Less is more: cut, cut, and cut words

Fewer words is more. The Word Wise blog posted a number of phrases that can be reduced to one word without losing meaning. (Copied in full here, but please do visit this interesing blog).

• at all times - always
• at the present time - now
• because of the fact that - because
• due to the fact that - because
• for the purpose of - for
• in order to - to
• in spite of the fact that - though
• prior to, in anticipation of - before
• with regard to - about
• on an annual basis - yearly
• at this point in time - now
• subsequent to - after
• a large majority - most
• be in a position to - can
• in view of the fact that - because
• in the event that - if
• at your earliest convenience - soon
• be in a position to - can
• under the circumstances - because

There is a bigger trend here:

1. Hand writing creates long texts, when we start we are often not quite sure how to get our point across. Mistakes are hard to correct
2. Word processing allowed us to review (cut) text retrospectively
3. (PowerPoint) graphics and images allow us to get rid of more text and replace them with a visual that “says more than a 1,000 words”.
4. The next step might be that we are letting go of the rules of grammar (similar to SMS messages, Tweets) in more official settings to deal with increasing information overload.

I have not (yet) reached step 4.