If you’re writing to a deadline and a word count, and you find yourself consistently going over the limit, it’s time to figure out how to make your writing cleaner and tighter, and therefore more impressive. I recently was asked how to cut 120 words off a paper so that it was only 700 words.700 words? 700 words?? What madness is this? But it’s important to stick to word counts so that you gain a good reputation and better writing skills.
First of all, you should do your best to tighten up the paper to meet any requirements. It’s unlikely that they’ll physically count the words, but 100 words will be noticeable if everyone else sticks to the limit.
My advice is to print out your work double-spaced with .75 margins (margin setup found in Page Setup, or in MacWord Toolbox) before you do anything. Get out a few different colored pens – blue, red, green, anything but black. It needs to stand out.
Introductions = Bad
Most of us are taught all through public education that at the beginning of every paper lies a fantastic and wordy introduction paragraph. This is simply not true. If your teacher or whoever you’re writing for requires an introduction, then make it short and sweet, then get out of there asap.
If you’re writing a creative piece or an article, why are you introducing things? No one likes introductions in a book because they are generally infodumps and not very compelling. Both fiction and news articles begin better with a punch or a hook; the reader needs to feel involved in the story in order to continue. Don’t follow your whim to laundry list everything and infodump it at the top – readers won’t stay with you long enough to read what you really wanted to say.
Passive v Active Voice
Then go through and mark every use of the passive voice, and do your best to make it active if it’ll shorten the word count.You might need to reword the entire sentence, and you’ll be surprised at how much better it will make you sound.
Active is always better than passive.
Prepositional Phrases
Take a new color (of pen) and put parentheses (around every use) (of a prepositional phrase), then go back through and see if you really need all (of them) and if you can make the sentence more active. Turn those phrases (into adjectives) or cut them altogether – you really don’t need all (of them).
If it isn’t essential (to the noun), cut it. If you think it should be there, look (at it) again and then cut it. If you need to look (at it) a third time, do so and then cut it. It’s rather shocking how much it will cut your total word count.
Reread for content and see if you can reword any sentences. Really do the prepositional phrases thing – it helps a ton. I didn’t even write this portion preparing it for the prepositional phrase cut, but look how well it worked out.
Repetition
If you find a phrase like, “The armed gunman,” cut armed, as it’s obvious that the gunman was armed with a gun.
If you find a phrase like, “Past history shows that…,” cut past, as anything that is history is in the past.
Cutting these singular words can add up. If you find that you’ve written a passage later in your piece that seems really similar to one you wrote near the beginning–look at it closely. It’s possible you’ve essentially repeated yourself. Thus, you can eliminate one of the passages or combine them into one, smaller passage.
Contractions
Contractions are a tricky point because it’s hard to know when it’s appropriate to use them. In a formal paper, do not use them. In creative writing, you should generally feel free to do so. If you’re writing a term paper, essay for school, or anything that you will receive credit for, do NOT use contractions! But in fiction, they’re fine because you’re usually not fighting a word count.
Eliminate Anything that Doesn’t Specifically Relate to Your Main Point
If you’re forced with cutting your word count down by a lot, scour your piece for any passages that don’t absolutely or necessarily relate to your main argument or subject.
You may have written some stuff about how the successful coffee shop’s owner is from such and such and he enjoys such and such in his free time, but if the piece is about the shop’s success itself, the owner’s hometown and hobbies can be left out if you need to use fewer words.
I think that’s about it. Leave tips if you have more. Happy writing!
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