Clarity & Style

Featured Concepts

• Conciseness

  Say the most with the fewest necessary words.

• Avoid Jargon

  Prefer common words to insider terms unless your audience shares them.

• Concrete Language

  Use specific, sensory words that people can picture.

• Active Voice

  Make the doer the subject to increase clarity and energy.

• Front-​Loading

  Place the key idea at the start of the sentence.

• Reduce Hedging

  Limit softeners like maybe, sort of, I think when you need authority.

• Avoid Minimizing Language

  Remove words like 'just,' 'only,' or 'a little' that diminish the value of your ideas.

• Avoid Permission-​Seeking Language

  Stop asking for validation when you have something valuable to contribute.

• Reduce Unnecessary Apologies

  Save 'sorry' for genuine mistakes, not for having ideas, asking questions, or existing.

• Limit Excessive Qualifiers

  Reduce overused intensifiers like 'very,' 'really,' and 'extremely' that add noise without meaning.

• Redundancy (Pleonasm)

  Remove needless repetition that adds no meaning.

• Avoid Nominalization

  Prefer strong verbs over abstract noun forms.

• Informative Speaking

  The discipline of teaching complex information clearly, memorably, and engagingly.