What is “wordiness”?

Many students fail research papers because of wordiness. Wordiness is the use unnecessary words that make a sentence or paragraph confusing or too long. A common mistake is to use big words. Students will try to use big words to sound smart and impress their teachers. Sometimes using big words will make sentences sound ridiculous. For example :

• Wordy: That baby is gargantuan.
• Concise: That baby is huge.

A list of things that make a sentence awkward are provided on the website: Word Choice/Wordiness.

• misused idioms
• unclear pronouns
• misused words
• jargon
• garbled syntax
• loaded language
• Calloquialisms

Redundancy is another mistake made when it comes to wordiness. A statement that is used two or more times is redundant. Words that are used right next to each other with the same meaning are redundant. Diana Hacker notes, “a sentence is wordy if its meaning can be conveyed in fewer words” (124). She gives examples of redundant phrases such as “ close proximity” and “true fact” (125). These words have similar meanings and can be reduced to one word. Diana also emphasizes the point to “look for any opportunities to reduce clauses and phrases to single words” (127). Her example is,

• Wordy: "Susan's stylish pants, made of leather, were too warm for Miami.
• Concise: Susan's stylish leather pants were too warm for Miami" (Hacker 127).

Pamela Arlov states that "wordiness sometimes happens when writers do not take the time to be concise" (428). She also gives an example of this.

• Wordy: "The fact is that, fact, like opinions, can usually be stated without preamble
• Concise: Fact, like opinions, can usually be stated without preamble" (Arlov 428).

Eliminating big words and redundant words will make getting an "A" on a paper easy.

Work Cited

Arlov, Pamela. Wordsmith: A Guide to College Writing. 2nd ed.

    Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2004

Hacker, Diana. A Writer's Reference. 5th ed. Boston:

    Bedford/St.Martin's, 2003

"Word Choice/Wordiness" Handouts and Links. 2002. 02 Mar 2005

    <http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/word_choice.html/>