Be Concise with your Word Count

Developing an application and meeting the page limit, word count, or character count is challenging to the new grant professional and even the long-time pro. Below are ways to reduce your verbiage and get closer to your target.

Merriam-Webster defines “redundancy” as “an act or instance of needless repetition.” The key word in that definition is “needless”; we want to remove repetition that is unnecessary, as opposed to repetition for effect or to hammer an idea into someone's head.

The most common redundancies are unnecessary or excessive modifiers, which often take the form of multiple words that hold the same meaning. For example, we don't want to say “final conclusion,” since a conclusion is by definition final.

Other examples include “true fact,” “the month of June,” “7 a.m. in the morning,” “new innovation,” and “my personal opinion.” Also avoid adding words that are included in their abbreviations, such as “CD disc,” “ATM machine,” or “NGO organization.”

Another way to reduce verbiage is to use clear language. When writing various types of professional correspondence, many people fall into the trap...