Concision is important for clarity, and one way to achieve this is removing unnecessary words from your writing. The trick is knowing which words can be cut! The first things to look for in this respect are redundant expressions. But what does this mean? And how do you correct them?
A redundant expression is made up of two or more words that repeat the same idea. For example, the phrase ‘twelve noon’ is redundant because noon is always at 12pm! As a result, saying ‘twelve noon’ is the same as saying ‘noon’ by itself. Other examples include:
Not all redundancies are wrong, of course. Some can be used for emphasis. Saying ‘null and void’, for example, sounds stronger than ‘null’ or ‘void’ alone. Others may have uses in specific contexts (e.g. ‘cease and desist’ is a common phrase in legal contexts, with the doubling up a leftover from a time when many legal phrases included words from two or more languages to ensure understanding).
Usually, though, redundant expressions are just wordiness. And since wordy writing is harder to read, you will want to avoid redundancies in your written work.
The answer here is quite simple in theory: remove the offending term or terms. However, you need to cut the right words, which can be difficult if you’re not confident about what each one means.
In some cases, it doesn’t really matter. The following, for instance, contains the redundant expression ‘each and every’:
I have spoken to each and every person here.
But we can cut either ‘each’ or ‘every’ and it will mean the same thing:
I have spoken to each person here. ✓
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I have spoken to every person here. ✓
In other cases, however, removing the wrong term will make your sentence ungrammatical. One tip here is to keep the term being modified, as this will usually be essential to the sentence. For example:
Everyone at the conference received a free gift.
Here, ‘free gift’ is a redundant expression (a gift has to be given freely for it to be a gift). But since the noun ‘gift’ is the object of this sentence, removing it would be ungrammatical. ‘Free’, meanwhile, is merely an adjective (i.e. a word that modifies a noun). Thus, the modifier has to go:
Everyone at the conference received a free. ✗
Everyone at the conference received a gift. ✓
In cases like this, then, you should always remove the modifying term, not the term being modified. And if you’d ever like a little extra help with your writing, don’t forget to get it proofread by the experts!
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