Roger That: A few words on writing
July 12, 2013
Roger Shirley is a former editor of the Nashville Business Journal and longtime editorial director here at MP&F. He reads just about everything we write. And we write a lot. This is Roger’s column about writing.
From the Department of Redundancies Department
My first MP&F blog post extolled the virtues of concise writing (When you write, keep it tight, February 4, 2010). One of the bullet points was about eliminating redundancies. The other day I stumbled upon an email I sent to the staff on the topic back in ’07, inspired by a list I’d seen. It still holds up, so here is the email:
Many of you have heard me say that an effective way to develop tight writing skills is to go through your copy and eliminate unnecessary words. If you can edit a 25-word sentence down to 18 words and not lose any meaning or effect, the shorter sentence will be better. Words such as “currently” can be eliminated about 95 percent of the time. In some cases, not only are words unnecessary, they create redundancies. I remember an old city editor almost having a stroke when a reporter turned in a story about an “armed gunman.”
Here are a few examples of common redundancies. Eliminate the word or phrase in parentheses:
(advance) reservations
(advance) warning
(added) bonus
ATM (machine)
(basic) fundamentals
(brief) summary
bouquet (of flowers)
(close) proximity
(completely, entirely) eliminate
depreciate (in value)
(desirable) benefits
during (the course of)
each (and every)
evolve (over time)
(exact) replica
(final) conclusion
fly (through the air)
(free) gift
(frozen) ice
(future) plans
grow (in size)
introduced (a new)
(live) studio audience
look back (in retrospect)
look (ahead) to the future
(new) construction
(now) pending
(originally) created
(overused) cliché
(past) history
previously listed (above)
(still) remains
surrounded (on all sides)
(three-way) love triangle
(total) destruction
(two equal) halves
(underground) subway
(unexpected) surprise
(unintentional) mistake
vacillating (back and forth)
(very) unique
whether (or not)
(white) snow
write (down)
Engage: McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations 
July 16, 2013 at 11:39 am
Interesting read. Redundant qualifiers such as “make a reservation (in advance)” often are intended as rhetorical softeners or as vernacular custom. “Write your name” could come off as slightly harsh compared with “Write down your name”. However, “Write your name in the space provided” is more specific than and just as polite as the other examples.
July 25, 2013 at 6:20 pm
An interesting read indeed. Even more key when we are limited to few characters.
July 30, 2013 at 11:24 pm
Excellent list! Sometimes, our brains don’t recognize redundancy. This is such a great reminder to watch wording and proof for such mistakes. Wait, that wasn’t redundant, was it?