You may need a shorter paragraph to meet a word limit, fit an abstract, or get an email read to the end. The techniques below keep the meaning and go from the biggest cuts to the smallest.
1. Keep the sentences that carry the point
Most paragraphs state the main idea in one or two sentences. The others repeat it, give examples, or lead up to it. Start by deciding which sentences you'd keep if you could keep only two or three.
A text summarizer can make that first pass for you. Paste the paragraph, choose how many sentences you want, and it returns the sentences that use the paragraph's most frequent important words, in their original order. It picks sentences word for word rather than rewriting them, so nothing is invented. It runs in your browser and works best on English text.
Then read the result aloud. If it no longer flows, add back a linking word or merge two of the kept sentences.
2. Cut filler words
These words rarely add meaning and can usually go:
- Intensifiers. Very, really, extremely, quite, totally
- Hedges. Basically, actually, kind of, sort of, in a sense
- Openers that say nothing. It is important to note that, it should be mentioned that, needless to say
3. Replace long phrases with short ones
- "in order to" becomes "to"
- "due to the fact that" becomes "because"
- "at this point in time" becomes "now"
- "has the ability to" becomes "can"
- "in the event that" becomes "if"
- "a large number of" becomes "many"
4. Use active verbs
"The report was reviewed by the team" becomes "The team reviewed the report". Likewise, "make a decision" becomes "decide" and "carry out an analysis" becomes "analyse". Each change saves two or three words.
5. Remove repetition
Look for the same idea said twice, as in "final outcome", "each and every" and "past history". Also cut a closing sentence that only restates the opening one.
Worked example
Before (58 words): "It is important to note that, due to the fact that our team has a large number of ongoing projects at this point in time, we are not really able to take on any new work. In the event that a project finishes early, we will basically let you know so that we can carry out a review of your request."
After (25 words): "Because our team has many ongoing projects, we can't take on new work now. If a project finishes early, we'll tell you and review your request."