36 redundant phrases to eliminate from your writing
As writers, editors, and PR professionals, we are keenly aware of having to fight for readers’ attention. My daily sanity check is to ask, “Is someone actually going to read this?”
One way I’ve found to help readers is to use concise language and eliminate redundancies. As Strunk and White advise, “Make every word tell.”
Below is a list of phrases in which every word does not tell. These phrases are redundant, repetitive, wordy, and verbose. Paring phrases such as these is an easy way to tighten your writing. (Redundant words are italicized.)
• added bonus
• advance planning
• armed gunman
• circulate around
• close proximity
• completely full
• consensus of opinion
• each individual person
• fewer in number
• final outcome
• free gift
• future plans
• general public
• in the month of September
• invited guests
• join together
• large in size
• major breakthrough
• my personal opinion
• on a daily basis
• past experience
• past history
• period of time
• predict in advance
• red in color
• revert back
• round in shape
• firm in consistency
• still continues
• sum total
• true fact
• unexpected surprise
• unsolved mystery
• visible to the eye
• 12 noon (or midnight)
• 7 a.m. in the morning
PR Daily readers, which of these redundancies do you find most annoying? Have any to add?
This article was first published on Ragan Communication’s PR Daily.
