"Cut half away and edit the other half."

That was Astrid Lindgren's advice to children's book authors.

It is also a sound advice if you need to convince a fund or explain your research to those unfamiliar with your field of research.

Because your reader is busy. Your application, article, column and all other texts are in fierce competition with other applications, other articles, emails, Teams, LinkedIn and many other attention seeking elements in our everyday lives.

It is therefore more important than ever that your language does not get in the way of your message.

Below are examples of how strategic linguistic techniques can make a professional text easier to read.

Fund application

Before

FUNDING APPLICATION

1 The project's output is a strengthening of the volunteers' competencies within conflict management and conversation techniques.

After

The goal is that we equip volunteers for the difficult conversations so that everyone feels heard.

FUNDING APPLICATION

2

The project aims to develop and test new pedagogical methods and didactic approaches that can strengthen teaching quality and support differentiated teaching in order to meet the different learning needs and prerequisites of the heterogeneous student group.

RESEARCH DISSEMINATION

3 Chronic psychosocial stress exposure was significantly associated with elevated plasma levels of inflammatory biomarkers and increased incidence of major cardiovascular events in a prospective cohort study.

Our classrooms are filled with students with very different backgrounds. This is a strength, but also a daily challenge for teachers.

In this project, 45 teachers across two schools are testing practical methods for differentiated teaching. The goal is for more students to learn more, regardless of their starting point.

A major new study shows that long-term stress increases inflammation in the body and the risk of heart attack.

RESEARCH DISSEMINATION

4 Aerobic exercise of moderate to high intensity three times weekly over twelve weeks induced measurable volumetric expansion of the hippocampus, as well as improved performance on cognitive tests for executive functions and episodic memory in older adults with mild cognitive impairment.

The study showed that older adults with early-stage memory difficulties performed significantly better in cognitive tests when exercising three times a week.

Brain scans simultaneously revealed that the brain's memory centre, the hippocampus, had grown after twelve weeks of training.