View source for Concision

{{Short description|Writing principle of eliminating redundancy}}
{{For|the term in media studies|Concision (media studies)}}
{{Redirect-multi|2|Succinct|Concise}}
In common usage and [[linguistics]], '''concision''' (also called '''conciseness''', '''succinctness''', '''brevity''', or '''laconicism''') is a communication principle<ref name="tEoS">{{cite book |author=William Strunk |title=The Elements of Style |year=1918}}</ref> of eliminating [[redundancy (linguistics)|redundancy]],<ref name="UNT">UNT Writing Lab. "Concision, Clarity, and Cohesion." Accessed June 19, 2012. [http://www.unt.edu/writinglab/UNTOWL_Concision_Clarity_and_Cohesion.pdf Link.]</ref> generally achieved by using as few [[word]]s as possible in a [[Sentence (linguistics)|sentence]] while preserving its [[semantics|meaning]]. More generally, it is achieved through the omission of parts that impart information that was already given, that is obvious or that is irrelevant. Outside of linguistics, a message may be similarly "dense" in other forms of [[communication]].

For example, a sentence of "It is a fact that most arguments must try to convince readers, that is the audience, that the arguments are true." may be expressed more concisely as "Most arguments must demonstrate their truth to readers."{{snd}} the observations that the statement is a fact and that readers are its audience are redundant, and it is unnecessary to repeat the word "arguments" in the sentence.<ref name="Boulder">Program for Writing and Rhetoric, University of Colorado at Boulder. "Writing Tip #27: Revising for Concision and Clarity." Accessed June 19, 2012. [http://www.colorado.edu/pwr/writingtips/27.html Link.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614050957/http://www.colorado.edu/pwr/writingtips/27.html |date=2012-06-14 }} ""It is a fact that most arguments must try to convince readers, that is the audience, that the arguments are true." Notice the beginning of the sentence: "it is a fact that" doesn't say much; if something is a fact, just present it. So begin the sentence with "most arguments..." and turn to the next bit of overlap. Look at "readers, that is the audience"; the redundancy can be reduced to "readers" or "audience." Now we have "Most arguments must try to convince readers that the arguments are true." Let's get rid of one of the "arguments" to produce "Most arguments must demonstrate (their) truth to readers," or a similarly straightforward expression."</ref>

== Statements of the principle ==
[[Polymath]] [[Blaise Pascal]] wrote in a 1657 [[Lettres provinciales|letter]]:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lejeune |first=Anthony |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49621019 |title=The Concise Dictionary of Foreign Quotations |date=2001 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2001 |isbn=9781579583415 |pages=73 |oclc=49621019}}</ref>

{{Verse translation
|Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.
|I have made this longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
}}

[[William Strunk]] and [[E. B. White]]'s ''[[The Elements of Style]]'', an American English [[style guide]], says of concision that:<ref name="tEoS"/>

{{quote|A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.}}

[[Joseph M. Williams]]'s ''[[Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace]]'' suggests six principles for concision:<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Moskey|first1=Stephen T.|last2=Williams|first2=Joseph M.|date=March 1982|title=Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/413569|journal=Language|volume=58|issue=1|pages=254|doi=10.2307/413569|jstor=413569 |s2cid=33626209 |issn=0097-8507}}</ref>

# Delete words that mean little or nothing.
# Delete words that repeat the meaning of other words.
# Delete words implied by other words.
# Replace a phrase with a word.
# Change negatives to affirmatives.
# Delete useless adjectives and adverbs.

Concision is taught to students at all levels.<ref>Sandy Buczynski, Kristin Fontichiaro, ''Story Starters and Science Notebooking: Developing Student Thinking Through Literacy and Inquiry'' (2009), p. 7, {{ISBN|1591586860}}.</ref><ref>Patrick Dunleavy, ''Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation'' (2003), p. 273, {{ISBN|023036800X}}.</ref><ref>Legal Writing Institute, ''Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute'' (2002), Vol. 7, p. 32.</ref> It is valued highly in [[Rhetorical modes#Exposition|expository English writing]], but less by some other cultures.<ref name="Pacific Rim">Mark Newell Brock, Larry Walters, ''Teaching Composition Around the Pacific Rim: Politics and Pedagogy'' (1992), p. 4-5, {{ISBN|1853591602}}. ''"in expository prose English places a high value on conciseness... [t]he value placed on conciseness... is not shared by all cultures"''</ref>

'''Succinctness''' is a related concept.<ref name=Garner2009b>{{cite book | last1=Garner| first1=Bryan A.| author1-link=Bryan A. Garner| title=[[Garner on Language and Writing]]: Selected Essays and Speeches of Bryan A. Garner| year=2009| publisher=American Bar Association| location=Chicago| isbn=978-1-60442-445-4| page=295}}</ref> "[[Laconic]]" speech or writing refers to the pithy bluntness that the [[Laconia]]n people of ancient Greece were reputedly known for.<ref>Leslie Kurke, Aesopic Conversations: Popular Tradition, Cultural Dialogue, and the Invention of Greek Prose, Princeton University Press, 2010, pp. 131–2, 135.</ref> In computing, [[succinct data structure]]s balance minimal storage use against efficiency of access.<ref>Jacobson, G. J (1988). Succinct static data structures.</ref> In algorithmic game theory, a [[succinct game]] is one that may be accurately described in a simpler form than its normal representation.<ref name="Papadimitriou2007">{{Cite book|last= Papadimitriou |first= C.H. |editor1-first= Noam |editor1-last= Nisan |editor2-first= Tim| editor2-last=Roughgarden |editor3-first= Éva |editor3-last=Tardos |editor4-first= Vijay V. |display-editors = 3 |editor4-last=Vazirani |title= Algorithmic Game Theory |publisher= Cambridge University Press| year= 2007| pages=29–52| chapter= The Complexity of Finding Nash Equilibria| isbn= 978-0-521-87282-9}}</ref>

== Importance in pedagogy ==
In an influential study by [[educational psychologist]] [[Richard E. Mayer]] and others, succinctness of [[textbook]] and [[lecture]] content was linked to better understanding of the material.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mayer |first=Richard E. |last2=Bove |first2=William |last3=Bryman |first3=Alexandra |last4=Mars |first4=Rebecca |last5=Tapangco |first5=Lene |date=March 1996 |title=When less is more: Meaningful learning from visual and verbal summaries of science textbook lessons. |url=http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/0022-0663.88.1.64 |journal=Journal of Educational Psychology |language=en |volume=88 |issue=1 |pages=64–73 |doi=10.1037/0022-0663.88.1.64 |issn=1939-2176}}</ref>

==See also==
*{{annotated link|Brevitas}}
*{{annotated link|Chekhov's gun}}
*{{annotated link|Circumstantial speech}}
*{{annotated link|Evidence-based education}}
*{{annotated link|Frame semantics (linguistics)}}
*{{annotated link|Information density}}
*{{annotated link|Information structure}}
*{{annotated link|Lexical density}}
*{{annotated link|Memorization}}
*{{annotated link|Minimalism}}
*{{annotated link|Pleonasm}}
*{{annotated link|Show, don't tell}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* Charles Fabara. "The Concise Expression Handbook" https://archive.org/details/concise-expressions/mode/2up
*{{cite news |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/19/opinion/write-shorter-messages/ |title=Write shorter messages / Research confirms: Simpler communications are much more likely to be read. |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |author1=Todd Rogers |author2=Jessica Lasky-Fink |date=19 Dec 2020}}

[[Category:Copy editing]]
[[Category:Communication]]
[[Category:Written communication]]
[[Category:Educational psychology]]
[[Category:Metatheory]]
[[Category:Semantics]]
[[Category:Principles]]
[[Category:Cognitive linguistics]]