Saturday, December 15, 2007

Writing for Style: Eliminating Redundancies

This entry is brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.

Don't say the same thing twice and don't take one more word to say what you mean than is needed. This will give your writing power and momentum.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. — William Strunk Jr. in Elements of Style

The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition, William Strunk Jr., E.B. White, Roger Angell

A phrase that repeats itself—like "true fact," "twelve noon," "I saw it with my own eyes"—is sometimes called a pleonasm. Watch out for pleonasms, they are bad habits just waiting to take control of your writing.

Many uneducated citizens who have never attended school continue to vote for better schools.

biography of her life = biography
circle around = circle
consensus of opinion = consensus
cooperate together = cooperate
each and every = each
end result = result
exactly the same = the same
free gift = gift
in spite of the fact that = although
in the event that = if
one and the same = the same
personal opinion = opinion
refer back = refer
revert back = revert
surrounded on all sides = surrounded
we are in receipt of = we have received

Fewer words is almost always better.

4 comments:

keranique reviews said...

One of the most common but yet not widely known causes of follicle damage is the hormone called DHT. DHT is present in both men and women and comes from the hormone testosterone. Post-menopausal women are at greater keranique reviews risk of having higher levels of the DHT. The loss of estrogen during menopause means that testosterone can take over and release more DHT. DHT kills the follicle by attaching to it and suffocating it until it falls out.
https://goldencondor.org/keranique-reviews/

Alan smith said...

Perfect Keto Max Develop a Plan for Maintenance. Even if you're taking diet pills to help with your weight loss it's important to keep in mind, that once you stop the pills, unless you maintain a balance between your activity level and the food you eat the weight will come back. While it may take some time to become accustomed to a change in diet and activity, the rewards are well worth the time and effort spent to reach and maintain a healthy weight.

Scr888 said...

I am undeniably thankful to you for providing us scr888 slot game download malaysia with this invaluable related information. My spouse and I are easily grateful, quite frankly the documents

we needed.

Great Awan said...

This discussion unexpectedly takes my attention to join inside. Well, after I read all of
Diet and Weight Loss them, it gives me new idea for my blog. thanks
Thanks for the update you have nicely covered this topic. keep it up