Writing Tip: Phrases to Delete from Your Writing

Your writing is a reflection of you—especially in a business setting, when people often judge your professional skills (and perhaps your intelligence) by your writing. Sloppy mistakes can make you look careless. But there are also those meaningless expressions and redundant words and phrases that not only make your writing look weak, but it can also be a waste of your time (and makes your text more wordy than necessary).

We are all guilty of some of these offenses occasionally. See if you recognize any of these:

“Unique” with a qualifier before it: Unique speaks for itself. Something can’t be “very unique.”

At the end of the day: This is a very common one. It doesn’t add anything to your sentence, so you can delete it. Also in the same category are similar phrases like, “All things considered.”

Time-wasting prefaces: Similar to the previous offense, these just waste valuable real estate at the beginning of your sentence. Examples would include, “Let’s start at the beginning.”

It is what it is: another popular offender. What does it mean, exactly? Nothing—so you don’t need it.

This article discusses other meaningless phrases you can easily cut from your writing.

What words or phrases would you like to banish from business writing? Share in the comments.

Image courtesy of Thinkstock