The Written Word and Conciseness

In this world of high drama and quick turnarounds, we are asked to write a lot of documents with all sorts of information.  I, too, write on a daily basis and have taught technical writing in a college classroom setting.  One of the biggest challenges for writers seems to be conciseness.  We want to fill the page with every word we know.   So here is a little quiz.  Email me if you want the answers!

Change the phrases below to make them more concise.

  1. at this point and time
  2. a substantial segment of the population
  3. basic essentials
  4. arrived at the conclusion
  5.  the situation as it stands now
  6. in close proximity
  7. past history