Elements of Style

Some of the most frequent comments I receive on my papers include "too wordy", "you do not mince words" and simply "omit, omit, and omit!". Accordingly, I think I need to work on rule #17 found in The Elements of Style:

Omit Needless Words

I really need to focus on making "every word tell" and learn to discard the rest. The inclusion of unnecessary words really detracts the quality from my works and also, at times, can confuse my readers.

Another area I sometimes have trouble with is rule #20:

Keep Related Words Together

Often, due to haste, I find that my sentences are awkwardly constructed and this, coupled with submission of needless words, further serves to compromise the quality of my pieces.