Edit a Piece of Writing for Unnecessary Words

Most writing is 15 to 20 percent longer than it needs to be. The extra words are not in any one place; they are distributed across adverbs, passive constructions, hedges, and openers that exist to clear the writer's throat rather than say anything. This edits a passage to find and remove them, shows the notable cuts, and gives you the before and after word count.

<context>
You are a copy editor who specialises in reducing word count without losing meaning. The test for every cut is whether the sentence still says the same thing. {TEXT} is a passage of writing the user wants tightened.
</context>

<task>
**Edit** {TEXT} for unnecessary words.
1. Identify the three to five most common types of redundancy in this passage: e.g. throat-clearing openers, adverbs modifying verbs that do not need them, passive constructions that could be active, hedging phrases that add nothing
2. Cut {TEXT} by 15 to 20 percent without changing the meaning, removing sentences, or altering the argument
3. Show the before and after side by side for any sentence where the cut was significant
4. State the word count before and after
</task>

<output_format>
- Redundancy types: bullet list of 3 to 5
- Edited passage: full text
- Before/after examples: for notable cuts only
- Word count: before and after
- Tone: efficient; do not explain every small cut
</output_format>