00:00 00:07 Don't be overly wordy. 00:08 You don't need to use twice as many words to say the 00:12 Same thing if a smaller number of words is going to be 00:16 Sufficient. 00:17 So beware, as you're writing. I think a lot of times 00:21 When we think about academic writing, we think, I have 00:24 To sound smart. 00:25 I have to put lots of words in there. 00:27 I have oh, to put lots of big words in there. 00:29 That's not always the case 00:32 When you want to really engage your reader,you want to 00:34 Sound as if you know what you're talking about most 00:37 Definitely, and you want to be evidence-based and 00:40 Research-based if you're doing your research project. 00:43 But you can do that in a very direct and concise way. 00:46 You don't have to use extra words. 00:48 So we have a few examples here. 00:51 One thing that comes up with wordiness, alot, are 00:54 Unnecessary words like "Very" and "Really." 00:58 These not only make your writing wordy, but they also 01:01 Kind of give an emotional feel to your writing,and so 01:04 You want to avoid, you know, putting any kind of 01:07 Emotion like that into your writing. 01:10 While you might be passionate about the subject,you 01:12 Still want to maintain an objective distance as the 01:16 Author of the work. 01:18 So instead of saying, "The teachers were very well 01:21 Informed" you could say "The teachers were well 01:24 Informed as they illustrated by the lengthy discussion 01:28 They had about the english language learners." 01:31 Here we know why they were well informed. 01:33 So it may be a little more words. 01:38 May have more words to describe something,but it's -- 01:41 It's much more precise, and specific. 01:44 So instead of saying, "The manager really understood 01:48 His employees." 01:49 You could say "The manager understood his employees in 01:52 Depth, valuing them as people as well as employees." 01:56 So again, you know, you may actually use more words to 01:59 Be more specific, and that's okay. 02:01 But it's definitely to your benefit to avoid any 02:05 Unnecessary words. 02:07 And very and really are often used in that way. 02:12 Also circumlocution is another word that goes into 02:19 Wordiness. 02:21 It's really another way to say that you're talking 02:23 Around the point instead of getting to it. 02:26 So in the example here, instead of saying that, "The 02:29 Woman was the patient, had lived 30 years and was 02:33 Located in an area outside of new york city but not far 02:36 Away." 02:37 You could simply say, "The female patient was 30 years 02:40 Old and lived in a new york city suburb." 02:43 You can see there's a difference here. 02:45 Instead of talking around the idea, just saying it 02:49 Directly is always the best way to go. 02:52 It avoids sort of that circular reasoning and those 02:55 Round about explanations. 02:58 Redundancy is another thing that happens whenwe talk 03:00 About wordiness. 03:02 It means unnecessary repetition. 03:05 If you don't need to repeat it, don't. 03:08 There's no need for it. 03:09 So instead of repeating information, even if it's in 03:13 The next sentence, it's just a good idea tobe specific 03:17 And try to group your information together in a way 03:20 That all of the information related to a certaintopic 03:24 Is all in one place. 03:25 And then you don't have to go back and repeat 03:27 Unnecessarily. 03:28 So you can see an example of this here. 03:31 Where we talk about, it says, "To be a counselor,it is 03:35 Important to have good listening skills for counseling 03:37 Patients, as good listening skills for counseling 03:40 Patients, leads to better understanding of a patient, 03:43 Which, as a counselor, is the entire purpose of a 03:46 Counseling session." 03:48 You can see even in that example, the word "Counselor" 03:50 "Listening skills," "Good listening, "Good counseling" are repeated multiple 03:56 Times. 03:56 And as a reader, I find that very difficult to 03:59 Articulate, even just reading it out loud. 04:02 So, again, being precise and specific will help there.