Wordiness is a serious affliction to any piece of writing, as it makes erstwhile interesting topics sound impossible to appreciate.   Every word you write should pull its own weight.  Words that don’t is excess weight that you should shed to keep the writing fit and trim.

There are four general types of errors writers commit that lead to wordy constructions.  These are:

1. Prolixity.  This refers to the introduction of too many details into the piece to the point that it’s unnecessary.  You only need to include as many facts as are required to clarify the point.  Once that’s done, move on.  Otherwise, you can end up exhausting the reader with information they don’t need.
2. Tautology.  This happens when you repeat an idea without the need to do so.  While repetition makes sense if you want to drive a point home, remember to reserve that for those details that may either be misunderstood or forgotten in the text.  If saying it one time is clear enough, don’t bother repeating.
3. Redundancy.  This refers to those words that serve no grammatical or rhetorical purpose in the sentence.  Basically, it’s those words you can omit and no one will miss.  So omit them.
4. Verbosity.  The easiest to spot, this is when you use a long expression when an equivalent shorter one is available.  While it’s a good way to pad word count, it makes your writing less concise than it can be.