Delete words that don't add meaning.

Most of us are guilty of using unnecessary words in our writing. Sometimes we fall into the habit of writing what other people write. Or we may write what we hear and speak. But good writers use only those words that add information to their sentences.

Review this list of common meaningless modifiers:

actually	kind of
basically	particular
certain	practically
definitely	really
different	various
generally	very
given	virtually

How often do you use words like these?

Consider the following example:

A plant supervisor supports the need for a budget increase with this statement:
Actually, we basically anticipate increasing overtime for individual operators.

Is this a strong, efficient statement? What words can you eliminate to increase the effectiveness of this sentence?

Let's eliminate ACTUALLY, BASICALLY, and INDIVIDUALLY and then read the sentence again:
We anticipate increasing overtime for operators.

Now it's easy to see how unnecessary words dull the sentence and obscure its meaning. Watch for and eliminate unnecessary words like actually and basically in your own sentences.