapologetic feminist, rad fatty, and epic sweet tooth.

Text to speech

How to Cut Down Words in Your College Essay

It’s easy to let word count maximums dictate how you write. We are, after all, pretty well programmed to stay inside the boxes we are given and create boundaries for ourselves. (It’s the primary reason the 9 Dots Problem is hard for people, when it seems like it should be simple.)

But letting word count limit what and how you write frequently leads to weaker writing: writing that’s cautious, uninspired, playing it safe.

So in this guide, we’re going to talk about how to cut words from your college essay, and offer you a few clear, actionable strategies for how to cut words in your essay (which we’ll get to below), but before we get to those things, we want to set some context for when you should focus on word count and cutting, so you can write and cut more effectively.

So … when should I focus on cutting? 

Shouldn’t I be obsessed with word count?

When you’re writing your college essays, word count should be the last thing you worry about. Even if you’re feeling panicked at the sight of tiny spaces allowing only 150, 250, or 650 words, tell yourself during the drafting and revising phase that you’ll deal with it in due time. And by “due time,” we mean a few weeks before submitting your essays, which is ideally when you should get serious about deleting words.

So if you’re still early in the writing process, you’ll want to wait to actually use the strategies below.

What’s key early on (and really for most of the writing process) is getting interesting, immersive detail down on the (digital) page. Go ahead: get lost in the details. Trust your storytelling instincts. Forget about word count.

Because focusing on word count early in the writing process actually prevents you from getting into the content that you need. I can’t tell  you how many times I’ve seen essays that were just getting to the good stuff, but then didn’t, and when I asked why, the student said, “Well I was worried about word count, so…”

What you want to do first is show a lot—and then a lot more! 

(If you need a quick lesson on Show, Don’t Tell, with clear examples and tactics, conveniently, we have that right here .)

And focus on structure, too. That’s a great tactic, early on. Reverse outline, or begin with one. Write full scenes. Cut and paste, moving things around. Think about your reader, who they are, and what they see through your writing. 

(Also conveniently, if you need a quick lesson on who your audience is, you can check out that same Show Don’t Tell post. )

And don’t worry if your drafts are over the limit by hundreds of words. At CEG we’ve seen people take their essays from 4000 words to 650. We’d generally recommend never writing a 4000-word draft for your personal statement—that’s kinda’ nuts—but we want you to understand that if you’re only a few hundred words over, you’re fine.

In fact, you really can’t write a great essay that’s vulnerable, unique, and detailed unless you first give yourself permission to explore a variety of ideas and scenes. 

As an author who’s had to cut more than 20K words from her novels, I often tell my students: “Overwrite” first and “underwrite” later. Then, when you’re closing in on the last weeks of revision, you roll up your sleeves and jump in ready to remove. 

Or to paraphrase young adult author A.S. King , Bring your Holy $%#@ Chainsaw of Revision to this process, because revision is the sport. 

Wait … revision is a sport?

Yup! Note King says “the.” She makes it a game. With certain projects, she aims to cut 20% of every page in a novel she’s revising. 

With the college essay, the analogy might be 10-20 words a paragraph. And just reframing revision as a challenge to yourself to “get it right”—clearer, more compelling, more you—can be great motivation. 

Think about it this way: if you’re over by 200+ words, the math gets a little less intimidating if you take it paragraph per paragraph. This is how we reach our goals: word by word (or “ bird by bird ,” as author Anne Lamott says). 

And reframes like “revision is a sport” are useful—it’s really easy to get attached to words and phrasing. So practice unattaching yourself by making cutting a game.

And then maybe do a celebration dance whenever you see your word count drop. (Next TikTok trend? #nerdlife)

So how do I cut?

There are four basic strategies. Which you employ can depend on how much you need to cut (though you’ll generally find yourself using all of them in some way).

Word by word.

Phrase by phrase.

Line by line.

Idea by idea.

We’ll get to how to apply these four strategies in a minute. But before that, let’s talk about where to apply them—as in, what content to cut.

What should go? (And what should I keep?)

Here’s a content rubric for Dos and Don’ts to keep in mind as you cut. And by cut, we also mean condense, replace , and summarize .

Obvious “sports commentary.” As in, don’t write like a sportscaster yammering on with statements that explain the obvious. “This shows I am quite persistent and committed to my work.” If you just gave a unique, specific example of persistence and commitment—“I spent 40 days and 40 nights with Khan Academy videos outside of my normal homework till I mastered calculus”—then your point is already made. 

Vague yet eloquent generalizations. If you don’t know what these are, check out our Show, Don’t Tell post .

Ideas or details that are off topic, AKA, not essential to this job interview. If you have to give a lot or background or context to get a story off the ground, think about how you can condense it. Remember, you’re the star of the show, not Mom or Grandpa or your classmates or the debate team. Ask yourself whether the details you’re focusing on show your college-ready skills, interests, values, and accomplishments. If not, bye-bye.

Cinematic detail that helps us see you, as if you’re the focus of a documentary. As in, details of you choosing, acting, thinking, doing. Show who you are and the college readiness we know you possess by being authentic, vulnerable, and real. 

Words that allow for rhythm and flow. Sometimes “extra” words are essential for the sound and pace we want. For “voice” (which is a super vague term, meaning something like “saying something in a way that roughly only you would say it”). So if you have to err on the side of a little more to strike the right beat or tone, do so. 

Surprising and unique insight. Known as the good kind of telling, it’s your surprising and complex sports commentary on your life, your self-awareness of your values, your growth, your unique way you will contribute to a school. 

The Strategies (Again)

Repeat after us, and employ as needed:

Word by word

Phrase by phrase

Line by line

Idea by idea

Word by Word

For the easiest phase of the revision game, and especially if you’re only over word count by, say, 5ish%, cut extraneous words, one by one. 

Which words are extraneous below? Can you cut at least one, then do a celebration dance?

“I couldn’t believe that I would be stuck handling prom preparations.”

That’s right: “I couldn’t believe that I would be stuck handling prom preparations.”

1 word! Let’s dance–

But wait! Hold up! We found another.

“I couldn’t believe that I’ woul d be stuck handling prom preparations.”

Did you know: contractions are actually cool in college essays?

(Sssh: don’t tell your English teacher. But seriously. They’re fine.)

2 words gone! Okay, do your Safety Dance , or the Macarena, or the Dab, or Gangnam Style, or Griddy, or… 

Phrase by Phrase

With phrase by phrase cuts, you want to keep an eye out for ways to tighten for flow and for emphasizing scene versus summary—ways you can actually improve your writing while dropping word count. When we say “flow,” we mean rhythm and pacing—“trippingly on the tongue” (thanks, Hamlet!). Your words should flow through the admission officer’s mind too, and if possible, make them forget they’re reading. 

Here’s an example of some stellar student writing where, alas, he had to cut, because he needed to make room for a salient paragraph on his favorite research project in AP history. Because space was limited (thanks, 650 word count!), he had to turn to his brilliant hook paragraph for some cuts. 

Here’s the original:

“In the 55th minute, with the game deadlocked at zero, South African winger Siphiwe Tshabalala fired a rocket of a ball into the top corner of the net to score the first goal of the tournament. A reaction of shock in the crowd quickly turned to joy.”

Spot any phrases that you could get rid of?

Here’s what he did:

Which actually makes the writing better: Do you see how a super-short, pithy sentence at the close of a long, image-rich sentence works beautifully? Good call, student! He should celebrate those six words gone. And celebrate the fact that he kept some cool, cinematic touches here, those resonant details of a World Cup game that showcases his love of both sports and travel.

But guess what? It’s all in the eye of the beholder, i.e., the author, which means other students have looked at this example since and suggested other cuts. Thus proving the following: there’s no one right way to cut, and many different methods work for individual contexts.

For example:

“In the 55th minute, with the game deadlocked at zero, South African winger Siphiwe Tshabalala fired a rocket of a ball into the top corner of the net to score the first goal of the tournament . A reaction of shock in the crowd quickly turned to joy.”

So if the student happened to be really desperate for cuts, and had to get that opening hook down to just the essentials? Then here are 18 words, gone! 

Need more? “Into the net” could go as well.

In other words, it all depends on the essay you are writing and what is essential to the cinematic portrait of you. Would the student be smarter to add more specifics in another paragraph about his history research paper, and limit the amount of storytelling he does about his visit to a World Cup game? Or is it better to render an immersive portrait of a World Cup game for the reader, to not only illustrate the student’s passion, but also hook the reader?

Only you, the author, can make that kind of call.

A key takeaway here: Notice how frequently prepositional phrases (like “into the top corner” or “of the net” or “of a ball”) are expendable in favor of strong details, and how unnecessary adverbs (e.g. “quickly”) are easy cuts.

Line by Line

To make bigger cuts, sometimes you need to strike through an entire sentence, AKA an independent clause.

(If you have no idea what we’re talking about, now’s the time to school yourself on independent clauses , which can stand on their own as complete sentences. Your college professors will appreciate it.) 

Where do you see an independent clause that could go?

“When I started wearing a mask in public, at the very beginning of the pandemic when no one else was, most of the people that I knew at school were extremely supportive about my situation, but a few people did not understand. Some people snapped my mask straps or whispered and pointed as I walked by.”

Hint: where is there repetition of an idea? Maybe a summary of something that’s already shown with a great example?

“When I started wearing a mask in public, at the very beginning of the pandemic when no one else was, most of the people that I knew at school were extremely supportive about my situation, but a few people did not understand. S some people snapped my mask straps or whispered and pointed as I walked by.”

“A few people did not understand” is an independent clause that could go. Why? The example of the mask-snapping, whispering, pointing classmates does the job for us, and does it better. It’s clear to the reader that they did not understand, not in the least. 

In other words, you can trust the reader to get the point if the details rock. 

But we figure you saw some other places to cut, too, right? Everything else we suggest below is implied: that she’s in public, that it’s school

“When I started wearing a mask in public , at the very beginning of the pandemic when no one else was, most of the people that I knew at school were extremely supportive about my situation , but a few people did not understand. S some people snapped my mask straps or whispered and pointed as I walked by.”

Key takeaway: keep an eye out for independent clauses/complete sentences that are effectively redundant.

Idea by Idea

Every example above is, in a way, essentially a version of this fourth strategy: cutting repeated content. One general principle to keep in mind for every revision is redundancy. Where do you use different words—whether a single word, a phrase, or a sentence—to restate an idea that’s already said?

What if you’d written all this, in the fever of an early draft? (Which, btw, is fine—that’s what early drafts are for.)

“I couldn’t believe that I would be stuck handling prom preparations all by myself, solo, and without anyone to rely on.”

… pretty sure you got it the first time, right?

How about instead  

“I couldn’t believe that I’ woul d be stuck handling prom preparations all by myself, solo , and without anyone to rely on .”

Cutting and the Art of Replacement

When professionals cut, they rewrite, too. They find new, pithier words, phrases, and sentences to say it shorter, which is what admission officers want: more Hemingway, less Herman Melville. So this is a core skill that you will find yourself using to drop word count effectively.

“One doctor's appointment for my semi-annual thyroid check would lead to me being told that I would have to take daily medicine.”

New:  

“One doctor's appointment for my semi-annual thyroid check would lead to me being told that reveal I would have to take daily medicine.”

The student found one word to do the work of several.

Several students since have suggested other cuts, which is cool, because another pair of eyes can often see what we can’t. 

“One doctor's appointment for my semi-annual thyroid check would lead to me being told that reveal I’ woul d have to take daily medicine.”

Again, make it a game—you’ve got lots of options to explore.

So get to cutting

Don’t do so too early in the process, but keep in mind, cutting can be a great brain break when you’re blocked on how to generate new ideas and other essays. If you know for a fact you’ve overwritten, you can switch gears and cut.

Just be sure to keep your most memorable details and voice intact. 

Students: Try Some Exercises:

Practice with some examples below and see how your cuts compare to ours. 

Choose an overwritten section of your essay and apply the strategies.

Try cutting word by word, phrase by phrase, line by line, and idea by idea. Keep in mind there is more than one way to cut. 

When I got cut from cross country and had to face the fact I couldn’t do varsity, I had a crossroads to face. Should I audition for the school play? Should I risk humiliation and falling on my face in front of new peers and a theater director I really didn’t know? Should I subject myself to the slings and arrows of stage fright and start taking Pepto Bismol in the wings? Of course, I was assuming I’d make it that far—truth be told, maybe I wouldn’t even get past callbacks—but the reality was, I was no longer an athlete, I was an actor in waiting, and hoping to find a new identity. I needed to embrace a new set of skills and artistry and redefine myself as a thespian. 

Answers below.

COUNSELORS: NEED A COURSE?

Check out our Practical Strategies Course to learn further strategies and tactics for coaching students to revise effectively. 

When I got cut from varsity cross country and had to face the fact I couldn’t do varsity , I had was at a crossroads to face . Should I audition for the school play? Should I risk humiliation and falling on my face in front of new peers and a theater director I really didn’t know? Should I subject myself to the slings and arrows of stage fright and start taking Pepto Bismol in the wings? Of course, I was assuming I’d make it that far—truth be told, maybe I wouldn’t even get past callbacks—but the reality was, I was no longer an athlete, I was an actor in waiting , and hoping to find a new identity . I needed to embrace a new set of skills and artistry and redefine myself as a thespian. 

After being When I got cut from cross country and had to face the fact I couldn’t do varsity , I faced had a crossroads to face . Should I audition for the school play? Should I risk humiliation and falling on my face in front of new peers and a theater director I really didn’t know ? Should I subject myself to the slings and arrows of stage fright, and start taking Pepto Bismol in the wings? Of course, I was assuming I’d make it that far— truth be told, maybe I wouldn’t even get past callbacks—but the reality was, I was no longer an athlete, I was an actor in waiting , and hoping to find a new identity . I needed to embrace a new identity set of skills and artistry and redefine myself as a thespian . 

Or… (Again, you have lots of options in this game. Have fun.)

Written by Lyn Fairchild Hawks, founder of Success Story essay consulting . Lyn is a graduate of Stanford University and the Vermont College of Fine Arts program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She loves helping students tell cinematic, insightful stories. She is also the author of young adult novels, short stories, and books for educators, including lessons for teaching Shakespeare. For 15 years she designed and ran online programs for gifted youth at Duke University and prior to that, served as a high school and middle school English teacher. She lives in Chapel Hill, NC.

Top Values: Creativity | Empathy |  Productivity

Andy Simpson has worked as an educator, consultant, and curriculum writer for the past 15 years, and earned degrees from Stanford in Political Science and Drama. He feels most at home on mountain tops and in oceans.

Top Values:  Insight/Growth | Truth | Integrity

Reduce Word Count Generator

Cut your word count without reducing the content. This tool is very easy to use:

• Paste the text.
• Mind that there is a 15,000-character limit.
• Choose text reduction options.
• Click the button.
• Copy the text to the clipboard.

⭐️ Word Count Reducer: the Benefits

• ✒️ What Is Cut-Down-Word-Count Generator?
• ✂️ How to Cut Down Words?
• 👍 Word Cutter Do's & Don'ts

🖇️ References

✒️ Reduce Word Count Generator: What Is It?

Cut-Down-Word-Count Generator is a free online tool that summarizes texts and reduces sentence and word count. It cuts out unnecessary words , phrases, and sentences but doesn't change the sense of a text. This is a helpful instrument for students, journalists, and other people who work with loads of written information.

Besides reducing your writing, you can also use the tool to summarize books, short novels, and articles on any topic. Artificial intelligence finds keywords and decides which sentences and words are the most essential.

The tool is also fully compatible with Grammarly – you can edit the text on our page if you have an extension.

✂️ How to Cut Down Words in My Essay?

Automatic tools are great when you need to work with extensive text . However, consider manual summarizing for more flexibility.

Here's how to reduce your word count manually:

• Find and highlight the key messages . If you do it thoroughly, you will preserve the initial sense of a text.
• Cut out adjectives and adverbs . Many of them are just filler words that serve only the aesthetic features of a text. That is why you won't lose the main points if you delete them.
• Look for synonyms and synonymic collocations . To avoid plagiarism in academic papers, use synonyms when referring to another author's thoughts. And you will still need to give them a reference.
• Change structures . Simplifying sentences is another way to reduce the word count. Just rewrite lengthy and overcomplicated grammar.
• One paragraph – one idea . Each section should focus only on one idea or answer one question. Keep your paragraphs at 200-300 and sentences at 15-25 words.

Words and Phrases to Avoid

You will also need to work on vocabulary . In this part, we will explain how to avoid excessive wording and bring your essay to academic standards.

👍 Word Cutter for Essays: Do's and Don'ts

This list of practical recommendations will help you use the word remover to its max.

• Don't paste long texts . The word limit allows us to summarize extensive passages, but we don't recommend it. Instead of cutting the whole text, work with each part separately.
• Don't simply copy and paste the results into your essay . You will likely need to modify the reduced text to create a smooth final version.
• Divide texts into logical parts . The AI will identify the main points quicker and have fewer error risks. It will also make it easier for you to navigate and spot mistakes.
• Check the results . It will be easier for you to manually correct inaccuracies at the very first stage. The tool is fast, but the human brain is more capable of understanding writing subtleties.
• Remove plagiarism . This is not a paraphrasing tool , so you must work on plagiarism. If it is just for personal use, you can leave the text as it is. Otherwise, you will need to quote or paraphrase the text to avoid plagiarized content.
• Work on word choice . Some texts you use might not be suitable for academic writing or your instructor's requirements. Devote some time to put the vocabulary in order.

📝 Word Reducing Example

Check out this example of a text summarized by our word reducer.

Original text

In the current study, several limitations of the research are necessary to mention. While random sampling will ensure representativeness and a low level of bias, there is a risk of limited outcomes in quantitative analysis. Since the questionnaires use structured and close-ended questions, there is a possibility of limited outcomes, which means that the results cannot always represent the actual occurrence in generalized forms.

Since respondents have limited response options that the researcher designed, the outcomes thus ultimately depend on the perspective taken by a scholar when creating the questions. Another significant limitation of the study is the limited availability of secondary data that can be applied to the research context. While the subject matter is widespread, there has been little research on implementing a sports education instructional program at educational facilities. Finally, data may not be robust enough to make conclusions regarding study findings.

Full text: Jeddah University: Sports Health Education Instructional Program - 4403 Words | Free Paper Example

Reduced version:

Since the questionnaires use structured and close-ended questions, there is a possibility of limited outcomes, which means that the results cannot always represent the actual occurrence in generalized forms. Another significant limitation of the study is the limited availability of secondary data that can be applied to the research context. While the subject matter is widespread, there has been little research on implementing a sports education instructional program at educational facilities.

Updated: Aug 24th, 2023

• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count | The University of Adelaide
• Top Words to Avoid in Academic Writing | Useful Advices & Tricks
• Summarizing: How to effectively summarize the work of others | SFU Library
• The Writing Center | When to Summarize, Paraphrase, and...

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Eliminating Words

1. eliminate words that explain the obvious or provide excessive detail.

Always consider readers while drafting and revising writing. If passages explain or describe details that would already be obvious to readers, delete or reword them. Readers are also very adept at filling in the non-essential aspects of a narrative, as in the fourth example.

2. Eliminate unnecessary determiners and modifiers

Writers sometimes clog up their prose with one or more extra words or phrases that seem to determine narrowly or to modify the meaning of a noun but don't actually add to the meaning of the sentence. Although such words and phrases can be meaningful in the appropriate context, they are often used as "filler" and can easily be eliminated.

Here's a list of some words and phrases that can often be pruned away to make sentences clearer:

• for all intents and purposes

3. Omit repetitive wording

Watch for phrases or longer passages that repeat words with similar meanings. Words that don't build on the content of sentences or paragraphs are rarely necessary.

4. Omit redundant pairs

Many pairs of words imply each other. Finish implies complete, so the phrase completely finish is redundant in most cases.

So are many other pairs of words:

• past memories
• various differences
• each individual _______
• basic fundamentals
• important essentials
• future plans
• terrible tragedy
• final outcome
• past history
• unexpected surprise
• sudden crisis

A related expression that's not redundant as much as it is illogical is "very unique." Since unique means "one of a kind," adding modifiers of degree such as "very," "so," "especially," "somewhat," "extremely," and so on is illogical. One-of-a-kind-ness has no gradations; something is either unique or it is not.

5. Omit redundant categories

Specific words imply their general categories, so we usually don't have to state both. We know that a period is a segment of time, that pink is a color, that shiny is an appearance.

In each of the following phrases, the general category term can be dropped, leaving just the specific descriptive word:

• large in size
• often times
• of a bright color
• heavy in weight
• period in time
• round in shape
• at an early time
• economics field
• of cheap quality
• honest in character
• of an uncertain condition
• in a confused state
• unusual in nature
• extreme in degree
• of a strange type

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• Aug 20, 2021

10 Tips to Trim Your College Essay

Updated: Sep 25, 2021

Is your college essay over the word count? Do you need space to add just a couple more key sentences? Use these tips to reduce words and strengthen your writing.

1. Eliminate adverbs

Look at your use of the word “very” and “ly” words, such as really , extremely , truly , completely , and absolutely .

Do they enhance your story?

Or are they redundant?

Example...(redundant)

He screamed loudly becomes He screamed.

Is there a better way to write it? Can you replace the “-ly” with a stronger adjective or verb?

He ran quickly becomes He raced.

She ran quickly becomes She sprinted.

When appropriate, revise or delete adverbs.

You do not need to remove every adverb, but limiting them (approximately one to every 300 words) will strengthen your writing.

2. Use adjectives sparingly

Writers often use adjectives to beef up their nouns. Instead, use stronger nouns.

A difficult problem becomes a quandary.

A huge hill becomes a mountain.

3. Omit unnecessary transition words

Look for a single word or short phrase followed by a comma.

These include because of this, in fact, first, last, hopefully, to be frank, quite frankly and in conclusion .

Highlight the words or phrases, then read the sentences without them. Does the sentence still make sense?

Ultimately, I realized failure teaches lessons for future success.

I realized failure teaches lessons for future success.

Delete the adverbs that do not add to the meaning.

4. Replace helping (auxiliary) verbs and use a stronger verb

He is going to be attending becomes He will attend.

I was thinking becomes I thought.

I am an avid reader becomes I read avidly.

5. Turn some nouns into verbs

I concluded is better than I came to the conclusion.

This painting portrays life and beauty is better than This painting is a portrayal of life and beauty.

6. Turn a passive sentence into an active sentence

Revise It was impressed upon me from an early age... to

I learned at an early age...

The sentence becomes shorter and more “action-oriented” and puts the focus on "you" the writer.

Pro tip: Here's a quick video where my colleague, Eveyln, teaches students how to turn a passive sentence into "I" focused action sentence.

7. Use contractions

I could not believe... becomes I couldn't believe...

Contractions sound friendlier, more personal, and more genuine. And they save word space.

8. Eliminate most of your thats.

Read the sentence without them. Remove them if they do not add to the sentence.

I want to read that book. [keep - it adds]

The book that I read was long. [delete - does not add]

The book I read was long.

9. Use possessive nouns

Read through your essay and look for "of the" phrasing when describing a noun.

Use the noun's possessive form to eliminate words.

The intricacy of the design amazed me.

The design's intricacy amazed me.

10. Use the plural when possible

Articles like "the" and "a" can be cut by converting the noun from the singular to plural.

Whenever I eat a tamale, I'm transported back in time.

Whenever I eat tamales I'm transported back in time.

It may seem like these revision strategies save only a couple of words per edit, but you will find they add up quickly. Use these ten tips to make your essay more compact and readable.

Bonus tip to gauge your essay's readability

Get a “read” on your writing’s readability with the Hemmingway App .

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Get rid of unnecessary words

Have you ever been told your work is longwinded? You can fix this problem by following our tips for writing succinctly and editing your work before you finalise it.

Compare succinct writing with longwinded writing and you’ll find it’s not only shorter, but also:

• easier to read
• quicker to read
• more likely to be read
• less likely to be misunderstood
• more professional.

Six tips to help you remove unnecessary words

There are several ways to write succinctly, and one of them is getting rid of unnecessary words.

If you’ve worked hard on writing a document, you may be emotionally attached to words you’ve written, even if they don’t add any value to the writing. But being ruthless and removing redundant words from your sentences will make your writing sharper and easier to read. If you can’t be ruthless, use an editor to help you.

There are six main ways to get rid of unnecessary words. Combine these with other techniques for writing succinctly to achieve clear, crisp text.

Tip #1: Remove unnecessary adverbs, adjectives or qualifiers

Adverbs, adjectives and qualifiers are often unnecessary. Identify any in your writing and see if you can remove them without changing the meaning of your sentences.

Adverbs are words that describe a verb, such as ‘strongly’ or ‘completely’.

Adjectives are words that describe a noun, such as ‘big’ or ‘great’.

Qualifiers (sometimes called modifiers) are words like ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’.

Writers often add qualifiers like these to their writing:

• practically

Sometimes a word or phrase already implies the qualifier that’s been given to it; this makes the qualifier unnecessary. In this example the qualifiers ‘in advance’ and ‘completely’ are already implied by the words ‘anticipate’; and ‘revolutionise’:

We cannot anticipate in advance what will completely revolutionise how we tackle climate change.

Remove the unnecessary qualifiers to create a shorter, clearer sentence:

We cannot anticipate what will revolutionise how we tackle climate change.

Tip #2: remove redundant words.

Tip #3: Convert phrases to single words

Tip #4: Replace descriptive phrases with one-word adjectives

Sometimes we use long, descriptive phrases that we can replace with one-word or compound adjectives.

Here’s a sentence that contains two descriptive phrases:

The Government prioritises projects that are designed to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on the roads over those that are designed to reduce the environmental impact of transport .

Change the descriptive phrase: ‘that are designed to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on the roads’ to the compound adjective ‘road-safety’. Change the descriptive phrase ‘that are designed to reduce the environmental impact of transport’ to the adjective ‘environmental’.

These two changes create a short, clear sentence:

The Government prioritises road-safety projects over environmental projects.

Tip #5: remove ‘there is’ or ‘there are’.

Look for sentences that start with ‘there is’ or ‘there are’, as sometimes you can remove these clauses without affecting the meaning of your sentence.

For example, change this sentence:

There is a project underway to assess if our classroom sizes are too big

A project is underway to assess if our classroom sizes are too big., tip #6: remove prepositional phrases.

Prepositional phrases are phrases that begin with words like ‘in’, ‘for’, ‘at’, ‘on’, ‘through’, ‘over’, ‘about’, ‘after’, ‘before’, ‘behind’, ‘by’, ‘during’, ‘from’, ‘of’, ‘past’, ‘to’, ‘under’, ‘up’ and ‘with’.

Prepositional phrases can make your sentences unwieldy and unclear. Do you use a lot of prepositional phrases? Look at your writing and see which ones you can remove.

This sentence contains seven prepositional phrases that can all be removed:

The reason for the failure of the project of the city council in the last financial year was that several of the councilors were frequently unable to reach agreement on the allocation of the budget.

Here’s a short, clear sentence without the prepositional phrases (and after some other good editing!)

The city council’s project failed last financial year, because some councilors couldn’t agree the budget.

Writing resources

• How to write numbers April 29, 2024
• How to write for the New Zealand Government February 5, 2024
• Check your writing is accurate August 28, 2022
• How to write for a non-technical audience June 6, 2022
• Write clear emails March 17, 2022
• Using contractions February 21, 2022

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16 Tips on How to Reduce Word Counts and Write Concisely

Have you ever finished drafting a one-pager, report, or social media profile only to find out that you’re hundreds of words or characters over your limit? Or maybe you’re not working with a word limit, but you get the sense that the long sentences in your blog post or website copy are going to make your visitors drop like flies. Instead of breaking out into a happy dance to celebrate the fact that you finally managed to sit still long enough to pull together a full draft, you’re left to figure out how you’re going to trim your sentences and meet your word or character limit. To help you out, we’ve created a list of our top 16 on how to reduce word counts and write concisely.

Note that these tips work best when you’ve already cut out the full sentences and paragraphs that you just don’t need. They’ll help you write clear and crisp sentences, sentences that show that you know what you’re talking about and don’t need to beat around the bush to say it. Use these tips to keep your writing short and simple and knock that word count or character count down.

Tip #1: Remove redundant words

Redundant words are words that repeat information that’s conveyed by other words in a sentence. These words are like an appendix – they take up space, but they don’t really do anything useful. In fact, if anything, they just cause problems. (And you don’t need more of those, do you?)

Redundant words don’t add any unique information to a sentence. As a result, you can remove them without losing any information.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“She prepared a (brief) summary for the project team.” (9 words; 42 characters) “She prepared a summary for the project team.” (8 words; 37 characters)

“The store is open to the (general) public. ” (8 words; 33 characters) “The store is open to the public.” (7 words; 26 characters)

“When Obama (first) became president, he moved into the White House.” (11 words; 57 characters) “When Obama became president, he moved into the White House.” (10 words; 50 characters)

Tip #2: Remove unnecessary words

Unnecessary words are a lot like redundant words. They get added to sentences but often don’t need to be there. (Are you starting to see a theme?)

Unlike redundant words, unnecessary words don’t necessarily repeat information that’s expressed by another word in the same sentence. Instead, unnecessary words are often the words that make up wordy phrases. In most cases, you can replace these wordy phrases with shorter phrases to get rid of the unnecessary words. Remember, less is more. Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“People who violate the terms of use may experience a number of consequences.” (13 words; 64 characters) “People who violate the terms of use may experience several consequences.” (11 words; 62 characters)

“We need the approved mockups in order to start developing the website.” (12 words; 59 characters) “We need the approved mockups to start developing the website.” (10 words; 52 characters)

Want some examples of common wordy phrases and their shorter equivalents? Check these out:

• A number of: several, many (3 words vs. 1 word)
• As a means of: to (4 words vs. 1 word)
• At the present time: now (4 words vs. 1 word)
• Due to the fact that: because, since (5 words vs. 1 word)
• In an effort to: to (4 words vs. 1 word)
• In close proximity to: near (4 words vs. 1 word)
• In order to: to (3 words vs. 1 word)
• In the near future: soon, shortly (4 words vs. 1 word)
• It is requested that you: please (5 words vs. 1 word)
• With the exception of: except (4 words vs. 1 word)

In some cases, you can get rid of an entire set of unnecessary words without having to replace them with a shorter set of words. Take a look at this example:

“ There are no previous studies that investigated the relationship between protein X and protein Y.” (15 words; 83 characters) “No previous studies investigated the relationship between protein X and protein Y.” (12 words; 71 characters)

Here are some other words and sets of words that you can often banish from your sentences without having to replace them with anything. The numbers in parentheses show the number of words you’ll save by getting rid of these words.

• The fact that (-3 words)
• It has been reported that (-5 words)
• It was observed/found that (-4 words)
• There is/there are (-2 words)
• Very (-1 word)
• Really (-1 word)

And finally, some words become unnecessary words in a certain context. Let’s take a look at these examples:

“The most important ingredient in this recipe…” (7 words; 38 characters) “The most important ingredient…”(4 words; 26 characters)

As you can see, we can remove “in this recipe” from the sentence. Why? Because we know that ingredients are usually part of recipes. So if we’re talking about ingredients, we can assume our reader will know that we’re talking about ingredients in a recipe.

Note, though, that “in this recipe” isn’t always redundant. For example, you wouldn’t be able to remove it from this sentence:

“There are peanuts in this recipe.”

Peanut allergies are pretty serious business, so you’d want to keep “in this recipe” in the sentence so that your reader knows what the peanuts are in. After all, EpiPens aren’t exactly cheap these days, so you probably want to avoid having to use one.

Bonus tip: Use the “find” function in your word processor to search for the most common unnecessary words in your writing.

 Tip #3: Remove the word “that”

It’s common to pepper sentences with the word “that,” but this word often doesn’t add much to the meaning of a sentence. It’s yet another appendix.

Because “that” usually doesn’t convey important information in a sentence, you can often make your sentences shorter by removing it. Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The car that Michael just bought broke down.” (8 words; 37 characters) “The car Michael just bought broke down.” (7 words; 33 characters)

“Being blamed for something that you didn’t do is frustrating.” (10 words; 52 characters) “Being blamed for something you didn’t do is frustrating.” (9 words; 48 characters)

“The report that we’ve been working on is almost complete.” (10 words; 48 characters) “The report we’ve been working on is almost complete.” (9 words; 44 characters)

Tip #4: Get rid of unnecessary helping verbs

Do you have a relative or friend who always tries to be helpful but often isn’t? Ironically, helping verbs can sometimes be like this.

But what are helping verbs anyway? Helping verbs are words like “be,” “do,” and “have.” They’re called helping verbs because they help the main verb in a sentence (imagine that!).

In some cases, we need to include a helping verb in a sentence to modify the meaning of the main verb in the sentence. In many cases, though, we end up including them in sentences when they aren’t needed.

So what do you do in these situations? Take that helping verb out. Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“First, you have to enter your password into the scanner.” (10 words; 47 characters) “First, enter your password into the scanner.” (7 words; 38 characters)

“Airlines are always trying to charge more.” (7 words; 36 characters) “Airlines always try to charge more.” (6 words; 30 characters)

“I do need to go to the mall.” (8 words; 21 characters) “I need to go to the mall.” (7 words; 19 characters)

Tip #5: Replace nouns with verbs

Some people have a thing for nouns. Really, they do. Many words can be expressed as either nouns (e.g., “It is our recommendation that”) or as verbs (“We recommend that”). And people who have a thing for nouns think that the noun versions of these words sound much sexier.

The problem with the noun forms of words is that they’re often longer than the verb forms. They also usually force us to add other extra words to a sentence to make it grammatically correct. Instead of being seduced by wordy nouns, put them in their place by using their verb counterparts instead. Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“ The implementation of the social media strategy will boost engagement.” (10 words; 61 characters) “ Implementing the social media strategy will boost engagement.” (8 words; 54 characters)

“ The categorization of children by swimming ability rather than by age will make lessons more productive.” (16 words; 89 characters) “ Categorizing children by swimming ability rather than by age will make lessons more productive.” (14 words; 82 characters)

“ The addition of crystals to the dress will make it too heavy.” (12 words; 50 characters) “ Adding crystals to the dress will make it too heavy.” (10 words; 43 characters)

Tip # 6: Shorten long words

Sometimes you end up with a long noun that can’t be swapped for a verb. And in other cases, you end up with a long word that’s already a verb. This may worry you because you know that sentences with long words are more cumbersome to read. Just take a look at this sentence:

“The utilization of the social media automation tool will allow us to ensure the completion of the sharing of our images with our followers.”

Long? Yes. Confusing? Just a bit.

Never fear, though. There’s still something you can do when you realize that you’ve written a monster of a sentence like this: you can replace the long noun or verb with a shorter word that means the same thing.

Although this won’t help you reduce word counts, it’ll help if you’re working with a character or page limit. It’ll also help you write sleeker and more powerful sentences.(Wouldn’t that be awesome?) Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The utilization of the social media automation tool will allow us to ensure the completion of the sharing of our images with our followers.” (24 words; 116 characters)

“The use of the social media automation tool will allow us to finish sharing our images with our followers.” (19 words; 88 characters)

“ Using the social media automation tool will allow us to finish sharing our images with our followers.” (17 words; 85 characters)

Want some more examples of long words that you can swap for shorter ones? Here you go:

• Notification: notice (12 characters vs. 6 characters)
• Portion: part (7 characters vs. 4 characters)
• Remainder: rest (9 characters vs. 4 characters)
• Upon: on (4 characters vs. 2 characters)
• Usage: use (5 characters vs. 3 characters)

Tip #7: Replace multiple weak words with a powerful word

In some cases, we create emphasis in sentences by stringing together verbs (words that describe actions), adjectives (words that describe nouns or pronouns), and adverbs (words that describe adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs). This makes sentences longer than they need to be because we end up using more words to convey the same information.

By replacing a set of weak words with a single strong word, you can shorten your sentences and make them more punchy. You’re not weak, so why make yourself sound weak through your writing? Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“She looked incredibly nervous while she was presenting.” (8 words; 48 characters) “She looked terrified while she was presenting.” (7 words; 40 characters)

“He was very tired after staying up all night to finish his essay.” (13 words; 53 characters) “He was exhausted after staying up all night to finish his essay.” (12 words; 53 characters)

“She looked absolutely stunning in her mother’s wedding dress.” (9 words; 52 characters) “She rocked her mother’s wedding dress.” (6 words; 33 characters)

Tip #8: Replace prepositional phrases with adverbs

Another way that we make our sentences weak is by using prepositional phases (i.e., phrases built around words like “with,” “of,” and “in”) to describe an action. To streamline sentences and reduce word counts, we can often replace the prepositional phrase with a single word. Why make your readers do more work than they need to do to read your one-pager or blog post? Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The cyclist pedalled with fury.” (5 words; 27 characters) “The cyclist pedalled furiously.” (4 words; 28 characters)

“The athlete raced through the obstacle course with agility.” (9 words; 51 characters) “The athlete raced through the obstacle course agilely. (8 words; 47 characters)

Tip #9: Make words plural

Yup. You read the heading for this tip correctly. You can reduce word counts and write concisely just by making singular words plural.

Singular words often need an article (e.g., “the” or “a”) in front of them whereas plural words often don’t. As a result, you can shrink your sentences by making singular words plural when possible. Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“A good doctor is intelligent, knowledgeable, and experienced.” (8 words; 54 characters) “Good doctors are intelligent, knowledgeable, and experienced.” (7 words; 55 characters)

“A pear contains more fibre than an apple does.” (9 words; 38 characters) “Pears contain more fibre than apples do.” (7 words; 34 characters)

“A child learns most effectively when taught by a compassionate teacher.” (11 words; 61 characters) “Children learn most effectively when taught by compassionate teachers.” (9 words; 62 characters)

Tip #10: Replace prepositional phrases with possessives

Those pesky prepositional phrases are back at it again. In this case, they’re making us use more words than we really need to indicate that something belongs to someone (i.e., to indicate possession). These sentences tend to look like this:

“The cover of the ebook needs more work.”

This sentence takes the form “the X of Y,” where X = “the cover” and Y = “the ebook.”

This may not seem that wordy, and it’s true that this particular sentence isn’t. But there’s still a way to make this sentence shorter and tighter: take “the X of the Y” and turn it into “Y’s X.” If we do this to the example sentence above, it would look like this:

“The ebook’s cover needs more work.” Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The complexity of the street map confused me.” (8 words; 38 characters) “The street map’s complexity confused me.” (6 words; 35 characters)

“The title page of the report looks great!” (8 words; 34 characters) “The report’s title page looks great!” (6 words; 31 characters)

“The invoice for the customer isn’t ready yet.” (8 words; 38 characters) “The customer’s invoice isn’t ready yet.” (6 words; 34 characters)

Tip 11: Rewrite sentences to eliminate prepositions

We’ve talked about how phrases built around prepositions make sentences wordy. But prepositions can make sentences longer than they need to be even when they appear on their own. Those troublemakers!

In many cases, you can get rid of a preposition by rewriting the sentence. Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“We will test customers’ preferences for winter coats.” (8 words; 46 characters) “We will test customers’ winter coat preferences.” (7 words; 42 characters)

“The weather in Vancouver is typically better than the weather in Edmonton.” (12 words; 63 characters) “Vancouver weather is typically better than Edmonton weather.” (8 words; 53 characters)

“The manager of the restaurant apologized for the undercooked meat.” (10 words; 57 characters) “The restaurant manager apologized for the undercooked meat.” (8 words; 52 characters)

In some cases, you can use the “-ing” form of a verb to remove a preposition. You’ll just need to play around with the word order in the sentence. Here’s how this could look:

“We will use the results of Phase 1 to develop a tool in Phase 2.” (15 words; 50 characters) “Using the results of Phase 1, we will develop a tool in Phase 2.” (14 words; 51 characters)

Tip #12: Eliminate conjunctions

Sometimes we take sets of words that could form their own sentence and instead join them together in one sentence using a coordinating conjunction (a word like “and,” “so,” or “but”). Here’s an example:

“Tom wrote the copy for the ebook, and Malika designed the graphics.”

The conjunction doesn’t take up that much space in a sentence. But if you’re pressed for space, replacing the conjunction and the comma before it with a period or a semicolon can help you reduce word counts. Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“Tom wrote the copy for the ebook, and Malika designed the graphics.”(12 words; 56 characters)

“Tom wrote the copy for the ebook; Malika designed the graphics.”(11 words; 53 characters)

“Tom wrote the copy for the ebook. Malika designed the graphics.” (11 words; 53 characters)

Tip #13: Write in active voice instead of in passive voice

Writing in passive voice (e.g., “The soccer ball was kicked by Mia”) instead of active voice (e.g., “Mia kicked the soccer ball”) is a lot like using nouns in place of verbs – people think sentences sound more impressive when they’re written this way.

The problem with passive voice, though, is that it makes sentences longer and less powerful. Do you want your website copy, one-pager, or report to have a strong impact on your readers? If you do, reduce word counts and write more concisely by rewriting passive voice sentences in active voice. Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The survey was conducted by the project team in January 2015.” (passive; 11 words; 51 characters) “The project team conducted the survey in January 2015.” (active; 9 words; 46 characters)

“The lawsuit was filed by Mighty Media.” (passive; 7 words; 32 characters) “Mighty Media filed the lawsuit.” (active; 5 words; 27 characters)

“The dance company’s performance was choreographed by Karen Kain.” (passive; 9 words; 56 characters) “Karen Kain choreographed the dance company’s performance.” (active; 7 words; 51 characters)

Hint: Need help identifying passive sentences in your writing? If you can place “by zombies” after the main verb in a sentence, your sentence is probably in passive voice. Here’s an example:

“The lawsuit was filed (by zombies) by Mighty Media.”

 Tip #14: Combine sentences

Sometimes you can make paragraphs shorter by combining related sentences. Just make sure that your combined sentences don’t become too long or difficult to follow. Otherwise you’ll be back at square one when it comes to trimming your sentences. Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“Six participants tested the product. They ranged in age from 19 to 56 years.” (14 words) “Six participants aged 19–56 years tested the product.” (8 words)

“Sophia is a senior accountant at Mighty Media. She is responsible for overseeing the work of four junior accountants at the company.” (22 words) “Sophia, a senior accountant at Mighty Media, oversees the work of four junior accountants.” (14 words)

“Anton is a hotel pastry chef. He works at a luxury hotel in Florida.” (14 words) “Anton is a pastry chef at a luxury Florida hotel.” (10 words)

Tip #15: Describe data in one place only

This tip is helpful if you’re presenting tables or graphs along with text. Tables and graphs are a lot like PowerPoint slides – they’re meant to complement but not repeat everything you present in another format, whether that format is text in a paragraph or information that you’re presenting out loud. Some people make the mistake of providing the same information in a table or graph and in the text of a blog post, report, or one-pager.

Here’s what this looks like:

“A large proportion of customers reported seeing the web (90%), social media (80%), and in-store (60%) ads (see Figure 1).” (20 words; 102 characters)

Figure 1. Percentage of customers who saw store ads

You wouldn’t make your readers read the same paragraph twice, so why would you make them read a paragraph and either a table or graph that contain the same information? That’s why many style guides recommend describing information in one place only – in a paragraph or in a table or figure.

See how this looks:

“Figure 1 displays the number of customers who saw the online, social media, and in-store ads.” (16 words; 78 characters)

 Figure 1. Percentage of customers who saw store ads

Tip #16: use abbreviations consistently.

Abbreviations are like candy – some people can’t get enough of them when they write. In our ebook “ How to Write Clearly ,” we talk about why you should limit your use of abbreviations.

If you’re going to use them, and there are appropriate times to use them, don’t make the mistake that most people make. That is, don’t use an abbreviation inconsistently throughout a document or piece of copy. Here’s what this inconsistency looks like:

“The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) oversees the health care system in Ontario, Canada. One of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s key goals is to build a sustainable and patient-centered public health system.” (37 words; 196 characters)

You probably introduced the abbreviation to avoid writing out a long name over and over again. So when you don’t use the abbreviation consistently, it defeats the purpose of using it. This inconsistency also increases your word and character counts.

To make your abbreviations worth the cost of using them (see our ebook for more on this), use them consistently throughout a document or piece of copy. Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) oversees the health care system in Ontario, Canada. One of MOHLTC’s key goals is to build a sustainable and patient-centered public health system.” (31 words; 167 characters)

You may be looking at these tips and noticing that they don’t reduce word counts or character counts by a huge amount. So why bother using them?

It’s true that if you use just one of these tips in one sentence of your report or blog post, you won’t see much of a difference. However, if you use even just a few of these strategies across an entire document or piece of writing, the savings will add up. We promise. You’ll be surprised by just how much shorter and tighter you can make your sentences by giving these tips a try. ————————————————————————————————————————————— Looking for more tips on how to reduce word counts and write concisely? Check out our post on the 3 wordy phrases you should ban from your writing . ————————————————————————————————————————————— Need to make a good impression with your website copy, blog posts, or reports? We can help. Get an instant quote here .

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7 Word Count Tips for Clear, Powerful Academic Writing

Maximum word limits are a pain in the butt. It’s kinda soul destroying to have to cut all the beautiful words you’ve just spent hours writing.

But they are there for a reason.

Word limits force you to write concisely so you can answer the question well without wasting words. I often felt like there was no way I could cut enough from my word count but, using my techniques below, I always managed to and the end result was a clearer, more powerful piece of writing.

In this blog post you’ll discover:

• Why you should cut the fluff from your writing
• Why you should try to reduce your word count
• 7 simple techniques to improve your writing today

~ FREE RESOURCE ~

Study Session Planner

Create your own simple, productive study plan in just a few minutes , so you can boost your motivation and focus, get more done in less time , and make faster progress towards your dream university grades .

Your goal isn’t to write a literary masterpiece. You won’t get higher marks for knocking your tutor’s socks off with your elegant prose.

Instead – you need to get your ideas down on paper in the least amount of words possible. While your writing may seem less pleasant to read, your tutor will appreciate de-bloated writing…and you should gain higher marks.

Benefits of reducing your word count and improving the clarity of your writing:

• Your ability to control your language will give the reader the impression you are intelligent and educated
• Clear writing will help the reader understand your ideas and argument
• Cutting the fluff will allow you to include more valuable points so you can score the highest mark possible

If you manage to cut 100 words from an essay by using these tips, that’s 100 extra words to answer the question. Those 100 spare words could be used to craft seven or eight kick ass sentences that could gain you the marks needed to push you to the next grade.

7 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Word Count

1. get rid of redundant modifiers.

The use of redundant modifiers has crept into our everyday language so they’re hard to spot. Marketing messages often include redundant modifiers to attempt to add effect, such as, ‘ very unique ’. If something is ‘ unique ’ it is one of a kind. Adding ‘ very ’ does nothing to the meaning, adds an extra word and just sounds silly if you think about it. The same applies to the examples, ‘ added bonus ’ or ‘ absolutely certain ’.

Look through your writing to see if you’ve included any redundant modifiers. After awhile you’ll get in the habit of not using them.

Here's some examples you can edit to reduce your word count

Absolutely certain > certain

Added bonus > bonus

Basic essentials > essentials

Complete monopoly of the market > monopoly of the market

Crystal clear > clear

End result > result

Exact same > exact/same

Final outcome > outcome

Immediate vicinity > vicinity

Major breakthrough > breakthrough

Make plans in advance > make plans

New initiative > initiative

Natural instinct > instinct

Over exaggerate > exaggerate

Past experience > experience

Past memories > memories

Personal opinion > opinion

Postpone until later > postpone

Revert back > revert

Top priority > priority

True fact > fact

Very unique > unique

Weather conditions > weather

Written down > written

2. De-bloat your inflated phrases

Similarly, there are probably instances where you’re using two, three or four words where one would do. These can take a few edits to pick up but once removed your word count and clarity are improved pretty quickly.

Are indications of > indicates

At all times > always

At the present time > at present/currently/now

Collaborate/join together > collaborate/join

Completely ruined > devastated

Concerning the matter of > about

Despite the fact that > although

Due to the fact that > because

During the course of > during

For the purpose of > for

Has a tendency to > tends

Has knowledge of > knows

Has the ability to > can

In a situation in which > when

In order to > to/so that

In the event that > if

It is necessary that > must/should

On the other hand > conversely

On two separate occasions > twice

The majority of > most

There is a chance that > may/might/could

Until such time as > until

What the organisation aims to do is > the organisation aims to

Whether or not > whether

Will provide a summary > will summarise

With regards to > about

3. Redundant categories

Some people have a tendency to state an attribute or characteristic and then, perhaps in an effort to be more accurate, state its category too. For example, ‘ blue in colour ’ should just be ‘ blue ’. ‘ Small in size ’ should just be ‘ small ’. Remove these in your writing and sound smarter.

Attractive in appearance > attractive

Blue in colour > blue

Heavy in weight > heavy

Honest in character > honest

In a confused state > confused

Of a strange type > strange

Of cheap quality > cheap

Period in time > period

Small in size > small

Unusual in nature > unusual

4. Remove ‘that’

Some words take up precious word count but add nothing. The most common is ‘ that ’ which is fairly harmless but, over the course of an entire essay, could increase the word count. You won’t always be able to remove ‘ that ’ and maintain clarity, but search your document and see if removing them alters the meaning of the sentence.

Ensure that you make relevant use of both articles

This is the book that she wrote

The report that was approved by the board

I want to buy that car

5. Delete adverbs

Adverbs can weaken academic writing by detracting from what is being said. Using adverbs frequently will bloat your writing and can disrupt a reader’s flow. Don’t add a descriptive word to a verb, instead just use a descriptive verb. For example, ‘ dropped rapidly ’ can become ‘ plummeted ’.

Search your text for the word ‘ very ’ or adverbs ending in ‘ ly’ and see if they can be replaced while maintaining clarity.

Eat noisily > gulp

Drop rapidly > plummet

Look angrily > scowl

Run quickly > sprint

Say quietly > whisper

Very big > enormous

Very tired > exhausted

6. Eliminate redundant pairings

The English language is so rich we often have too many words to choose from . Rather than choosing one and sticking to it we tend to pile them on top of each other. A simple idea can quickly become a bloated sentence filled with pointless words.

Look out for some of the examples below and shorten them to reduce the word count but maintain clarity

(Also do this where you’ve created your own list of descriptive or explanatory words.)

First and foremost

Hope and trust

Each and every

So on and do forth

Over and done with

One and only

Few and far between

Peace and quiet

Hope and desire

Tidy and presentable

7. Remove ‘helping words’

This technique can take a little practice to implement but it can reduce your word count quickly. Sentences including words in the form of ‘ be ’ or ‘ have ’ can often be edited and rearranged to reduce word count and add clarity. Check your writing for these sentences.

First, one has to analyse the situation > first, analyse the situation

The report was prepared by Psychology students > Psychology students prepared the report

This report has been prepared to analyse… > this report analyses/aims to analyse…

His duties were classified in the report > the report classified his duties.

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Essay Writing Tips: Eliminate Wordiness

• Trent Lorcher
• Categories : Help with writing assignments paragraphs, essays, outlines & more
• Tags : Homework help & study guides

Essay Writing Tips: Trust Words

Out of all the essay writing tips I could give, this one is most important: Eliminate wordiness. The following essay writing tips will help you do just that:

• For example, a dishonest thief (all thieves are dishonest); a terrible tragedy (tragedies are terrible by definition); a joyous celebration (you get the point).
• For example, brown in color (we already know that brown is a color); dull in appearance; a confused state.
• For example, each and every (both words mean about the same thing); I want any and all individuals who cheated to come here (either any or all would suffice).
• For example, instead of at this point in time , try now . Instead of she exceeds ordinary standards , try she is excellent .
• For example, there is no difference between being skeptical and being somewhat skeptical, very tired and exhausted, and kind of stupid and stupid.
• For example, I teach the students math should be I teach students math .
• For example, I want to reduce the number of F’s that I am receiving. Let’s fix the broken pipes that leak water. Teachers should respond to questions that students ask.
• For example, Instead of I’ll take it into consideration , try I’ll consider it . Instead of I have chosen W.E. Wapskuller as my nomination for student body president, try I nominate W.E. Wapskuller.
• For example, Instead of It has often been said by scholars and non scholars alike that the famous playwrite William Shakespeare certainly beyond a shadow of a doubt writes some great plays, try William Shakespeare writes great plays .

How to Implement these Essay Writing Tips

• Change your attitude about essay writing. Stop using filler words. If your goal in writing an essay is to use the assigned number of words, then you will continue to write boring essays. You will never get better, and you will live a writing life of mediocrity. Intend to say something. Make every word count.
• Write more than is necessary. If the assignment calls for 2 pages, write 3-4 pages. If the assignment is 500 words, write 800 words.
• Edit for economy. Trim the excess. Begin by deleting entire sections or paragraphs, ones that do not add meaning or are not relevant. Eliminate sentences or phrases that contribute little or are redundant. Get rid of unnecessary words. Pretend you are a security guard and all modifiers (adjectives, adverbs, articles, etc.) are potential intruders. Make sure they belong. Finally, eliminate unnecessary words. You’ll notice you can say the same using 500 words that you did using 800 words.
• Observe how improved your writing becomes. Once you form the habit of trusting your words, you’ll notice not having to cut as much. You’ll begin saying twice as much in half the time.

This post is part of the series: Writing Tips Your Teacher Never Told You

Dramatically improve your writing with simple changes.

• Writing Tips: Personal Voice in Writing
• Essay Writing Tips: Make Every Word Count
• Improve Writing by Improving Word Choice
• Basic Methods of Paragraph Development
• How to Write a Persuasive Essay: Writing Tips

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Essay Word Cutter - Reduce a Text in an Instant

Input your essay to reduce word count

Reduced version length:

Here is your summary:

Our free word cutter for essays uses AI technology to shorten texts in these easy steps:

• Paste the text you want to shorten. It should be a maximum of 18,000 characters in one go.
• Indicate the length of the text you want to receive as a result of summarization.
• Click “Shorten the text” and get the results.
• 🖋 The Tool’s Benefits

✂️ How to Cut Words in an Essay?

• 🖇 References

🖋 Essay Word Cutter Benefits

Text summarizing is a crucial process in academic writing. It demonstrates your capacity to organize and deliver the key facts, story points, ideas, etc. A person can easily understand a decent summary without reading the original material. Thus, students love our essay shortener for the following reasons:

If you need to summarize your hard-won draft essay to fit the word count requirement and are pressured to fulfill a fast-approaching deadline, you can make a few adjustments to your content. Follow these guidelines to reduce your word count in a shorter time:

• Remove conjunctions
• Eliminate adverbs and adjectives
• Omit unnecessary articles
• Decrease wordy phrases
• Use an active voice
• Choose shorter words

Remove Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words or phrases that connect two independent sentences, words, or phrases that can often be rewritten into separate statements.

The most common conjunctions are and , but , or , because , and however , among others.

These conjunctions increase the word and character counts in an essay.

Eliminate Adverbs and Adjectives

Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, prepositions, or other adverbs in sentences. Adjectives describe and qualify nouns and pronouns. Using adjectives and adverbs in an essay reduces the quality of your writing, while omitting superfluous adjectives and adverbs makes the text more concise .

Omit Unnecessary Articles – The/That

Avoid overusing the words “ the ” and “ that ” in your essay since they increase the wordiness of your content.

Decrease Wordy Phrases

Identify the needless words and lengthy phrases that clutter your essay and eliminate them or replace them with more functional words and phrases. Avoiding complex terms and long sentences makes it easy for anyone to understand the topic easily .

Use an Active Voice

Articles written in an active voice use fewer words than those in a passive voice. An active voice makes the essay clearer and more compelling , thus delivering a convincing argument.

Choose Shorter Words and Avoid Unnecessary Transitions

To reduce the character count of your essay, replace long words with their shorter synonyms.

For instance:

The word “utilize” can be replaced by use.

Additionally, the use of transition words is essential to maintaining a proper flow in your writing, thus making the article engaging to the reader. However, transitions make a text wordier . That’s why it’s vital to strike the right balance between coherence and reasonable word count.

Thank you for reading this guide!

Check the other study tools we’ve prepared: paper rewriter , poem meaning generator , and project topic maker .

📍 Essay Word Cutter – FAQ

📍 how to cut words from an essay.

The most efficient and effective way is to use our free online essay cutter to do the heavy lifting. However, if you have time and prefer to summarize your own, you can apply the tips shared in this article to reduce the word count in your essay.

📍 How to reduce word count in an essay?

You can use the tips highlighted above to trim your essay’s word count. If you’re strained with time, you can utilize our free summary generator to shorten your essay and achieve impeccable results quickly, within the click of a button.

📍 How to check word count on Word?

Check the status bar when you need to know how many words, pages, characters, paragraphs, or lines are in a Word document. For a partial word count, select the words you want to count. The status bar shows the word count for that selection and the entire document.

Updated: Apr 9th, 2024

🔗 References

• How to effectively summarize the work of others - SFU Library
• Summarizing - Academic Integrity at MIT
• How to reduce word count without reducing content
• How to Increase or Decrease Your Paper's Word Count
• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count

How to Shorten an Essay: 4 Techniques to Reduce Word Count

If you need to shorten your essay by 100-500 words, or even more, you can use one or more of four techniques. You can clean up your sentences, remove repetition, summarize your examples, and/or cut out an entire section.

One of my subscribers recently asked me, “ How do I compress an essay of 700-1000 words, or even more, to just 300 words? ”

In this tutorial I will show you four easy ways to shorten your essay by as much or as little as you wish. I am giving them to you in the order you should try them out.

Here are four techniques to shorten your essay:

Technique #1: Sentence Cleanup

When I taught essay writing in college, I noticed that students wrote sentences that were just too wordy. 

They used 20 words where 10 would have probably done the trick. If you examine your sentences, you’ll often find that you can say the same thing in much fewer words.

“In my opinion, there are many people who want to lose weight.”

This sentence contains 12 words. 

Here’s how we can shorten it by performing a Sentence Cleanup.

First, you never have to say, “ In my opinion, ” because if it were not your opinion, you wouldn’t be stating it. Okay? So, let’s cross out “ in my opinion. ”

“ In my opinion, there are many people who want to lose weight.”

We just cut out three words. 

Next, the phrase “ there are ” is usually unnecessary, and if you take it out, your sentence will become more elegant. So, let’s do it. Let’s just cross it out.

“ There are many people who want to lose weight.”

We also have to cross out the extra word “ who ” because it is only needed if you use “ there are. ”

We just got rid of three more words. 

And so our sentence becomes:

“Many people want to lose weight.”

How many words is that? That is now a six word sentence. Guess what – we just cut this sentence in half. 

Do this enough times in your essay, and it will get a lot shorter.

“How do I cut out 200 words from my essay to make it shorter?”

This sentence contains 14 words. Let’s perform a Sentence Cleanup.

Notice that it is pretty obvious that to cut out 200 words from an essay will make it shorter. Therefore, stating that you want to do it “ to make it shorter ” is unnecessary. 

If we get rid of that phrase, we’ll cut out 4 words from this sentence and make it a lot more elegant. 

“How do I cut out 200 words from my essay to make it shorter ?”

Technique #2: Removing Repetition

Repetition can be found on all levels – in a sentence, in a paragraph, or a section. When you reduce or eliminate repetition in your essay, you are making it less redundant. “Redundant” just means repetitive and therefore useless.

In the last example we just did, we eliminated a redundancy from a sentence. And that’s part of a Sentence Cleanup. But you can also find and eliminate entire redundant sentences.  

Look for repetitive phrases, sentences, and even passages in your content and remove them. 

Students often repeat things over and over, using different words, thinking that they’re writing great content. Those are your opportunities to significantly shorten your essay while improving it at the same time.

Here’s an example from a fictitious student essay. Let’s say the student writes about his trip to Paris and states:

“ I found that Parisians are very nice if you talk to them in French. ”

And then, in the same or even a different paragraph or section, the following sentence would appear:

“Parisians can be very nice people, but they really prefer that you speak French with them.”

Well, the two sentences say the same thing, just using different words. 

So, what do you do? 

Pick the longer sentence and just delete it.

Sometimes you will find a whole paragraph in your essay that is repetitive and can be removed without the essay losing any meaning. If you find such a paragraph, just delete it.

Technique #3: Zooming Out

Make sure that you go through your essay using the first two techniques before you employ this and the next one. 

The only case where you would do Zooming Out first would be if you had to shorten your essay drastically – by 30% or more. 

If you’ve cleaned up all your sentences and removed all repetitive content, and you still need to lose hundreds of words, the Zooming Out technique will really help. 

Here’s how it works. 

You may have heard that in essay writing, you are supposed to proceed from general to specific. Whether you stick to this rule really well in your essay or not, I want you to notice something. 

In your essay, you make statements that are:

• very general
• less general
• somewhat specific
• very specific

The most general statement in your essay is the thesis because it summarizes the entire essay. And the most specific parts of your essay are examples .

So, in order to shorten your essay, you can summarize your examples. I call this Zooming Out because you are taking something that was very specific (zoomed in) and making it more general (zoomed out). 

Let’s say you’re writing about the harms of second-hand smoking. And in one of the sections you provide an example of your friend or someone in the news who became seriously ill because she lived with a smoker for a long time:

“My friend Isabelle was married to a chain smoker. Her husband refused not only to give up his habit but even to reduce it. As years went by, Isabelle began to notice some respiratory symptoms. At first, she developed a light but persistent cough. Then, she started to feel out of breath more and more often. When she finally went to a pulmonologist, a test revealed that she had COPD, a serious lung disease.”

This example is 74 words long. And this is your opportunity to shorten your essay dramatically. 

You can simply contract this example into one short sentence and write something like this:

“A friend of mine developed lung disease after having lived with a chain smoker for twelve years.”

Now, this sentence contains only 17 words. We just cut out 57 words just by Zooming Out on one example. 

We are Zooming Out because we are no longer exploring this example in detail. We simply provide a fact without giving a lot of specific information. 

So, look for these detailed examples in your essay and just summarize each of them into one short sentence.

Technique #4: Cutting out a Section

This technique works very well to cut out a big chunk of your essay in one fell swoop.

Let’s say that you wrote an essay in which you have four supporting points to prove your main point, your thesis. 

If this is a 2,000-word essay, then each section is approximately 500 words long. But do you really need four reasons/sections to support your point?

Is it possible that if you provide only three supporting points, your essay will still work very well?

For example, if you argue that apples are a great food, you could have four supporting points, claiming that apples are:

But what if you simply took out one of these points? Let’s say that you eliminate the section about the portability of apples.

Will your essay still work? Sure it will. It will work just fine with the three remaining supporting points. And you just cut out 500 words (in a 2,000-word essay). 

After you have cut out a section, make sure to go back to your thesis statement and edit it to reflect the change.

I’ll leave you with one final tip. When trying to choose which sentence, paragraph, or section to cut out from your essay, go for the content that you know is not the best.

For example, you may have a section in your essay where you quote too much. Or, perhaps you were not very careful in paraphrasing, and your passage sounds too much like the original source. These would be great bits of content to get rid of.

I hope this was helpful. Now go ahead and shorten your essay to your heart’s desire!

How to Write a 300 Word Essay – Simple Tutorial

How to expand an essay – 4 tips to increase the word count, 10 solid essay writing tips to help you improve quickly, essay writing for beginners: 6-step guide with examples, 6 simple ways to improve sentence structure in your essays.

Tutor Phil is an e-learning professional who helps adult learners finish their degrees by teaching them academic writing skills.

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This Web App Identifies Unnecessary Words In Your Writing

Whether you need to craft a punchy email, a concisely worded cover letter, or a clever Twitter update, it can be difficult to identify unnecessary words in your own writing. Fortunately, if you’re struggling to fine tune your writing or reduce your resume to a single page, there’s a web app that can help.

Expresso is a free app that points out style issues in blocks of text. Lifehacker reports that the app is useful for identifying common writing issues like filler words, use of passive voice, and weak verbs. Simply copy and paste the text you’re working on into the app—or write directly in the text field—and let Expresso analyze your writing. 

While Expresso is useful for editing individual texts, its aim is actually much broader. According to the Expresso website, the goal is to teach effective writing techniques using concrete examples. “While good writing style is hard to master, there are several simple yet powerful techniques which many writing guides and coaches focus on,” the website explains. “Expresso teaches these techniques by applying them directly to your writing.”

The app is also useful for analyzing the writing of others. Try typing a passage from your favorite book into Expresso, or compare the styles of a range of authors, to identify what makes their writing so powerful. Of course, keep in mind that while Expresso can help you better understand writing, its metrics should be just one tool in your writing arsenal. “Writing metrics employed by Expresso can be powerful but they are not a 'magic bullet,'” the website notes. “Good writing style remains an art, not a science.”

10 More Ways to Reduce Your Word Count in Academic Writing

Many writers in academia struggle to meet word, page, or character limits. And this struggle is not limited to a particular field. Regardless of your expertise, you will face space limitations when writing a manuscript , grant proposal , abstract , or other document. 

Some writers enjoy the challenge of cutting text to meet a word limit (I certainly do). But others feel overwhelmed by this process. To help writers more easily cut words, I shared some tricks that I use to reduce the word count . This article has become overwhelmingly popular, so I have put together a list of even more ways to reduce the word count of your writing.

1.  Revise nominalizations

Many scientific and medical writers morph verbs and adjectives into nominalizations . When used intentionally, nominalizations can be a powerful tool for naming concepts or describing a complex idea in a few words, such as mutation or expression . But when used too often, nominalizations rob writing of energy and clarity, and they add words to your writing.

Original: We found that aggregation of the protein is dependent on the adenine mutation. (13 words, 78 characters)

Revised: We found that aggregation of the protein depends on the adenine mutation. (12 words, 73 characters)

2.  Reduce redundancy

Redundancies are instances in which a term or phrase unnecessarily repeats words or meanings. You can easily condense redundancies to reduce the length of your text—with the added bonus of also boosting clarity.

Original: Our results show that the protein is small in size and located near to the cell membrane. (17 words, 89 characters)

Revised: Our results show that the protein is small and located near the cell membrane. (14 words, 78 characters)

 3.  Cut filler words

Academic authors often use filler words in their writing that can be easily deleted. Phrases such as literature shows or studies have shown are often unnecessary, and they can disrupt the flow of your writing.

Original: Previous studies have shown that the protein is localized in the cytoplasm. (12 words, 75 characters)

Revised: The protein is localized in the cytoplasm. (7 words, 42 characters) 

4.  Delete references to previous content

Similar to filler words, you can easily shave a few words off your word count if you do not refer to previous content with phrases such as as described in the previous section .

Original: As mentioned in the previous paragraph , cognitive impairment affects memory function. (11 words, 85 characters)

Revised: Cognitive impairment affects memory function. (5 words, 45 characters)

5.  Replace “compared with”

When making comparisons in your writing, replace compared with with the word than or versus .

Original: Patients with diabetes had higher blood pressure compared with patients without diabetes. (12 words, 89 characters)

Revised: Patients with diabetes had higher blood pressure than patients without diabetes. (11 words, 80 characters)

Original: Resistance was greater in cells treated with the drug compared with cells left untreated. (14 words, 89 characters)

Revised: Resistance was greater in cells treated with the drug versus cells left untreated. (13 words, 82 characters)

6.  Delete spaces around mathematical operators

An easy way to reduce the word count is to remove the spaces between numbers and mathematical operators, such as =, <, or >.

Original: The trial classified participants as those with hypertension ( n = 65 ) or without hypertension ( n = 11 ). (17 words, 103 characters)

Revised: The trial classified participants as those with hypertension ( n=65 ) or without hypertension ( n=11 ). (13 words, 99 characters)

Note that some style guides require spaces around mathematical operators. Be sure to check the style guide of the journal or other agency to ensure you use the correct format.

7.  Remove “of”

The preposition of is often overused in formal writing. With some minor rephrasing, you can remove this proposition to shorten the text.

Original: The results showed higher levels of enzymes in the livers of mice. (12 words, 66 characters)

Revised: The results showed higher enzyme levels in mouse livers. (9 words, 56 characters)

Be careful that making this type of revision does not create noun strings , which are complex phrases that are difficult for readers to digest.

8.  Pluralise

In some cases, you can transform the singular form of a word into the plural form to reduce the word count. For example, you can use mice instead of a mouse , or students instead of a student .

Original: A patient with high cholesterol may also have hypertension.

Revised: Patients with high cholesterol may also have hypertension.

9.  Cut repetitions

Carefully reading through your text to cut out repetitions—text or content—is an easy way to quickly reduce your word count. This process is often more time-consuming than some of the other tricks. But it can also lead to more significant cuts than a word here and there.

Keep in mind that your brain may have a hard time recognizing repetitions in your writing. To make this process easier, you might try reading your document backward, sentence by sentence. This will help your mind more clearly see where there might be repetitions in your writing.  

10. Remove unnecessary content

One of the most difficult parts of editing your own writing is deleting text. You might feel attached to the way you worded something or to including a particular concept in your writing. But every word should do important work in your writing.

Carefully read your draft and think critically about each piece of information you include. Delete anything that is not critical to keep. If you find that you still have trouble identifying unnecessary content, reach out to a professional editor or trusted colleague for help. They have a fresh pair of eyes and an unbiased view that can help you find content that can be deleted.

Want to learn other ways to reduce word count? Check out the first post 10 Tricks to Reduce Your Word Count in Academic Writing .

Want cheat sheets to help you reduce your word count? Get access to our free writing toolkit!

Crystal is an editor, educator, coach, and speaker who helps scientists and clinicians communicate with clear, concise, and compelling writing. You can follow her on LinkedIn .

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34 Ways to Make Extra Money

17 Min Read | Mar 22, 2024

Knowing if you need some extra cash in your pocket is pretty easy. All you have to do is look in your wallet. If a single fly buzzes out like in the old cartoons, you know it’s time. The not-so-easy part? Figuring out  how  to make extra money.

These days it seems like everyone is working some kind of  side gig , renting things out, or selling unwanted stuff to  make extra cash —which is awesome. But how did they find out all those ways to make money? Well, they probably stumbled across this list of 34 ways you can make extra money. Or you know, another list somewhere—that’s totally possible too.

Either way, it’s time to put your money goals into action and earn some extra cash at home, online or on the side. Oh, and let’s be clear, these are all  legit  ways to make money—nothing shady or too good to be true here.

Now let’s get to work!

How to Make Extra Money Online or From Home Ways to Make Money on the Side How to Make Extra Money by Selling or Renting Don’t Forget This Way to Earn Extra Money

How to Make Extra Money Online or From Home

1. tutor online..

If you think being a tutor means you made straight A’s through high school and college, think again. Online tutoring companies like  Tutor.com ,  TutorMe  and  Studypool  hire tutors to share their knowledge with students on a wide group of topics—so you don’t have to know everything about everything!

Just be careful when figuring out which tutoring gig to take. Some users on these on-demand tutoring sites are really just looking for someone to write their essay or do their homework for them (aka cheat). Be smart when sifting through the postings.

2. Become a user experience tester.

Every business hopes their website gives great information, hits their goals, and—oh yeah—makes money. But if something isn’t working, the business needs to know  why , and a lot of them call on user experience testers to give feedback.

Enter you. Are you good at knowing if a website is user-friendly just by spending a few minutes scanning the web page? Companies like  UserTesting  or  TryMyUI  will pay you for your feedback. Most of them boast that you’ll get $10 for a test and up to $120 for live conversations! 1

3. Take surveys.

Look into survey sites like  MyPoints  or  Survey Junkie  where you’ll get paid just for taking surveys and giving your opinion. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right? Just remember, these sites are looking for really specific things when they pick people. So you might not qualify for every survey you come across.

Plus , you’ll have to finish a certain number of surveys before you can cash out your points. It’s not a get-rich-quick plan by any means, but that extra cash can still add up over time. If you’re the patient and persistent type, give it a shot.

4. Get cash back from apps.

There are plenty of  mobile apps  out there that can show you how to make extra money just by doing simple things. I’m talking really, really easy here—like grabbing-your-phone-and-scanning-your-receipt easy. Check out mobile apps like  Ibotta ,  Rakuten ,  Shopkick ,  Receipt Hog  and  Dosh  to score some extra cash without too much work on your part.

5. Teach English.

It’s kind of like going the tutoring route, except you’re teaching English with a company like  VIPKid  (a big favorite of fans in our  Ramsey Baby Steps Community on Facebook ).

Now, if the word  teach  makes you a little nervous thinking of the stacks and stacks of grading and paperwork coming your way, don’t worry. They’ll handle all the lesson plans and grading for you. But you  do  need a four-year degree (in any field) and two years of experience in the world of teaching, tutoring or coaching. If you’re qualified, this one’s a win-win!

6. Get paid for your creative skills.

If you’ve got creative skills but just haven’t connected with someone who needs your awesome work, why not freelance in your spare time with  Fiverr ? The site connects freelancers specializing in writing, editing, graphic design and voice-over work to clients needing those creative minds in their corner.

Want to earn extra cash but don't know where to start? Take this quiz to find the best side hustle options!

You’ll create a profile (almost like a cross between an online portfolio and a resumé) that potential employers can scan to check out your experience, rates and specialties. Get ready to make extra cash by letting your creativity flow!

7. Offer your services as a virtual assistant.

If you’re organized, love a good challenge, and want to  work from home , becoming a virtual assistant may be the perfect opportunity for you! Plus, who doesn’t love a little variety in their workday? And you get to help business owners create a better balance between their work and home lives. Check out sites like  Upwork  and  Zirtual  to find opportunities in this field.

8. Become an influencer.

If you have a large following on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, or even your blog, you might consider becoming an influencer. Then you can get paid for your posts!

Whether it’s fashion, cookware or home décor, you can become a go-to resource for businesses to get even more exposure on the internet. Just reach out to brands you love and let them know you’d like to work together! And if you’re open to affiliate marketing and sponsored content, check out  ShareASale  and  Amazon Associates  too.

9. Become a social media manager.

Okay, what if you love social media but don’t love showing off your own face? Well, you can help other companies boost their social media presence.

Plenty of companies use these platforms for free marketing and as a way to stay connected to their customers (or future customers) or build a following. But it can be a huge task for smaller companies to keep up with all that. Which is where you come in. If you have a knack for creativity, love connecting with others, and have a knowledge of different social media channels—this might be right up your alley!

Ways to Make Money on the Side

10. get paid for your photos..

Do you have photos of gorgeous sunsets and perfectly staged lattes cluttering up your camera roll? You can make extra money for those.  Foap  pays up to $10 for a photo (some can fetch more for special “missions”) though they’ll take 50% of your sale. 2

Keep in mind, there’s no guarantee that people will buy your photos. But even if you only sell a few, that’s some easy money for something you’re already doing: snapping pics of all your random life moments.

11. Drive for Uber or Lyft.

If you’re strapped for cash but want to work on your own schedule, think about becoming a driver for  Uber  or  Lyft . You can drive as much (or as little) as you want and set your own schedule. Plus, you get the added bonus of meeting new people and having interesting conversations along the way.

Of course, the amount of money you make depends on your location and how often you cart people around. So if you’ve got a free Saturday every now and then, you might want to spend it as a glorified taxi driver exploring your city  and  getting paid for it.

12. Become a food delivery driver.

If you love driving but you’re not a fan of small talk, look into delivering food with Uber Eats , DoorDash , Grubhub  or  Postmates . This is a great way to make extra money in your free time—while also knocking out audiobooks or binging your favorite podcast.

13. Join a focus group.

Love sharing your opinion? Why not get paid for it? Check to see if there’s a local  focus group  in your area or online. You could earn cash just for doing taste tests or trying out different products. Just make sure you fit the type of things they’re looking for before applying.

14. Deliver groceries.

If you love the thrill of shopping but don’t want to spend your own money, have I got an opportunity for you. With  Shipt , you get paid to shop and  deliver groceries  to clients. And Shipt says their shoppers make up to $22 an hour! 3  That’s $22 an hour you’ll get paid—for shopping! Instacart is another great option to look into.

15. Take up babysitting.

Teenagers usually have the corner market on babysitting. But there’s no reason you can’t get in on it too. And truth be told, it might be easier than you think to land a gig. Most parents will jump at the chance to have a date night. But sometimes, finding a sitter they trust is tricky.

Let people in your friend group, neighborhood Facebook group, church and workplace know you’d be happy to watch their kiddos in your spare time (for pay, of course). Or you can always sign up for a service like  Sittercity  or  Care.com  to help you land some babysitting jobs. You set your schedule and the rate, and you can easily charge $15–25 an hour depending on the location and family.

16. Start pet sitting.

Are you an animal lover at heart? How about making some extra money just by taking a dog for a walk or boarding a cat for the weekend? You can advertise your own pet-sitting business on social media, put up signs in your neighborhood, or use a website like  Rover or Wag . They let you set your schedule and set up your own fees for services. If you do use Rover, keep in mind that they take a cut of what you make. 4 But they can also help you find jobs you wouldn’t know about otherwise, so it’s worth checking out!

17. Advertise on your car.

The app  Wrapify  will pay you to drive with a business advertisement wrapped around your car. Once the car is wrapped, you really don’t have to do anything except drive around town like you normally do.

It sounds strange, but it’s actually pretty rewarding: The more you drive, the more you’ll earn. Wrapify says the average person who does a full wrap on their car makes about $264–452 a month. 5  

18. Do tasks for people.

If you’re trying to figure out how to make money on the side with quick fix-it jobs or running errands,  TaskRabbit  might be your best bet. You can do all kinds of things from yardwork to putting together furniture. (Everyone shopping at Ikea will become your new BFF.) This is the perfect way to make extra money if you like to tinker with things.

19. Deliver for Amazon.

Everyone loves getting packages, so why not spend a few nights a week driving around town bringing people joy? Sign up to deliver packages with  Amazon Flex  and set your schedule for as much or as little as you want to work.

20. Turn your commute into cash.

Between commuting to work and driving the kids to soccer practice, most of us spend plenty of time in our cars. Here’s another way to make extra money while you’re riding around: With  Roadie , you can get paid just for driving a package (or even a pet!) from point A to point B along your route.

And check your area for apps that reward you for carpooling around town. Here in Nashville, we have  Hytch , which partners with some companies to reward you for carpooling with one or more people. You’re already driving to work each day, so why not get paid for it too?

21. Become a photographer.

If you have a nice camera and a good eye, snapping a few photos might be just the thing you need to figure out how to make extra money. You can go as all in with this as you want. Maybe you only shoot family sessions and birthday-cake smashes on the weekends. Or maybe you decide to start a business as a wedding photographer! The choice really is up to you.

Check the going rates for sessions in your area so you don’t price yourself too high—or too low. And be sure to include the time you’ll spend editing photos and talking to clients when you’re setting your own rates. Even if you charge just $75–100 for a one-hour session, that can add up pretty fast!

22. Take up car washing/detailing.

If you’re a major car fanatic, this might be a natural fit for you! It’s amazing how many people will pay someone else to do something they don’t want to do. You can even take the business on the road and meet your customers wherever they are! You might need to buy a few things to get your business rolling, so keep that in mind as you set up shop.

23. Become a financial coach.

Are you passionate about helping people take control of their money? Same. You can make some extra cash through financial coaching in your spare time—no special skills required. Our  Financial Coach Master Training  will walk you through all the tools you need to help bring people hope as they figure out this whole money thing.

24. Start a blog.

The great thing about a blog is you can focus on pretty much any topic out there. If you’re a great cook, do a food blog. If you’re passionate about fitness and nutrition, start a health blog.

Just be prepared for the slow game with this one. You can  definitely  make good money with a blog . . . but you can also end up making next to nothing.

Using things like  Google AdSense  or affiliate marketing (where you get a cut when someone buys a product you promote) and even connecting with the right people can really impact your readership and the cash you make.

25. Start your own (online) business.

If you’re just looking for a quick way to make cash on nights or weekends for a short stretch of time, then maybe this one isn’t for you. But if you’re ready to turn your dream of  starting your own business  into a reality, there’s never been a better time to do it! Online platforms like  Etsy ,  Amazon FBA  and  Big Cartel  have made it easier than ever.

Here's A Tip

Want to get a head start on figuring out which of these side hustles is the best option for you? Take my free side hustle quiz . It will give you a personalized list of side hustles that make sense for your skills and schedule. 

How to Make Extra Money by Selling or Renting

26. rent your home..

If you have a spare bedroom or can stay with your in-laws or friends on short notice, you might want to consider  renting out your home  on  Airbnb . Let’s say you decide to rent out your upstairs guest room and bathroom to two guests. Here in the Nashville area, you’d have a monthly earning potential of over $2,000. 6  

But what about the risks of opening up your home to strangers? Airbnb offers accidental damage coverage on your home—up to a million dollars of coverage, to be exact. They also offer host protection insurance just in case a guest gets hurt while staying on your property. So kick that worry to the curb!

Even though Airbnb doesn’t screen each individual guest, they do let hosts and guests rate each other. That way you can feel more at ease about who you’re letting into your house.

27. Rent out your car.

If you have a vehicle that just sits in your garage for long stretches of time, you might find a car rental service like Turo is one of the easiest ways to make some extra money. On average, you could make a jaw-dropping $10,516 a year—just by renting out your ride! 7

And don’t worry: The company covers your vehicle with $750,000 of liability insurance and offers theft and damage coverage. 8  So let your renter hit the open road while you sit back and count that extra cash.

28. Sell old phones and electronics.

Is it just me, or does it seem like new electronic gadgets come out every day? And when you’re ready to upgrade (paid for in cash, of course), what do you do with the old stuff you don’t use anymore? Well, you could just shove it in that random junk corner (where everything goes)  or  you can sell it! Sites like  Swappa  and  Gazelle will take those old phones, gaming systems and laptops off your hands.

29. Get rid of old movies and music.

Channel your inner minimalist and get rid of all those dusty DVDs or CDs on your entertainment stand or in boxes under your bed. I mean, when was the last time you popped in your DVD of the 2014 version of Godzilla ? Turn it into cash, and make the whole process easier with  Decluttr .

You can scan the bar codes of items you don’t want anymore and see how much money the company will give you. Instead of waiting around for a buyer to  maybe  purchase your item, Decluttr will buy your stuff outright.

30. Rent out your baby gear.

Do you have baby items taking up space in your garage but you aren’t ready to part with them yet? After all, you might want another kid . . . maybe  one  day. Instead of selling that high chair or baby jumper, why not  rent  them? I’m. Not. Kidding. On websites like  BabyQuip , their Quality Providers earn around $1,000 a month renting out things like cribs and strollers. 9   Seriously.

31. Sell unwanted stuff.

Sift through your hall closet, attic and garage for everything you don’t use anymore. What can you live without? Of course, you can always sell items on tried-and-true sites like  eBay  and  Craigslist . But don’t forget about apps like  OfferUp ,  VarageSale ,  Poshmark ,  thredUP  and  Facebook Marketplace  that make it even easier to make extra money by selling secondhand stuff.

32. Sell your kids’ clothes.

Let’s be honest—those little people grow out of their clothes faster than you can keep up. When it’s time to get rid of the clothes they’ve outgrown, you have a few options: put them out in your standard yard sale, sell them to a consignment store, post them on social media, or use the good ole internet. Apps like  Kidizen  are specially designed for selling your kids’ gently used threads. And of course, you can use other sites I already mentioned (like Poshmark, thredUP, Craigslist and eBay) to sell children’s clothing too.

33. Sell those unused gift cards.

Aunt Betsy gave you a PacSun gift card for Christmas, and you’ve never even set foot in the place. Instead of letting it collect dust, sell it! Websites like  Raise  let you sell your unwanted gift cards and make a little kickback off of them. After all, every gift card deserves a loving home, doesn’t it? And then you can put that extra money to good use. Thanks after all, Aunt Betsy!

34. Rent your belongings.

Okay, I already talked about renting out your home, car and even your old baby items. What else is there? Oh, only  everything else . The popular renting company  Fat Llama  (quite the name—I know) lets you rent out nearly  any  of your belongings!

Some of the most in-demand items are camera equipment, projectors, and lighting and audio equipment. So if you’re a photographer, videographer or just a tech-gadget lover, you could make a good amount of cash here. But the possibilities don’t end there. You can even rent out your lawn mower . . . or tractor . . . or scooter. Who knew? Well, now you do!

Don’t Forget This Way to Earn Extra Money!

Now that you know how to make extra money, try a few of these (or all 34 if you’re an overachiever) and see just how much you can drum up.

And when you start bringing home that extra money, make sure you’re using it to its max potential—by budgeting! Our free budgeting tool  EveryDollar  will help you do just that. You're going to be working hard to make all that extra money. And budgeting will make sure it works hard for you too.

Did you find this article helpful? Share it!

About the author

George Kamel

George Kamel is the #1 national bestselling author of Breaking Free From Broke, a personal finance expert, a certified financial coach through Ramsey Financial Coach Master Training, and a nationally syndicated columnist. He’s the host of the George Kamel YouTube channel and co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour and The Ramsey Show, the second-largest talk radio show in America. George has served at Ramsey Solutions since 2013, where he speaks, writes and teaches on personal finance, investing, budgeting, insurance and how to avoid consumer traps. He’s been featured on Fox News, Fox Business and The Iced Coffee Hour, among others. Learn More.

30 Ways to Save Up $1,000 Fast

Need help saving up your starter emergency fund? From selling your stuff to picking up a side hustle, here are 30 ways to make $1,000 this month!

How to Save Money Each Month

Are you ready to learn how to save money each month—on the big things, the little things, and the in-between things? If your answer is "heck yes" (or even "sure"), here are 14 tips for you.

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APA Style for beginners

Then check out some frequently asked questions:

What is APA Style?

Why use apa style in high school, how do i get started with apa style, what apa style products are available, your help wanted.

APA Style is the most common writing style used in college and career. Its purpose is to promote excellence in communication by helping writers create clear, precise, and inclusive sentences with a straightforward scholarly tone. It addresses areas of writing such as how to

• format a paper so it looks professional;
• credit other people’s words and ideas via citations and references to avoid plagiarism; and
• describe other people with dignity and respect using inclusive, bias-free language.

APA Style is primarily used in the behavioral sciences, which are subjects related to people, such as psychology, education, and nursing. It is also used by students in business, engineering, communications, and other classes. Students use it to write academic essays and research papers in high school and college, and professionals use it to conduct, report, and publish scientific research .

High school students need to learn how to write concisely, precisely, and inclusively so that they are best prepared for college and career. Here are some of the reasons educators have chosen APA Style:

• APA Style is the style of choice for the AP Capstone program, the fastest growing AP course, which requires students to conduct and report independent research.
• APA Style helps students craft written responses on standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT because it teaches students to use a direct and professional tone while avoiding redundancy and flowery language.
• Most college students choose majors that require APA Style or allow APA Style as an option. It can be overwhelming to learn APA Style all at once during the first years of college; starting APA Style instruction in high school sets students up for success.

High school students may also be interested in the TOPSS Competition for High School Psychology Students , an annual competition from the APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools for high school students to create a short video demonstrating how a psychological topic has the potential to benefit their school and/or local community and improve people’s lives.

Most people are first introduced to APA Style by reading works written in APA Style. The following guides will help with that:

Many people also write research papers or academic essays in APA Style. The following resources will help with that:

Instructors will also benefit from using the following APA Style resources:

In addition to all the free resources on this website, APA publishes several products that provide comprehensive information about APA Style:

The APA Style team is interested in developing additional resources appropriate for a beginner audience. If you have resources you would like to share, or feedback on this topic, please contact the APA Style team . 

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How to Restate a Thesis: an Overview of Useful Methods

The thesis is a significant part of any academic project. It serves as a compass in the research process. Moreover, it helps the readers to get interested in the work and tune into the narration. Here we'd like to explain the essence of its paraphrasing and present a few effective strategies and tips on how to restate the thesis in a conclusion successfully.

Restating a Thesis: a Short Review

It may seem surprising but to reformulate a thesis in the course of the project is crucial. As a rule, it helps to reinforce the main idea and provides more efficient communication with the audience.

How to Define a Restated Thesis?

It is not only the synonymous version of the original statement but a restructured and reworded one. Being restated, a thesis must convey the same concept, letting people watch it from different angles. Besides, the author sounds more convincing and gripping when removing repeated expressions.

The following situation is rather popular among students when preparing an essay or a research project.

A tutor asks, 'How do you restate a thesis?'

'Am I supposed to?', he answers.

To understand the sense of restating it is necessary to learn its goals.

What are the Purposes of Restating the Thesis?

Generally, the process of reformulating has a few purposes. They are

• to make the speech more smooth and keep the audience interested throughout the whole narration;
• to accentuate different nuances of the thesis;
• to organize the writing coherently, emphasizing the stem of the work (the idea, hypothesis, or whatnot, mentioned in the thesis).

A Brief Guide on How to Restate The Thesis

This is a compact step-by-step guide for effective restating.

• Realize the importance of the core idea and its aim.
• Select appropriate synonyms and think of new sentence structures, thus staying logical and consistent.
• Highlight different angles of the stated idea.
• Use transition phrases when introducing the reformulated issue ( furthermore, additionally, moreover, etc. ). 
• Proofread the text to ensure that it is fluent and clear, and restated issues strengthen the argumentation.

TOP Strategies to Restate the Thesis Effectively

'How do I restate my thesis?' This is the first question the student may ask when learning about the necessity of changes. It is not a desperately terrifying matter, there are some traditional strategies to get a successful result.

• Operate with synonyms. Using different words of the same notion, you demonstrate the richness of the vocabulary and get rid of speech monotony.

• Intermix the sentences. When you are modifying the sentence structure, you uncover a new perspective on the issue and arouse the audience's attention. 

• Use a focus transition. By restatement of this type, you are accentuating a specific aspect of the thesis and showing an in-depth investigation of the main issue.

• Perform a tense shift. If you are changing the verb tense from present to past, it testifies to the development of the argumentation. 

• Play with active and passive voices. The active voice usage makes the sentence easier to understand, and the passive – creates an atmosphere of objectivity and neutrality. The active voice emphasizes the importance of the doer, thus the passive one highlights the significance of the affected matter.

How to Restate Your Thesis: Examples

In this section, we offer some more practical restatements based on the recommendations and strategies above.

We hope that both theoretical data and practical examples of the issue will be helpful in realizing the advantages of paraphrasing. Now you know how to restate the thesis statement successfully and what methods to use in this field. Just master the skill by creating different versions of one sentence, keeping the sense and logic.

If you still find any difficulty in this process, try Aithor , a professional AI-powered text-generator. It may be used for rewriting, rephrasing, creating fool projects, or separate passages. However, do not forget to practice on your own, as well.

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What Is Self-Plagiarism & How To Avoid It

Have you ever thought about whether using your own work again could be seen as copying? It might seem strange, but self-plagiarism is a real issue in school and work writing. Let's look at what this means and learn how to avoid self-plagiarism so your work stays original and ethical. What is self-plagiarism? Self-plagiarism, also called auto-plagiarism or duplicate plagiarism, happens when a writer uses parts of their old work without saying where it came from. This isn't just about copying w ...

Can Plagiarism Be Detected on PDF?

Plagiarism has been a challenge for a long time in writing. It's easy to find information online, which might make some people use it without saying where it came from. But plagiarism isn't just taking someone else's words. Sometimes, we might do it by accident or even use our own old work without mentioning it. When people plagiarize, they can get into serious trouble. They might lose others' trust or even face legal problems. Luckily, we now have tools to detect plagiarism. But what about PDF ...