Being Concise (Smallish Post 2)

In my school years, I was a very terse but complete writer. My statements said everything that I needed to say on a subject, but they were judged unacceptable by my teachers because they failed one criterion: the length requirement. For years I had the notion drilled into me that concise writing must not be complete; if I wanted to have a good essay/report/thesis, it had better have been at least so-and-so number of pages long. Smaller assignments were even micromanaged with a word count requirement. My inclination was to give my thoughts succinctly, but I had to learn to put "BS" into my writing because it was the only way to improve the assessments of my work. In the real world, however, short, strong statements are preferred, and I find that I have in great measure lost my ability to be terse and therefore to write effectively!