Cutting a carefully crafted work down to size in academic writing to adhere to a page, word, or character restriction is difficult. The average length of an English word is over five letters.
Thus, you need to eliminate 325 words to stay under the journal’s character restriction of 55.000 characters.
There are two common problems with essays: the word count needs to be higher for the essay’s intended audience.
It’s crucial to cut down on words while simultaneously strengthening the paper if you want to change the word count without affecting the paper’s quality.
It might be difficult and depressing to start writing less, but it is feasible to do so without compromising the caliber of your work.
How To Reduce Word Count?
Maintaining brevity, as we discussed, is a major requirement for any form of writing. Therefore, to reduce the word count of your academic article, you can follow the tips given below
1. Eliminate Redundancy
Authors frequently use too-wordy phrases, which might mess up the flow of their study work. To prevent this, they should write succinctly and use the positive tense when making remarks.
They should also eliminate redundancy and use “because” instead of “because” to convey the meaning and make the text stronger and more specific.
Adverbs can help properly express information by emphasizing a point, but they should be balanced.
Adverbs are not Stephen King’s favorite language, so if you use them often, you should look closely at your writing.
The adjectives “shouted loudly,” “raced rapidly,” “whispered quietly,” “deliberated deliberately,” “completed entirely,” and “jumped fast” are examples of needless “-ly” adverbs.
2. Avoid Unnecessary Diversions
The most crucial information in this book is that each paragraph in your work must be connected to the one key idea you want to convey.
Consider deleting or editing a paragraph to make it more pertinent if it doesn’t support your primary point.
Moreover, search for words or sentences that might be cut from your text without compromising its meaning.
It’s possible that you are telling numerous stories at once as you go through your document paragraph by paragraph.
The introduction shouldn’t contain unnecessary details and give the underlying knowledge required to comprehend the results.
Examine the data carefully to spot anomalies or discoveries that would be more appropriate for supplementary materials or future study.
3. Maintain Balance Between Active And Passive Voices
The passive voice predominated in scientific writing during the 20th century, although there has recently been a change in opinion.
Although most writing manuals currently prefer the active voice for its clarity and conciseness, the passive voice is still acceptable in some circumstances.
Also, using active voice can improve the writing’s engagement and clarify how the subject and the action relate to one another.
The APA advises authors to communicate effectively using active and passive voices.
Nonetheless, it is crucial to maintain a consistent voice throughout the document to avoid confusion and maintain a professional tone.
Using the active voice may break up the monotony of passive sentences and make writing more engaging and simpler to read for the audience.
4. Avoid Using “Very”
It’s vital to refrain from emphasizing sentences using words like “extremely” or “very” while writing.
Instead, authors should use direct and forceful language to communicate their ideas successfully.
Powerful and vivid language may make reading more memorable and impactful by assisting the reader in better visualizing and connecting with the subject.
Using words that appropriately reflect the writer’s intended meaning and tone is crucial, like “very enormous dog’s hackles raised.”
Replace weak words with ones powerful enough to be used without the comma “very.”
Although intensifiers are grammatically acceptable, excessive use can make writing appear unfinished and unprofessional.
Strong verbs and adjectives, which express a feeling of urgency and enthusiasm, are better at communicating meaning. Strong verbs can help you write more succinctly and effectively.
5. Use A Consistent Structure
Use a Scientific Narrative Framework to provide a unified framework while composing a paper or grant application.
This structure makes it simpler for readers to follow the thinking process by helping to arrange thoughts and present them in a logical and appealing manner.
Your nonprofit’s content should be consistent, as employing different writing styles ruins the get-to-know-you phase.
Establishing a consistent tone and style throughout your material is crucial to standing out and being instantly identifiable in the digital sphere, which can help you develop a strong brand identity and promote a stronger relationship with your audience.
This framework offers a customized style manual of recommended practices to help writers minimize repetition and make their manuscripts clear and well-organized.
6. Use Parenthesis
Parentheses are a type of punctuation used to encapsulate extra information or remarks.
They may be used to provide clarification, illustration, a detour, or an afterthought. Moreover, parentheses and brackets are utilized to distinguish certain words and phrases.
While brackets are mostly used for quotes, parentheses provide additional information to the text.
Using parenthesis and brackets excessively may make text look crowded and hard to understand.
Using them is preferable only when essential for emphasis or clarity. Brackets are used to enclose additional information in quotes, whereas parentheses are used to express technical information, introduce acronyms, and parenthetical citations.
They are frequently used to denote editorial alterations or modifications to a straight quote in academic writing.
Make Your Writing Sharper
You should always make sure your words have additional significance. Every sort of writing, including academic papers and emails, must abide by this norm.
You can express your message more effectively and efficiently if you use your words carefully and concisely.
To understand the art of academic writing, you can source some sample articles from online writing services like Fresh Essays. They provide perfectly crafted essays that help you learn how to write an academic essay.
Each tip will be more successful than the others, so try a couple of them out and see what works for you. Spend time revising and editing your writing to make sure every word is important.
