Writing Greener Posts

Recently, I've started writing again. And each piece has averaged ~2,000 characters. No one wants to read that.

In electrical engineering school, students spend significant time on circuit logic optimization lessons. It helps them design smaller, cheaper, and more energy-efficient circuits.

Similarly, I want to write more brain energy-efficient posts. But I wonder whether there are ways to optimize words as rigorously as that. So, here are some clues on possible ways as I brainstorm them for myself.

Note: this piece concerns condensed writing and not proper writing skills.

We observe two problems, which are named arbitrarily here.

1. Twin Statements: two or more immediate sentences or fragments that contain mutually-inclusive factors.

2. Redundancy: extra words, even where a perfectly-good set could be changed to less (ex: "so much" to "such").

Twin Statement 1

(24 words. 143 chars. Long.)
"Some of you have an attractive writing style that keeps the reader's attention. And changing it might make them less attracted to your writing."

(16 words. 95 chars. Short.)
"For some of you, changing your attractive writing style might make readers less attracted to it."

(13 words. 79 chars. Shorter.)
"Some of you have an attractive writing style that keeps the reader's attention."

The two sentences have a common factor: the reader is attracted to the writing style. The thing that changes is the negation. So this provides an opportunity to merge the two or drop one.

Twin Statement 2

(16 words. 81 chars. Long.)
"So this piece is not for you, because it's not going to give you anything useful."

(11 words. 55 chars. Short.)
"So this piece is not going to give you anything useful."

(7 words. 29 chars. Shorter.)
"So this piece is not for you."

It says the same thing in two fragments, especially when the piece is not for you. Yet it'll keep you around for another 7+ words.

Redundancy 1

(6 words. 36 chars. Long.)
"I've gotten back into writing again."

(5 words. 30 chars. Short.)
"I've gotten back into writing."

"Gotten back into" already includes "again."

(4 words. 27 chars. Shorter.)
"I've started writing again."

"Gotten back into..." -> "Started... again."

Redundancy 2

(11 words. 65 chars. Long.)
"And every thing that I've written has averaged ~2,000 characters."

(8 words. 46 chars. Short.)
"And each piece has averaged ~2,000 characters."

"Thing that I've written" -> "Piece"

The previous sentence provides enough info for the reader to know the subject.

"Every" -> "Each"

Decrease char count and repetition of words throughout the piece.

Redundancy 3

(10 words. 44 chars. Long.)
"So I checked to see what might be the cause."

(8 words. 37 chars. Short.)
"So I checked what might be the cause."

"Checked" includes "to see."

Redundancy 4

(13 words. 70 chars. Long.)
"I have never in my entire life written with so much redundancy before."

(8 words. 45 chars. Short.)
"I have never written with so much redundancy."

"Never" includes "my entire life" and "before."

(7 words. 42 chars. Shorter.)
"I have never written with such redundancy."

"So much" -> "Such"

Redundancy 5

(9 words. 44 chars. Long.)
"And every single word that I take out helps."

(8 words. 37 chars. Short.)
"And every word that I take out helps."

"Every" includes "single."

(7 words. 35 chars. Shorter.)
"And every word that I remove helps."

"Take out" -> "Remove"

Results

From the twin statement cases, the short and shorter versions reduce the long one to ~61% and ~46%, respectively.

And from the redundancy cases, the short and shorter versions reduce to ~75% and ~71%, respectively.

Remarks

I wish there was an app that did this for me, given how much time it wastes. That would've been extremely useful in this phase of my work. Even more if it included diff stats, so that I could decide whether it's worth removing personality in favor of a greener post.

An app like Grammarly is stuck with the constraints of proper grammar. On the other hand, this app would be focused on simplification instead.

What do you think? Would you use an app like that?

If you have any comments or suggestions, please share them below.