Have you ever had trouble finding something in a room full of clutter?
It’s overwhelming and can lead to confusion, frustration, and wasted time. Clutter takes our focus away from important things.
I love removing clutter. Editing is like clearing clutter from a room. The result is organization and clarity; important things can be easily found.
It’s important that an author’s message be easily found. This can be difficult when sentences use more words than are needed to convey meaning; this is called redundancy.
Redundancy weakens your writing.
Eliminating it doesn’t necessarily mean using short sentences or not providing details. In the widely trusted handbook, A Writer’s Reference, Hacker and Sommers advise that “long sentences are not necessarily wordy, nor are short sentences always concise. A sentence is wordy if it can be tightened without loss of meaning.”
Why tighten sentences? Because wordiness distracts your readers from the ideas you’re trying to present. A distracted reader will give up trying to understand your message.
There are some situations in which wordiness is acceptable; it’s often seen in fiction writing. Wordiness can also be found in legal writing because certain archaic phrases that are used within that context are inherently wordy.
But when writing nonfiction, it’s better to be succinct. Some repetition of ideas is okay, but this should not be confused with redundancy. When ideas are delivered concisely, it makes you look like you’re more in command of the material. This is particularly important when writing educational materials.
Try not to test your readers’ patience. They shouldn’t have to take extra time to decipher meaning.
The following list includes examples of redundancy that I often see, followed by a more concise way to express the same idea. Some are used so frequently in speech that it can be difficult to notice them in writing.
Write down—Write
2:00 a.m. in the morning—2:00 a.m.
Fast and quick—Fast
Over and done—Over
Each and every—Each
In my personal opinion, I think—I think
Prepare and equip—Prepare
My dream and vision—My dream
Noisy and loud—Noisy
In order to—To
You might not have a problem with a room filled with clutter; but clutter in your home is for you. Your published writing is for your readers. Sentences cluttered with extra words will deter them.
So what do you do to ensure your writing isn’t redundant? Clear out the clutter.
• Keep your eyes out for phrases that can be reduced to the basics. Reading aloud can be helpful; your ear may pick up what your eyes don’t.
• Ask yourself: Can I trim this sentence and still retain the meaning?
• Use a dictionary or thesaurus to help you identify words that are similar in meaning.
A written message is stronger without extra words. It’s a good idea to always choose concision.
