I can blame every teacher that asked for a paper that contained a certain number of words. That, and technology was often a pen and paper and cramped hands. Very cramped, I might say. When presenting a particular-sized paper, we learned how to pad the sentence with words and phrases. Why? We needed quantity, not quality.
That’s how we communicate. Unnecessary words fill the void. The reader must decide the bedrock of story by disregarding all unnecessary words.
A good editor can repair the damage to a manuscript, but the author/writer must change how their thoughts present words to our presence. Unnecessary words must be removed at inception, not left to the reader to discard at reception.
My Grammarly (www.gramarly.com) tool is a handy piece of software that looks at every word I write in every production space – this blog, my sermons, and my social media. Everything on my computer, I think, gets analyzed for a better way to say it, often by trimming unnecessary words, repairing spelling and grammar, and helping to rewrite sentences with clarity.
However, the fact that I still need it shows that I’m not changing how I wrote before Grammarly became my tool of choice. I’m still making the same mistakes from my mind to my fingers as before. I must return to lessons that teach me how to speak, write, or communicate.
I must unravel my ways
of saying what and how I must say.
It is imperative!
I must relearn a better way,
the correct way to write, I say.
We’ve grown used to a different way
in this modern digital space.
Redo, undo, and change.
No big deal!
Try it by hand, the old fashioned way,
perhaps you’ll find that you pause and think,
before you phrase.
That old builder’s phrase comes to mind.
“Measure twice, cut once.”
Any writer of the olden days probably took plenty of time forming their thoughts before handwriting their tome. They talked it out with someone who could help shape their thoughts. When they finally went to print, they had one chance to get it right! Book printing was sparsely done, and no one had time or money to waste on editing and reprinting after the fact. Get it said the first time correctly.
Unnecessary Words: Writers of the olden days took plenty of time forming their thoughts before handwriting their tome. They had one chance to write it right! Click To TweetI’ve been wondering about all the words in digital space versus the words that occupy the Library of Congress. How many facts are wrong? Are there phrases we cringe at that we would not dream of saying today? If we could rewrite these books, what would they look like today? We keep expanding our knowledge and understanding, so an older book probably contains errors in need of correction.
How did Solomon say it?
Like apples of gold in settings of silver,
so is a word skillfully spoken.
Proverbs 25:11 NET
See?! The Bible is still saying it better than a modern writer today!