Page 42 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

WhY MUST I PUT MY AUDIENCE FIRST? 31

audience, it also makes business sense because it saves time and money.
So, make a pact with yourself today that you will try to be more concise.
And to help you, here are four tips that add brevity to your messages.

Replace Flabby Expressions

Like many Americans, our sentences could stand to be leaner. Flabby
expressions are a core contributor to this problem. A flabby expression
2
simply uses too many words to express a simple idea. In Figure 3.4, you
can find a handful of flabby expressions that we encounter on a regular
basis. Be on the lookout for these flabby expressions and work to elimi-
nate them from your writing!

Delete Unnecessary Lead-Ins

Unnecessary lead-ins include phrases at the beginning of a sentence
that add nothing to the sentence. In many cases, you can simply delete
the lead-in and keep the rest of the sentence intact. For example, a bad
newsletter that one of the authors (Jason) received recently began, “I am
writing this letter to you to inform you that��.” One of the best tools that we
can use to eliminate flabby expressions is to think about the message from
our readers’ perspective. In this case, Jason knew that what he was reading
was a letter. Moreover, he knew that the letter was written by the sender
because the sender’s name was signed at the bottom of the page and was
also on the letterhead. These facts render the phrase useless and eliminate
11 words. Not bad for looking at only one sentence. So, be more concise
by taking lead-ins and leading them out of your sentences.

Flabby Expression… Lean Expression…
Despite the fact that… Although…
It is our opinion… We believe…
Please feel free to… Please…
Due to the fact that… Because…
At some time in the near future… Soon…
Figure 3.4 Commonly used flabby expressions