Overwordiness

Overwordiness is the use of more words than necessary to convey a message, often leading to a lack of clarity, conciseness, and impact. It can manifest as excessive detail, repetition, or a general tendency towards prolixity. This stylistic flaw can frustrate readers or listeners, making it difficult for them to extract the core meaning. It stems from various causes including a desire to sound more intelligent, a lack of confidence in one's writing ability, or simply an inability to distill complex ideas into their essential components. Effective communication prioritizes precision and brevity, and overwordiness undermines both. It is the stylistic sin of saying too much.

Overwordiness meaning with examples

• The professor's lecture was marred by overwordiness; he could have explained the concept in ten minutes, but instead, he rambled for an hour, using complex jargon and unnecessary examples. Students found it difficult to stay engaged and understand the core principles, a consequence of his verbose style. The key ideas got lost in the lengthy explanation.
• Instead of saying 'due to the fact that the weather was inclement,' she employed overwordiness, stating, 'in view of the circumstance of the weather being rainy'. This elongated sentence slowed down her writing and obscured her point. The editor marked this instance as 'wordy' and requested she use simpler phrasing.
• His email response exhibited significant overwordiness. He described every minor detail of the project, including irrelevant background information and minute considerations, making it challenging to grasp the critical decisions. A concise summary would have been far more helpful, streamlining the decision-making process for the team members.
• The novelist’s first draft was replete with overwordiness; he used lengthy sentences and detailed descriptions to convey every sensation and emotion. While some details might have been vivid, the density of prose diminished the story's rhythm and created difficulty for the reader. It ultimately required significant editing to remove redundant phrasing and create the final published work.