Conciseness: Concise Writing, Wordy Phrases, Redundancy & Précis

For beginners · ages 5–8

Saying it in fewer words

A concise sentence gives the same meaning in fewer words. It keeps every word the reader needs.

Here is a trick to use all through this chapter: cover a word, read the sentence again, and ask whether anything is lost. If nothing is lost, cut it. Section 7 gives this trick its name, the Cut Test.

Here is one short message, made concise step by step.

"Hello Dadi, I am writing this message to tell you that I will come to your house, which is in Pune, on the day that is Sunday, at the time of ten o'clock in the morning."

The concise message: "Hello Dadi, I will come to your house on Sunday at 10 a.m."

Notice two things. First, every fact stayed: who, where, which day, what time. Only the wasted words went. Second, the greeting stayed too. It is not a fact, but it tells Dadi the message is friendly, and that is a job. A word that does a job is never wasted.

Picture a sentence as a train of little carriages, one word in each. Some carriages carry passengers: the facts, the please, the reason. Some carriages are empty. Unhook the empty ones and the train runs faster. Unhook a carriage with a passenger and someone is left behind on the platform.

The idea in this section has a grown-up name: conciseness. Writers call extra words wordiness, and a sentence cut too far telegraphic, after the old telegrams that charged by the word. In Practice you will meet long phrases with short twins, like "due to the fact that" and "because". The same question will decide them: is anything lost?

Here is a hard one, and it is fine to find it hard. The same words can be wasted in one sentence and needed in another. "Sit on the chair that is red." If there is only one chair, "that is red" adds nothing: "Sit on the chair." But if there are three chairs, red, blue and green, then "red" tells you which one. Now it carries a fact: "Sit on the red chair." "Come home at six today." If you always come home at six, "today" adds nothing. But if you usually come home at five, "today" tells the reader something new. Now it stays. So you cannot decide by looking at a word on its own. You have to ask what the reader already knows. A word the reader needs is kept, however small. A word that tells the reader nothing new can go, however long.

Did you know that people once paid for every word they sent? Before phones were everywhere, families sent telegrams: short messages sent by wire and printed out at the other end. Each word cost money, so people learned to write as little as they could. "Arriving Monday. Love, Nani." said everything in four words. India sent its last telegram in 2013. But the habit it taught is still useful: count your words, and make every one of them carry something. A telegram cut too far could cause trouble, though. "Arriving Monday" is clear; "Arriving" alone would leave the family waiting at the station every day.

Concise does not mean rude. Please, thank you and sorry are short, and they carry something the reader needs. Some kinds of writing are meant to be long: a bedtime story, a poem, a speech. They use extra words on purpose, for sound and feeling. This chapter is about words that do no job at all. A longer sentence is not a grammar mistake. "The cat that was black sat" is correct English. It is only longer than it needs to be.

1. Ask of every sentence: does it say everything the reader needs?
2. Then ask: are there words that tell the reader nothing new?
3. Cover a word and read again. If nothing is lost, cut it.
4. Keep every fact: who, what, where, when.
5. Keep please, thank you and sorry.
6. Keep the reason when the reader needs it: the baby is asleep.
7. Swap a long way of saying something for a short one when the meaning stays: a cloth bag.
8. If a sentence reads like a telegram, put a needed word back.
9. Read your sentence as the reader, who knows only what you wrote.

• Riya carries a bag that is made of cloth.
• Please close the door gently; the baby is asleep.
• Arjun has a pen that is blue in colour.
• The bus to the zoo leaves at nine today.
• Emma walked to school on foot.
• Yuki fed the fish that belong to Ana.

• Kabir, the match starts at four, not five.
• Meera ate a mango that was ripe and sweet.
• Could you please help me lift this box?
• Jack whispered quietly to Tom.
• The library is shut on Monday because of the holiday.
• Kofi has a hat that is made of straw.

Say it once

One idea, one saying. When a sentence says the same idea twice, keep one.

To check, cover the second saying and read again. If nothing is lost, cut it. That is the Cut Test you will meet by name in Section 7.

Here is one short report where the same idea kept coming back.

"On sports day it was hot and the weather was warm and sunny. Ananya won the race and came first. The crowd cheered and clapped and cheered."

The report, said once: "On sports day it was hot and sunny. Ananya won the race. The crowd cheered and clapped."

Notice two things. First, and joined some new ideas and some repeats. The word and is not the clue; what comes after it is. Second, the report is now shorter, but no fact went missing: the heat, the sun, the win and the crowd are all still there.

Picture a sentence as a necklace of beads, one bead for each idea. A red bead for rain, a blue bead for late. When you see two red beads side by side, the necklace does not get more red; it only gets longer. Slide one bead off. Keep one of each colour. A necklace with one bead of each colour shows every colour.

The grown-up word for saying the same idea twice is redundancy, from an old word meaning overflowing. In the next section you will meet a smaller kind: two describing words side by side that mean the same thing, like big, huge. In Practice you will find repeats that stretch across a whole paragraph. The test stays the same: is anything lost?

Here is a hard one, and it is fine to find it hard. Two words can look like a repeat and still carry two ideas. "The road was wet and slippery." Wet tells you there is water. Slippery tells you it is hard to walk on. A road can be wet without being slippery. Two ideas; keep both. "The road was wet and damp." Damp is a little wet. Once you know the road is wet, damp tells you nothing new. One idea; cut one. "Jack was tired and hungry." Tired and hungry are different feelings. Keep both. "Jack was tired and sleepy." Close, but many readers hear one idea here. Tired says it. So you cannot decide by the look of the words. Ask: if I know the first word, does the second one tell me anything new? If it does, it is a new idea. If it does not, it is a repeat.

Did you know that some of the best-loved lines in English repeat on purpose? "Twinkle, twinkle, little star." "Row, row, row your boat." In a song or a rhyme, the repeat is the music. It helps you remember the words and gives them a beat. So a repeat is not always a mistake. In a rhyme, a warning or a cheer ("Go, go, go!"), it does a job. In a sentence that gives news or facts, it does not, and one saying is enough. Speakers use the trick too: a leader may repeat a line three times so a crowd remembers it. That is a job. A repeat in a school report or a message rarely has one.

A repeat can be right when it does a job: a warning ("Never, never touch a hot iron"), a cheer, a song or a strong feeling. Saying an idea twice is not a grammar mistake. "The shop was shut and it was not open" is correct English. It is only longer than it needs to be. Some pairs that look like repeats are fixed phrases, like safe and sound. You will meet those in the next section.

1. Read each sentence and count its ideas.
2. Look after and, and at the end of the sentence, for an idea you have already met.
3. Ask of the second saying: does it tell me anything new?
4. If not, cut it and keep the clearer saying.
5. Watch for a no that repeats a yes: cold and not warm.
6. Keep a new fact, even when it looks close: wet and slippery.
7. Keep a repeat that warns, cheers or sings.
8. After cutting, check that every fact is still there.
9. Read the finished sentence aloud: does each idea come once?

• Priya was happy and felt glad about the result.
• The shop in the lane was shut and it was not open.
• Kiran was late and missed the bus.
• The water in the pool was cold and not warm.
• Never, never touch a hot iron.
• Mateo won the race and came first.

• The road to Nani's village was wet and slippery.
• Dev finished the puzzle and completed it.
• The glass on the table was empty and had nothing in it.
• Olivia shouted loudly and yelled for help.
• Go, go, go! Harry is nearly at the line!
• Lars was tired and hungry after the long walk.

Two words, one meaning

Two describing words side by side should each add something. If they mean the same, keep one.

To check, cover one of the two words and read again. If nothing is lost, cut it. Section 7 calls this the Cut Test.

Here is a short description with some describing words doubled up.

"Neel found a small, little puppy on a cold, freezing morning. It had soft, fluffy, brown fur and big, huge eyes."

The description, with each word adding something: "Neel found a little puppy on a freezing morning. It had soft, fluffy, brown fur and huge eyes."

Notice two things. First, where two words said the same, the stronger one stayed: freezing, not cold; huge, not big. Second, soft, fluffy and brown all stayed, three describing words in a row, because each one paints something the others do not. The number of describing words was never the problem. Doubles were.

Picture two stickers on a label. One says BIG. The other says HUGE. Peel one off and the label says the same thing. Now picture stickers that say BIG and GREY. Peel one off and the label has lost something. Only peel off a sticker when its twin is still there. Two different stickers tell you two things.

Two words with the same meaning are called synonyms, and a doubled pair like cold and chilly is one kind of redundancy. In Section 6 you will go one step further: one strong word, like huge, can do the work of "very big". In Practice you will meet pairs where a noun already carries its describing word, like a free gift. The question stays the same.

Here is a hard one, and it is fine to find it hard. Two words can sound alike and still add two meanings. "Soft, fluffy fur." Soft is how it feels under your hand. Fluffy is how it looks: puffed up and full of air. A pillow can be soft and flat. Two meanings; keep both. "Soft, smooth fur." Close, but smooth is also about touch. Many writers would keep only one. "A quick, clever answer." Quick is about time. Clever is about thinking. Keep both. "A quick, fast answer." Quick and fast are both about time. Keep one. So do not decide by how alike two words sound. Ask what each one tells you: size, colour, feel, look, time, thinking. If both words answer the same question, keep one. If they answer different questions, keep both.

Did you know that some doubled pairs are kept on purpose, and have been for a long time? "Safe and sound." Safe and sound mean nearly the same thing, but people say them together as one phrase, and the pair sounds right. "Nice and warm" works the same way: it does not mean nice plus warm, it means pleasantly warm. Storytellers also double on purpose for fun: "a teeny tiny mouse". In a story read aloud, the double is part of the sound. In a sentence that gives facts, one word is enough. A teacher reading your science answer wants each word to carry a fact.

Fixed pairs like safe and sound are kept. They work as one phrase. In stories, rhymes and read-aloud books, a doubled pair can be there for sound and fun: a teeny tiny mouse. Which word of a pair to keep is your choice. Cold or chilly are both fine; the stronger word, like huge or freezing, is often the better pick. A doubled pair is not a grammar mistake. It is only a word that adds nothing.

1. Look for two describing words side by side.
2. Ask what question each word answers: size, colour, feel, look, time?
3. If both answer the same question, keep one.
4. Keep the stronger word of the pair: huge over big, freezing over cold.
5. If each word answers a different question, keep both: big and grey.
6. Watch for tiny little and small little: tiny already says small.
7. Keep fixed pairs like safe and sound.
8. Use the space you save for a word that paints something new.
9. Read the phrase with one word covered; if the picture stays, cut it.

• At the zoo, Ishaan saw a big, huge elephant.
• The morning in Shimla was cold and chilly.
• Sana drew a big, grey elephant.
• Lucy watched a tiny little ant carry a crumb.
• The lost kitten came home safe and sound.
• Mei's grandad has a long, lengthy beard.

• Farah found a tiny little shell on the beach at Goa.
• Rohan gave a quick, clever answer.
• Our flat is small and tiny, but Ammi keeps it bright.
• Oliver was happy and joyful at the party.
• Chloe stroked the puppy's soft, fluffy fur.
• Kofi carried a large, big bag of oranges.

Return, not return back

Some verbs already carry back or again inside them. Adding the word again says it twice.

To check, cover back or again and read the sentence. If nothing is lost, cut it. That is the Cut Test, named in Section 7.

Here is a short note from a class monitor, with back and again used five times.

"Everyone, please return back your library books on Monday. Ms Das will reply back to any questions. If you were absent, come back to the library at lunch, and give back any books you borrowed. Ms Das will not repeat the rules again."

The note, with each back and again doing a job: "Everyone, please return your library books on Monday. Ms Das will reply to any questions. If you were absent, come back to the library at lunch, and give back any books you borrowed. Ms Das will not repeat the rules."

Notice that two backs stayed. Come back and give back need them. The word back was never the problem; back after a verb that already meant back was.

Picture a boomerang. When you throw it, it comes back by itself; that is what a boomerang does. Return, reply, repay and repeat are boomerang words: the coming back is built in. Come and give are ordinary balls. If you want them back, you have to say so. Throwing a boomerang back adds nothing.

Many boomerang words begin with re-, a small word part that often means back or again: return, repay, replay, rewind. Not every word starting with re- works this way, so always check the meaning of the whole word. In Practice you will meet more words that carry their partner inside them, like free gift, where a gift is already free.

Here is a hard one, and it is fine to find it hard. Sometimes again is not a repeat. It counts. "Please repeat again." Repeat means say it again, so again says the same idea a second time. Cut it: "Please repeat." "We read the poem, and then we read it again." Read on its own does not mean again. Here again tells you it was a second time. Keep it. And sometimes back is part of a different verb. "Hold back your tears." Hold alone means grip. Hold back means stop. Back changes the meaning; keep it. "Please return back the form." Return alone already means give back. Cut back. So never cut back or again by habit. Ask the same question every time: does the verb on its own already mean it? If yes, the extra word goes. If no, it stays.

Did you know that re- is a tiny word part that has been building English words for hundreds of years? It came into English from Latin, where it often meant back or again. You can still see it at work: replay (play again), rewind (wind back), refill (fill again), repay (pay back). That is why return back and repay back sound doubled to careful writers. The back is already hiding in the re-. Once you spot the re-, you can often spot the double. But check the meaning first, because some words that start with re, like read and ready, have no hidden back at all.

Return back, reply back and revert back are common in spoken English in India and elsewhere, and everyone understands them. In careful writing, and when a question asks for fewer words, the single verb is better. Again after a verb that does not mean again is fine: read it again, try again. Back after a verb that does not mean back is fine: come back, go back, give back, hold back. Not every word starting with re- means back or again. Check the meaning of the whole word.

1. When you see back or again after a verb, stop and check.
2. Ask what the verb means on its own.
3. If it already means back, cut back: return, reply, repay.
4. If it already means again, cut again: repeat.
5. If it does not, keep the word: come back, go back, give back, try again.
6. Look for re- at the start of the verb as a clue, then check the meaning.
7. Never cut back from a verb where it changes the meaning: hold back.
8. Read the sentence aloud after the cut to check nothing is lost.
9. Keep again when it counts a second time: read it again.

• Tanvi will return back the library book on Friday.
• Come back before dark, Amma called.
• Please repeat again after me, said the teacher.
• Sophie will reply back to your letter tomorrow.
• We read the poem, and then we read it again.
• Ana will repay back the money next week.

• Neel will give back the pen after the test.
• Aarav, please reply back to Nani's message tonight.
• Meher tried to hold back a laugh.
• The birds return back to the lake every winter.
• Harry, please repeat the question again.
• Yuki fell off the bike and tried again.

Little words we can drop

"Just", "really", "so" and "very" often add nothing. Drop them, unless they do a job.

Covering a word and reading again is the Cut Test. You will meet it by name in Section 7.

Here is a short message with little words scattered through it.

"Hi Kabir, I just really wanted to say the match was so good. You played very, very well. It rained a bit, so we stood under the tree. I just got home. Bring just one bat tomorrow."

The message: "Hi Kabir, I wanted to say the match was good. You played well. It rained a bit, so we stood under the tree. I just got home. Bring just one bat tomorrow."

Notice two things. First, the same little word did different jobs in different places. The first "just" did nothing; the last two meant a moment ago and only. Second, the message may now feel a little flat: good and well are plain. In the next section you will learn to swap a plain word for one strong one, like brilliant.

Picture a garden path with stepping stones. Each real word is a stone that takes you somewhere. Filler words are pebbles scattered between the stones: you step over them, and they slow you down. Sweep the pebbles away. But if a pebble is holding a stone steady, like "just" meaning only, leave it where it is.

Words like "just", "really" and "very" are called intensifiers or fillers. Speech uses them all the time, and that is normal in talk. In the next section you will swap "very" plus a plain word for one strong word: huge in place of "very big". In Practice you will meet more fillers that slip into writing, like "actually" and "basically".

Here is a hard one, and it is fine to find it hard. The same little word can do nothing in one sentence and a job in the next. "I just think it is nice." Cover "just": "I think it is nice." Nothing lost. Drop it. "There is just one seat left." Cover "just": "There is one seat left." Close, but "just" stresses that one is not many. Many writers keep it. "I just got home." Cover "just": "I got home." Now the reader does not know it was a moment ago. Keep it. "The puppy is so cute." "So" here only pushes cute a little higher. It can go. "I was tired, so I slept." "So" here means and that is why. Drop it and the reason is lost. Keep it. So never drop a little word by habit. Cover it, read again, and listen for what changed.

Did you know that "very" once meant true? The word came into English from old French, where a word like verai meant true or real. You can still hear that old meaning today: "This is the very book I wanted" means the exact book, the true one. Over hundreds of years, "very" came to mean more, and it slipped in front of so many words that it lost much of its force. That is why one "very", used once, still means something, and ten of them mean almost nothing. Writers still use the old meaning on purpose: "At that very moment, the lights went out." Here "very" means exactly, and it stays.

In speech and friendly chat, fillers are normal. "I just wanted to say thanks" sounds warm when you say it, and nobody minds. "Just" meaning only or a moment ago is not a filler. Keep it. "So" that links two ideas, meaning and that is why, is not a filler. Keep it. One "very" can do a job, as in a warning: "Careful - the pan is very hot." The trouble is a "very" before every describing word.

1. After writing, look for "just", "really", "so" and "very".
2. Cover each one and read the sentence again.
3. If nothing is lost, drop it.
4. Keep "just" when it means only or a moment ago.
5. Keep "so" when it links two ideas: and that is why.
6. Keep one "very" when a warning or a fact needs it.
7. Never put a filler before every describing word.
8. Drop two stacked fillers together: "just really", "really very".
9. Read the message aloud after the cut. If it sounds rude or flat, check whether a kept word was dropped.
10. Say what job each kept little word does: only, a moment ago, that is why, a warning.

• Kabir just really wants to go to the fair.
• Take just one laddoo each, please.
• It rained all morning, so Ananya stayed in.
• The test was really very easy.
• Careful, Tom - the pan is very hot.
• Sofia thinks the film was so good.

• Wait, Dadi just got home from the temple.
• Nikhil was really very pleased with the drawing.
• It was a very nice, very sunny, very good day in Pune.
• The queue at the canteen was really short today.
• Emma missed the bus, so Emma walked.
• Kofi just wants a quiet day.

One strong word: huge, not very big

One strong word can often replace "very" and a weak word. Here is how to check a swap.

This is the Cut Test at work: cover the pair, put in one word, and read again. If nothing is lost, the swap stays.

Here are the three checks run on a short diary entry.

"On Sunday I was very excited, because we went to the zoo. The lion was very big. Its roar was very loud. By the evening I was very tired, and my little brother was very kind and carried my bag."

The finished entry: "On Sunday I was thrilled, because we went to the zoo. The lion was huge. Its roar was deafening. By the evening I was exhausted, and my little brother was very kind and carried my bag."

Notice two things. First, four swaps took out four words, and every picture got sharper. Second, one "very" stayed. The test does not ban the word; it asks whether one word can do the job. When none can, "very" is doing honest work.

Picture two small helpers, "very" and "big", carrying one box between them and wobbling. Along comes one strong helper called "huge", who lifts the same box alone. The two small helpers can rest. But if the box says "kind", no single helper fits it, so the two small ones keep carrying it together, and that is fine.

The strong word has a grown-up name: a precise word, one that fits the meaning exactly. The swap is also your first taste of a bigger idea in this chapter: one word doing the job of two. In Practice you will do the same thing with verbs, turning "ran quickly" into "raced" and "spoke quietly" into "whispered". The same check will decide them: does the one word mean the same?

Here is a hard one, and it is fine to find it hard. Some strong words mean a little more than the pair. "Very hungry" and "starving" are close, and most people use them the same way. "Very cold" and "freezing" are close too. These swaps are fine in stories and notes. But look at these: "The soup is very warm." Is it "hot"? Not quite; hot says more. Is it "boiling"? No, far too much. There is no exact twin, so "very warm" stays, or you can simply write "warm". "Chloe is very good at chess." Is Chloe "brilliant" at chess? Maybe, but that may say more than you mean. If Chloe is good but not a champion, "very good" is the honest choice. So the check is not "find any big word". It is "find the word that says exactly what you mean". When the strong word says more than the truth, the pair is better. The shortest choice is not the winner if it tells a story that is not true.

Did you know that strong words can change their strength over time? "Enormous" comes from Latin words meaning "out of the usual pattern". "Starve" once meant simply "to die", and now "starving" mostly means "very hungry". Words grow stronger and weaker over time. Here is another surprise. English has dozens of words for "very big": huge, giant, enormous, massive, gigantic, vast. Each paints a slightly different picture. A vast desert is wide and empty; a massive rock is heavy and solid. Choosing among them is one of the quiet skills of a good writer, and it starts with dropping "very".

"Very" is not a mistake. "The film was very good" is correct English, and people say it every day. Swap it only when a strong word fits better, or when you are asked to use fewer words. Some pairs have no one-word twin: very kind, very early, very near. Keep them. Some strong words differ a little from place to place. "Knackered" means "very tired" in British speech but is informal; "exhausted" works everywhere. A strong word must not say more than the truth. If the rain was heavy but not a storm, do not call it a storm.

1. Look for "very" and the word after it.
2. Ask: is there one word that means the same? huge, tiny, exhausted, delighted.
3. Read the sentence again with the one word. Same picture? Swap it.
4. Never put "very" in front of a word that is already strong: huge, not "very huge".
5. Check the new word is not too strong or too weak: warm is not boiling.
6. Check the new word is the same kind of feeling: sad is not angry.
7. When no single word fits, keep the pair: very kind.
8. Use "very" once when it is the honest choice, not three times in a row.

• After the long walk, Aarav was very tired.
• Priya's dadi made a very big pot of dal.
• Meera is very kind to every new pupil.
• Oliver was very happy with the prize.
• Ruby saw a very huge whale.
• Lucas was very hungry after football.

• Ishaan's classroom was very small.
• Zoya was very scared of the thunder.
• Kabir's room was very clean after Diwali.
• Grace was very angry about the broken kite.
• The soup Emily made was very warm.
• Aiko's garden was very pretty in spring.

The Cut Test

One test decides whether any word stays or goes. Run it in four steps.

This is the chapter's test. Every section from here on uses it.

Here is the Cut Test run on every word in one short message that could go.

"Please could you return back my book to me at the school gate at 3? I just need it for my big, huge project."

The finished message: "Please could you return my book at the school gate at 3? I need it for my huge project."

Notice two things. First, four cuts took out five words, and the reader lost nothing. Second, the longest part, "Please could you", stayed. The test does not ask how long a word is. It asks what the word does. A long polite phrase can stay while a short "back" goes.

Picture your hand as a small cloud that floats over one word at a time. When the cloud covers "back" in "return back", the sentence still shines: cut. When it covers "please", the sentence goes cold and bossy: keep. When it covers "at the gate", the reader is lost in the fog: keep. The cloud moves on, word by word.

The Cut Test has a grown-up side. Writers call a word that adds nothing redundant, and a word that carries meaning, tone or emphasis necessary. In Practice you will run the same test on longer phrases, like "due to the fact that" and "at this point in time", and swap them for short twins. In Craft you will use it to meet a word limit without losing a main point.

Here is a hard one, and it is fine to find it hard. The same word can pass the test in one sentence and fail it in another. "Come back soon." Cover "back": "Come soon." That means come here, not come home again. Something is lost, so "back" stays. "Return back soon." Cover "back": "Return soon." Return already means come back. Nothing is lost, so "back" goes. And look at "never": "Never, never cross the road without looking." Cover the second "never". The warning still makes sense, but it feels weaker. The writer wanted the reader to feel it, so the repeat stays. "I never never saw it." Here the repeat adds no feeling; it reads like a slip. Cut one. So the test is not about the word on its own. It is about what the word does in this sentence. Cover it and listen: has a fact, a please or a feeling gone? The same letters can get different answers in different sentences.

Did you know that people once paid for every word they sent? In the days of the telegram, messages were charged by the word, so people cut hard: "Arriving Tuesday. Meet train." The reader had to guess the rest, and sometimes guessed wrong. That is the other side of the Cut Test. Cutting saves words, but a cut that loses meaning costs more than it saves. A good writer cuts until the next cut would lose something, and then stops. You still see telegram style today, in newspaper headlines like "Rain lashes city" and in text messages like "Running late, 10 min". In those places, readers expect it. In a story or a letter to your teacher, they do not.

The Cut Test is a style test, not a grammar rule. A sentence with an extra word is not wrong; it is only longer. Some words are kept for feelings, not facts. Please, thank you, and a repeat like "never, never" all pass the test because the reader needs the tone. Notes, lists and text messages often drop small words like "I" and "the". That is normal in those places, and you will meet it in section 9. If you are not sure, keep the word. A slightly long sentence is better than a confusing short one.

1. Cover one word or phrase at a time, never the whole sentence at once.
2. Read the whole sentence again, aloud if you can.
3. Ask: is a fact lost, such as who, what, where or when?
4. Ask: is a please or a thank you lost?
5. Ask: is a feeling the reader should feel lost, like the second never in "never, never"?
6. Ask: does the sentence now mean the opposite, because a word like not has gone?
7. Nothing lost: cut it. Something lost: keep it.
8. Stop when the sentence starts to read like a telegram.
9. When unsure, keep the word and ask someone to read it.

• Rohan will return back after lunch.
• Please wait for Nani at the gate.
• Dev found a tiny little kitten.
• Never, never cross the road without looking.
• Meet Olivia at the library at 3.
• Mateo can repeat the song again.

• The big, huge kite belonged to Tara.
• Could you please pass the rice, Ammi?
• Vikram's bus leaves the school gate at 8.
• Freya will reply back tonight.
• Ella shut the door gently because the baby was asleep.
• Amara's cat is black in colour.

Words you must keep

Six kinds of word carry what a reader needs. Look for them before you cut anything.

This is the Cut Test at work: cover a word, read again, and if one of these is lost, keep it.

Here is a school message, cut three times. Watch what each cut loses.

The full message: "Please bring your library book to Room 5 on Monday morning."

Every cut lost something. The full message was already concise: every word was a who, a what, a where, a when or a please.

Notice two things. First, a message can be short and still have nothing to cut. Concise does not mean you must always find something to take out. Second, the question is always what the reader needs. A note to your own brother may skip please; a message to the whole class should keep it.

Picture a message as a lunch box. The wrappers are extra words: "back" in "return back", "little" in "a tiny little ant". Throw them away. The food is who, what, where, when, not and please. If you throw the sandwich away with the wrappers, your friend opens the box and finds it empty.

The six words you must keep have grown-up names. Who, what, where and when are the facts of a message, sometimes called the four Ws. Not is a negative, and please is a politeness marker. In Practice you will write school notices that must give every fact in few words. In Craft you will meet cutting too far in longer writing, where a lost "because" or "however" breaks the link between ideas.

Here is a hard one, and it is fine to find it hard. Whether a word is needed depends on who is reading and what they already know. You and your sister are both at home. You write: "Back at 6." Your sister knows who wrote it and where you live. Nothing is missing. Now you leave the same note for a visitor who has never met you. "Back at 6." Who is back? Back where? The visitor needs more: "Rahul has gone to the shop. Back at 6." The same goes for please. A quick note to your brother, "Feed the fish", is fine between you. A message to your teacher asking for help should keep please: "Please could you check my answer?" So the list, who, what, where, when, not, please, is not a list of words that must always be written. It is a list of things the reader must end up knowing. If this reader already knows it, you may leave it out. If this reader would have to ask, put it in. Not is the one exception. If a sentence needs not, it always stays, whoever reads it.

Did you know that pilots and air traffic controllers repeat numbers back to each other? A controller might tell a pilot a height to fly at, and the pilot says the number back before doing it. That extra saying takes more words and more time. It is kept because a misheard number could be dangerous. That is the other side of cutting. A careful writer cuts words that add nothing, but never the words that keep people safe, on time and in the right place. Sometimes the best message is not the shortest one. It is the one nobody has to ask about.

The six words are a checklist, not a rule that every sentence must contain all six. "It is raining" has no where or when, and it does not need them. What a reader needs depends on the reader. A note to someone at home can skip facts they already know. Please is kept in requests, especially to teachers, strangers and anyone older. In a quick note to a brother or sister, people often leave it out, and that is normal between them. Not always stays. There is no reader for whom losing it is safe.

1. Before you cut, find the who, what, where and when.
2. Find every not and never, and keep them.
3. Keep please in any request to a teacher, a stranger or a group.
4. Cover a word and ask: would my reader have to ask a question back?
5. If yes, the word stays.
6. Check the short version with a fresh eye: does it still mean the same?
7. Remember a message can be short and have nothing left to cut.
8. When a cut went too far, put the missing word back.

• Please don't touch the hot pan, Riya.
• Meet Nani at the temple gate at 4.
• Imran, do not open the window.
• The school trip is on Friday.
• Could you please help me carry this box, Mr Evans?
• Kwame's bus leaves at 7, not 8.

• Aisha's party starts at 5 at the community hall.
• Mrs Rao wrote, "Please bring your water bottle tomorrow."
• Don't feed the dog chocolate, Neel.
• Thank you for the lovely card, Grandad.
• Lily will be home late, after football.
• Sofia, the library closes at noon today.

A short note for a friend

A note keeps the facts and drops the extras. Check it in three steps.

This is the Cut Test at work: cover the extras and nothing is lost; cover a fact and the reader is left guessing.

Here is one note, written three ways, for a friend called Tara who is coming round after school.

The just-right note is ten words. It drops "I am", "I will be" and "is", and a note may do that. It keeps the shop, 4 and the key, because Tara needs all three.

Notice two things. First, the long version was not wrong. It simply made Tara hunt for the facts. Second, the short version was not concise; it was incomplete. Concise means the reader gets everything and nothing extra. The just-right note does both.

Picture a note as a treasure map. The X is where. The clock drawn beside it is when. The little picture of a key is what the reader needs. Stories about the weather and the trees are rubbed out. If the X or the clock is rubbed out too, the treasure is lost, however neat the map looks.

Dropping small words is a real style with a name: note form. You will meet it again in lists, labels, text messages and headlines. In Practice you will write school notices, which must give what, when, where and who in few words, but in full sentences. In Craft you will learn how headlines and texts compress in their own ways, and why the same compression looks out of place in an essay.

Here is a hard one, and it is fine to find it hard. The same note can be complete for one reader and incomplete for another. "Back at 6." Your mother, who knows you went to football, reads it and knows everything. Nothing is missing. A friend from next door, who does not know where you went, reads the same note. Back from where? Is anyone home? For this reader, the note has cut too far. And look at small words that can matter: "Key under mat." Fine: the reader knows which mat. "Key under the blue mat, not the brown one." Now "the" and "not" are doing work, because there are two mats. Cut them and the reader looks under the wrong one. So "notes drop small words" is true only when the small word adds nothing. If a small word tells the reader which one, or turns the meaning round, it stays, even in a note. Ask: what does this reader already know, and what do they still need?

Did you know that shopping lists are one of the oldest kinds of writing? Some of the earliest writing that has been found is not stories or poems but records of goods and amounts, like lists of grain and animals. Short, factual writing for a reader who needs to act has been with us for thousands of years. A list is the most concise note of all. "Milk, bread, 6 eggs, rice." No verbs, no "the", no "and". And yet the reader knows exactly what to buy. The one thing a list must not drop is the number: "eggs" is not the same as "6 eggs".

Note form is right for notes, lists and quick messages. It is not right for stories, reports or a letter to your teacher, where full sentences are expected. Some readers like a friendly word in a note: "Love, Ammi" or "Thanks!" A short greeting does not make a note wordy. A long opening sentence does. What a note needs depends on the reader. Someone at home may need less than a visitor. If you are unsure whether the reader knows a fact, write it in.

1. Before you write, ask: what does my reader need to know?
2. Put in what, where and when. Add who if the reader might not know.
3. Give a clock time, not "soon" or "later".
4. Drop long openers like "I am just writing to tell you that".
5. You may drop "I", "the" and "is" in a note.
6. Keep a small word if it tells the reader which one, or if it is not.
7. Keep a number in a list: 6 eggs, not eggs.
8. Read the note as your reader. If you would have to ask, add the fact.

• Gone to Nani's. Back at 6. Rice in the fridge.
• Kabir - football moved to Saturday, 9 am, big field.
• Dear Meenu, I just really wanted to say your book is on your desk.
• Mum - at Jack's. Home by 5. Phone charged.
• Thanks for lending me your bike, Ellie! Back in the shed.
• Dear Kofi, I am writing this note to tell you that practice is at 4.

• Ammi - took Chotu to the park. Back by 7.
• Sahil, please feed Moti at 8. Food in blue tin.
• Tanvi - library books due Monday. On your shelf.
• Oscar - dentist moved to Tuesday, 3.30.
• Sorry I missed you, Amelia! Cake in the tin.
• Min-jun - bus is late. Waiting at the corner shop.

First mixed review

Six kinds of word came up in Discover. One test decides them all.

This is the Cut Test at work, the same test from section 7, on every kind of word at once.

Here is the Cut Test run on a short story that mixes every kind.

"Last Sunday I just wanted to go to the fair. It was a big, huge fair. I was very happy. Please don't tell anyone, but I went on the big wheel twice and repeated it again. We returned back home at 8, and I was very kind to my sister all evening."

The finished story: "Last Sunday I wanted to go to the fair. It was a huge fair. I was delighted. Please don't tell anyone, but I went on the big wheel twice. We returned home at 8, and I was very kind to my sister all evening."

Notice two things. First, five cuts of four kinds were mixed together, and one test found them all. Second, three things stayed: a please, a time and "very kind". A review is not finished when every "very" is gone. It is finished when every word left is doing a job.

Picture a sieve over a bowl. Pour in a sentence. Doubled words, fillers and words said twice fall through like sand. Who, what, where, when, not and please stay in the sieve like pebbles. A "very" and a weak word come out as one strong stone. What stays in the sieve is the sentence your reader needs.

Every cut in Discover has a grown-up name you will meet in Practice. Doubled words like return back and free gift are called redundancies. Fillers like just and really are called intensifiers or hedges. Swapping "very big" for huge is choosing a precise word. Practice adds longer phrases with short twins, like "due to the fact that" for because, and openers like "There are many students who".

Here is a hard one, and it is fine to find it hard. The same kind of word can be cut in one sentence and kept in the next, even inside one short story. "We came back home." Cover back: "We came home." That works too, so back can go. But "Come back!" shouted at a dog running away: cover back, "Come!", and the dog does not know you mean return. Back stays. "I just finished." Cover just. "I finished." But just here means a moment ago. That is a fact about time, and it may matter: "I just finished, so the paint is still wet." Keep it. "Very" too. "The dog was very big" swaps to huge. "The soup was very warm" keeps its pair, because hot says too much. So a review is not a list of words to cut on sight: back, just, very. It is the same question asked of each word in its own sentence. What does this word do here? If the answer is nothing, cut it. If the answer is anything the reader needs, keep it.

Did you know that even the shortest sentences can have something to cut? "Repeat again." Two words, and one of them is extra. And a long sentence can have nothing to cut at all: "Please bring your library book and your water bottle to Room 5 on Monday morning." Fifteen words, and every one is a who, a what, a where, a when or a please. So length tells you nothing on its own. A two-word sentence can be wordy, and a fifteen-word sentence can be concise. The only way to know is to run the Cut Test.

An extra word is a style choice, not a grammar mistake. "Return back" is understood by everyone; it is only longer than it needs to be. Some sentences have nothing to cut. That is a right answer, not a failed search. Some words look like fillers but carry meaning: "just" can mean "a moment ago", and "back" is needed after come. Notes may drop small words; stories and letters keep full sentences. When unsure, keep the word.

1. Run the Cut Test on every word, not only the first extra one you spot.
2. Cut the same idea said twice.
3. Cut doubled words: return back, repeat again, a tiny little ant.
4. Cut fillers like just, really and so when they add nothing.
5. Swap "very" and a weak word for one strong word, when one fits.
6. Keep who, what, where, when, not and please.
7. Keep a repeat the reader should feel.
8. Accept "nothing to cut" as an answer.

• Vihaan will return back after the match.
• It was raining in Pune and it was wet with rain.
• Please feed the fish at 6, Diya.
• Harry just really wants a dog.
• Isla was very tired after the race.
• Chen saw a big, huge elephant.

• Meera will repeat the poem again tomorrow.
• Kavya, please do not touch the glass vase.
• Nisha's garden has a tiny little pond.
• Never, never swim alone, Tom.
• Grace's dress was blue in colour.
• Nour was very angry about the rain.

Building accuracy · ages 8–12

Doubled words: free gift, past history

In a doubled pair, one word already carries the meaning of the other. Under a fewer-words aim, the extra word goes.

This is the Cut Test at work: cover the word, read again, and ask whether any meaning, tone or emphasis is lost. If the noun or verb already says it, cut it.

Not every describing word in front of a noun is doubled. The test is always the same: does the noun alone already carry this meaning?

The last row is the tricky one. On its own, future plans is doubled, since a plan is about the future. But when a sentence sets past plans beside future plans, the two words tell the reader which plans you mean. Cut future there and the contrast disappears.

A verb can be doubled too. Join together, merge together, collaborate together and repeat again all say one idea twice. The verb carries the meaning; the little word after it adds nothing.

Picture a shopping bag with two labels stuck on it. One says GIFT. The other says FREE. The second label tells you nothing the first did not, so you peel it off and the bag carries the same message. But if the bag says LUNCH, the FREE label is news, because a lunch can cost money. Peel off only the labels that repeat what the bag already says.

A doubled pair says one idea twice inside a short phrase. The next section looks at a longer pattern that says the cause twice across a whole sentence: The reason why I was late is because the bus broke down. Reason and because both name the cause. Later in Practice you will meet redundant modifiers such as completely finished and end result, which work like doubled pairs with a stronger word.

Here is the hard case: a pair that looks doubled but carries a contrast. Compare these two sentences. We will talk about our future plans at the meeting. Our past plans failed, so our future plans are simpler. In the first, future adds nothing. A plan is about something you mean to do, so it already points forward. Under a fewer-words aim, write: We will talk about our plans at the meeting. In the second, the sentence sets two kinds of plans side by side. Past plans are the ones we made before; future plans are the ones we are making now. Cut future and the reader cannot tell which plans are simpler. The word is doing a job, so it stays. The Cut Test settles it. Cover the word and read the sentence again. If the reader loses nothing, cut it. If the reader loses a contrast, a fact or a time, keep it. The same test works for new. A new innovation is doubled, because an innovation is new by definition. But the new students and the old students is a contrast, and new stays. Never cut a word just because it appears on a list of doubled pairs. Test it in its own sentence.

Advertisers double words on purpose. A free gift sounds more generous than a gift, and a new innovation sounds more exciting than an innovation, even though the extra word adds no fact. That is why these pairs are so common on packets, flyers and posters. In careful writing the extra word costs more than it earns. A reader who meets past history or true facts may wonder whether the writer thinks some history is in the future, or some facts are false. English has also grown pairs that are no longer doubled in use. In Indian English, a cousin-brother tells the listener that the cousin is male, a fact that cousin alone does not give. It looks like two words for one person, but it carries information, so it is not doubled at all.

This section cuts a doubled word only when the aim is fewer words with the same meaning. A doubled pair is a style choice, never a grammar error: a free gift is standard English and appears on real notices. Advertisers and speakers sometimes double words on purpose for effect. A pair is kept when its extra word marks a contrast or adds a fact. Fixed pairs such as safe and sound belong to Master. Indian English forms such as cousin-brother carry information and are standard.

1. Cover the describing word and read the noun alone.
2. If the noun already carries the meaning, cut the word: a gift, history, facts.
3. Cut the little word after a verb that already contains it: join, not join together.
4. Keep a word the noun does not carry: a free lunch, a new student.
5. Keep a word that sets up a contrast: our past plans and our future plans.
6. Do not swap one doubled word for another: a free present is still doubled.
7. Test each pair in its own sentence, not from a list.
8. Name the aim before you cut: a doubled pair is style, never a grammar error.

• Priya's grandmother told us the past history of the village well.
• Rohan's team and Farah's team joined together for the Diwali mela.
• The weather office gave an advance warning of the cyclone in Odisha.
• Emily checked the true facts before writing the report.
• Oliver compared the club's past plans with its future plans.
• Amani's teacher in Nairobi praised the new innovation at the science fair.

• Ananya and Kiran collaborated together on the poster.
• The canteen offers a free lunch to every volunteer on Sports Day, says Mr Rao.
• Please repeat again the last line of the poem, Deepa.
• The two companies merged together last spring, Harry read.
• Chloe welcomed the new students while the old students set out chairs.
• Lucas found the past history of the harbour in a book in Lisbon.

The reason is that...

Reason means the cause. Because also points to the cause. Put both in one sentence and the cause is named twice.

This is the Cut Test at work. Cover the reason ... is and read again: the cause is still there, carried by because. Nothing is lost, so the extra words can go.

Not every sentence with the reason needs fixing. Look at what each form does.

Under a fewer-words aim, the reason why can lose why: the reason the lights failed. But the reason why is standard English, used by careful writers, so no question here marks it wrong unless the stem asks for fewer words.

The reason is because is common when people talk. Under a stem that names formal writing or fewer words, swap because for that, or drop the reason is.

Picture a signpost pointing to the cause. The word reason is one signpost; the word because is another. Put both at the same crossroads and a traveller sees two arrows pointing at the same place. One arrow is enough. Take down either signpost, and the road to the cause is still clearly marked.

The reason ... is because is one wordy way to give a cause. The next section collects many more: due to the fact that, owing to the fact that, in view of the fact that. Each has a one-word twin, and because is one of them. Once you can say a cause once, you can also say it in one word. Later in Practice, the same habit helps you spot a paragraph that gives its cause in one sentence and repeats it in the last.

Here is the hard case: deciding which forms to change and which to leave. Look at these four sentences. The reason why the tap leaks is because the washer is old. The reason the tap leaks is because the washer is old. The reason the tap leaks is that the washer is old. Nobody could explain the reason why the tap leaks. The first names the cause twice and adds why. Under a fewer-words aim it becomes: The tap leaks because the washer is old. The second drops why but still names the cause twice. In a chat it passes without notice. In a formal report, swap because for that. The third names the cause once. It is standard in formal writing and needs no change. It is longer than the because version, and that is fine: it puts the reason at the front, where the writer wants it. The fourth uses the reason why without because at all. It names the cause once. Why is an extra word, but the phrase is standard, and careful writers use it. Change it only if the task asks for the fewest words. So the question is never 'Does this sentence contain reason?' It is 'How many times does this sentence name the cause?' Once is fine. Twice is one too many.

The reason is because is one of the phrases English usage guides discuss most often. Some teachers treat it as a mistake; many speakers use it every day without anyone blinking. Both views have a point. In speech it is natural. In formal writing, it names the cause twice, and a careful reader notices. The reason why has a longer history of use in careful writing than many people expect. It has appeared in respected prose for centuries, which is why this section never marks it wrong on its own. The same doubling hides in other shapes: the cause of the delay was because of the rain, or the reason is due to the fact that. Each one names the cause two or three times. Once you can hear the double arrow in the reason is because, you will hear it in all of them, and one word, because, fixes most of them.

This section trims the doubled cause only when the task names an aim: fewer words, the same meaning, or formal writing. The reason why on its own is standard English and is never keyed wrong without a fewer-words stem. The reason is because is common in speech and in informal writing, and is keyed only under a stem that names formal writing or fewer words. The reason ... is that is standard in formal writing, even though the because version is shorter.

1. Count how many times a sentence names the cause.
2. If reason and because both appear, keep one.
3. For the shortest version, keep because: I was late because the bus broke down.
4. For a formal version that puts the reason first, keep the reason and use that: The reason I was late is that...
5. Leave the reason why alone unless the task asks for the fewest words.
6. Treat the reason is because as speech; trim it in formal writing.
7. Keep every fact while you fix it: when, where and what.
8. Do not add a new wordy phrase such as due to the fact that.

• The reason why Aarav missed the bus is because the alarm did not ring.
• Aarav missed the bus because the alarm did not ring.
• Nidhi said the reason the match stopped was that rain flooded the pitch.
• Harry asked the reason why the old clock had stopped.
• 'The reason is because I forgot,' Chloe said with a grin.
• The reason Lucia's crops failed is that no rain fell in May.

• The reason why the Yamuna flooded is because the rains came early.
• The Yamuna flooded because the rains came early, Imran wrote.
• Sunita could not find the reason why the plant had wilted.
• The reason the lights failed is that a fuse blew, Jack reported.
• 'The reason is because the dog ate it,' Ella told the class.
• The reason why Kenji's kite fell is because the string snapped.

Wordy phrases and their short forms

A wordy phrase says in four or five words what a short twin says in one or two. Under a fewer-words aim, swap in the twin.

This is the Cut Test with a swap. Cover the phrase, put the twin in its place, and read again. If the meaning is the same, the twin wins. If only the length changed, you have done the job.

A swap works only when the twin means exactly the same. Check each one in its own sentence.

Notice the in order not to row. Walk softly not to wake the baby can read like an order: do not wake the baby. Walk softly in order not to wake the baby says clearly that the soft walking has a purpose. Careful writers use both, so no question here marks either wrong.

And a long form is never a grammar error. Due to the fact that is standard English. It is keyed as wordy only when a task asks for fewer words with the same meaning.

Picture a long, winding path and a short bridge that lead to the same house. Due to the fact that is the winding path; because is the bridge. Both arrive at the same door, but the bridge gets the reader there before they lose interest. Take the bridge whenever it reaches the same door, and take the path only when the bridge would land somewhere else.

A wordy phrase stretches one idea across many words. The next section looks at a different kind of padding: single words such as basically, actually and really, which carry little in writing. After that, you will meet empty openers such as There are many students who..., which push the real subject back. In Craft you will meet hidden verbs, such as make a decision for decide, which work like wordy phrases built round a noun.

Here is the hard case: deciding whether a short twin means the same in this sentence. Compare these pairs. In the event that it rains, the picnic moves indoors. If it rains, the picnic moves indoors. These match. In the event that and if both set a condition. The swap saves three words and loses nothing. Take an umbrella in the event that it rains. Take an umbrella in case it rains. Here the writer might reach for in case, but in case does a different job. It means as a precaution, before we know. If is the true twin: Take an umbrella if it rains means take one when rain comes. The two short forms say different things, so choose the one that matches. Now purpose. Zoya whispered in order not to wake Dadi. Zoya whispered not to wake Dadi. The second can be read as Zoya whispering the words 'not to wake Dadi'. The long form removes that doubt. So the shortest form is not always the clearest. The Cut Test decides. Swap in the twin and read again. If the meaning stays, keep the swap. If the meaning shifts or blurs, put the long form back.

Many wordy phrases grew up in offices and law courts, where writers wanted to sound careful and formal. In the event that and owing to the fact that still fill contracts, insurance letters and public notices. Plain-language campaigns in several countries have pushed back. Many government forms and bank letters now say if instead of in the event that, and because instead of due to the fact that, so that more readers can follow them. And some short twins are older than their long forms. Because has been an English word for centuries; due to the fact that is a later, longer way of saying the same thing. When you swap back to because, you are choosing the word English has trusted for a long time.

This section swaps a long phrase for its twin only under a fewer-words aim. Every long form here is standard English and is never keyed as a grammar error. In order to and to are both standard; in order not to often reads more clearly than not to, and neither is keyed wrong. A swap is keyed wrong only when the short form changes the meaning (in case for in the event that) or the rewrite drops a fact. Offices and law sometimes need the long form.

1. Look for phrases of three or more words that carry one idea.
2. Find the short twin: because, if, now, although, many, can, to.
3. Swap it in and read the sentence again.
4. Keep the swap only if the meaning is exactly the same.
5. Do not swap in a word with a different job: in case is not if.
6. Keep in order not to where not to would blur the meaning.
7. Keep every fact and every please while you swap.
8. Name the aim: a long phrase is style, never a grammar error.
9. Leave a long form in a contract or form that requires its exact wording.

• Due to the fact that the road was flooded, Tara walked to school.
• Vikram saved pocket money in order to buy a cricket bat.
• At this point in time, the Mumbai local is running late, Sana texted.
• In the event that it rains, Lucy's party will move indoors.
• Sam spoke softly in order not to wake the baby.
• A large number of penguins gathered on the ice near Hana's boat.

• In spite of the fact that it was late, Anjali finished the drawing.
• Kabir's new robot has the ability to climb stairs.
• Leena saved for months so as to buy a bicycle in Pune.
• Owing to the fact that the pitch was wet, Jack's match began late.
• Grace left early so as not to miss the train.
• In Cairo, Omar reads each night for the purpose of learning new words.

Actually, basically, really: fillers in writing

A filler helps a speaker think. On the page, it adds words and no meaning. Under a fewer-words aim, it goes.

This is the Cut Test on single words. Cover the filler, read again, and ask whether any meaning, tone or emphasis is lost. If nothing is lost, cut it.

Some of these words are not always fillers. The same word can be empty in one sentence and doing a job in the next.

The test is always the same: cover the word and read again. If the contrast, the time, the doubt or the feeling disappears, the word was doing a job, and it stays.

Dialogue in a story is a special case. When a character speaks, fillers can show how that character talks. Keep them there; cut them from the narrator's lines and from reports.

Picture a conversation as a walk with a friend, full of pauses to point at things: basically, you know, actually. When you write the walk down as a map, the pauses vanish, and only the roads and turns remain. Keep a word on the map only if it marks a real turn, such as actually when the road goes somewhere unexpected.

A filler is one empty word. The next section looks at empty openings: There are many students who walk to school, It is important to note that the shop closes at 5. Like fillers, these push the point back. Unlike fillers, some of them do a job: There is a snake in the garden! tells the reader that something is there. The Cut Test works the same way on both: cover the words and ask what the reader lost.

Here is the hard case: telling a filler from the same word doing a job. Compare these two sentences. The museum actually opens at ten. Ella thought the museum was closed. Actually, it opens at ten. In the first, actually adds nothing. No one expected anything different, so there is no surprise to mark. Under a fewer-words aim, write: The museum opens at ten. In the second, actually answers what Ella thought. It tells the reader: this is the truth, and it is not what was expected. Cut it and the two sentences sit side by side with no link between them. Actually is doing a job, so it stays. Just works the same way. I just want to sleep uses just as a softener; cut it and the meaning stays. The train left just as we arrived uses just for timing; cut it and the reader loses the near miss. So never cut a word because it is on a list of fillers. Cover it in its own sentence and read again. If a contrast, a time or a feeling disappears, the word stays.

Literally is one of the most argued-over words in English. Its first meaning is word for word, exactly as stated. Many speakers now use it for emphasis, as in I literally died laughing, where the speaker plainly did not die. Dictionaries record both uses. In careful writing, the emphasis use usually adds nothing and can go. Fillers are not a sign of a lazy speaker. Studies of conversation suggest that words like you know and I mean help speakers plan and help listeners follow, which is why they appear in every language. Hindi speakers have matlab and yaani; English speakers have I mean and you know. The trouble starts only when they move onto the page, where the reader has time and needs no signal that the writer is still thinking.

This section cuts fillers under a fewer-words aim or in formal writing. Fillers are normal in speech and in friendly messages, and nothing here marks them as grammar errors. Actually is kept when it marks a contrast, just when it marks a time, and really when it asks whether something is true. In a story's dialogue, fillers and repeats that show how a character talks are kept. Very and one strong word belong to the strong verbs and redundant modifiers sections.

1. Circle every basically, actually, really, just, literally, honestly and you know.
2. Cover each one and read the sentence again.
3. Cut it if the meaning, tone and emphasis stay the same.
4. Keep actually when it marks a contrast with what was expected.
5. Keep just when it marks an exact time: just as we arrived.
6. Keep really when it asks whether something is true: Is it really full?
7. Keep a character's fillers and repeats in dialogue.
8. Cut stacks such as really quite, and keep the word they prop up.
9. Leave fillers alone in a chat or a friendly message, where they are normal.

• Basically, Ishita's plan for Sports Day is actually simple.
• Rahul thought the test would be easy; actually, it was hard.
• Pooja just really wants to finish the painting today.
• Honestly, Tom's story was sort of long.
• Ella thought the museum was closed. Actually, it opens at ten.
• 'I really, really want the red bicycle!' Kofi shouted.

• The train to Jaipur left just as Neel reached the platform.
• The new library is kind of small, Meenal wrote in the report.
• Is the hall really full, Ms Bose?
• Jack's report was literally ten pages long.
• The results were, you know, better than last year, Olivia said.
• Sofia expected snow in Madrid; actually, the sun shone all week.

Start with the point: there is, it is

An empty opener puts filler words where the subject should be. Under a fewer-words aim, start with the point.

This is the Cut Test on openings. Cover the opener and the who or that it brings, read again, and ask whether any meaning, tone or emphasis is lost. If nothing is lost, start with the point.

Some openers do a job. The test is what the sentence is for.

Two rows need care. It is likely that is not empty: it tells the reader the writer is not certain. Cut it and the caution goes. Swap in one word, probably, and the caution stays in fewer words.

It was Grace who found the key is longer than Grace found the key, but it answers a question: who found it? It puts Grace in the spotlight. That is emphasis, and emphasis can earn its words.

Picture a sentence as a stage. The subject is the performer. An empty opener is a curtain that stays half closed while the audience waits: There are ... who. Pull the curtain back and the performer is there from the first word. But when the show is a surprise, as in There is a snake in the garden!, the curtain opening is the whole point. Keep that curtain.

Starting with the point often leaves a weak verb and an adverb doing the work: Many students walk slowly to school. The next section shows how one strong verb can replace a verb and its adverb, as raced can replace ran quickly, while keeping the meaning exactly the same. The swap is kept only when the new verb means what the old pair meant: spoke softly is not always whispered.

Here is the hard case: telling an empty There is from a There is that does a job. Compare these two sentences. There are many people who like mangoes. There is a snake in the garden! The first is about people who like mangoes. There are and who add nothing; the sentence is waiting to say Many people like mangoes. Under a fewer-words aim, rewrite it. The second is not about what the snake does. Its job is to tell the reader that a snake is there, now, in the garden. There is announces it. A snake is in the garden is grammatical, but it sounds like a calm report, not a warning. Keep There is. A quick check helps. After the opener, is there a who or that followed by a verb? There are many students who walk, There are ten cows that graze. If so, the sentence has a real action, and it can usually start with its subject. If the sentence only says that something is somewhere, There is is doing its job. It is works the same way. It is important to note that adds nothing; cut it. It is likely that adds caution; shrink it to probably. It was Grace who found it adds emphasis; keep it if the writer wants it.

There is and there are are among the commonest openings in English, and many other languages have a similar pattern for saying that something exists. French uses il y a, Spanish uses hay, and Hindi often uses hai at the end: bagiche mein saanp hai, there is a snake in the garden. That is why the pattern feels natural to so many writers. It is a real tool for announcing something new. The trouble starts when writers use it for everything, including sentences that are about what someone does. Editors sometimes count the There are ... who and It is ... that openings in a draft. A page that starts half its sentences this way almost always reads faster once most of them start with their subject.

This section rewrites an opener only under a fewer-words aim. There is, there are and it is are standard English, and nothing here marks them as grammar errors. There is is kept when its job is to say that something exists, and Is there? when it asks. It was ... who is kept when the writer wants to stress one person. It is likely that carries caution, so it shrinks to probably rather than disappearing. Hedging in full belongs to Craft.

1. Underline every sentence that starts with There is, There are, It is or It was.
2. Find the real subject and ask whether the sentence can start with it.
3. Cut There are ... who and There is ... that when a real action follows.
4. Cut announcement openers: It is important to note that, It is a fact that.
5. Keep There is when its job is to say that something exists.
6. Keep It was ... who when the writer wants to stress one person.
7. Shrink a cautious opener to one word: It is likely that becomes probably.
8. Keep every fact while you rewrite: numbers, times and places stay.

• There are many students who walk to school in Shimla.
• It is important to note that Anjali's shop closes at 5.
• There is a cobra in Dev's garden!
• There were three children who helped Oliver carry the chairs.
• It was Grace who found the missing key.
• It is likely that Joao's flight will land late.

• There is a man who sells chai at the gate, Kiran said.
• Is there a doctor on this train to Chennai?
• It should be noted that fees are due on 5 May, Mr Menon wrote.
• There are ten cows that graze by the river on Sam's farm.
• It was Harry who rang the bell, not Chloe.
• There is a crack in the wall of Mei's classroom.

Strong verbs over verb + adverb

A verb and its adverb can often become one strong verb. The strong verb already carries the manner that the adverb added.

This is step three of the Cut Test at work: nothing is lost, only the length changes, so swap in the short form. Cover the pair, read the strong verb in its place, and check that the meaning survives.

Step two of the Cut Test still decides. A swap that changes the meaning is not a trim; it is a different sentence.

So the check has two parts. First, is there a verb that carries both the action and the manner? Second, does that verb carry anything extra, such as tiredness, anger or pleasure, that the original did not say? If it adds or drops a shade of meaning, keep the pair.

Some adverbs are the whole point of the sentence. Please drive carefully. Speak clearly into the microphone. Here the adverb is the instruction, and cutting it or swapping it would change what the reader must do.

Picture a verb and its adverb as two people carrying one heavy box between them. Sometimes one strong person can carry the whole box alone: raced carries ran and quickly together. But sometimes the box is too odd a shape for one person: arrived late has no single carrier. Before you send one of the pair home, check that the other can lift everything without dropping a fact.

The next section looks at describing words that repeat what their noun or verb already says: completely finished, end result, close proximity. You will see the same idea as here, one word carrying what two were doing, applied to adjectives and adverbs that sit beside a word they cannot add to. In Craft, you will meet hidden verbs, where a noun such as decision hides the verb decide.

Here is the hard case: a strong verb that is nearly, but not quite, the same. Sahil walked slowly along the beach. Sahil strolled along the beach. Sahil trudged along the beach. Walked slowly tells us the speed and nothing more. Strolled adds ease: a stroll is slow and relaxed, perhaps for pleasure. Trudged adds effort: a trudge is slow and tired, perhaps through sand or after a long day. So which swap is right? It depends on what the writer knows. If the story says Sahil was on holiday, enjoying the sea air, strolled fits and saves a word. If the story says Sahil had walked all day with a heavy bag, trudged fits. If the story says neither, both strong verbs add a shade that is not in the original, and walked slowly is the honest choice. This is why the Cut Test asks whether anything is lost, and a careful writer also asks whether anything is added. A strong verb is a gift when it says exactly what you mean. It is a small untruth when it says more.

English has a large family of verbs for ways of moving, and many come in groups that share a sound. Stroll, stride, strut and stagger all begin with st and all describe walking, each in its own manner. Scamper, scurry and scuttle all describe small, quick steps. Speaking verbs are just as rich: mutter, murmur, mumble, whisper, shout, yell, bellow, snap. Each packs a verb and a manner into one word, which is why storytellers love them. Many Indian languages also build manner into the verb, or join two verbs together to do it. Hindi says bhaag gaya (ran off) or kha gaya (ate up), where the second verb adds a sense of completeness. English does a similar job with one strong verb: devoured, not ate up completely.

This section is about swapping a verb and its adverb for one verb when the meaning stays the same. The adverb is not a grammar error; walked slowly is standard English, and nothing here marks it wrong unless the question asks for fewer words. Adverbs that add a time, a place or a manner no verb carries (late, here, politely) are kept. Hidden verbs such as make a decision are Craft's topic. Unusual verbs are not always better: choose words your reader knows.

1. Look for a plain verb with an adverb beside it: ran quickly, looked closely.
2. Ask whether one verb carries both the action and the manner: raced, examined.
3. Read the strong verb in place and check nothing is lost.
4. Check that nothing is added either: trudged adds tiredness, strolled adds ease.
5. Keep the pair when no single verb means the same: arrived late, answered politely.
6. Never add the adverb back to the strong verb: raced, not raced quickly.
7. Choose strong verbs your reader knows.
8. Keep an adverb that is the instruction itself: drive carefully.

• Arnav ran quickly to catch the school bus.
• After the cricket match, Kabir ate hungrily.
• Nani spoke quietly on the phone, and we still heard every word.
• Dr Hughes looked closely at the X-ray.
• Emily walked slowly and tiredly up the hill.
• Mateo answered politely, then left early.

• Meera looked briefly at the clock and kept writing.
• The monkey ate the banana hungrily.
• Please drive carefully near the school gate.
• Jack shut the door hard and noisily.
• The train arrived late at Leeds.
• In Lagos, Tunde spoke loudly and angrily at the umpire.

Redundant modifiers: completely finished, end result

A redundant modifier is a describing word that its noun or verb already carries. Cutting it loses nothing.

This is the Cut Test on a single describing word: cover it, read again, and if no meaning, tone or emphasis is lost, cut it.

Not every describing word is redundant. Many carry a fact, an amount or a contrast that the noun alone does not.

Each and every is a special case. In a speech or a heartfelt thank-you, the repeat is deliberate: the speaker wants every listener to feel included. Careful writers use it that way, so nothing here marks it wrong. Only when a task asks for fewer words, such as a notice with a word limit, does each and every trim to each or every.

Short forms such as ATM and PIN are common in speech with their extra word, and readers understand them. They count as redundant only when the question asks for the fewest words.

Picture a label stuck on a jar that is already made of glass: 'glass jar made of glass'. The second label tells you nothing you could not already see. A redundant modifier is that second label. Now picture a label that says 'half full'. You could not see that from the word jar alone, so that label stays on.

So far you have trimmed inside a sentence: doubled words, wordy phrases, fillers, empty openers, weak verbs and now redundant modifiers. The next section moves up a level to the paragraph, where a whole sentence can repeat what an earlier one already said. The Cut Test still applies, but now you cover a sentence rather than a word.

Here is the hard case: the same describing word can be redundant in one sentence and needed in the next. The painters have completely finished the hall. The painters have partly finished the hall, but they have completely finished the kitchen. In the first sentence, completely adds nothing. Finished means done, so the hall is done. Under a fewer-words aim, cut it. In the second sentence, completely answers partly. The writer is comparing two rooms: one half done, one fully done. Take completely away and the contrast goes flat: they have finished the kitchen could be read as the same kind of finished as the hall. So here completely earns its place. The Cut Test catches this. Cover the word and read the whole sentence, not just the phrase. If a contrast, an amount or a needed emphasis disappears, the describing word stays. If nothing disappears, it goes. This is why no rule can say 'completely is always extra'. The question is always what the word is doing in this sentence.

Some redundant pairs hide inside short forms, because people forget what the letters stand for. ATM stands for automated teller machine, so ATM machine says machine twice. PIN stands for personal identification number, so PIN number says number twice. The same thing happens with LCD display (liquid crystal display) and the RAM memory of a computer. These pairs are so common that many dictionaries record them, and nobody is confused by them in speech. Other languages have their own versions. In English, cafés abroad often sell chai tea, although chai is the Hindi word for tea. English speakers say the hoi polloi, although hoi already means the in Greek. Words travel, and their meanings are forgotten on the way.

This section covers describing words that repeat what their word already says. A redundant modifier is a matter of style, not a grammar error: the end result and ATM machine are understood by every reader, and nothing here marks them wrong unless the question asks for fewer words. Each and every is kept for emphasis in speech and thank-yous (both-standard). A describing word that adds an amount, a kind or a contrast is never redundant. Doubled nouns such as free gift and past history were section 11.

1. Cover the describing word and read the whole sentence again.
2. Cut it when the word it describes already carries its meaning: finished, result, empty.
3. Cut the repeated last word after a short form: ATM, PIN.
4. Keep a describing word that gives an amount: half empty.
5. Keep one that says what kind: a close friend.
6. Keep one that answers a contrast: partly dry, completely dry.
7. Keep each and every in a speech when the emphasis is meant.
8. Trim only when the task asks for fewer words or the space is short.

• Aditi has completely finished the science project.
• Please enter your PIN number at the ATM machine.
• The end result of the class survey surprised Mr Bose.
• At the prize-giving, Mrs Clarke said, "Each and every one of you made this possible."
• Oliver's flat is in close proximity to the station.
• In Nairobi, Wanjiru found one wall partly painted and the other completely painted.

• Water is absolutely essential on the trek to Triund.
• The hall was half empty when the play began in Kochi.
• Anjali's final outcome in the quiz was second place.
• The ATM machine near the library is out of cash.
• George cycled to Oxford with a close friend, Harry.
• In Lima, the box of mangoes was completely full.

Say it once in a paragraph

A paragraph says each point once. When two sentences make the same point, one of them can go.

This is the Cut Test on a whole sentence: cover it, read the paragraph again, and if no fact, link or needed emphasis is lost, cut it. When two sentences share a point, keep the one that says it more clearly.

A repeated word is not the same as a repeated point. Check what each sentence adds before you cut.

A summing-up line at the end is a special case. In a short paragraph of three or four sentences, a last line that repeats the first is usually extra: the reader has just read the point. In a long piece, such as a two-page report or a speech, a closing line that gathers the main point is a help, because the reader may have lost it among the details. So the question is not only whether a line repeats, but whether this reader needs to meet the point again.

Picture a paragraph as a train, and each sentence as a carriage carrying one load. If two carriages carry the same load, one can be uncoupled and the train still delivers everything. But check the loads before you uncouple: a carriage with the same colour paint may be carrying something new inside.

A trimmed paragraph is the base of every short text you write. The next section uses it for school notices and messages, where every sentence must carry a fact the reader needs: what, when, where and who. After that, the last Practice section asks you to name the reason for every cut you make, from doubled words to repeated sentences.

Here is the hard case: two sentences that share most of their words but not their point. The train to Jaipur left at six. The train to Jaipur left at six, an hour late. The second sentence repeats almost every word of the first. A quick trimmer might cut it. But it carries a new fact: the train was late. If the paragraph needs that fact, keep the second sentence and cut the first, because the second says everything the first does and more. Now try this pair. Maya was nervous before the concert. Before the concert, Maya felt anxious and nervous. Here the second sentence adds words but no new fact. Anxious and nervous say one feeling twice. Keep the first. The move is the same each time. Write the point of each sentence in a few words. If one sentence's point includes the other's and adds to it, keep the larger one. If the points match, keep the clearer one. If the points differ, keep both. Shared words are a clue to look closer, not a reason to cut.

Not every repeat in a long text is a mistake. Many speeches repeat a line on purpose, so that listeners who drift for a moment can find their way back. Teachers often end a lesson by saying the main point again, and news reports on the radio repeat the headlines at the end of the bulletin for listeners who tuned in late. Written reports have their own version: a summary at the top and a conclusion at the bottom, both making the same main point. A reader who only has a minute reads the summary; a reader who stays to the end meets the point again. So the rule is not 'never repeat'. It is 'repeat only when this reader needs it'. In a short paragraph, they almost never do.

This section covers repeated points inside one paragraph or short piece. It does not cover how paragraphs link to each other; that is ch21 Transitions & Flow. Repetition for effect in a speech or poem is kept (Master S32 looks at it closely). A summing-up line is kept in a long piece. A sentence that shares words with an earlier one but adds a fact is never a repeat. Nothing here marks a repeated sentence as a grammar error; it is a question of fewer words.

1. Write the point of each sentence in three or four words.
2. When two sentences share a point, keep one.
3. Keep the clearer sentence, the one with the exact detail.
4. When one sentence says everything the other does and more, keep the larger one.
5. Keep a sentence that shares words but adds a fact.
6. Cut a last line that repeats the first in a short paragraph.
7. Keep a summing-up line in a long report or speech.
8. Read the paragraph again after the cut to check nothing is lost.

• The Diwali fete at Rohan's school was a success. Many families came. It was very successful.
• Tara loves painting. Painting is something Tara loves. On Sundays, Tara paints the sea at Juhu.
• Vikram's bus was late. The driver had a flat tyre. So Vikram's bus was late.
• The rain started at noon. By evening, the rain had flooded Market Street.
• Ben's two-page report on the school trip ends: In short, the trip taught us to plan ahead.
• Hana's garden in Osaka is small. It is not a big garden. Yet it grows twenty kinds of herbs.

• The library in Sector 9 is closed on Monday. It will not open on Monday. It opens again on Tuesday.
• Sanjay won the race. It was Sanjay's first win.
• The shop in Chandni Chowk sells saris. Saris are sold there. It also mends them.
• Maya was nervous before the concert. Before the concert, Maya felt anxious and nervous.
• The train to York left at six. The train to York left at six, an hour late.
• Lucia's garden party in Rome was fun. Everybody had a good time. There was music until midnight.

Notices and messages

A notice or message gives the reader what they need to act. A simple plan keeps every fact in place.

The Cut Test works line by line: cover a word or phrase and ask whether the reader loses a fact, a needed please or anything they must do. If not, cut it. If a fact goes, you have cut too far.

Notices go wrong in two opposite ways: too many words, or too few facts.

Some words look extra but do a job. Please turns an order into a request, and a notice asking a stranger to return a bag needs it. All welcome tells readers they may come. A contact name tells the reader who to ask. These stay.

Messages to friends compress further than school notices, and that is right for the genre: Running late, 10 min is a complete text. Openings such as This is to inform you that are common in formal notices in India, and many readers expect them in an official letter; on a busy notice board, starting with the news gets read faster. Choose by the reader and the place.

Picture a notice as a small suitcase for a trip. The reader will open it in a hurry and needs four things on top: what, when, where, who. Friendly padding is like packing a big jumper over them: warm, but now the reader must dig. Cutting too far is like leaving the ticket at home. Pack the four things first, then add only what still fits.

The last Practice section asks you to explain every cut you make, from a doubled word to a repeated sentence to a buried fact in a notice. After that, Craft looks at other short forms that compress in their own way, such as headlines, texts and captions, and at emails and office English, where the right words depend on who will read them.

Here is the hard case: choosing between a short notice and a slightly longer one that is still better. Found: keys. Office. Found: a set of keys near the canteen, Monday. Ask at the office. The first is shorter, and it is not wrong in any grammar sense. But a reader who has lost keys cannot tell whether these are theirs: where were they found, and when? The second adds about ten words, and every one of them helps the owner decide whether to go to the office. Now compare the second with this. Hello! Somebody found a set of keys today, I think it was on Monday, somewhere near the canteen, so if they are yours you can go to the office and ask about them. This gives the same facts, but more than twice as many words, and the facts are buried among fillers and a hedge (I think). So the goal is not the fewest words at any cost. It is every fact the reader needs, and nothing else. When a choice is shorter because it lost a fact, it is cut too far. When a choice is longer because of padding, it is too wordy. The right one sits between.

Some of the shortest messages in the world are also the most carefully written. Road signs give one fact in one or two words: STOP, GIVE WAY, SCHOOL AHEAD. Notices on trains and buses are tested so that a hurried reader understands them in a few seconds. Old telegrams charged by the word, so people learned to write in a clipped style: ARRIVING MONDAY 6 PM. The style was so well known that telegraphese became a name for it. Yet even the clipped style kept every fact: when, where, what. What it dropped was the small words a reader could supply. That is the difference between a message that is concise and one that is only short.

This section covers school notices, class messages and short notes. Headlines, text messages and captions compress in their own ways, and that is Craft S29. Formal letters and office emails, including openings such as This is to inform you that and Please find attached, are Craft S28, where they are described by audience fit, not marked wrong. Nothing here keys a friendly or longer notice as a grammar error; items ask which gives every fact in the fewest words. Please in a request is kept.

1. Start with a heading of two or three words: LOST: red school bag.
2. Give what, when, where and who.
3. Put the facts where the eye lands, not in the middle of a long sentence.
4. Say each fact once.
5. Cut fillers and hedges that make a notice sound unsure.
6. Keep please when you ask a reader to do something.
7. Keep any detail that helps the reader act, such as a name on the lid.
8. Check the shortest version has not dropped a fact.

• LOST: blue water bottle, Tuesday, near the field. Name on the lid. Please return to Aisha Khan, 6B.
• This is to inform all students that the Class 7 quiz is on Friday at 10 am in Room 4.
• Reminder: trip tomorrow. Bus leaves at 8 am from the main gate. Bring lunch. - Mr Nair
• Hi everyone! I was just wondering if maybe people might like the book sale, which is on Saturday, I think at 2, in the hall.
• Football practice is cancelled today because the pitch is flooded. - Coach Evans
• Found: a set of keys near the canteen, Monday. Ask at the office. - Kenji Sato, Year 8

• Match Sat 4 pm, Nehru Park. Bring water. See you there! - Rohan
• Gone to Nani's. Back at 6. Dal in the fridge. - Priya
• Dance rehearsal: Friday, 4 pm, main hall. Attendance is absolutely compulsory.
• Chess Club: Thursday, 1 pm, Room 7. Beginners welcome. - Mrs Taylor
• The school trip is on 5 May. Please note that the trip is on 5 May.
• Running late, 10 min. Start without me. - Lucas

Explain your evidence

To explain a cut, name what the Cut Test found. Every cut in Practice has one of these reasons.

This is the whole Cut Test at work: cover it, read again, ask what is lost. Each row names what the test found: nothing lost, so cut it or swap in the short form.

Here are reasons that count as evidence, and reasons that do not.

Notice what the good reasons share. Each names a job the word does or fails to do, and someone else can check it: does return already mean go back? Does actually mark a contrast here?

Now the choices. In order to and to are both standard; the reason why and the reason are both standard; each and every is standard for emphasis. They are trimmed only when a task asks for fewer words, and the evidence says so: 'both are fine; the task asks for fewer words'. A cut needs a reason, and 'I would not write it that way' is not a reason to call it wrong.

Picture yourself as a referee with a whistle and a notebook. Every time you blow the whistle on a word, you must write the rule it broke: said twice, adds nothing, a shorter twin exists. Every time you wave play on, you write why too: carries a fact, keeps it polite, marks a contrast. A whistle with no rule in the notebook does not count.

The same habit of naming reasons carries into Craft, where more choices open up: active or passive, one hedge or none, a word limit, a précis, and office English that suits some readers and puzzles others. There, the evidence often includes naming the reader and the task, because the right cut for a text message may be the wrong cut for a letter to a principal.

Here is a pair where two reasons compete, and only the sentence decides. Basically, the plan is simple. I thought the plan was hard; actually, it was simple. Someone might say: 'Basically and actually are both fillers, so both go.' Someone else might say: 'Adverbs at the start of a clause always add something, so both stay.' Each reason names a rule, so each sounds like evidence. What decides? The Cut Test, on each sentence. Cover basically: the plan is simple. Nothing is lost, so it goes. Cover actually: I thought the plan was hard; it was simple. The sentence still works, but the turn between what I thought and what was true is softer. Actually marks that contrast, so it earns its place. So evidence is not only naming a reason; it is checking that the reason fits this word in this sentence. The same test sorts completely finished from partly finished and completely finished, and There are many students who walk from There is a snake in the garden. When two reasons seem to fight, cover the word and read the sentence. What is lost, if anything, is the evidence.

Two famous pieces of advice on cutting words are short enough to remember. In The Elements of Style, first printed in 1918, William Strunk wrote: 'Omit needless words.' Notice the word needless. Strunk did not say omit words; he said omit the ones that do no job. In his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language, George Orwell gave a rule: 'If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.' The key is possible. A cut is only possible when nothing is lost, which is exactly what the Cut Test checks. So even the most famous advice on brevity has a condition built in. Both writers were asking for evidence: show that the word is needless, show that the cut is possible.

This section brings together the Practice moves and adds no new ones. Several choices are both-standard and never marked wrong here without a fewer-words aim: in order to and to, the reason why and the reason, each and every for emphasis, polite extra words in a request, and a contrast actually. A longer sentence is never a grammar error; items name the aim. Hidden verbs, passives, hedges, word limits and précis are Craft's topics.

1. For every cut, name the reason: said twice, a short twin, a filler, an empty opener, a strong verb, a redundant modifier, a repeat, no fact.
2. For every word you keep that looks extra, name its job: meaning, a contrast, a fact, politeness, emphasis.
3. Check that the reason fits this word in this sentence.
4. Cover the word and read again before you decide.
5. Reject feelings (it sounds better) and false rules (adverbs are weak).
6. Name a both-standard choice as a choice, and trim it only when the task asks for fewer words.
7. Stop when the next cut would lose please, a fact or a link.
8. When you fix someone else's sentence, say why in words they can check.

• Due to the fact that it rained, Zoya's match in Pune was put off.
• Please return back the library books by Friday, Class 8.
• There are many students who walk to school in Mysuru.
• Basically, Hannah's plan worked, and the end result was a win.
• Liam thought the test would be easy; actually, it was hard.
• In Seoul, Min-jun ran quickly to the stop, but the bus was late.

• At this point in time, the canteen in Block B is closed.
• Kavya's report says the new timetable is completely finished and ready.
• In a speech on Founders' Day, the principal said, "Each and every one of you matters."
• Could you please send me the form by Friday, Mr Wright?
• Ella's bakery sells bread. Bread is sold there. It opens at seven.
• In Nairobi, Amina looked closely at the new map of the city.

Writing with intent · ages 12–16

Hidden verbs: make a decision, decide

A hidden verb is a noun made from a verb, propped up by a weaker verb. Free it and the helper words go.

Before you free one, check two things: the same person still does the action, and the short verb means the same as the long phrase.

The Cut Test from Discover decides every case: cover the helper words, read the freed verb in their place, and keep the change only if no meaning, tone or emphasis is lost.

Hidden verbs have a look you can learn to spot.

The helper verbs are few: make, give, have, take, carry out, conduct, perform, reach, come to, undertake. When one of them sits in front of a -tion or -ment noun, test the pair.

Watch the small words that follow. Have a discussion about becomes discuss, with no about, because discuss takes its object directly in standard written English: discuss the trip. Give consideration to becomes consider, with no to.

Picture a verb as a runner. Turn it into a noun and you have tied the runner to a chair: decision cannot move on its own, so a porter - made, gave, carried out - has to carry the chair into the sentence. Freeing the verb unties the runner and sends the porter home. But some sentences are about the chair itself - The decision was hers - and there the chair stays.

Hidden verbs hide adjectives' partners too. Is in agreement with becomes agrees with; is dependent on becomes depends on; is supportive of becomes supports; is indicative of becomes shows. The pattern is the same - a form of be propping up a word that could act on its own - and the same test applies: same doer, same meaning, fewer words.

Here is the case that takes judgement: the noun that carries something a verb cannot. We made a difficult decision. We decided, with difficulty. The first sentence puts difficult on the noun, and it reads naturally. Freeing the verb pushes the describing word into a clumsy phrase. Here the hidden verb earns its place, because it gives difficult somewhere to sit. The same is true when the noun is counted or compared: The court made three decisions this week is clearer than The court decided three times this week, which sounds like one question decided again and again. Another case is the noun as the topic of a paragraph. If a report has been talking about the council's plan, the next sentence can start The decision surprised everyone, keeping the reader's attention on the decision rather than on who made it. And some light-verb phrases are fixed English with their own meanings: give a speech, make a living, take a seat, make a mistake. The short verbs speak, live, seat and mistake mean something else. So the question is never 'Is there a -tion here?' It is 'Would the freed verb say the same thing, about the same doer, with nothing lost?'

Freeing hidden verbs does more than save words. It changes who the sentence is about. The committee's recommendation for the expansion of the library received approval from the board. That sentence has three hidden verbs - recommendation, expansion, approval - and the doer of the main action, the board, appears in the last three words. Free them: The board approved the committee's plan to expand the library. Four words shorter, and now the doer comes first and the action second, the order in which a reader wants to meet them. Writers of official reports sometimes use hidden verbs to keep the doer out of view. Freeing them brings people back into the sentence - which is why plain-language editors look for them first.

A hidden verb is not a grammar error: make a decision and give consideration to are standard English, and items here key the freed verb only under a stem that names the aim (fewer words, same meaning). The noun is kept when it is the subject or topic, when it carries a describing word, when no doer is named, or when the short verb means something else (give a speech, make a living). Passives that hide the doer are treated in the next section, and forming the passive belongs to ch08.

1. Look for -tion, -sion, -ment, -ance and -ence nouns after make, give, have, take, carry out, reach or conduct.
2. Try the freed verb in the same sentence.
3. Check that the same person or group still does the action.
4. Check that the short verb means the same as the long phrase.
5. Drop the little word that hung on the noun: discuss the trip, consider the plan.
6. Keep the noun when the sentence is about it, or when it carries a describing word.
7. Never invent a doer to free a verb.
8. Read the result aloud; a freed verb should sound like someone acting.

• Ananya's class made a decision to plant twenty neem trees.
• The panchayat will give consideration to the new road plan.
• Rohan's decision surprised the whole team.
• The police carried out an investigation into the missing painting.
• After an hour, Charlotte reached the conclusion that the map was wrong.
• Yuki and Mateo had a discussion about the school trip.

• Mrs Iyer is in agreement with the parents' plan.
• Deepa gave a speech at the Republic Day assembly.
• The doctor made a suggestion that Arjun rest for a week.
• A decision was made to cancel Harry's concert.
• Emily's team performed a check of all the fire exits.
• Wanjiru's family is dependent on the rains for the harvest.

Active or passive: when it saves words

A passive puts the thing done to first. Whether it costs words depends on the doer.

A by-phrase is the sign. When the passive names its doer, the active is usually shorter. When it names none, the passive is usually the shorter and the more honest choice.

The Cut Test settles each case: cover was and by, move the doer to the front, and keep the change only if no meaning, focus or emphasis is lost.

Spot a passive by its shape: a form of be (is, are, was, were, will be, has been) followed by a verb like made, won, stolen or given. Then look for by.

Notice the third row. Sometimes the best cut is not switching to active but dropping the by-phrase, because the doer was never news.

For how to form the passive in every tense, see ch08.

Think of a sentence as a stage. In an active sentence the actor walks on first and does something. In a passive, the thing that was acted on stands in the spotlight, and the actor - if named at all - enters late, through the by-door. If the audience needs to see the actor, bring them on first and save the extra steps. If nobody knows who the actor was, do not send a stranger called someone onto the stage.

A passive can hide a doer on purpose. Mistakes were made - a phrase officials in many countries have used - is short and grammatical, and it tells the reader nothing about who made them. Short is not the same as clear. When the doer matters to the reader, the active is both shorter and more honest: The council made mistakes. When it does not, the passive's silence is fine.

Here is the case that takes judgement: a passive that names its doer and still earns its place. Our new library opened in June. It was designed by a local architect, Meenal Rao. It has three floors and a reading garden. Turn the middle sentence active and you get A local architect, Meenal Rao, designed it. That is two words shorter. But the paragraph is about the library - every sentence begins with it - and the active version breaks the chain by starting with the architect. Here the passive keeps the reader's attention where the writer has put it. Science writing raises the same question. A method section can say The solution was heated for five minutes or We heated the solution for five minutes. Many older school and university guides asked for the passive; many journals now accept or prefer we. Both are standard. Follow the style your teacher or journal names, and do not key either as wrong. News writing shows a third case. The injured climber was rescued by helicopter. By helicopter is not a doer at all but the means - the pilot's name is not the story. The passive keeps the climber, the person readers care about, at the front. So the question is never 'Is this passive?' It is 'Who is this sentence about, and does the reader need the doer?'

The passive is not always longer. Sometimes it is the shortest sentence available. The road will be closed on Sunday. (7 words) The municipal corporation's roads department will close the road on Sunday. (11 words) The active version names the doer in full, and a notice-reader gains nothing from it. Road signs, labels and notices all over the world lean on the passive for exactly this reason: Parking is not permitted. Shoes must be removed. The doer is obvious or irrelevant, and the passive drops it cleanly. So the advice to cut passives is, underneath, advice to cut by-phrases the reader does not need, and to turn round the ones the reader does. A passive with no doer is often the most concise sentence you can write.

The passive is never keyed wrong in itself; items here key the active only under a fewer-words stem, and only when the passive names a doer the reader needs. A passive whose doer is unknown, obvious or unimportant is kept, and inventing a doer (someone, people) is keyed wrong. Passive or we in science methods is both-standard unless the stem names a style. Forming the passive in every tense belongs to ch08, and moving the focus of a paragraph belongs to ch21.

1. Find each passive: a form of be plus a verb like made, won or stolen.
2. Look for a by-phrase naming the doer.
3. If the reader needs that doer, turn the sentence active and put the doer first.
4. If the reader can guess the doer, cut the by-phrase and keep the passive.
5. If nobody knows who acted, keep the passive; never write someone or people to fill the gap.
6. Keep a passive that holds the paragraph's topic at the front.
7. In a science method, follow the style you are given - passive or we.
8. Count the words before and after; keep the change only if it saves words or adds clarity.

• The quiz was won by Tanvi's team.
• Dev's phone was stolen at the station.
• Board results will be announced on Monday, Zoya's teacher said.
• The cake was eaten by Tom's dog.
• The old bridge was repaired last spring, so Grace can cycle to school.
• The letter was signed by Carlos and Ines.

• The hostel rules were explained by the warden to Rahul.
• Tea is grown on the hills around Darjeeling, Priti told the class.
• Kavya's essay was chosen for the school magazine.
• The seeds were planted by Lily and Sam in March.
• Ella's results were checked twice by the examiners.
• In Hana's lab report, the solution was heated for five minutes.

Hedging or confidence: one honest qualifier

A hedge is a word that softens a claim. One accurate hedge is honest; a stack of them is fog.

The middle column is the target. The last column is right only when the evidence settles the claim.

The Cut Test applies to hedges too: cover one, read again, and ask whether any caution the reader needs has gone. If another hedge still carries it, cut; if it was the only one, keep it.

Hedges come in families. A stack usually mixes two or three.

Stacked hedges do not add up to more caution. I think it might possibly rain is no more careful than It might rain; it is only longer.

To choose the one to keep, match it to the evidence. Likely but unproven? Probably. Possible? May or might. Evidence from a study? Suggests. Your own view in an opinion piece? In my view, once, at the start.

Think of a claim as a signpost and each hedge as a sheet of tracing paper laid over it. One sheet softens the arrow but you can still read where it points. Stack four sheets and the arrow disappears. Tear every sheet away when you are not sure of the road, and you send travellers the wrong way with total confidence. Leave one sheet - the right thickness for what you know.

In opinion writing, one signal of personal view is enough, and it belongs at the start. In my humble opinion, I personally think the fee is too high stacks four markers of the same thing. In my view, the fee is too high - or simply The fee is too high in an essay the reader knows is yours - keeps the claim and drops the fog. How strongly to argue a case is a question for the persuasion chapter; this section only trims the stack.

Here is the case that takes judgement: two hedges that do different jobs. Early results suggest the new filter may remove most of the dust. That sentence has two hedges, suggest and may. Is it a stack? Look at what each one qualifies. Suggest says the evidence is early and limited. May says the filter might not work every time. Two separate doubts, two words. Cutting either one changes what the writer is claiming. Compare: I think the filter might possibly work. Here I think, might and possibly all soften the same thing - whether the filter works. That is a stack. The test, then, is not 'count the hedges'. It is 'what is each hedge softening?' If two hedges soften the same claim, keep the more accurate one. If they soften different parts of the claim, both may be needed. One more point about evidence verbs. Scientists write The data suggest in the plural and many other writers write The data suggests; both are standard. What matters here is that suggest does honest work in a sentence about limited data - and that seem to suggest would be one hedge too many.

Careful scientists hedge more, not less. A research paper about a new treatment rarely says This cures the illness. It is far more likely to say These results suggest the treatment may reduce symptoms in some patients. To a student taught to sound confident, that looks weak. To another scientist, it looks accurate: the claim is exactly as strong as the evidence. But the same papers are edited to remove stacks. It could perhaps be argued that the results might possibly indicate... would not survive a good editor. The skill is not avoiding hedges; it is placing one precise hedge where the doubt actually is, and none where it is not. So the writers who sound most careful are often the most concise.

A single hedge is never keyed wrong; one honest qualifier is both-standard with a plain claim unless the stem says the evidence settles the question. Stacks are keyed only under a stem that names the aim (fewest words, same caution). Cutting the only hedge on a claim the stem calls uncertain is keyed wrong. Data suggest and data suggests are both standard. In my view, used once, is standard in opinion writing. How strongly to argue belongs to ch29.

1. Underline every hedge in a claim.
2. Ask what each hedge softens.
3. Where two or more soften the same thing, keep one.
4. Choose the one that matches the evidence: probably for likely, may for possible, suggests for a study.
5. Keep that one hedge when the evidence is limited.
6. Cut all hedges only from settled facts.
7. In an opinion piece, signal your view once, at the start.
8. Read the claim aloud; it should sound clear and exactly as sure as you are.

• I think it might possibly rain during Aditi's match.
• The survey suggests that most students in Pune walk to school.
• It could perhaps be argued that Nikhil's plan is maybe too costly.
• Harriet's results seem to suggest that the plant grows faster in sunlight.
• Freddie's notes say the bridge is probably safe, but no engineer has checked it yet.
• Lucia says the museum is perhaps possibly closed on Mondays.

• The weather office says heavy rain is likely in Kerala this week.
• In my humble opinion, I personally think the hostel fee is too high, Sneha wrote.
• Ravi's lab tests show the water is safe to drink.
• Amelia's answer was sort of kind of right.
• It is possible that the train could be delayed, Jacob warned.
• Amara's data suggest that the river is getting warmer.

Clauses into phrases: who is, which was

A relative clause that starts with who, which or that plus a form of be can often lose those two words.

The clause must mean the same after the cut, and its time must survive.

The Cut Test does the checking: cover who is or which was, read the sentence again, and keep the cut only if no fact, time or meaning has gone.

What follows who is or which was decides what the phrase becomes.

Notice the commas in the fourth row. A clause set off by commas adds extra information; when it shrinks, the commas stay around the phrase.

Notice the last row too. A single describing word moves in front of the noun: a task which is difficult becomes a difficult task, not a task difficult.

For the full grammar of relative clauses and phrases, see ch09 (Phrases) and ch10 (Clauses and Conjunctions).

Think of a relative clause as a small carriage coupled to a noun, pulled by an engine called who is or which was. For most short trips, you can unhook the engine and the carriage still rolls - standing by the door, built in 1650. But some carriages carry a timetable: will, used to, can. Unhook the engine from those and the timetable falls off, and the carriage arrives at the wrong time.

When the relative word is the object of its clause - the film that we watched, the book which Priya wrote - English lets you drop it on its own: the film we watched, the book Priya wrote. Both forms are standard, and neither is keyed wrong without a fewer-words stem. Only the relative word goes here, because the clause has its own subject (we, Priya) and its own verb, and those carry meaning.

Here is the case that takes judgement: a shrink that makes the reader stumble. Linguists use a famous puzzle sentence: The horse raced past the barn fell. Most readers stop halfway. Raced looks like the main verb - the horse raced - and then fell arrives with nowhere to go. Put the clause back and the puzzle vanishes: The horse that was raced past the barn fell. Someone raced the horse, and it fell. The shrunk version is grammatical, and it is two words shorter. But the reader has to read it twice, and a sentence read twice has cost more time than the words it saved. The same trap appears in everyday writing. The students given the award were thanked reads smoothly because given cannot be the main verb. The students called to the stage cheered can wobble: were the students calling, or were they called? The students who were called to the stage cheered costs two words and removes the wobble. So after every shrink, read the sentence once, fast, as a stranger would. If you stumble at the verb, put who was or which was back. Conciseness saves the reader's time; a trap costs it.

Newspapers shrink clauses so often that readers stop noticing. A report might say: A fort built in 1650 has reopened after repairs funded by the state. Written in full, that is: A fort which was built in 1650 has reopened after repairs which were funded by the state. Four words longer, and no clearer. The surprise is how many of these phrases we read every day without seeing the missing words: the man in the blue shirt (who is in), a book written for children (which was written), students aged 12 to 16 (who are aged). Every one is a shrunk clause. English speakers make the cut so naturally that the full clause can sound stiff by comparison. Which is why the skill in this section is less about learning to shrink - you already do it - than about noticing the few clauses that must not shrink.

A full relative clause is never a grammar error; items here key the shrunk phrase only under a stem that names the aim (fewer words, same meaning). A shrink is keyed wrong when it drops a time (will, used to), an ability (can) or a meaning, or when it strands a describing word after the noun. Dropping an object that or which (the film we watched) is both-standard. The full grammar of phrases and clauses belongs to ch09 and ch10.

1. Find each who, which and that.
2. Look for a form of be straight after it: is, are, was, were.
3. Cover those two words and read the sentence again.
4. Keep the cut if the fact, the time and the meaning survive.
5. Keep the clause if it carries will, used to or can.
6. Keep the commas when the clause was set off by commas.
7. Move a single describing word to the front: a difficult task.
8. Read the result fast; if you stumble at the verb, put the clause back.

• The girl who is standing by the door is Ishita's cousin.
• The fort which was built in 1650 stands above Meena's village.
• Varun is the boy who will lead the parade.
• Isla's uncle, who is a pilot, flies to Glasgow each week.
• Henry met a man who had great courage.
• The books that are on Kofi's desk are due back today.

• Chennai, which is the capital of Tamil Nadu, hosts a large book fair every year, Lakshmi told us.
• The film that Rohit watched ran for three hours.
• Pooja, who was tired after the exam, slept early.
• The man who was selling tickets for Freya's play had left by noon.
• Jake is looking for someone who can speak Welsh.
• Mateo crossed a bridge which was made of rope.

Cutting to a word limit

Cut in this order. Most drafts reach the limit by step 4.

Count after each step. Stop as soon as you are under the limit.

Every step is the Cut Test at speed: cover the words, read again, and cut only if no meaning, tone or needed emphasis is lost.

Here is the science-fair report cut step by step.

No main point went. Step 5 was never needed.

How to count: a word is whatever sits between two spaces, so a number (10) is one word and a hyphenated word (prize-giving) is usually one. Exam papers and forms sometimes set their own rules - follow the paper's instructions when they differ.

Think of packing a bag with a weight limit for a flight. You do not start by throwing out your passport. You take out the second jumper, the empty wrappers, the three chargers where one will do. Only if the bag is still too heavy do you choose which book to leave behind. The passport - the main point - goes in first and comes out never.

A character limit behaves differently from a word limit. Some social media posts, text boxes and headlines count characters, not words, and there a long word costs more than a short one. When Twitter raised its limit from 140 to 280 characters in 2017, writers found that as saved more than because, and & more than and. Under a word limit, because and as cost the same - one word each - so choose the clearer one.

Here is the case that takes judgement: you have cut all the waste and you are still over. Say the science-fair report must be no more than 45 words. The fillers, wordy phrases and clauses have all gone, and it is still 50 words long. Now step 5 begins: choosing a minor detail. Ask what the reader needs. The fair happened, it was a success, a solar cooker by Aisha and Karan won, and next year's fair is in March. Those are the main points. The forty projects and Classes 6 to 10 are supporting detail; the rain and the move to the hall are an aside. Cut the aside first - it is the least connected to the main points - and you drop nine words: Because it rained, the prize-giving moved inside the hall. That brings you to 41, under the limit. Notice what did not happen. No the or a went; no sentence became a telegram. Step 5 removes whole details, cleanly, so what is left still reads as English. And if a task sets a minimum as well as a maximum, the same order runs backwards: add a fact, a reason or an example, never a filler.

A strict word limit can make writing better, not just shorter. The Gettysburg Address, one of the most quoted speeches in English, runs to about 270 words. Newspaper editors have long written headlines to fit a fixed width, and scientists write abstracts to a word limit that journals set. Each limit forces the writer to decide what the main point is - something a writer with unlimited space can put off for ever. Many writers draft long and cut to a limit on purpose, even when nobody sets one. The cutting order in this section is the reason it works: the first 20 per cent of a cut is almost always waste, and removing it costs the reader nothing. So when a task says 50 words, treat the limit less as a wall and more as an editor.

Going over a stated limit and cutting a main point are keyed wrong; the order of cuts is taught as a method, and items key it only where one choice removes a main point or leaves waste in place. Counting rules vary; the section describes the common one (words between spaces) and tells learners to follow the paper's own instructions. The Twitter limit (140, raised to 280 characters in 2017) and the Gettysburg Address (about 270 words) are stated as documented facts, the second hedged. Cutting too far is treated in full two sections on.

1. Count the draft, check the task's counting rules, and note how many words must go.
2. Mark the main points; they are not for cutting.
3. Cut anything said twice.
4. Cut fillers and stacked hedges.
5. Swap wordy phrases for short ones.
6. Free hidden verbs, trim passives and shrink clauses.
7. Still over? Drop the minor detail least connected to the main points.
8. Count again, and read the result aloud to check it is still English, not a telegram.

• Anjali's report was, basically, finished on time.
• Due to the fact that the road was flooded, Vikram's bus was late.
• Sanjay's dance group, which was formed in May, won first prize.
• The committee made a decision to repaint the hall, Olivia wrote.
• The trip was fun and it was enjoyable, and Thomas wants to go again.
• The concert starts at 7 pm in the main hall, Aiko's poster says.

• In my opinion, I think the canteen should open at 8, Ritu wrote.
• Faisal's match was cancelled because of rain, as it was raining heavily.
• At this point in time, Gaurav's team is in second place.
• There are twenty students who have signed up for the trip, Mia says.
• The final whistle blew at 5.30, and Charlie's team had won 2-1.
• Please bring a packed lunch, Mr Okafor reminded the class, because the cafe will be closed.

Summaries and précis

A summary sorts before it cuts. Every sentence in a passage is a main idea, a supporting example or a minor detail - or, in your draft, something you added.

A précis keeps the writer's view as the writer's: The writer argues that... It follows the writer's order and adds no fact the passage does not give.

The Cut Test works here on whole sentences: cover one and ask whether a main idea of the passage is lost - if only an example goes, cut it.

A précis is built in five moves, and cutting is only one of them.

Your own words do not mean every word must change. Key terms - solar pumps, wells - stay, because there is no better word for them. What changes is the sentence: three of the writer's sentences can become one of yours, joined by and, but or so.

Watch the verbs that report the writer. Argues, suggests, claims and shows are not the same. If the writer suggests, your précis must not say the writer proves.

Think of a précis as a map of a city, not a photograph of one street. The map shows every main road in its right place and leaves out the shops, the signboards and the parked cars. It never adds a road that is not there, and it never paints one road gold because the mapmaker likes it. A photograph of one lively street - the best example - is vivid, but it is not the city.

A précis at a set length is a word-limit task with one extra rule: the ideas must be the writer's. So the cutting order from the last section still applies - repetition, fillers, wordy phrases and hidden verbs first, then examples and minor details - but main ideas and the writer's turns are never cut to make the count. If the main ideas alone run over the limit, join them into fewer sentences rather than dropping one.

Here is the case that takes judgement: telling a main idea from an example when the writer leans on the example. Some writers build a whole argument on one case. A passage might tell the story of a single school that banned phones in class, describe what changed there, and end: What happened at this school could happen anywhere. Cut the school and the précis has nothing left to report. The test is to ask what the writer wants the reader to believe at the end. If the example is the evidence and the belief is stated, the précis keeps the belief and names the evidence in a few words: One school's phone ban, the writer argues, shows that... If the writer never states the belief outright, you state it for them - carefully, with a reporting verb that matches their strength. A second hard case is disagreement. The writer argues that homework should end at Class 5, and you think that is wrong. The précis still says: The writer argues that homework should end at Class 5. It does not say wrongly, and it does not quietly soften argues into suggests. Your view belongs in a separate answer, if the task asks for one. When unsure, read your précis to someone who has not seen the passage and ask what the writer thinks. If their answer matches the passage, the précis has done its job.

A précis can be truer to the writer while using almost none of the writer's words. Compare two versions of the solar-pump passage. The first strings together copied phrases: women and girls walked for hours... the well often ran dry... solar-powered pumps... reaches school on time. Nearly every word is the writer's, yet the reader cannot tell what the writer is arguing. The second shares little wording with the passage: The writer argues that solar pumps give villages back the hours once spent fetching water. It is mostly new words, and it is the faithful one. The surprise runs the other way too. A précis made of the writer's exact sentences can still misreport the writer, if it keeps the example and drops the conclusion. Faithfulness lives in the ideas and their order, not in the words.

A summary here reports the main ideas; an opinion, a new fact or a stronger or weaker reporting verb is never keyed as acceptable. Length targets are the ones a task sets: this section states no fixed fraction for every précis, because papers and teachers set their own, and Master returns to exam précis. Key terms may stay in the writer's wording. Items that ask for the best précis sentence give the passage in the stem, so the answer rests on what the passage says, not on general knowledge. Titles in title case and in sentence case are both accepted.

1. Read the passage twice before you write a word, once for the whole and once for its parts.
2. Say the main idea aloud in one sentence.
3. Underline main ideas; bracket examples and minor details.
4. Rewrite the main ideas in your own sentences, in the writer's order, joining several into one where you can.
5. Keep the writer's turns: however, but, so.
6. Report the writer's view with a verb at the writer's strength - argues, suggests, shows.
7. Add no opinion and no fact the passage does not give, even a true one.
8. Count, cut the waste, then give the précis a title that names its main idea.

• Ananya's précis begins: The writer argues that solar pumps give villages back their time.
• Farhan's draft reads: The wells ran dry, and in summer the wells often had no water.
• Meenal wrote: Due to the fact that the pumps use sunlight, they cost little to run.
• Oliver's précis kept the turn: However, replanting costs less than building sea walls.
• Grace's first draft included: One library in a small town lends forty laptops.
• Yuki's summary basically says that libraries now lend laptops as well as books.

• Ishaan joined three sentences into one: Libraries now lend laptops, so students without computers can work.
• Riya's précis title, Solar Pumps Save Village Time, names the main idea.
• Sana's draft said the pumps, which are powered by the sun, save hours each day.
• Harry's précis keeps the writer's caution: the results suggest that school gardens help children eat vegetables.
• Emily's précis at this point in time runs to 52 words, twelve over the limit.
• In Nairobi, Amara summarised the passage for a class who had not read it.

When shorter is worse: cutting too far

A cut goes too far when it takes away something the reader needs. Five things are most often lost.

Notes, texts and headlines drop small words by habit, and that is right for them. The question is always whether this reader can still follow without asking.

The Cut Test's last step is the guard: if a cut loses meaning, a link, tone or clarity, keep the words - and if the text reads like a telegram, you have cut too far.

The hardest over-cuts to see are the ones the writer can still read - because the writer already knows what is missing.

Noun stacks deserve a special watch. Each noun leans on the next, and the reader must work backwards from the last word to find out what the phrase is about. Two nouns together are normal (school bus, exam hall); four or five are a stack. Unpack a stack with of, for or to.

So when you check a cut, read it as the reader, not as the writer. Ask what a stranger would have to guess.

Think of a message as a bridge between you and your reader. Taking out loose planks - fillers, repeats, wordy phrases - makes the bridge lighter and the crossing quicker. But some pieces are not planks; they are the bolts that hold the bridge together: because, not, only, please, who and when. Take out a bolt to save weight, and the reader falls through the gap.

This is where conciseness meets the next chapter. Link words - because, however, so, although - carry the logic between ideas, and Transitions and Flow (ch21) builds them in full. Here the rule is simpler: a link is never waste. When you cut a sentence down, check that every because, however and so that carried the reasoning is still there, or the reader gets facts without the thread that joins them.

Here is the case that takes judgement: the same cut is right for one reader and too far for another. Gone to clinic. Back at 4. Keys with Mrs Das. On the fridge for a family member, this note is perfect. It drops small words, as notes do, and every fact the reader needs - where, when, where the keys are - is there. Now send the same ten words as an email to a new tenant who has never met Mrs Das. Who is Mrs Das? Which clinic? Back at 4 today? The words have not changed; the reader has. So too far is not a fixed length. It is the point where this reader has to guess. For a close reader with shared context, a short note is concise. For a stranger, the same note is over-cut, and the concise version is longer: I have gone to the clinic and will be back at 4 pm; the keys are with Mrs Das at number 12. The same test settles politeness. Close the door is complete to a sibling. To a guest, Could you close the door, please? is the concise version, because the courtesy is part of the message. When unsure, name the reader first. Then cut until one more cut would make that reader ask a question - and stop there.

When people paid for telegrams by the word, senders cut hard - and the risk of over-cutting was well known. A message such as ARRIVING TUESDAY STOP could leave the reader asking which Tuesday, and at which station. The surprise is that telegram writers themselves learned to put words back. Senders often kept the details that prevented a second, more expensive exchange: the time, the place, the name. Paying for two extra words was cheaper than paying for a whole reply. Messaging apps are free, but the same sum still holds. A reply that asks which one? costs the reader's time and yours. The cheapest message is not the shortest one; it is the one that needs no reply to make sense.

A cut is keyed too far only when it loses something the stem or context shows the reader needs: a fact, a link, a not or only, politeness to a named stranger, or readability. Notes, texts and headlines that drop small words within their genre are standard and never keyed wrong on their own; the next two sections treat office English and headlines. Two nouns together (exam hall) are normal; a stack is keyed only where it forces a reread. Link words are treated here only as things a cut must keep; ch21 teaches them in full.

1. Name the reader before you cut anything.
2. After each cut, read the text as a stranger would, not as the writer who already knows.
3. Keep who, what, when and where unless the reader already knows them.
4. Keep every because, however and so that carries the reasoning.
5. Never cut a not, an only or a number from an instruction.
6. Keep please and could you when writing to someone you do not know.
7. Unpack a stack of three or more nouns with of, for or to.
8. Stop cutting when one more cut would make the reader ask a question, and put back any word that answers one.

• Neha wrote to the manager: My report will be late because the server is down.
• Kabir asked the clerk at the passport office, Could you please stamp this form?
• Ms Iyer's notice reads: The hostel fee deadline has been extended to 30 June.
• Jack's safety sign says: Do not open this door while the train is moving.
• Chloe's email ends: However, the second draft will be ready on Monday.
• Luca's note to a new neighbour said: Please park on the left, not the right.

• Arjun cut return back to return, and nothing was lost.
• Pooja's fridge note reads: Gone to the clinic, back at 4, keys with Mrs Das.
• Rahul read the bank's sign: Lockers may be opened only in the presence of staff.
• Sophie wrote a request to extend the fee deadline instead of a fee deadline extension request.
• Tom's recipe says: Add the flour slowly, or the batter will go lumpy.
• Aiko kept the link: The trains were late, so the concert started at nine.

Emails and office English: kindly do the needful

An office phrase is judged by its reader, not by a rule. Ask two questions: does this reader know the phrase, and does the email say what the task is?

Under an aim of fewer words with the same meaning, revert back is a doubled word, exactly like return back: cut back.

The Cut Test still decides: cover a phrase, and ask whether this reader loses meaning, politeness or the task itself.

Most wordy emails are not long because of one phrase. They are long because the task is wrapped in layers.

Notice the last row. Please, kindly and could you are not waste in an email to a client, a teacher or a stranger; they are part of the message. Cutting them saves a word and costs goodwill.

Indian English forms are standard, and many are shorter than their twins elsewhere: prepone is one word for bring forward, and out of station is short for away from the city. Use them freely with readers who share them. With readers abroad, pick the form they will read at once.

Think of an office email as a parcel. The task is what is inside. Kindly do the needful is a label that says 'contents: what you expect' - perfect if the person receiving it packed it with you, useless to a stranger. Layers of formal phrases are extra wrapping paper. Courtesy is the handle - small, and it makes the parcel easier to carry. A good email has a clear label, little wrapping and a handle.

Register - how formal or friendly to be - belongs to Tone and Register (ch22), which treats it in full. This section treats office phrases only as a question of words and readers: does the phrase carry the task, and will this reader understand it? A short phrase that the reader must look up is not concise for that reader, and a long phrase the reader skims past adds weight without meaning.

Here is the case that takes judgement: one email going to readers in several countries. A project coordinator in Bengaluru writes to a team of eight: four in India, two in Singapore, one in Nairobi and one in Leeds. The draft says: PFA the updated schedule. Kindly revert with your inputs by EOD. The call is preponed to 3 pm IST. For the four Indian readers, every phrase is familiar. For the others, some phrases may slow them down: PFA and EOD are office short forms not every reader uses, revert usually means go back to an earlier state outside South Asia, and prepone is common in Indian English but less known elsewhere. None of the phrases is wrong. But the email's job is to reach all eight readers at once, and a version every reader can act on is: I've attached the updated schedule. Please send your comments by 6 pm IST today. The call is now earlier, at 3 pm IST. It is about the same length. What changed is that every phrase now travels. When one email has many readers, write for the reader furthest from your own office - the others lose nothing.

Some Indian English office words are shorter than the forms they replace elsewhere. Prepone is one word for bring forward or move earlier, and it pairs neatly with postpone. Out of station says in three words what others say as away from the city on work. Revert, meaning reply, is a single word too. So the English that is sometimes called wordy is, in these cases, the more concise one. The catch is the reader: a single word saves nothing if the reader has to stop and look it up. Conciseness is measured in the reader's time, not in the writer's word count - which is why the same word can be concise in Chennai and slow in Chicago.

Indian English forms (prepone, revert meaning reply, out of station, do the needful, PFA) are standard and are never keyed as errors; items ask which wording suits a named reader. Please find attached and I've attached are both standard. Revert back is keyed as a doubled word only under a stem that names a fewer-words aim, exactly like return back. Statements about how readers abroad may read revert or prepone are hedged as may or can, since readers differ. Register in full is left to ch22.

1. Name your reader before you write the first line.
2. Say the task in the email: what, by when, and to whom.
3. Start with the news, not with I am writing to inform you.
4. Keep please, kindly and could you - courtesy is part of the message.
5. Use Indian English forms freely with readers who share them.
6. For readers abroad, choose reply for revert and earlier for prepone.
7. Spell out short forms such as PFA and EOD in a first email to someone new.
8. Under a fewer-words aim, cut the doubled word in revert back, just as in return back.
9. Before sending, ask whether the reader could act without writing back.

• Mr Rao's email to the accounts team said: Kindly do the needful.
• Priyanka rewrote it for a new vendor: Please send the signed form by Friday.
• Deepak asked the Delhi team to revert by Monday.
• Hannah's cover email began: Please find attached the report.
• Liam's reply to a colleague said: I've attached the report.
• Mei's draft said: Please revert back by noon.

• Sunita's office preponed the parents' meeting to 9 am.
• Vikram's out-of-office reply says: Out of station till 12 May.
• Ayesha's notice opens: We would like to inform you that the lab is closed on Saturday.
• George's email to a supplier asks: Could you possibly send the figures by Thursday?
• Amelia wrote: At this point in time, the budget is fixed.
• Carlos, a supplier in Madrid, replied: Which task do you mean by the needful?

Headlines, texts and captions

Headlines, texts and captions each drop words by their own rules. Inside the genre, that is correct.

The same compression is out of place in an essay or a formal letter, and a headline written in full sentences is out of place on a news page. Match the style to the genre.

The Cut Test still applies inside each genre: cover a word and ask whether the reader loses a fact - a headline can drop the, but never the place or the number.

Headlinese has a small grammar of its own. Learn it and you can read and write headlines quickly.

Two warnings. First, headline words are short on purpose - bid, row, quits, held - but they must still be clear: Minister to quit means the minister is expected to leave, not that it has already happened. Second, texts compress only as far as the reader shares the context. Running late, 10 min is complete to a friend waiting for you; it is too little for a grandparent who does not know where you are meeting.

Think of genres as rooms with dress codes. A newspaper headline is a sports ground: short, quick kit is the rule, and a three-piece suit would look odd. A text to a friend is your own kitchen: come as you are. An essay and a formal letter are an interview room: full dress. None of the outfits is wrong - only the outfit in the wrong room.

The present tense in headlines is sometimes called the headline present: Council bans plastic bags describes a recent past event as if it were happening now, which makes news feel immediate and saves the words has or had. The same present tense is used in captions (Aditi receives the trophy) for the moment the photo shows. In a report or essay about the same event, write the past tense: The council banned plastic bags last week.

Here is the case that takes judgement: a headline so compressed it can be read two ways. Headline writers stack nouns and drop small words, and sometimes the result is ambiguous. Most headlines are read correctly at once, because readers know how headlines work. But a phrase such as Teacher strikes idle kids can be read as a teacher striking idle children or as strikes by teachers leaving children idle. The words are the same; the grammar is not. The fix is not to write in full sentences. It is to check each headline as a first-time reader and change one word if a second reading exists: Teachers' strike leaves pupils idle. Captions and texts have their own version. See you at the gate after the match, not the canteen is clear; Gate after match not canteen may be read as not after the match. The punctuation and small words that a text drops sometimes carry the meaning. So compression within a genre is right, but it is not unlimited. The Cut Test still applies: if a reader could take the words two ways, put one word back.

Headlinese reads strangely out of context, yet readers of newspapers in many countries learn it without being taught. Consider three habits. Past events are told in the present: Storm uproots trees. Future events are told with to: Council to ban plastic bags. And forms of be vanish from passives: Three held for theft means three people were held. No school lesson covers this, and yet a regular reader of Indian, British or American newspapers decodes it at a glance. The same is true of text-message shorthand: most people read Running late, 10 min faster than the full sentence. The surprise is that both styles are highly rule-bound. They are not English with pieces missing; they are genres with their own grammar - which is exactly why they look odd when moved into an essay.

Headlinese, text-message compression and caption style are standard within their genres and are never keyed wrong on their own; items key them out of place only when the stem names an essay, a formal letter or a reader who lacks the context. Headline habits are described as common practice, since newspapers set their own style. Title-case and sentence-case headlines are both accepted. Text shortenings (min, pls) are accepted in texts to close readers and keyed only where the stem names a formal reader. Sentence rhythm and length for effect belong to ch24.

1. Name the genre before you choose how much to compress.
2. In headlines, drop articles and forms of be, but keep every fact.
3. Use the present for a recent past event and to + verb for the future.
4. Read each headline as a first-time reader and fix any second meaning.
5. In texts, compress only as far as your reader shares the context.
6. In captions, name who and what is in the picture, and where to look.
7. Never carry headline or text style into an essay or formal letter.
8. Write a formal request in full sentences, with please, whatever the medium.
9. When in doubt about the reader, write the fuller version.

• Ritika's school newsletter ran the headline: Class 9 wins state quiz.
• Imran read the headline aloud: PM to visit Chennai.
• Nikhil texted a friend waiting at the cinema: Running late, 10 min.
• Lucy's caption reads: The winning team (front row) after the final.
• Ben's essay began: Rain lashes city, schools shut.
• Omar's first text to a new tutor said: Could we move Tuesday's lesson to 5 pm?

• Sneha's report ran under the headline: Council to ban plastic bags.
• Aditya's caption: Students of Class 8 planting saplings near the gate.
• Farah's first draft headline was: It has been announced that the bridge will open on Sunday.
• Oscar's message to the class group said: Match moved to Sat, 9 am, same ground.
• Isla's formal letter to the council said: Please repair the streetlight outside 14 Park Road.
• Chen's photo caption reads: Lanterns over the river, Mid-Autumn Festival.

Edit for a real reader

An edit for a real reader sorts every candidate into one of two lists: cut, or keep with a reason.

The Cut Test runs on every line: cover the words, ask whether this reader loses meaning, tone or emphasis - cut if nothing is lost, keep if something is.

The order of work matters. Editors make the big, safe savings first and leave the judgement calls for last.

Notice what does not change. Kindly do the needful is standard Indian English, and cutting it here is not a correction - the tasks are already named in the lines above, so the pointer adds nothing for any reader. And not every passive goes: Lost property will be kept at the office stays, because who keeps it does not matter to a parent.

A good edit is mostly keeping. In the notice, most words survive; the edit removes the layers around them.

Think of editing as pruning a tree, not cutting it down. The gardener removes dead twigs (fillers), crossing branches (repeats) and suckers that steal strength (wordy phrases). But the gardener never cuts the branches that carry fruit - the facts - or the ones that hold the tree's shape - the links and the courtesy. A pruned tree is smaller and healthier; a felled one is shortest of all, and useless.

This capstone uses every Craft section: hidden verbs (S21), active or passive (S22), stacked hedges (S23), clauses into phrases (S24), word limits (S25), summaries (S26), cutting too far (S27), office English (S28) and genre (S29). Master takes the same judgement further - where the call for plain writing came from, when more words are better, how fields such as law and science draw the line, and how to defend an edit under exam conditions.

Here is the case that takes judgement: knowing when to stop. The edited charity-run notice is 59 words, well inside the 80-word limit. Could it lose more? Dear parents could go - but a notice from the council to families reads coldly without it. The annual could go - but it tells parents this is the usual event, not a new one. The police have checked the route could go - but parents sending young children onto closed roads want to know it. Each of those words is a choice, not waste, and each has a reason a parent would recognise. Cutting them would make the notice shorter and worse. The opposite mistake is just as real. An editor who stops at 80 words because the limit is met may leave return back and a free gift standing. The limit is a ceiling, not a target. The test is not how many words remain but whether each one does a job. So the stopping rule is the Cut Test's last step, applied line by line: cover each remaining word and ask what this reader would lose. When the answer is something every time, the edit is finished - however many words that leaves.

The best edit of a text can leave most of its words untouched. Count the charity-run notice. The draft has 90 words; the edit has 59. Yet nearly every word of the edit comes from the draft: the date, the time, the back gate, the raincoat, the police, the 10 am return. What went was mostly wrapping - It is important to note that, Due to the fact that, We have made a decision to, We think it might possibly, return back, Kindly do the needful. That is the surprise: conciseness is rarely about finding clever short words. It is about removing layers so the words that were always doing the work can be seen. The facts, the courtesy and the links were in the draft all along; the edit simply stopped hiding them.

Edits are keyed only against the named readers and aim in each stem: a fewer-words aim, a word limit, or a reader such as parents abroad. Please, a needed so or because, one honest may, a passive whose doer is unknown or unimportant, and every fact are keyed as keeps. Kindly do the needful is standard Indian English; it is cut here only because the tasks are already named, and it is never called an error. The word counts of the draft (90) and edit (59) are counted from the texts given. The Master band takes up history, fields and exams.

1. Name the reader and the aim before you touch a word.
2. Cut empty openers and pointers whose task is already stated.
3. Swap wordy phrases and hidden verbs for their short forms.
4. Cut doubled words, redundant modifiers and fillers.
5. Turn a passive active when the doer matters; keep it when the doer is unknown.
6. Keep one honest hedge and cut the rest.
7. Read the result as the reader: is every fact, link and please still there?
8. Write a reason beside every cut and every keep.
9. Stop when every word does a job - under the limit is not the aim.

• Mrs Menon's draft said: It is important to note that the run starts at 7 am.
• Nandini's draft said: Due to the fact that roads will be closed, use the back gate.
• Kartik wrote: We have made a decision to give each runner a gift.
• Charlotte kept: Please drop your children at the back gate.
• William's line read: We think it might possibly rain on Sunday.
• Rafael kept the passive: Lost property will be kept at the office.

• Tanvi cut one word: Children will return back by 10 am.
• Rohit shrank a clause: Runners who are under ten start at 7.30.
• Shreya kept the link: It may rain, so please send a raincoat.
• Oliver cut the fillers: The route is actually quite flat.
• Grace's draft said: The route has been checked by the police.
• Kwame's email to a sponsor in Accra asked: Could you let us know by Friday?

Thinking like a writer · ages 16–19

A short history of plain writing

Three moments, one idea. Each asks the writer to cut words that do no work - and each keeps the words that do.

Read the middle column and the right-hand column together. Every call for plainness carries its own limit. That limit is the Cut Test's second step: cover the word and ask whether any meaning, tone or needed emphasis is lost.

The same moves keep returning, because the same habits keep returning. Official prose in many countries grew heavy with set phrases, and the reform each time was to put a short form back.

Indian official English inherited much of its style, partly, from British administrative writing, and many of its set phrases share a history with the ones British reformers campaigned against. Those phrases are standard in their setting; the plain-language question is only whether the reader in front of you can follow them.

One more voice, older than both. In a letter of the 1650s, the French writer Blaise Pascal apologised for its length: he had not had the time to make it shorter. Cutting takes more work than writing - which is why the call has to be made again in every generation.

Picture a sculptor's workshop across three centuries. Each sculptor is handed the same block of stone and the same advice: take away what is not the statue. Strunk, Orwell and the plain-language reformers repeat that advice in their own words. But no sculptor is told to take away the face. The chisel stops where the statue begins - and the statue is the meaning, the politeness and the emphasis the reader needs.

This section opens Master by giving the chapter's moves a history. Discover S7 taught the Cut Test; Practice S13 swapped wordy phrases for short twins; Craft S21 freed hidden verbs and Craft S27 showed what happens when a cut goes too far. Here the same moves appear as the programme of Strunk, Orwell and the plain-language reformers. S32 turns to the other side of the argument: when more words are better.

Here is the hard case: a writer who follows Orwell's rule to the letter and gets it wrong. Ananya, a junior officer in a district office, is asked to shorten a notice. The draft reads: "Applicants are kindly requested to note that incomplete forms, including those without a signature, will not be accepted after 5 pm on Friday." Ananya applies "If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out" to every word it is possible to cut, and ends with: "Incomplete forms not accepted." Every cut was possible - the sentence still has grammar of a kind. But three things are gone: the deadline (5 pm on Friday), the example that tells readers what incomplete means (a missing signature), and the one polite word to the public. A reader who arrives on Friday at 4 pm now does not know if the form will be taken. Orwell's own list answers the problem. His rules are there to make meaning clear, and his last rule tells the writer to break any of them rather than write something barbarous. A plain version keeps the facts: "Please sign your form. We cannot accept incomplete or unsigned forms after 5 pm on Friday." It is shorter than the draft and clearer than the cut. The lesson is exact: "possible to cut" means possible without loss. That is the Cut Test's second step, and it was in the rule all along.

The Elements of Style, the book behind "Omit needless words", was itself short: Strunk's first printing was a slim booklet for his own students. Decades later, one of those students, E. B. White, revised and expanded it, and the revised book became one of the best-known style guides in English. A book famous for cutting grew longer - and needed to, because the new readers were not sitting in Strunk's classroom. A second surprise: Orwell's essay warns against worn-out phrases and needless words, yet it runs to several thousand words itself. Length was never the target. Waste was.

Only two dates are stated exactly: 1918 for Strunk's first printing of The Elements of Style and 1946 for Orwell's essay. The rules quoted from them are quoted in full. The plain-language campaigns of the later twentieth century are described without dates or named firsts, because they began at different times in different countries. Pascal's apology is described, not quoted, because the original is in French. The district notice, the officer Ananya and every name in the items are invented.

1. Quote Strunk and Orwell exactly: "Omit needless words"; "If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out."
2. Read the limit inside each rule: needless words, a cut that is possible without loss.
3. Give a date only when you are sure; hedge the rest with "later in the twentieth century".
4. Never write "X invented plain English"; calls for plainness recur.
5. Treat official phrases as standard in their setting, and ask only whether this reader can follow them.
6. Run the Cut Test before you cite a rule: if a cut loses a fact, a condition or a please, the rule does not ask for it.

• Due to the fact that the monsoon arrived late, the Collector's office postponed the meeting.
• It is hereby notified that the Pune office will reopen on Monday.
• The committee will give consideration to Meera's proposal next week.
• Please return the signed form to the council office by Friday.
• Oliver's lease says the tenant shall make payment of the rent on the first of each month.
• In Nairobi, Wanjiru's letter from the bank said the account had been closed by the bank.

• In the event that the train is late, Arjun will call the station.
• At this point in time the exam portal is closed for maintenance.
• The branch will stay closed on Monday, and we apologise for the trouble.
• Hannah's results suggest that the new timetable may reduce delays.
• Residents who are over eighteen may vote in the council election.
• In São Paulo, Beatriz made a decision to rewrite the staff manual.

When more words are better

Four jobs that extra words do. In each, the Cut Test finds a loss - so the words stay.

The Cut Test's second step already asks about tone and emphasis. Protection is meaning in its strongest form: a repeat that stops the reader getting the fact wrong keeps the fact.

Where a mistake is costly, professions build redundancy into their language on purpose.

Rhythm is a separate job. Speeches, sermons and songs repeat an opening phrase so that listeners, who cannot re-read, can follow and remember. Chapter 24 treats rhythm in full; here it is enough to know that a repeat in a speech is often the point.

Picture a bridge with two cables where one would hold the weight. An engineer does not call the second cable waste: if one fails, the bridge stands. Emphasis, politeness and rhythm are like the paint and the railings - not structural, but they decide how people feel crossing. What an engineer does remove is scaffolding left behind after the build. Needless words are scaffolding; a deliberate repeat is the second cable.

This section answers S31 from the other side. Discover S8 kept words for who, what, when and please; Practice S17 kept "each and every" for emphasis; Craft S23 kept one honest hedge and Craft S27 showed the over-cut. Here the keeps are gathered into four named jobs - emphasis, politeness, rhythm, protection. S33 turns to audience: how readers of Indian, British and American English differ on which words count as needed.

Here is the hard case: one sentence with a repeat that earns its place and a repeat that does not, side by side. Ritika, a site manager, writes a safety notice for a building site: "Warning: always, always wear your helmet on site, and please return back your helmet to the store at the end of the day." An editor is asked for fewer words without losing anything the workers need. There are two repeats. "Always, always" says the same word twice. "Return back" says back twice, because return already means give back. Run the Cut Test on each. Cover the second "always": the rule is still stated, but the force is gone, and on a safety notice the force is the point - the writer wants workers to feel it. Keep it. Cover "back": "please return your helmet to the store". Nothing is lost. Cut it. The please stays too: the workers are being asked, not ordered, to do a chore. The edited notice - "Warning: always, always wear your helmet on site, and please return your helmet to the store at the end of the day" - is one word shorter and loses nothing. A lazy edit would have done the opposite, cutting the emphasis and keeping the doubled word. The lesson is exact: judge each repeat by its job, not by the fact that it repeats.

Spelling alphabets exist because English letters sound alike. On a noisy line, B, D, P, T and V are easy to confuse, so radio operators say Bravo, Delta, Papa, Tango and Victor instead - one short letter replaced by a whole word. It is the least concise way to say a letter, and the most reliable. Indian call centres and offices often use their own version: "D for Delhi, M for Mumbai". Different words, the same job - more words so that fewer mistakes are made.

This section describes practices, not the rules of any one organisation: read-backs in air traffic, spelling alphabets on the radio and the telephone, amounts in words and figures, and checks before a dose is given. The radio examples use letters whose code words are the same in every common version of the alphabet. Rhythm in speeches is treated only as a reason to keep a repeat; Chapter 24 treats it in full. The site notice, Ritika and every name in the items are invented.

1. Before cutting a repeat, name its job: emphasis, politeness, rhythm or protection.
2. Keep a repeat the reader should feel, especially in speech and on warnings.
3. Keep please and softer requests to strangers, seniors and clients.
4. Keep protective repeats where a mistake is costly: numbers, doses, names on a phone line.
5. Still cut the repeats with no job - return back, free gift, final end - even in the same sentence.
6. Match the job to the genre: rhythm suits a speech, not a lab report.

• Never, never give up on a patient, Meenakshi told the new nurses.
• Could you possibly send the revised schedule by Thursday, Mr Rao?
• Pay Rs 5,000 (Rupees five thousand only) to Kavitha Stores.
• Descend to four thousand feet, I say again, descend to four thousand feet.
• At the leavers' assembly, Jack said: we came to learn, we came to listen, we came to lead.
• In Seoul, Ji-woo's safety card says: do not use the lift in a fire; use the stairs.

• Please, please call me when you reach the hostel, Aditya.
• The spelling is D for Delhi, E for Egypt, S for Sugar, A for Apple, I for India.
• Would you mind if I closed the window, Aunty?
• To sum up, Tom, we agreed three things: the budget, the date and the venue.
• At the prize-giving, Liam wanted to just really thank everyone for coming.
• In Lagos, Chidi's message said the meeting is at 3 pm (15:00), not 3 am.

Conciseness in Indian English

Set Indian English forms beside their British and American twins and three groups appear.

None of these is an error. The question is fit: will this reader, reading this message, get the meaning without writing back? That is the Cut Test's second step, asked for a named reader.

One rule applies across every variety. A doubled word is doubled wherever it is written.

Notice what is and is not keyed. Revert is standard; revert back is doubled, exactly as return back is. The fewer-words stem treats Indian English and British English alike - it cuts the doubled word and leaves the variety alone.

Some forms are also used outside India. Revert meaning reply appears in office English in parts of South and South-East Asia, and many British dictionaries now list prepone, marked as Indian English. Varieties borrow from each other; the reader decides which form is clear.

Picture three power sockets: Indian, British and American. Each is standard in its own country, and a plug that fits one is not faulty because it does not fit the next. A traveller does not call a socket wrong - they carry an adapter. Choosing prepone or brought forward is choosing the plug for the socket in front of you. The one thing that is faulty everywhere is a doubled plug - revert back - that fits nothing better for the extra pin.

This section builds on S32's point that the reader decides which words are needed. Discover S4 and Practice S11 cut doubled words such as return back; Craft S28 met kindly do the needful and please find attached as office English. Here those forms are set beside their twins in other varieties, with audience as the test. S34 turns to another kind of pair - doublets and fixed pairs such as null and void - and why some pairs must stay.

Here is the hard case: one email, two readers. Deepak, a project lead in Hyderabad, writes to the team: "The client review is preponed to Monday. PFA the revised slides. Kindly revert back with comments by Friday." The team reads it in a few seconds. Every form is familiar, and the message is short. Now Deepak copies the same email to the client, Charlotte, in Manchester, who has never worked with an Indian office. Run the Cut Test for each reader. For the team, one word goes: back, because revert already means reply. Everything else is clear and concise. For Charlotte, the question changes. Preponed may be unfamiliar. PFA may be unfamiliar. Revert may read as "go back to an earlier version". The email is short, but the reader may lose the meaning three times. So Deepak writes the client's version with twins she knows: "The review has moved to Monday, a day earlier. I've attached the revised slides. Could you send your comments by Friday?" It is longer by a few words. For Charlotte, it is the concise version - nothing is lost and nothing needs a reply to explain it. The lesson is exact: concise is measured for a reader. The same form can be the shortest clear choice for one reader and the longest route to meaning for another. Only revert back is doubled for both.

Prepone is a neat piece of word-building: it takes postpone, which means move later, and swaps post (after) for pre (before). British English has no common everyday one-word opposite of postpone (advance is formal and less used in this sense), so prepone fills a real gap. Many British dictionaries now list it, marked as Indian English. A second surprise: cousin-brother is longer than cousin, and still the concise choice for many Indian writers. Cousin tells the reader nothing about gender; cousin-brother does it in one hyphenated word, where British English would need "my male cousin" or a name.

This section describes Indian English forms as standard in their variety and judges them by audience fit only. Statements about use outside India are hedged: revert meaning reply appears in office English in parts of South and South-East Asia, and many British dictionaries list prepone as Indian English. No usage survey is cited. Register in full belongs to Chapter 22. Deepak, Charlotte and every name in the items are invented.

1. Treat prepone, revert, out of station, PFA and cousin-brother as standard Indian English.
2. Before sending, name the reader: an Indian colleague, your principal, a client abroad.
3. For a reader who may not know a form, use a twin they know - even if it is a word or two longer.
4. Replace do the needful with the action itself when the reader might not know what it is.
5. Cut doubled words in every variety: revert back, return back, reply back.
6. Describe a form by who reads it; never mock or correct a standard variety.

• The exam has been preponed to 3 March, so Kiran is revising tonight.
• Kindly revert by Friday with the signed copy, Mr Iyer.
• Sunita is out of station until Monday; please call the deputy.
• Dear Mr Clarke, I have attached the report and will call you on Friday.
• Please get back to me by Friday, Emma.
• In Singapore, Wei Ling's email to the Chennai office said: PFA the draft; please revert by noon.

• My cousin-brother Rahul is joining us for dinner.
• Anil asked the vendor to revert back by Monday.
• Please do the needful regarding the refund at the earliest.
• The meeting has been brought forward to Tuesday, Sophie.
• Harriet's manager in London wrote: I'll be away from the office until Monday.
• In Dubai, Omar's team writes for clients from twelve countries, so the email says reply, not revert.

Doublets and fixed pairs: null and void

Fixed pairs look like doubled words. Three checks tell them apart.

The Cut Test's second step asks whether anything is lost. For a fixed pair in its genre, something is: the term the genre recognises, or the emphasis the pair carries. For plain repetition, nothing is.

Why does legal English have so many pairs? Historians of the language often give a partial answer. For several centuries, English law was written and argued in a mix of English, French and Latin. Pairing a word from one language with a near-synonym from another may have helped every reader understand, and the habit outlived its reason. The explanation fits some pairs better than others.

Plain-language drafters do sometimes replace a legal pair with one word, but only when they are sure the legal effect is unchanged - that is a lawyer's judgement, not an editor's. Outside law, the everyday pairs work differently: safe and sound and first and foremost are idioms that add warmth or emphasis, both standard, and kept unless a word limit asks for one word.

Picture a pair of chopsticks and a pair of odd socks. Chopsticks come as a pair because the tool is the pair - one chopstick is not half as useful, it is useless for the job. Odd socks are two things that happen to sit together; you could lose one and nothing would change. Null and void in a contract is a pair of chopsticks. Past history is a pair of odd socks. The first question is always: in this kitchen, is it a tool or a coincidence?

This section sharpens Practice S11 (doubled words such as free gift and past history) and Practice S17 (redundant modifiers such as each and every) with a new question: is the pair fixed in its genre? S32 showed that extra words can do a job; S33 showed that the reader decides what is clear. Here the genre decides. S35 widens the view to plain language across law, science and news, where each field draws its own line.

Here is the hard case: the same pair in two genres, on the same desk. Farida, a paralegal in Mumbai, has two documents to edit before lunch. The first is a lease: "If the tenant sublets the flat without written consent, the sublease shall be null and void." The second is the firm's newsletter: "Our office party is off, so last month's plans are now null and void. Each and every one of you is invited to the new date." Run the Cut Test with the genre check. In the lease, cover "and void": "shall be null". Meaning may survive to a lay reader, but the fixed legal term does not, and a court reads the term. The pair stays. Farida is not the person to change it. In the newsletter, null and void is a borrowed legal pair used for effect - a small joke about cancelled plans. If the editor has asked for fewer words, "last month's plans are cancelled" does the job. Each and every is standard emphasis; under the same aim, "All of you are invited" is shorter. Without that aim, both pairs are standard and may stay. The lesson is exact: the same two words are a fixed term in one genre and a style choice in the next. Identify the genre before you judge the pair.

Many fixed pairs keep their order for reasons of sound. Shorter word first is common - salt and pepper, bread and butter, ladies and gentlemen - and English speakers feel the reversed order as wrong even when they cannot say why. The pairs are so fixed that they survive in genres far from their origin: people who have never read a contract say an agreement is null and void. A second surprise: terms and conditions is so fixed that many people read it as one term, and would be puzzled by a ticket that said only terms.

The history of legal pairs is hedged: some are often explained by the mixing of English, French and Latin in English law, and the explanation fits some pairs better than others. Breaking and entering is described as a named offence in some legal systems, not in all. No court case is cited. Whether a legal pair can be replaced is described as a lawyer's judgement. Farida, the lease and every name in the items are invented.

1. Ask three questions of any pair: is the order set, does this genre treat it as a term, does it do a job?
2. Keep legal pairs - null and void, cease and desist, terms and conditions - inside legal texts.
3. Cut plain repetition - past history, true facts, final outcome - under a fewer-words aim.
4. Treat each and every and first and foremost as standard emphasis, cut only under a word limit.
5. Never reverse a fixed order.
6. Hedge history: say "partly" and "often cited" when you explain where a pair came from.

• The court held that the agreement was null and void.
• After the storm, the fishing crew from Kollam returned safe and sound.
• Each and every voter in the ward must carry an identity card.
• The solicitor read out Margaret's last will and testament.
• The company sent a cease and desist letter to the website's owner.
• In Cairo, Youssef's essay began: first and foremost, the river shaped the city.

• Rohini's essay on the fort traced its past history and praised its new innovations.
• Please read the terms and conditions before you sign, Mr Bose.
• The trustees must be fit and proper persons to manage the temple fund.
• The suspect was charged with breaking and entering.
• Chloe's report said the figures were accurate and correct in every way.
• In Lima, Lucía's abstract had to fit 150 words, so each and every sample became every sample.

Plain language in law, science and news

One test, three fields, three lines.

Read the last column as the Cut Test's second step for each field. What counts as meaning lost differs: in news it is a source or a presumption of innocence; in science it is precision; in law it is legal effect.

News writing is built to be cut. In the inverted pyramid, the first paragraph carries the most important facts - who, what, when, where - and each later paragraph carries less. An editor short of space can remove paragraphs from the bottom, and the story still stands.

Science abstracts work to limits set by each journal, often a few hundred words at most. The cuts come from openers and hidden verbs, not from terms: correlated with is not caused, suggests is not proves, mass is not weight. The methods section often uses the passive ("the samples were heated"), where the doer is obvious; many journals now also accept "we heated". Both are standard.

Legal drafting is moving, in many places, towards plain language: shorter sentences, must for a duty, if for in the event that, pay for make payment of. But the plain-language drafter keeps every condition (unless, within seven days), every defined term, and any fixed pair whose legal effect is settled. A short word that changes the legal effect is not a cut; it is a new clause.

Picture three packing lists for three journeys. A hiker cuts weight ruthlessly but never leaves the water. A diver packs light but never leaves the gauge that reads the air supply. A climber travels fast but never leaves the rope. News, science and law each pack light. Each has its water, its gauge, its rope - alleged, statistically significant, within seven days - that no amount of cutting removes.

This section draws on Craft S22 (active or passive), Craft S23 (one honest hedge), Craft S29 (headlines) and S34 (fixed pairs in their genre). Each field here combines those moves with its own reasons for brevity and its own list of words that must stay. S36 turns to exams: précis and word-count tasks, where the stated limit and the task's own rules decide.

Here is the hard case: a sentence where the shortest version is wrong in the field and the longer one is concise. Nikhil, a student journalist, writes for the college paper: "A second-year student stole a laptop from the library on Tuesday, according to a complaint filed with campus security." The editor, short of space, suggests: "A student stole a laptop from the library on Tuesday." It is nine words shorter. Run the Cut Test with the field in mind. The cut version states as fact that a student stole a laptop. The original says a complaint says so. Nothing has been proved, and a student who can be identified has been accused in print. In news, that is meaning lost - the most serious kind. The concise version in this field keeps the source and adds one word: "A second-year student is accused of stealing a laptop from the library on Tuesday, campus security said." It is about as long as the original and far more accurate than the cut. The words that could go were elsewhere - in a background paragraph at the bottom about the library's opening hours. The lesson is exact: in each field, some words carry the field's duty - to the truth, to precision, to legal effect. Cut around them.

News editors once had a practical reason for the inverted pyramid: when pages were set by hand in metal type, a story that ran long was cut from the bottom to fit the space, often at the last minute. A story written with its main facts first survived that cut. The habit outlived the metal type and now suits readers who scroll away after a paragraph. A second surprise: in many science journals, the most-read part of a paper is the abstract - so the field's tightest word limit falls on the part most people read.

The account of the inverted pyramid's origin is described as a practical reason, not dated. Abstract limits are described as set by each journal, often a few hundred words; no journal's limit is stated. Plain-language drafting is described as a movement in many places, and must over shall as a common preference among plain-language drafters, not a universal rule. No court case, journal or newspaper is cited. Nikhil, the college paper and every name in the items are invented.

1. Before cutting, name the field and the words it depends on.
2. In news, put the main facts first, cut from the bottom, and keep attribution and alleged.
3. In science, cut openers and hidden verbs; keep technical terms, numbers, units and one honest hedge.
4. In law, free hidden verbs and use must and if; keep every condition, deadline and defined term.
5. Swap a term for a shorter word only when it means exactly the same in the field.
6. Accept each field's conventions - the methods passive, the fixed legal pair - as standard.

• A fire at a Surat textile market on Tuesday injured four workers, police said.
• In Anjali's lab report, the difference between the two fertilisers was statistically significant.
• The tenant must pay the rent within seven days of the due date.
• The alleged theft took place at a shop in Bristol, police said.
• Under Oliver's old lease, the Lessee shall make payment of the rent on or before the first day of each month.
• In Nairobi, Achieng's methods section says the samples were heated to 80 degrees Celsius for ten minutes.

• In order to ensure the safety of commuters, the Mumbai Metro will run extra trains on Friday.
• Priyanka's abstract said that it is important to note that yields rose by 12 per cent.
• The notice must be given in writing, unless the landlord agrees otherwise.
• Daniel's report recorded the mass of each sample in grams.
• At this point in time, the council has not made a decision on the new bridge.
• In Manila, Andrés's contract uses the defined term Confidential Information in every clause.

Précis and word-count tasks in exams

A précis or word-count answer is written in six steps. Each step has a trap that costs marks.

Step 5 is the Cut Test with a number attached: cover each word or phrase, check that no meaning, needed tone or emphasis is lost, and only then cut it.

The wording of the limit decides what counts as success. Read it as carefully as the passage.

Counting rules differ between papers. Many count every group of letters between two spaces as one word, so a hyphenated word such as 'state-run' and a contraction such as 'didn't' each count once; some papers count numbers or titles differently. Follow the paper's rule. Where it gives none, count one word per space-separated unit, and write your count at the end if the paper asks for it.

A précis is often about a third of the original - a 300-word passage makes a précis of about 100 words - but that is a habit, not a law. When the paper states a number, the number wins.

Picture the précis as a suitcase with a fixed size, packed for someone else's journey. The main ideas are the clothes the traveller needs; they go in first, folded in the writer's order. Repeats, fillers and wordy phrases are the air between the clothes: press them out before anything else. Examples and figures are souvenirs, packed only if there is room. The title is the label on the handle. If the case will not close, press out more air; if it rattles half empty, add something the traveller needs, never crumpled newspaper.

This section applies Craft S25 (cutting to a word limit) and S26 (summaries and précis) under exam conditions. S25 gave the cutting order; S26 separated main idea, example and detail. Here both meet a stated number and a counting rule. S37 widens the view from single words to whole sentences, paragraphs and ideas, and S38 turns to objective conciseness items.

Here is Aditi's hardest decision. The draft is 124 words; the task asks for about 100. Four sentences from the draft show the choices: 'This passage is about how a town in Rajasthan saved its water.' (12 words) 'Due to the fact that piped water arrived, people stopped using the stepwells, and the stepwells filled with rubbish.' (19 words) 'After three years of drought, when the rains failed again and again, residents made a decision to clean the wells.' (20 words) 'The writer believes that old knowledge can solve new problems.' (10 words) The easy cut is the last sentence: ten words gone at once. It is also the wrong cut. The writer's view is a main point of the passage, and a précis without it has lost the reason the passage was written. The right cuts come first from the waste. 'This passage is about' is an empty frame (the title does that job): cut the whole sentence and let the title carry the topic. 'Due to the fact that' becomes 'When'. 'The stepwells' said twice becomes 'they'. 'When the rains failed again and again' repeats 'three years of drought'. 'Made a decision to' becomes 'decided to'. Those cuts save about 25 words with no idea lost, and the draft reaches about 100 with the writer's view intact. If more room is needed, minor details from the examples go next. The rule: waste first, minor details second, main points never.

A précis can be too short as well as too long. Kofi Mensah, a student in Accra, handed in 58 words for a task that asked for about 100, proud of cutting so hard. The précis had lost a main point: the reason the old wells had been abandoned. A précis far under the target usually means something the writer said is missing. A second surprise: the title. Many papers do not count the title in the word limit, and some do. Two students with the same body and the same title can report different counts, and both are right if each follows the paper in front of them. Read the rule; do not assume it.

Exam formats differ between boards, papers and teachers; this section describes common practice, not any named board's marking scheme. 'About a third' is a habit for précis tasks, not a rule. Whether 'about 100' allows five words either side or fifteen is the paper's or the teacher's decision. Counting conventions for hyphenated words, numbers, contractions and titles vary; follow the paper. Aditi Kulkarni, Kofi Mensah and the other students are invented, and the stepwell passage is an invented passage written for this section.

1. Underline the limit and any counting rule before you read the passage.
2. Mark the main ideas and the writer's view; cross out examples, figures and asides.
3. Draft in the writer's order and your own words, with no opinion of your own.
4. Count every word by the paper's rule; do not estimate.
5. When over, cut in order: repetition, fillers, wordy phrases, hidden verbs, then minor details - never a main point.
6. When under a floor, add a relevant point, never padding; then give a title that names the main idea.

• Due to the fact that the rains failed, residents turned back to the old stepwells.
• Aditi's draft said the residents made a decision to clean the wells themselves.
• Neha's précis ended: the end result was that the town had water right through the dry months.
• Tom Hale's précis kept the writer's warning that the wells need yearly care.
• To reach the minimum, Grace began with 'It is important to note that the wells are old.'
• Kenji Sato cut 'in order to' to 'to' and 'at this point in time' to 'now' and saved six words.

• Ravi's précis said the wells were cleaned and the wells were used again.
• Farah's draft began: In this passage, the writer tells us that the wells were cleaned.
• The writer warns that the wells may fail if nobody maintains them.
• Oliver, two words over the limit, cut 'each and every resident' to 'every resident'.
• Emma padded the essay with 'at this point in time' where 'now' would do.
• Lucia Romero's title, 'Old wells, new water', named the main idea in four words.

Cutting a long text: sentences, paragraphs, ideas

Cut from the largest scale down. Each scale has its own question, and the Cut Test answers all of them.

The Cut Test does not change with scale. Cover the paragraph, read the article again, and ask whether any meaning, needed tone or emphasis is lost. If nothing is lost, the whole paragraph goes.

Three large moves do most of the work in a long text.

Some paragraphs look like repeats and are not. A summing-up paragraph at the end of a long report reminds a busy reader of the findings (S18). A paragraph whose only job is to turn the argument - 'However, the garden cannot water itself' - carries a link the reader needs; Chapter 21 covers such links in full. And a paragraph that looks like background may hold context the rest depends on. Cover it and read on before you decide.

Picture the article as a garden that has outgrown its plot. A gardener with nail scissors could trim every leaf and still not make it fit. A good gardener first lifts out the plant that belongs in another garden, then the second pot that holds the same flower as the first, then the weakest of three seedlings. Only when the plot has the right plants does the gardener pick up the scissors for the leaves. The nail scissors are word-level cutting; the spade is the paragraph.

This section scales up everything the chapter has done at word level. Practice S18 cut a sentence that repeated another; Craft S25 set the order for a word limit; S36 applied that order to a précis. Here the same Cut Test is used on paragraphs and ideas. Chapter 21 will build the links that hold the trimmed paragraphs together, and Chapter 27 treats paragraph design in full.

The hard case is the paragraph that is mostly repeat but partly new. Paragraph two: 'The garden has become a calm place for students. At lunch, many sit among the beds and read, and teachers say classes after lunch are quieter.' Paragraph five: 'As mentioned earlier, the garden helps students feel calm. In other words, it is a peaceful place. The school counsellor now holds some sessions there on Thursday afternoons.' Paragraph five announces itself as a repeat twice: 'as mentioned earlier' and 'in other words'. An editor in a hurry cuts it whole and saves about 30 words. But the last sentence is new. The counsellor's Thursday sessions appear nowhere else, and they are the strongest evidence in the article that the school itself treats the garden as a calm place. Cutting the paragraph whole throws that out. The right move is a merge. Move the counsellor sentence into paragraph two, where it belongs with the other evidence of calm, and then cut the rest of paragraph five. The article saves about 20 words instead of 30, and it keeps its best fact. The Cut Test at paragraph scale asks two questions, not one: what does this paragraph repeat, and what does it add? Only a paragraph that adds nothing can go whole.

The most useful cut is often the first paragraph. Many writers warm up on the page: a sentence on how old the subject is, a dictionary definition, a sweeping claim about 'today's fast-moving world'. The real article starts in paragraph two. Many editors try the first cut there - cover the opening paragraph and see whether the piece begins better without it. It often does. A second surprise: a merge can make a paragraph longer. After Sana moved the counsellor sentence into paragraph two, that paragraph grew by one line - and the article as a whole shrank by about 20 words. Length is judged across the whole piece, not paragraph by paragraph.

The rooftop garden, the article, Sana Qureshi and the other writers are invented. The mention of historic gardens is a description of what the invented opening paragraph covers, not a claim this section makes. Whether a paragraph is a warm-up or needed context depends on the reader: a general reader may need background that an expert does not. How paragraphs are built and ordered is left to Chapter 27, and the words that link one paragraph to the next to Chapter 21.

1. Read the whole piece first and write its main point in one sentence.
2. Label every paragraph with the job it does.
3. Cut from the largest scale down: ideas, paragraphs, examples, sentences, words.
4. Cover each paragraph and read on; cut it whole only if it adds nothing.
5. Before cutting a repeating paragraph, move any new fact into the one it repeats.
6. Keep the strongest examples, needed links and a summary a long piece needs; trim words only after the big cuts are made.

• Since ancient times, gardens have given people peace, and our school's rooftop garden is no different.
• The garden helps students relax, and it is a calm place where they can rest.
• The tulsi bed, planted by Class 9, now supplies leaves for the canteen's tea.
• As I said at the start, the Little Hadley fete raised money for the library roof.
• In conclusion, to sum up, the fete was a success, as we have seen.
• Mateo Silva cut the third example, a strawberry bed that never fruited, and kept the two that made the point.

• Our rooftop garden, which was started last year, grows tomatoes, chillies and tulsi.
• There are many reasons why the garden matters, and one of them is that it cools the classrooms.
• However, the garden needs water every day, and the eco club cannot manage it alone in May.
• Paragraphs two and five both said the garden calms students, so Jack merged them into one.
• Before the forty-page report ends, a short summary reminds the governors of its three findings.
• Amara Okafor's essay opened with a dictionary definition of a garden, and the essay improved when it went.

Conciseness under exam conditions

Run the same four-step scan on every conciseness item.

Step 2 is the Cut Test at speed: cover what a choice has removed and ask whether meaning, needed tone or emphasis went with it.

Three objective forms carry most conciseness items. Each has its own trap.

Careful items never key these as wrong unless the stem names an aim that rules them out:

Picture four doors, each with a choice painted on it. Behind the shortest door there is often a trapdoor: the over-cut, which looks like the quickest way through and drops you into lost meaning. Behind another is a stranger who was not there before - the invented doer. The scan is a torch: shine it on each door, mark the trapdoor and the stranger, and walk through the shortest door that is left. Sometimes the right door is the one marked 'No improvement', already open.

This section brings every earlier section into the exam hall: doubled words (S11), wordy phrases (S13), empty openers (S15), redundant modifiers (S17), hidden verbs (S21), passives (S22), hedges (S23), cutting too far (S27) and when more words are better (S32). Error-spotting as a test genre is left to Chapter 23; this section covers only conciseness items. S39 turns from exam items to close reading of brief texts.

Here is an item that catches strong candidates: 'Choose the most concise version that keeps the full meaning: Could you please let me know whether or not you will attend the meeting on Friday?' A. Tell me if you're coming Friday. B. Could you please tell me whether you will attend on Friday? C. Please let me know whether or not you will be attending the meeting that is on Friday. D. Could you please let me know whether you will attend the meeting on Friday? A is the shortest and the trap: it has lost the polite request and 'the meeting', and it reads as an order. C is longer than the original and adds 'that is'. B and D both drop 'or not', and rightly: 'whether you will attend' already asks a yes-or-no question, and nothing in the sentence depends on 'in either case'. B is shorter than D, and it is tempting. But B has also dropped 'the meeting' - attend what, on Friday? Read the aim again: the full meaning. D keeps the request, the politeness and every fact, and cuts only the two words that did nothing. So D is the key, and it is neither the shortest nor the longest choice. The scan found it: strike A (over-cut), strike C (extra words), then compare the survivors on meaning before words.

'No improvement' is often the right answer. An item may mark the words 'was stolen' in 'My wallet was stolen on the bus' and offer 'someone stole', 'got stolen by a thief' and 'thieves stole'. Every alternative either adds words, invents a doer or changes the number. The original is already concise; the passive is doing its job. A second surprise: in a 'most concise' item, the key can be longer than one of the distractors by several words. Andrés Molina, a student in Bogotá, counted words before checking meaning and chose a four-word version that had lost the reason the event was postponed. The key was eleven words long and kept everything.

Exam formats are described here in general terms; boards, entrance tests and recruitment tests differ in wording, number of choices and whether they test conciseness at all. No named paper's items or marking scheme are quoted. Some papers do list redundant pairs such as 'return back' among error-spotting items; where a paper's instructions include redundancy, follow them. All names and items are invented for this section.

1. Read the stem's aim before looking at the choices.
2. Strike the over-cut first: any choice that loses a fact, a condition, a link or a needed 'please'.
3. Strike choices that break grammar or invent a doer for a passive.
4. Among the survivors, choose the one with the fewest words.
5. Choose 'No improvement' when the original is concise or its extra words do a job.
6. Never treat length alone as a grammar error; key a wordy form only when the stem names the aim.

• The committee will reconsider the proposal again at its meeting in Pune next week.
• Priya's answer kept 'Could you please check my paper?' instead of 'Check my paper.'
• The question papers were stolen from the school office in Lucknow last night.
• The final outcome of the council vote in Leeds surprised everyone.
• The coach's last words to the team were 'never, never, never give up'.
• In spite of the fact that it rained, the match in Nairobi went ahead.

• The reason the bus was late is because the road near Kochi was flooded.
• There were many candidates in the Jaipur centre who finished early.
• Kindly revert back by Friday with your answers.
• The survey may suggest that prices could possibly rise in Manchester.
• Whether or not it rains, the Bristol sports day will go ahead.
• Sofia made an attempt to answer all forty questions.

Close reading brevity

Brevity is not only the absence of extra words. In a great short text, it does three things you can point to.

The Cut Test works in reverse here: cover a word in a great short text and ask what is lost. Usually something is - which is how you know the writer had already cut everything else.

Both texts are brief, and both repeat. The two do not contradict each other.

Lincoln's line 'The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here' shows both at once. It is compact, yet it repeats a pattern: 'what we say here' set against 'what they did here'. The balance sets words against deeds, and honours the deeds. Cut either half and the point disappears.

Picture a stone arch. It holds no stone it does not need; take one out and it falls. Yet its stones repeat: the same shape on the left as on the right, meeting in the middle. The Gettysburg Address and Bacon's sentence are built like arches. Nothing loose, nothing decorative - and the repeated stones, 'the people', 'man', 'here', are the ones carrying the load.

This section reads the chapter's ideas in finished texts. S32 showed when more words are better - emphasis, rhythm, politeness; here those kept words appear inside brief texts. S31 traced calls for plain writing; these texts show plainness at work. Rhythm for its own sake is left to Chapter 24. S40 asks you to analyse, cut and defend a text of your own choosing, without prompts.

Here is the hard case: Lincoln's closing phrase, 'government of the people, by the people, for the people'. Run the chapter's tools on it mechanically. 'The people' appears three times. A fewer-words rewrite would be 'government of, by and for the people' - seven words instead of ten. Nothing factual is lost. Yet almost no reader thinks the rewrite is better. Why? First, emphasis. Each 'the people' lands on the same word, and the listener hears the noun that matters most three times. Second, rhythm. Three parts of equal shape - preposition, 'the', 'people' - make a pattern the ear can follow and the memory can hold. Third, clarity when spoken. The address was heard, not read, by most of the crowd; 'of, by and for the people' asks a listener to hold three prepositions in the air before the noun arrives. So the Cut Test, run honestly, keeps the repeat. Cover 'by the people' and ask: is any meaning lost? Not in the dictionary sense. Is any needed emphasis lost? Yes. That is step two of the test, and it is why the chapter never says 'fewest words'. It says 'no wasted words'. In Lincoln's phrase, none of the ten is wasted.

The more famous speech is the shorter one. Everett was one of the most admired speakers of his time, and his two-hour oration was the day's main event. It is Lincoln's few minutes that people quote. Length did not decide which speech lasted; choosing every word did. A second surprise is in Bacon. His sentence feels complete, yet two of its three parts have no verb. 'Conference a ready man' is not a full clause on its own. The reader carries 'maketh' forward without noticing - a piece of economy so smooth that most readers never see the gap.

The Gettysburg Address survives in several versions that differ slightly in wording; the lines quoted here follow a widely reprinted text, and the word count is given as 'about 270'. The length of Lincoln's delivery is described only as 'a few minutes'. The Bacon sentence is quoted in its commonly printed form; his Essays first appeared in 1597 and were enlarged in later editions, and spelling varies between editions. The students named in examples and items are invented.

1. Quote exactly, or describe in your own words; never half-remember a famous line.
2. Point to the words, then name the effect: weight, memorability, balance or economy.
3. Look for what is left out as well as what is there.
4. Test every repetition: does it carry emphasis, rhythm or balance? If so, it stays.
5. Hedge counts and dates you cannot check; leave out stories you cannot support.
6. Keep your commentary as concise as the text you praise.

• Lincoln's address closes with 'government of the people, by the people, for the people'.
• Lincoln began 'Four score and seven years ago' where 'Eighty-seven years ago' would have been shorter.
• Rhea's padded version, 'Reading is something that makes a person full of knowledge', takes ten words for Bacon's five.
• Dev's rewrite said the verb three times: reading maketh, conference maketh, writing maketh.
• Zoya's note says Lincoln returns to 'dedicate' on purpose, so the repeat should not be cut.
• Sakura Ito, reading the address in Kyoto, counted about 270 words and three uses of 'the people' in its last line.

• The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
• Oliver's essay began: It is interesting to note that Lincoln's speech was short.
• Ishaan's commentary called Bacon's line short and brief.
• Nisha wrote that the address conveys its meaning in a way that is concise.
• Tanvi's best line: Bacon balances three parts, and the missing verb makes the reader supply it.
• Lucas Ferreira noted that conference in Bacon's line means conversation, not a formal meeting.

Independent performance

Here are six lines from Ishita's draft, each put through the Cut Test and the brief.

Every decision is the Cut Test and one question more: is this waste in any reading, something the brief rules out, a word doing a job, or a form that fits these readers?

The four kinds of decision, with the smallest move for each.

Two traps sit in the draft on purpose. 'Saplings and tools will be provided' is a passive, and an editor who has just freed a hidden verb may reach for 'The school will provide saplings and tools' - no shorter, and the doer is obvious anyway. And 'Each and every child who comes will receive a certificate' holds a cuttable pair, 'each and', beside a clause that must stay: 'who comes' limits the certificate to children who attend. Every phrase gets its own test.

Picture the draft on a desk with four trays. The first tray is red: waste that would go in any reading - an empty opener, a hidden verb, 'back' after revert. The second is amber, with the office brief pinned to it: the climate-change warm-up and the club's history, fine in an essay but not in a 150-word circular. The third is blue: words doing a job - please, may, will be provided, however. The fourth is green: forms that fit these readers - preponed, kindly revert, out of station. Only the red and amber trays leave the page. The blue and green stay, each with a note saying why.

This is the chapter's capstone. It draws on Discover S7-S8 (the Cut Test, words you must keep), Practice S11, S13, S15 and S17 (doubled words, wordy phrases, empty openers, redundant modifiers), Craft S21-S23, S25, S27 and S28 (hidden verbs, passives, hedges, word limits, cutting too far, office English), and Master S33, S37 and S38 (Indian English, cutting a long text, exam judgement). The trimmed circular hands on to Chapter 21, Transitions & Flow.

Here is the hard case, and it sits in one line of the draft: Kindly revert back by Thursday if you are out of station and your child cannot attend. There are four phrases a quick editor might touch: kindly, revert, back and out of station. Each needs its own decision, and each has a different defence. 'Kindly' is a polite opener, standard in Indian English letters and circulars. It does the job 'please' does, and the brief asks for polite. Keep. 'Revert', meaning reply, is standard Indian English. It can puzzle a reader abroad, but these readers are parents in Kochi, and the brief welcomes it. Keep. 'Back' doubles 'revert': to revert, in this sense, is already to reply. Under a 150-word limit, it is waste, exactly as 'back' in 'return back' would be. Cut. 'Out of station' is standard Indian English for 'away from town'. It is also a condition that does not belong here: a child can miss the event for many reasons, and the parent need not explain. Cutting 'if you are out of station and' leaves 'if your child cannot attend', which is shorter and asks less. Cut - but for meaning and courtesy, not because the phrase is wrong. The finished line reads: 'Kindly revert by Thursday if your child cannot attend.' Four phrases examined, two kept, two cut, four different reasons. A good editor's note is short: 'back cut, it doubles revert; out-of-station clause cut, parents need not give a reason; kindly and revert kept for these readers.'

The most important decision in the draft is a sentence the editor does not cut. 'If it rains, the event may move to Sunday' looks like a small, uncertain aside, and an editor chasing the limit might drop it or harden it to 'moves'. Either change would send parents to school on a wet Saturday, or promise a Sunday the club cannot yet guarantee. The nine-word condition and its honest 'may' are among the most useful words in the circular. A second surprise: after every cut, the circular is 138 words and every sentence is clear - yet a teacher reading it says it feels like a list. The sentences stand side by side with nothing to carry the reader from the date to the clothing to the rain plan. Conciseness has done its work; the next job belongs to links, and that is Chapter 21.

The eco club, the circular, the brief, Ishita Menon, the teachers, parents and visitors are invented. Kochi is a real city named as the setting; the circular makes no claims about it. 'Prepone', 'revert' meaning reply, 'kindly' and 'out of station' are standard Indian English; another brief, written for readers abroad, could prefer 'bring forward' and 'reply', and would be equally correct for its readers. The word counts given for the draft are for this invented text.

1. Read the brief, then the whole draft, before cutting anything.
2. Make the big cuts first: warm-ups, minor histories, repeated paragraphs.
3. Run the Cut Test on every phrase that remains: meaning, needed tone, needed emphasis.
4. Sort each decision: waste, the brief, a job, or audience fit.
5. Keep please, honest conditions, obvious-doer passives, needed links and the readers' own standard forms.
6. Write a one-line defence for every cut and every keep, naming a tool or the brief.

• The eco club has decided to plant 200 saplings on Saturday, 14 November, at the school ground.
• The event has been preponed to 8 a.m. because of the heat.
• Kindly revert by Thursday if your child cannot attend.
• Mr Hughes, a visiting teacher from Cardiff, will lead the planting with Class 9.
• Emily Clarke, a Class 9 parent, liked that the circular said please before every request.
• Tomás Rivera, an exchange student in Class 9, checked the rain line: the event may move to Sunday.

• As we all know, climate change is one of the biggest problems facing the world today.
• I am writing this email to inform you that the eco club will plant saplings.
• The club was first started in 2019 by students who cared about trees.
• Each and every child who comes will receive a certificate signed by Mr Hughes.
• However, as Ms Grant from the science department warns, the ground floods after heavy rain.
• Ana Costa, a gardener from Lisbon, noted that 'Saplings will be provided' needs no 'by the school'.