Writing Clearly and Concisely

Clarity is a kindness to your reader

A judge reading dozens of submissions has limited energy. Every confusing sentence costs them effort, and effort spent decoding your grammar is effort not spent appreciating your impact. Clear writing isn't about sounding smart. It's about being understood the first time.

Think of it like code. In WPILib you'd never write a tangled method when a short, well-named one does the job. Bloated prose is the writing version of spaghetti code: it technically runs, but nobody wants to read it, and bugs (misunderstandings) hide inside.

Concise doesn't mean short

Concise writing uses the strongest words, not always the fewest. You're cutting dead weight, not meaning. The highest-value moves:

• Cut filler phrases. "Due to the fact that" becomes "because." "In order to" becomes "to." "At this point in time" becomes "now."
• Use strong verbs, not verb + noun. "We made a decision to" becomes "we decided to." "We conducted an analysis of" becomes "we analyzed."
• Be specific. A specific word is usually shorter than a vague one plus its explanation. "Our outreach program" is vaguer and often longer than "our free Saturday robotics club."
• Trim redundancies. "Future plans," "end result," and "collaborate together" each repeat themselves. Drop a word.

Prefer active voice

Active voice names who did the action, which is exactly what a judge wants to see your team doing.

• Passive: "A curriculum was developed and was used by three schools."
• Active: "We developed a curriculum, and three schools now use it."

The active version is shorter, clearer, and credits you. Passive isn't always wrong, but reach for active first.

One idea per sentence

When a sentence tries to carry three ideas, split it.

• Hard to follow: "After we noticed that local middle schoolers had no access to robotics, which mattered to us because many of us also lacked that access growing up, we decided to start a club that we ran on Saturdays."
• Clear: "Local middle schoolers had no access to robotics, and neither did many of us growing up. So we started a free Saturday club."

A self-edit pass

After your first draft:

1. Read it aloud. If you run out of breath or stumble, the sentence is too long.
2. Hunt for -ion and -ment words (implementation, development, engagement). They usually hide a stronger verb. "The implementation of the program" becomes "we launched the program."
3. Delete one word from every sentence. Most survive intact.
4. Count characters. The essay caps at 10,000 characters including spaces, and each executive-summary answer at 500. Here, conciseness is a hard requirement, not just style.

Every word you cut buys room for another number or vivid detail. In a 500-character answer, trimming "in order to facilitate the process of" down to "to" frees space for a real outcome. Cutting words literally lets you say more.