The Importance of Erring for Clarity Over Conciseness

Conciseness is very important in writing, especially in news articles, blog posts, filling out forms, and in other forms of writing where space is limited and words must be conserved. However, conciseness should not come at the cost of clarity. Sure, unnecessary details can be omitted in favor of generality, but unnecessary confusion and ambiguity should not be created.

Sources of the issue

The problem arises from the many different ways we can use the same words to mean different things depending on: the context, the use of modifying words, or the…