When you write for Constant Content or anyone else (but why would you want to do that?), you should strive for conciseness. Concise writing is free of unnecessary words that clutter your message. Some of these unnecessary words are qualifiers, or words that come before adjectives or adverbs that modify (by increasing or reducing) the quality of those words.

Ed is back and ready to share some helpful writing tips!

Quite, Rather, Somewhat, Fairly . . . Really?

Some qualifiers include:

*Quite

*Rather

*Somewhat

*Fairly

*Really

The above list is not exhaustive. However, if you’ve ever used these words in your writing, you should think carefully about their usefulness (or lack of) and how your sentences will sound with these qualifiers eliminated. In most cases, the deletion of the modifier creates a sentence with more impact.

The dollhouse is quite expensive.

The dollhouse is expensive.

He was rather tired.

He was tired.

That was fairly easy.

That was easy.

Notice how quite, rather, and fairly actually weaken the meaning of the above sentences? Remove them to create room for the other words in the sentence to do their job.

Very Doesn’t Do What You Want It To

A set of qualifiers known as intensifiers often don’t effectively intensify the statement they are meant to modify. Very and extremely are two examples of intensifiers that should be used less often. It’s usually enough to say something is hard or easy, complex or simple, or hot or cold. You don’t need to say something is “very” this or that. After all, if the weather is so hot that “hot” doesn’t seem to do justice to the situation, shouldn’t you just describe it as scorching, blazing, sizzling, or sweltering?

In other words, let words stand on their own without intensifiers. Or, when you need more emphasis, choose a single word that takes the place of the weak intensifier and the middle-of-the-road adjective or adverb.

It was raining very hard.

It was pouring.

The cake was very tasty.

The cake was delicious.

Houses in Scottsdale are very large.

Houses in Scottsdale are enormous.

Once you start excising qualifiers (especially the intensifier very) from your writing, you won’t miss them. Your sentences will be more powerful and expressive. As a result, your writing will be cleaner and exude more confidence.  This, of course, will make your writing more attractive to potential buyers and will help you sell more content.