Since I first started writing professionally, the word count feature on my word processing system has been my favorite tool. It can be almost a game to search through a manuscript looking for ways to say the same thing with fewer words. And after each edit, I triumphantly check the word count to see a lower number. Recently, I took two thousand words out of a chapter book for a requested revision. Over the years, trimming words to make my stories publishable has become second nature. I can’t re-read any draft without seeing numerous sentences in need of tightening. How does this help me as a writer? It forces me to examine every word in my stories. The often quoted line attributed to a variety of authors, including Mark Twain: “I’m sorry to write such a long letter. I didn’t have time to write a shorter one,” reflects the effort needed to comb a story for repetitive or confusing phrases. Professional writers make every effort to put their ideas down as succinctly as possible.

    How do we help students develop the skills to tighten their writing? First, we have to convince them of the necessity. Many students are reluctant to part with words they have laboriously written. They don’t see that their stories are riddled with repetition and confusing sentence fragments. It helps to start small. Point out that the word “and” in numerous run-on sentences can be eliminated. In some student writing, that can cut out 50 words right there! Many young writers also have a habit of using “was” repeatedly in reference to an activity such as walking instead of writing the more direct “he walked.” And it is not uncommon to see a student make essentially the same statement at the beginning and end of a paragraph.

    I am currently helping students in my school put together a literary journal. Each student in the fifth grade has been allotted one page in this magazine to publish his or her writing. This translates into no more than 800 words in ten point font or 500 words in 12 point. For many of my students, it has been a daunting challenge to cut down a story by 500 words. But it has also taught them how to look through their writing for extraneous details and digressions. They have learned how to make their best phrases shine like  silver, rather than lie buried beneath the tarnish of unnecessary words. Don’t be afraid to encourage your students to trim their first rambling drafts. They will balk at first. But with luck, they will eventually admit, as some of my students have, that “It is not as hard as I thought.”  And the end result of a more polished piece of writing will both please and surprise them.

Jacqueline Jules—author, poet, teacher, librarian
http://www.jacquelinejules.com/