Tip 708: Keeping Things Short, Part II

From the Writing Workshops: Keeping Things Short, Part II

We’ve been talking about writing more concisely.

Our second piece of advice: Get rid of the false subjects.

Wait a minute. What’s a false subject?

A false subject is a word like There as in “There are” or “There is” or It in “It is” which means absolutely nothing. For example—

There are four parts to the proposal.

In this sentence, what does “there” mean? Nothing. A filler word. Occupying space. A means to an end in a 500-word essay. But we don't write 500-word essays anymore.  

How about—

The proposal has four parts.

Seven words down to five.

We stumble into false subjects all the time:

There is one objection remaining.

Instead of—

One objection remains.

Five words down to three.

Or—

It is ten miles from the quarry to the highway.

Instead of—

The quarry is eight miles from the highway.

Ten words down to eight.

Wait a minute. The numbers changed.

Right. Because when we get rid of the false subjects, everything gets shorter. 

We love that joke.