Eliminating Redundancies

Making Things Perfectly Clear

Another way we can be more concise in our writing is by eliminating redundancies. A redundancy is an expression that contains words that carry similar meanings or words that are unnecessary. For example, saying unexpected surprise is like saying “surprise surprise” because these two words have similar meanings. Unnecessary adjectives, adverbs, and phrases also create redundancies. It is important to eliminate these from your writing if you want to be more concise because they identify a writer as inexperienced.

Here is a list of some common redundancies that you should try to avoid:

Redundancies to Avoid

advance warning 

alter or change

assemble together

basic fundamentals

collect together

consensus of opinion

contributing factor

dollar amount

each and every

end result

exactly identical

few in number

free and clear

grateful thanks

great majority

integral part

last and final

midway between

new changes

past history

perfectly clear

personal opinion

potential opportunity

positively certain

proposed plan

serious interest

refer back

true facts

visible to the eye

unexpected surprise 

Reference:

Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2008).  In A. Williams (Ed.), Writing Process Phase 3: Revise, Proofread, Evaluate. Business Communication:  Process and Product, Sixth Canadian Edition (pp. 175-181). Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education Ltd.