Pruning Deadwood From Your Copy

“Omit needless words.”

Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think, used the above sentence as a chapter heading regarding Web content.

I keep this sentence in my head when editing copy. Cutting needless words from your copy makes it easier to read and make the copy “flow” better. It’s akin to pulling weeds from your flower bed — the more weeds you pull, the better your flowers look.

When I edit copy, I play a game with myself: how much copy can I cut yet still communicate the message and keep a smooth flow? Herewith, my tips for cutting words, phrases, and even entire paragraphs:

1. Keep yourself to a specific word count. One of the reasons I love Twitter is because I have to write concise messages in 140 characters or less. If you’re a veteran copywriter, it’s the same process as writing those 25-word “blurbs” for print publications or classified ads.

Adhering to a word count means you have to really work at getting your message across quickly and in fewer words. It’s actually a lot of fun.

2. Don’t fall in love with your copy. Because I’ve been writing since my college days, I have no problem with cutting entire pages of copy and starting over. Words come easy to me.

For others, however, writing is a hard process and once something is on paper, you’re loathe to cut it because then you have to struggle to write more. Cut it anyway. I’ve found that when I cut  copy I’ve fallen in love with, it’s easier to write something even better because now I have the “space” to do so.

3. Hunt down redundancies. When I write fast and without effort, I find my copy is full of useless words that I use over and over and ideas that I communicate two or three or four times (just like this sentence, ha!).

Here is how I can edit this sentence: When writing fast and without effort, my copy becomes bloated with useless words and repeated ideas.

4. Print out the piece and look at it. While sitting with my client today, I realized that the Web content I had initially submitted really could use some pruning. The copy didn’t look dense on my computer screen, but it sure did on paper with the large blocks of text and “explanatory” verbiage that could easily be cut.

5. Consider *every* word. When brevity counts, you have to consider every word on the page. Can you combine words and ideas? Can you cut prepositions? Can you use contractions? Can you eliminate whole sentences? Instead of saying, “She was born in Boston,” simply state, “Jane Smith, a Boston native . . . .”

What are your tips for pruning deadwood from your copy?