
Chemistry
10. Wordiness: how to be concise
Words are valuable. Try not to waste them. Also, using ten words where three will do obscures your meaning.These sentences are very clumsy to read:
- What is ignored in all the debate about nuclear energy being dangerous is ...
- What people mean when they say that the reward path of the body is in response to survival tasks is that when you do things like eating or drinking, a natural feeling of pleasure is created.
- It is thus that we see that it is ...
- Ignored in the debate about nuclear energy being dangerous is ...
- The reward path of the body responds to survival tasks like eating or drinking, which create a natural feeling of pleasure.
- Thus we see ...
- Despite all the health warnings, the World Health Organization (WHO) still estimates that the number of smokers in 2025 will have increased to 1.6 billion, and that even with all the health warnings, more people will take up smoking because the feel-good factor makes smoking pleasurable so that the health warnings will not stop the number of smokers increasing. 58 words
- The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by 2025 the number of smokers will have increased to 1.6 billion because, despite all the health warnings, the feel-good factor makes smoking pleasurable. 31 words
An aside: anybody thinking of writing articles for journals or newspapers needs to be particularly good at weeding out padding. Editors don't appreciate it and if you don't tighten up your work yourself, a sub-editor will be let loose on it, with unpredictable results.
Task | Task Type | Difficulty |
---|---|---|
Task 1 | Free text | Easier |
Task 2 | Free text | More Challenging |
Task 3 | Free text | More Challenging |
Task 4 | Free text | Moderate |
Task 5 | Multiple choice | Easier |
Task 6 | Free text | Moderate |
Task 7 | Free text | More Challenging |
Task 8 | Free text | More Challenging |