I could still recall the days of writing telegrams. That was before the fax machine, internet and email. Writing a telegram meant economy of words and so obvious verbs and needless adjectives had to be omitted.
Today, with the advent of email and other cheap sources of communication you dont have to be that paranoid about your message-except you are writing an advertisement. When writing a classified ad for example, every word must count in the small space allowed and so word choice becomes very important.
But word choice is not only about being brief.
Even when crafting a long sales letter you should try and avoid using the personal pronouns: we, me, I, our,us. The sales message should be about your prospects and not about your company. The we syndrome is a common error but it can easily be avoided. A sales message should state upfront the benefit to the customer not parade how many awards the company has received in the past ten years. Whenever possible then the copy should be written in the third person.
There are some other words that are very common in advertising but are just too vague to have any force. Great copy is always specific. How to...