How To Write Special Feature Articles A Handbook For Reporters, Correspondents And Free-Lance Writers Brand New Edition COMPLETE For those who desire to contribute to popular magazines and magazine sections of newspapers. Articles should use only necessary words. This does not mean using fewer words is always better; rather, when considering equivalent expressions, choose the more concise. Consider the view of William Strunk, Jr. from the 1918 work, The Elements of Style: Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. Reduce sentences to the essentials. Wordiness does not add credibility to articles. Avoid temporary expressions like "due to the fact that" in place of "because", or "at the present time" for "currently". The ideal method of specifying on-going events is "as of 2013". "Grammar bots" will replace these types of expressions with correct wording. Conciseness does not justify removing information from an article. The use of subjective qualifiers should be avoided.