Some Advice on Wordiness

This advice is a little oversimplified--so if things don't make sense, go see Hashimoto. (All lists of advice are oversimplified and need explanations, qualifications, and general disclaimers. No one should work on style mechanically--writing is a lot more flexible than that. And no one should work on "loosening up" or making their writing "flow" before they tighten their style up, learn to appreciate simple direct sentences.)

1. Watch your sentence length and sentence order.

Keep sentences medium-sized unless you need to make long sentences or short sentences.
Put the point you're emphasizing first.
Avoid wasteful openings like "There are . . ."; "It is . . . that . . ."; "What is important is . . . "; "An example is when . . ."; "There is a . . . that . . ."; "That he was concerned was . . . ."

2. Try to use strong verbs.

Watch out for be-verbs replacing strong verbs.
Watch out for be-verbs plus nominalizations (nouns that could be verbs)

The decision was . . . -----> Jones decided to . . .
. . . in conformity -----> . . . conforms to . . .
draws a conclusion -----> concludes that . . .

[As writers get better, as they strive to sound more academic and/or abstract, they discover nouns. After they discover these nouns, their prose suffers unless they find ways to give up those nouns.]

Watch out for "space-holder" verbs like make, do, put--especially with nominalizations.
3. Try to use strong subjects.

Watch out for passives that create weak or unclear subjects. Be especially concerned with passives that have a strong "by" built in:

The records were provided ---->John Smrogg provided the records.
It can be assumed ----> [Someone] can assume . . .

Watch out for abstract or inanimate subjects when you can provide animate ones--especially general subjects like "nature" or "society."
Write in first person; avoid "one" or "the author" or "people" (especially if you know who they are.):

The poem convinces us that . . . ----> Keats convinces us that . . [Some people rightly point out that Keats never really convinces us of anything--but then poems don't, either.]
The reliability of Jones was his strength ---> Jones was influential because he was reliable.
The corporation had lost contact with its employees---> The board of directors had lost contact with their employees

4. Avoid clutter.

Especially watch out for clutter that comes from prepositions (and prepositions with nominalizations)

Cluttered: "In many of these situations, the goals of the providers of the information can run directly opposite to those of the users."
[Somewhat less cluttered: "Often, those who provide information have different goals from those who use that information."]

And watch out for useless modifiers like "very," "surely," "truly," "really." [Well, watch out for all your extra modifiers. In fact, adjectives and adverbs don't necessarily make things better, more clear, or more enjoyable to read.
And be careful with negatives.

"His view was not unreasonable."- -> "His view was reasonable."

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