[selbyk]

You aren't asking for homework, but I highly recommend The Elements of Style.

They make such boring topics as grammar and composition a pleasure to read and apply. I read it multiple times in high school, and I still find myself repeating some of the rules to myself when I revise my writing.

Including rule 17:

"17. Omit needless words.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."