I'll join shdw and tony on the brevity piece. In busy airspace, I've heard "City Tower. Um, This is Cessna 1234X 8 miles to the east for a full stop with information Uniform" get "Aircraft calling 8 east stand by" and "City Tower. Cessna 1234X. 8 east landing X-ray" get right in

The other is to focus on AIM-standard (subject to the brevity piece). Think about getting clearances. We've all learned some form of CRAFT or other shorthand for taking down clearances, ATIS information, etc. They work precisely because ATC always gives us the same type of information in the same words in the same order. Think about getting a long clearance using non-standard terms with the order switched around. Makes it hard, huh? Language standardization speeds communication - both ways.

Problem is, we tend to be wordy (just look at this post ) The staccato of "Just the facts, ma'am" sounds a bit funny to our ears so we add fillers with no content ("with you" probably being the most famous of them). It's nice to add in a friendly "good morning."

All good. The problem is that people who say things the long way most of the time have a lot of difficult shortening it. But people who train themselves to be sort with only the essentials don't have any problem at all with engaging in longer conversation.