There are no neutral words when you're trying to be persuasive - every word must be doing real work and every sentence must be necessary. Don't say in two sentences what you can say in one; don't use five words when you can use three. Don't use a five-syllable word when an available two-syllable word means same thing. Take fluff out of your writing.

Fluff is often subtle cancer that grows - and ultimately kills - good writing. If your writing isn't achieving effects you want, consider a few of warning signs of a fluff infection:

Redundancy. Analyze your writing for places where you are repeating yourself. It happens often, particularly when writer isn't convinced that reader will get point without it. Give your reader some credit. Make each point once and make it effectively - and then don't make it again.

Tangents. A good piece of writing is one that makes a single effective point, supported by other lesser ones; anything that doesn't directly contribute to that support structure is a distraction and an excuse to stop reading. Don't take readers on side trips and don't let them catch their breath. Cut out anything that doesn't directly advance final cause.

When writing, always try to be brief. Unnecessary words are a lazy person’s habit, waste effort of writers and reader and muddy thinking and decision making. Here are some tips:

•Make first paragraph clearly state purpose answering in a general way who, what, when, where and why. Let reader know what you want him/her to do.

•Discuss only one subject in each paragraph, same subject that topic sentence introduces.

•Never say in a paragraph what you can say in a sentence. Never say in a sentence what you can say with a word. Never say in a long word what you can say in a short word with same meaning.

•Where data can stand on its own without explanation let it.