There’s Not Enough Room! 6 Tips to Edit Shorter Without Cutting Content

Ever notice how it’s often harder and more time-consuming to write something short than to write something long? When you’re not worried about length, you can just say everything you want to, but when space is limited, you have to edit over and over to say it all in less space. Whether you’re agonizing over how to fit into word or character counts in a grant proposal, make your one-pager really one page, or write website copy short enough that visitors will actually read it, here are 6 tips to cut length without cutting content.

1. Orient yourself to the type of length limit you have

• Character Counts – Your goal is to use fewer and shorter words and fewer punctuation marks.
• Word Counts – Your goal is to use fewer words, which could mean using some longer words and increasing the character count; you don’t need to worry about punctuation.
• Space Constraints – Your goal is to cut the number of lines, which can mean cutting words or characters from one line, so you can bring up words from a line below and ultimately cut a line. This can also mean reordering words to place longer ones on a line that does not go all the way to end, so you can shorten the line below and eliminate the line below that.

 

2. Switch to shorter or fewer words and phrases that convey the same meaning.

Original sentence:

Many families do not make enough income to always feel confident that they will not find their cupboards bare and their wallets empty when their next paycheck is still days away from arriving.

208 characters, 33 words, 3 lines

Shortened by using fewer and shorter words:

Many families with low incomes live in fear of running out of food and the money to buy more.

94 characters, 19 words, 1 line

Shortened to use fewer words only. This version uses fewer words, but more characters and lines.

Many families with low incomes continually fear running out of both food and money for buying more.

99 characters, 17 words, 2 lines

 

3. Restructure sentences to remove less meaningful words.

Often, the first way you write a sentence is not the shortest way it could be written. Think about how you could restructure or reorder the sentence to remove conjunctions, linking words, forms of the verb “to be,” and/or or repetition.

Original Sentence:

To mitigate hunger in our area, our program provides services to people who are facing food insecurity; these services are free and include giving people food and information about nutrition, as well as providing them with referrals to other services that can help them to meet their basic needs.

297 characters, 49 words, 4 lines

Shortened by cutting unnecessary words:

Our program mitigates local hunger by serving people facing food insecurity with free food, nutrition information, and referrals to other basic needs services.

159 characters, 23 words, 2 lines

 

Click on the next page below to read the rest of the article.