wiki/2021-04-22-15-00-34.org

Reduce writing fluff

The problem with a lot of writings is they can be filled with unnecessary things. From research writings, blog posts, legal documents, and even your own notes. The most important factor is to be readable and well-understood by an outsider or yourself after a set amount of time. The following list is the things I need to keep in mind when writing.

• Apologizing (e.g., "…as the theory of multiverses is not yet proven as of the time of this writing, more research is required on how we define superheroes").
• Philosophical non-sequiturs (e.g., "In order to create a deviled egg, first we need to ask is cooking.").
• Hedging (e.g., probably, somewhat, all I know is, I'm not an expert but).
• Metaconcepts (e.g., perspective, approaches, identities, entities).
• Clichés (e.g., walk in a park, knock peoples' socks off).
• Thingification of verbs and adjectives (e.g., "make an appearance" instead of "appear", "bringing doom" instead of "destroy").
• Scare quotes (e.g., "so-called", "in-the-know").