Hi, I'm Jillian from the Center for Academic Communication and this is Clear Consize Rating. We'll look at strategies for editing your rating to eliminate repetition, excess wordiness, and words phrases and structures that aren't helping your rating to be easily read and understood. In order to be a concise writer, you need to get into the habit of interrogating every word you write to make sure it's valuable and carries meaning. The writers choose to edit as they write and others prefer to get all their thoughts down first and then edit more heavily at the end of the process, as long as you budget your time accordingly, either method or a combination of the two can work well. So how can you make your rating more clear? First, edit to eliminate any words phrases or information that is repetitive or redundant. For example, a surprise is by definition unexpected. There's no such thing as an expected surprise, so to say that one is unexpected is unnecessary. Also be careful to avoid using multiple synonyms when just one word will do. For example, various myriad and different or ways methods, techniques, and strategies. These all mean the same thing, so just use one. It can be tempting to add extra adjectives, adverbs, or nouns in the hope of being more specific or descriptive, but this isn't necessary if you're not writing poetry. Second, are there any back-to-back sentences with subjects that are repeated? Can this be avoided by combining the sentences? In any sample sentences, I've saved six words by eliminating one version of the subject and then smoothing out the sentence. Third, is there anywhere you've included extra description that should be obvious to your reader and could be omitted? Do not define terms that an educated reader would already be familiar with, and avoid using the word, obviously, to introduce content. It's this gives the impression that you think your readers are unintelligent and you're talking down to them. Academic grading should illuminate and inform, non-state the obvious. Next, you can also sometimes reorganize the sentence to eliminate a relative clause or a prepositional phrase that is overly wordy. Instead of using the 19 words in this example, could you revise to use adjectives or other wording instead? See, I've removed a relative clause that was conducted and two prepositional phrases of the cats and in the area, reducing the total word count by over half without losing any of the original meaning. There are also some phrases and words that we've grown accustomed to seeing in different types of writing or to using what we talk that don't add any value to academic writing. Try to steer clear of extra qualifying or intensifying words like really totally very and so. Also be aware of unnecessarily wordy phrases like due to the fact that, and in today's society, anomitalizations like come to the conclusion. If you can use a single strong verb like conclude, this is usually the clearest and most concise choice. Finally, there are a few grammatical structures that can make you writing more verbose than it needs to be. Look for pass-a-boy sentences that use the verb to be with a pass-participal. Can you change any of these to the active voice? Also, try not to begin sentences with empty or dummy subjects like it is, this is, and so on whenever possible. Occasionally they're necessary, but more often than not, they can be revised or removed. If you need a more thorough review of voice or empty subjects, check out our resources on active and passive voice and strong sentences. Okay, that concludes clear concise writing. We've looked at strategies for eliminating overly complicated and awkward structures and excess wordiness. Writing in-sicely will help you to express your ideas with impact and precision. Thanks for watching. To learn more tips and tricks to help improve your academic communication skills, visit the University of Victoria Center for Academic Communication website for workshops and other resources. You can also book an appointment with one of our tutors by clicking the link in the description below. Good luck, and see you soon.