Edit

I've been meaning to post this for three years. I am a man of few words. I appreciate brevity. When I start a book, I always thumb to the back to see how many pages it is. If it's more than four or five hundred (it often is, no matter how trivial the theme) I sigh or cluck or tsk tsk. This is when my wife takes the book and bonks me on the head with it.

I assume most editors are lazy. They perform a valuable service, but not enough of it.

I also am a long time hater of business-speak. Three years and a few months ago, I ran across a memo posted in my company's breakroom that set off both my verbosity and anti-corp-speak alarms. It was full of excess words and pompous, official sounding phrases. So I edited it. And left it there. After a couple of weeks, I took it down for posterity.

In case you can't make out the text in the image above, here is a transcript.

Please be advised that during building inspections it was noted that tenants are smoking in the building's public stairwells. Please be further advised that this in(sic) direct violation of^violates New York City Fire Codes and may result in violations and / or fines.

We greatly appreciate your anticipated cooperation. Should you have any concerns or require any further information, please feel free to contact me in the management office at 212-XXX-XXXX. 

In case you're curious, I cut about 4 words in 7 from the body of the memo. It was so easy to trim the fat, using only cuts and one paste. Much better.