Succinctness

In common usage and linguistics, concision (also called conciseness, succinctness, terseness, brevity, or laconicism) is a communication principle of eliminating redundancy,UNT Writing Lab. "Concision, Clarity, and Cohesion." Accessed June 19, 2012
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/ref> generally achieved by using as few words as possible in a sentence while preserving its 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." 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.Program for Writing and Rhetoric, University of Colorado at Boulder. "Writing Tip #27: Revising for Concision and Clarity." Accessed June 19, 2012
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""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."

"Laconic" speech or writing refers to the pithy bluntness that the Laconian people of ancient Greece were reputedly known for.

In linguistic research, there have been approaches to analyze the level of succinctness of texts using semantic analysis.

Statements of the principle

Polymath Blaise Pascal wrote in a 1657 letter:

William Strunk and E. B. White's ''The Elements of Style'', an American English style guide, says of concision that:

Joseph M. Williams's '' Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace'' suggests six principles for concision:

# 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. It is valued highly in expository English writing, but less by some other cultures.Mark Newell Brock, Larry Walters, ''Teaching Composition Around the Pacific Rim: Politics and Pedagogy'' (1992), p. 4-5, . ''"in expository prose English places a high value on conciseness... e value placed on conciseness... is not shared by all cultures"''

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.

In computing

In computing, succinct data structures balance minimal storage use against efficiency of access.Jacobson, G. J (1988). Succinct static data structures. In algorithmic game theory, a succinct game is one that may be accurately described in a simpler form than its normal representation.

See also

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References

External links

*{{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

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