Writing · November 2, 2026

How do you make your writing shorter without losing anything?

By PWA Team

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Shorter isn't the goal; clearer is

Readers don't mind length; they mind waiting. Every word that carries no meaning makes them hold the sentence in mind a little longer before they reach the point. Cutting those words makes a text faster to read without making it less complete.

So the question isn't how many words to remove. It's which words would the reader miss if they were gone. If the answer is none, they can go.

Five cuts that rarely lose anything

1. Empty openers. “I'm writing to let you know that”, “I just wanted to mention that”, “It is important to note that”. Start with what comes after them.
2. Words that say the same thing twice. “Advance planning”, “final outcome”, “each and every”, “first and foremost”. One word does the job. Fixed pairs that a language or a field uses on purpose, like “null and void” in a contract, are a different matter.
3. Stacked qualifiers. “Quite possibly somewhat delayed” hedges three times. Pick the one that's true, or state the fact: “delayed by two days”.
4. Heavy phrases that hide a simple verb. “Make a decision” is “decide”; “carry out an analysis of” is “analyse”; “provide assistance” is “help”. Where a noun plus a light verb is the normal way to say something, as in many languages, cut only the heavier versions.
5. Sentences that announce the next sentence. “There are a few things I'd like to say about the budget.” Say them.

Every language has its own versions of these. The empty opener in a formal Spanish email is different from the one in a German one, but both can usually go.

An example

The second version keeps every fact: there was a review, it covered the options, the second proposal won, and it's our judgment. It drops the wind-up, the doubled words (“careful consideration” and “thorough review”) and the padding (“at this point in time”). It is a third of the length.

What not to cut

Some words look like padding but carry weight. Keep them:

• Names, numbers and dates. “Soon” is shorter than “by Friday 14 March”, but it isn't the same message.
• Reasons. “Please don't edit the file” works less well than “Please don't edit the file; the import runs from it overnight.”
• Politeness that the relationship needs. A thank-you or a greeting is not filler. In some languages and workplaces, leaving it out reads as rude.
• Real uncertainty. If you don't know yet, “probably” is information. Cut hedges you don't mean, not ones you do.

Cut in a second pass

Don't cut while you write. Drafting and trimming use different kinds of attention, and doing both at once slows down each. Write the full version, take a break if you can, then trim. Reading the draft aloud helps: you'll stumble over the words that don't need to be there.

For a sentence that resists, select it in Private Writing Assistant, press Rewrite and choose Shorter. You get a tighter version with the changes highlighted, in the language you wrote in. Compare it with yours and keep whichever still says everything you meant. It runs with Chrome Built-in AI on your computer, so the draft isn't sent anywhere. How it works explains what happens to your text.