Concision

Concision (also called brevity, laconicism, or conciseness) is a writing principle[1] of eliminating redundancy.[2] 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." – 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.[3]

For the term in media studies, see Concision (media studies).
"Succinct" redirects here. For other uses, see Succinct (disambiguation).

The American-English writing style guide Strunk and White says of concision that:[1]

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.

— Elementary Principles of Composition, The Elements of Style

Concision is taught to students at all levels.[4][5][6] Concision is valued highly in expository English writing, but less so by other cultures.[7]

Succinctness is a related concept.[8] "Laconic" speech or writing refers to the pithy bluntness that the Laconian people of ancient Greece were reputedly known for.[9] In computing, succinct data structures balance minimal storage use against efficiency of access.[10] In algorithmic game theory, a succinct game is one that may be accurately described in a simpler form than its normal representation.[11]

The aphorism of Occam's razor says that the simplest explanation of something is usually correct.[12]

See also

References
  1. William Strunk (1918). The Elements of Style.
  2. UNT Writing Lab. "Concision, Clarity, and Cohesion." Accessed June 19, 2012. Link.
  3. Program for Writing and Rhetoric, University of Colorado at Boulder. "Writing Tip #27: Revising for Concision and Clarity." Accessed June 19, 2012. Link. Archived 2012-06-14 at the Wayback Machine ""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."
  4. Sandy Buczynski, Kristin Fontichiaro, Story Starters and Science Notebooking: Developing Student Thinking Through Literacy and Inquiry (2009), p. 7, ISBN 1591586860.
  5. Patrick Dunleavy, Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation (2003), p. 273, ISBN 023036800X.
  6. Legal Writing Institute, Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute (2002), Vol. 7, p. 32.
  7. 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"
  8. Garner, Bryan A. (2009). Garner on Language and Writing: Selected Essays and Speeches of Bryan A. Garner. Chicago: American Bar Association. p. 295. ISBN 978-1-60442-445-4.
  9. Leslie Kurke, Aesopic Conversations: Popular Tradition, Cultural Dialogue, and the Invention of Greek Prose, Princeton University Press, 2010, pp. 131–2, 135.
  10. Jacobson, G. J (1988). Succinct static data structures.
  11. Papadimitriou, C.H. (2007). "The Complexity of Finding Nash Equilibria". In Nisan, Noam; Roughgarden, Tim; Tardos, Éva; et al. (eds.). Algorithmic Game Theory. Cambridge University Press. pp. 29–52. ISBN 978-0-521-87282-9.
  12. Ariew, Roger (1976). Ockham's Razor: A Historical and Philosophical Analysis of Ockham's Principle of Parsimony. Champaign-Urbana, University of Illinois.
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