Analysis: The most frequent edits to make academic texts more concise

by Hilde van Zeeland

Clear and concise writing is key to academic writing. Overly long or wordy sentences not only reduce clarity, but can also make it difficult to stay within word count limits for abstracts, papers, or proposals. To explore the art of concise writing, we used Writefull’s ‘Make Concise’ feature, available in Writefull for Word and Overleaf, to identify common lengthy phrases in published papers—and learn how to shorten these effectively.

About this analysis

At Writefull, we regularly analyze the language used in published papers to offer insights that help with academic writing. What phrases are typical in specific disciplines or sections? What are common errors to avoid? In this analysis, we focus on conciseness. We processed a dataset of published papers using Writefull’s ‘Make Concise’ feature, an AI tool that automatically shortens text. From this, we identified the phrases that were frequently shortened and categorized these in two ways: first, by frequency to highlight common opportunities for conciseness, and second, by impact to show which changes save most characters.

  1. Most frequent conciseness edits

The figure below shows the most common edits made by Writefull to make sentences more concise. They are ranked by frequency, and the bar colors indicate the level of shortening (darker bars show greater reductions in character count). The most frequent edit replaces associated with with linked to, followed by the change of an important to a key.

Here’s a breakdown of the types of changes we see, with examples from the list:

Complex verb phrases

  • was conducted in accordance with > adhered to
  • does not depend on the > is independent of
  • plays an important / key role in > is crucial for
  • are in good agreement > agree well

Phrases with prepositions

  • associated with > linked to
  • according to > based on
  • as a result of > due to
  • in comparison with > compared to

Noun phrases instead of verbs

  • in / for the treatment of > to treat / for treating
  • in the management of > for managing
  • through activation of > by activating

Lengthy adjectives

  • an important > a key / a major / a vital
  • one of the most > a highly

Lengthy nouns

  • with the control group > to controls
  • number of patients / samples > sample size

Complex negation

  • is / are unable to > can not
  • did not have any > had no
  • did not show any > showed no
  1. Most impactful conciseness edits

Next, we looked at the changes that had the greatest impact in reducing length. The image below shows the 50 most impactful edits, sorted by the amount of character savings. The top edit replaces ‘was conducted in accordance with the principles of’ with the much (!) shorter ‘adhered to’. Darker bars indicate changes that were applied relatively frequently in our dataset, like the following:

  • resulted in a significant reduction in > significantly reduced
  • were significantly higher / greater than those in > compared to
  • were conducted / carried out in accordance with > adhered to
  • plays an important role > is crucial
  • has been associated with > is linked to
  • for the treatment of > to treat

Need some help from Writefull's AI?

Of course, there's no need to learn these lists by heart. You can now make your writing more concise instantly with Writefull's 'Make Concise' feature, available from Writefull for Word and Writefull for Overleaf.  

Questions about this analysis, the 'Make Concise' feature, or anyting at all? Contact us at support@writefull.com.