Concision is using only the words necessary to convey an idea. It aims to enhance communication by eliminating redundancy without omitting important information. Concision has been described as one of the elementary principles of writing. The related concept of succinctness is the opposite of verbosity.
Description
Concision means to be economical with words, expressing what is needed using the fewest words necessary. That may involve removing redundant or unnecessary phrases or replacing them with shorter ones. It is described in The Elements of Style by Strunk and White as follows: Concision has also been described as "eliminat words that take up space without saying much." Simple examples include replacing "" with "because" or "at this point in time" with "now" or "currently." An example sentence, with explanation:
Example paragraph
The following example is taken from: The source suggests this replacement: In the second quote, the same information is communicated in less than half the length. However, it could be more concisely rewritten and communicate the same information:
Teaching concise expression
Concise expression, particularly in writing, is considered one of the basic goals of teaching the English language. Techniques to achieve concise writing are taught for students at all levels, from the introduction to writing to the preparation of PhD dissertations, and legal writing for law students. It has been argued that although "in expository prose English places a high value on conciseness... he value placed on conciseness... is not shared by all cultures", with, for example, the Thai culture as one where redundancy is prized as an opportunity to use additional words to demonstrate the writer's command of the language. This may lead to a tendency for people from those cultures to use repetitive or redundant phrasing when learning English.
Succinctness
The related concept of succinctness is a characteristic of speech, writing, data structure, algorithmic games, and thought in general, exhibiting both clarity and brevity. It is the opposite of verbosity, in which there is an excess of words. Brevity in succinctness is not achieved by shortening original material by coding or compressing it, but rather by omitting redundant material from it.
