Circumlocution - in essay writing - is the use of a large number of words to say something which can be said equally well, if not better, in fewer words. Circumlocution introduces unnecessary “floweriness”, which is generally an irritant to readers, judges (for competition essays) and examiners (for examination essays). The possibility of making grammatical mistakes also increases as the quantity of words written rises and sentence structures become more complicated.

An example of circumlocution would be:
Circumlocution - I want an idea of how long it would take for this project to be completed.
Concise Version - I want an estimate of the project’s time frame.

There are a few reasons why circumlocution occurs. For one, the writer might not be able to find the exact word to express a certain thought. For everyday conversations, this is normal as thinking of a suitable word at the spur of the moment is indeed difficult. But for essay writing - where you should have time to refer to a dictionary, thesaurus or friend - circumlocution is inexcusable. In fact, if circumlocution persists in your essay writing, it indicates a weak vocabulary.

Another reason for circumlocution is that a writer may falsely believe that by using longer, more complicated sentences, containing bigger and more “bombastic” words, it will seem more impressive. Well, what do you think? Would any sane person say that the long phrase “at this precise moment in time” is more impressive than the word “now”? Obviously not.

So, kick circumlocution out of your essay writing “strategies”, and start writing concise sentences now. The more you practice writing concise sentences, the faster you will improve your essay writing!