Welcome back to the Write for Real People Workshop. Today we’re cutting the waffle and making our writing clearer and more powerful.

Here’s an example of a rather waffly letter:

This language in this letter sounds official and authoritative, but on closer inspection a lot of it is unnecessary.

We can cut about half of the words in the letter:

Let’s see what that looks like…

Excellent! By cutting the waffle, we’ve made this letter shorter and easier to read. As a result, the writer can get their message across much more effectively.

How can you start cutting the waffle in your writing? Let us know in the comments below.