GROWING GRAMMAR:
“Help Stamp Out, Eliminate and Abolish Redundancy!”
–Unknown, Unknown, Unknown
My students are fond of writing, “I was thinking in my mind. . .” or “I was thinking in my head….” This concerns me as I wonder in what other parts of their bodies thinking may (or may not) be happening.
These repeated or unnecessary words are sometimes difficult to weed out during editing. They remind me of all those tchotchkes littering my house. The clutter bunnies.
You know, those dust collectors like the ceramic ducks from the oldest who’s now 30, the spoons from every vacation from sea to shining sea, the collection of broken shells from the bottom of every sea to shining sea… If you’re like me, you just forget they’re around.
Clutter bunnies invade our writing, make it as weighty as coals in the Christmas stockings of a misbehaving child. Here’s the good news…the clutter in our writing doesn’t need to be dusted, just deleted.
Here’s the disclaimer: Depending on the circumstance, a repetition may be necessary to make a point. I’m certainly not suggesting all repetition is B-A-D.
Check your writing for these…
FAT VERSION LEAN MACHINE VERSION
12 midnight/12 noon midnight/noon
3 am in the morning 3 am
A total of 12 people 12 people
Added bonus bonus
Baby calf calf
Brief moment moment
Burning hot hot
Biography of her life biography
Circle around circle
Close proximity close
Cooperate together cooperate
Close scrutiny scrutiny
Complete stop stop
Consensus of opinion consensus
Descend down descend
Duplicate copy duplicate OR copy
empty hole hole
end result result
exactly the same same
false illusion illusion
final farewell farewell
first priority priority
freezing cold/ice cold cold
future plans plans
free gift gift
hanging down hanging
honest truth/true fact truth/fact
hot water heater water heater
income coming in income
in the event that if
in spite of the fact that although
it’s raining outside it’s raining
merge/join together merge/join
money-saving coupon coupon
little baby baby
knowledgeable experts experts
pair of twins twins
past tradition/experience tradition/experience
previous history history
null and void null OR void
revert back/refer back/return back revert/refer/return
safe sanctuary/safe haven sanctuary/haven
sink down sink
small speck/tiny bit speck/bit
surrounded on all sides surrounded
unique individual individual
young child child
evil villain villain
P.S. One of my students asked if “redundancy” meant to dundancy again.. Oh, my.
