Still on cutting down on boring and long winding expressions, it is pertinent to point out a few of the long winding statements that unnecessarily occupy space and are frequently verbalized to the annoyance of the English purists and masters. They are as many of them you can think of. As I said before now, when one finds himself writing long and complex sentences, even in some cases without the punctuation marks, the information is lost or that the message makes little or no meaning to the listener or the target audience. It boils down to noise making as some communication experts would remark. Now, take a close look at these expressions typical of a boring and long winding statements that should be shortened to save time and space, especially so for the broadcast media.
The print media too are wiser now, cutting down or shortening an otherwise tiring long expression to attract the readers by using short paragraphs to simplify their conversations. For example, statements such as ‘on account of the fact that’ and ‘owing to the fact that’ are not only sliding into clichés but indeed are seen as hackneyed expressions that should be used sparingly or totally avoided. In the place of these near obsolete statements, ‘on account of the fact that’ and ‘owing to the fact that’ one could conveniently go for a suitable short, simple and easy to grasp expressions to keep the viewing publics watching and listening in the case of the television and the radio, for example.
For the newspaper, the good editor tries as much to keep his or her readers by introducing short sentences devoid of unfamiliar words and enough paragraphs to simply his or her story. The expressions, ‘on account of the fact that’ and ‘owing to the fact that’ can be substituted with the simple conjunction ‘because,’ majorly for the radio and television producer or writer. While some may argue that newspapers are presented with sufficient white or blank spaces to be filled hence the editor or the newspaper journalist writes in details, therefore the tendency for the print man or woman to indulge in long winding and complex statements that the average reader cannot comprehend or understand looms large.
But remember, you are writing for a wider audience and not a narrow one such as industry-oriented jargons, as I noted earlier. And still on better alternative expression or possible synonym you can choose from to convey clearly your thoughts, for the newspaper writer, for instance, expressions such as ‘for reason that’ or ‘seeing that’ can make up ‘because’ statement which I would rather fancy because it is short and straightforward. Another lengthy construction that is common currency among government budget offices, that is also fast losing its potency is the phrase ‘request the appropriation of’ which can simply be said direct and concise, ‘ask for’ may be more money, funds
. Learn to imbibe the spirit of precision when speaking or writing. Economy of words, respect for punctuation marks and short paragraphs makes one a better writer or speaker. To round off, just a reminder that if you are fed up using the noun ‘personnel’ regarding people employed in an organization, business or the armed forces simply opt for ‘men, staff, crew or workers in order not to sound repetitive and boring. Recycling words over and over again, does not speak well of the journalist, reporter or writer who wants to set the pace or stand out of the crowd and sound differently.
