concision

Concision is the quality of expressing a concept with the fewest possible words while preserving clarity and meaning. It emphasizes removing superfluous language, redundancy, and ornamental phrasing, without sacrificing essential nuance or tone.

In writing and speaking, concision improves comprehension, retention, and impact. It is valued in journalism, business communication, technical writing, and public discourse because it helps audiences quickly grasp key points.

Practices include removing redundancy, using precise nouns and strong verbs, avoiding excessive adjectives and adverbs, preferring active voice, and shaping sentences around one main idea. Revision strategies: outline the message, delete words that do not add essential meaning, read aloud to detect drag, and condense sentences into clear, direct forms. Use parallel structure and logical ordering to enhance flow and readability.

Concision is not simply brevity; it preserves content while reducing length. It may require trade-offs between brevity and nuance, especially for complex topics. Audience, purpose, and genre determine the appropriate level of detail.

Related concepts include clarity, economy of language, and plain language principles. While automated metrics and style guides can help, effective concision ultimately rests on careful editing and awareness of what the reader needs.