How to Reduce Your Word Count: A Step-by-Step Guide

November 12, 2024 | Learning Center

Reducing word count can be essential for meeting assignment limits, improving readability, or tightening your prose. Here’s how to effectively reduce word count without losing meaning or clarity.

Image by Olia Danilevich

1. Eliminate Redundant Phrases

Look for phrases where the meaning is repeated and simplify them. Common examples:

• “In order to” → “To”
• “Due to the fact that” → “Because”
• “At this point in time” → “Now” or “Currently”
• “Each and every” → “Each” or “Every”

2. Delete Unnecessary Words

Many words don’t add value and can be removed without changing the meaning:

• “Really,” “very,” “just,” “quite,” and “that” are often filler words that don’t add anything to the sentence.
• Adverbs are often unnecessary. Instead of “He quickly ran to the door,” try “He ran to the door.”

3. Use Shorter, Direct Phrases

Find simpler ways to say things. Replace multi-word expressions with shorter synonyms:

• “A large number of” → “Many” or “Numerous”
• “Despite the fact that” → “Although” or “While”
• “Has the ability to” → “Can”

4. Avoid Overly Detailed Descriptions

Details are essential, but too much information can clutter your writing. For example:

• Instead of “The car, which was a dark blue with chrome finishes and black-tinted windows,” consider “The dark blue car.”

5. Choose Stronger Words

Replace weak or vague phrases with single, powerful words to cut the word count and boost clarity.

• ”Made a change” → “Transformed”
• “Showed a lot of” → “Exemplified”

An adverb-verb combination can often be replaced by a stronger, more precise verb:

• “He quickly ran to the door.” → “He dashed to the door.”
• “She smiled happily.” → “She beamed.”

6. Combine Sentences

When two sentences convey similar ideas, consider merging them:

• “The study focuses on environmental factors. These factors play a key role in public health.“
• Combine to: “The study focuses on key environmental factors in public health.“

7. Use Active Voice

The passive voice tends to be wordier. Switch to the active voice where possible:

• “The experiment was conducted by the team.” → “The team conducted the experiment.”

8. Reduce Examples and Illustrations

If you’ve used multiple examples, consider using only the strongest one.

9. Edit Long Quotations

Use only the parts of a quotation that are directly relevant to your point. If a long quote is not essential, try paraphrasing the key point to help reduce your word count.

10. Check for Unnecessary Modifiers

Adjectives and adverbs can sometimes be removed:

• “Completely finished” → “Finished”
• “Totally unnecessary” → “Unnecessary”
• “Her position is quite clear.” → “Her position is clear.”
• “The results were somewhat disappointing.” → “The results were disappointing.”

11. Use Contractions

If the document’s intended purpose allows for a more informal tone, use contractions to reduce your word count:

• “Do not” becomes “Don’t”
• “It is” becomes “It’s”

Conclusion

Trimming unnecessary words and tightening your language helps you stay within word limits while bolstering the clarity and impact of your writing.

Need help reducing your word count? Our editors can lower your word count by as much as 10% as part of a normal line edit. If you need more substantial cuts than this, please contact us for a quote; we also offer substantive editing for more sizeable word count reductions.