Wordiness

Drafting of a report is important, for reporters, editors and newspapers. Bad drafting lets verbosity creep in. And editors at times are loath to rephrase sentences. An unpublished example of verbosity is: 'At least half of the country's garment workers, who stitch the robust export growths, are deprived of festival bonus as required laws and collective bargaining agencies that realise such allowances are absent.' The 32-word sentence can easily be rephrased into one with 23 words: 'A half of the garment workers are not given festival allowances in the absence of related laws and trade unionism in the factories.'

A published example, which was not a report by the way: 'The people of the country could not be undaunted from the worries of further price spiral, though the government has assured that there was no possibility of price spiral of essentials during the month of Ramadan.' A bit difficult to understand, too. What the writer wanted to say is: 'People are worried about fresh increase in essential commodity prices in Ramadan although the government said there was no such possibility.

Another (published): 'The administration should fully utilize the extensive BUET research done so far to streamline the Eid traffic and to enable the bringing down the number of accidents considerably along with the suffering of the passengers.' It could be rephrased: 'The administration should use BUET researches to streamline Eid traffic, minimize the number of accidents and reduce people's sufferings.'