Tag: uncluttered writing

Cut the Clutter: Redundancies

~ Jack ~ 4 Comments

Through careful examination of our first drafts, we writers must keep alert for redundancies. Redundancies are words that serve no useful purpose toward sentence clarity. They can be repetitive or just hangers on like wedding cans on a bride and groom’s getaway car. They clutter our prose and can bore/irritate our readers. Whenever we spot them, delete them to strengthen our sentences.

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EXAMPLES OF REDUNDANCIES

Jane pedaled all the way to town on her bicycle.

If Jane pedaled to town, then all the way is understood, and thus it’s redundant.

Both Joe and Bill will go fishing tomorrow.

The word both isn’t needed because it’s understood.

So, as you revise, ask yourself this: Does each sentence I wrote need every word I used? Can I get rid of some words or phrases without affecting my sentences’ meanings? If you have such words or phrases, get rid of them. Here are a few to watch out for, though the list of redundant words is huge. 

  • Add up

Let me add up the price and I’ll give you the cost of the groceries.           

(Why is up needed for greater sentence clarity? I cannot think of a reason.)

  • Ask a question

  I want to ask everyone a question about that tractor.

  (What else does a person ask besides a question?)

  • Actually

Actually, it’s true the dog bit my sister.

(It’s either true or not true, so actually isn’t needed.)

  • Follow after

  Jim follows after Joe in the lineup.

(If Jim follows, then after is understood.)

  • Past experience

Past experience proved to John that he couldn’t dance.

(If experience proved something to John, then past is understood.)

  • Very old

My grandfather lived to be a very old man.

(This word very, in numerous cases, isn’t needed. Either my grandfather was old or he wasn’t, no very about it.)

Two Internet Sites

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Many internet sites have lists of redundant words. Here’s two of them.

Redundant-Words.pdf (simplystatedbusiness.com).

Redundancies 101: 400+ Redundant Words to Avoid in Writing (kathysteinemann.com)

Tautology and Pleonasm

Tautology

        Definition: Needlessly repeating what’s already been said.

He is his own worst enemy.

He is his worst enemy.

She is my personal assistant.

She is my assistant.

He gave a brief glance at the newspaper.

He glanced at the newspaper.

Pleonasm

Definition: Words in a sentence that don’t contribute to its meaning.

Based on the fact that I grew up on the coast, hurricanes don’t frighten me.

Because I grew up on the coast, hurricanes don’t frighten me.

In my opinion, I think my high school team won’t have a good season this year.

I think my high school won’t have a good season this year.

Watch out for redundancies in your revisions. They often sneak up on writers, especially in first drafts

Cut the Clutter: Introduction

~ Jack ~ 6 Comments
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I’m a surgeon. Not a medical surgeon, but a verbal surgeon. All serious writers should have verbal surgeon beside their names, for just as medical surgeons cut into patients’ bodies, so verbal surgeons dig deep into sentences, cutting out words, adding words, and many other things to make their writing strong and healthy.

One of the cardinal rules of clear, clean writing is “cut the clutter.” This means taking out unnecessary words, redundancies, and similar things that clutter our prose. Once they’re trashed, sentences become clear and easier to read. They’ll be more concise. This is the mark of a professional, after all. A professional writer’s prose isn’t cluttered.

Cluttered writing can be irritating. Many years ago, when I was a young, budding writer taking college-level English classes, one of my professors gave us students handouts to take home. He’d written about authors and literature he wouldn’t have time to cover in class. I’d learned how important it was to write concisely, without clutter, so when I saw his work…Ugh! An English professor, of all people! Oh, I tried reading what he’d written, but I grew so frustrated wading through his verbosity that I tossed his handouts in a waste basket.

So, if we don’t want a frustrated reader to toss our work away…write concisely! Concise writing doesn’t mean lots of short sentences, though many beginning writers have a mistaken notion that it is. Concise writing means making every word count toward clarity. Effective, clear writing is concise and uses various sentence structures and lengths.

More on “cutting the clutter” in the next post.