Avoiding redundancy (6)

Originally created

“Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected.” (Source)

Something can be created only once; therefore, “originally created” is redundant.

Potential red flag

“Rising Inventories = Potential Red Flag” (Source)

A red flag is an “indicator of potential problems”; therefore, “Potential Red Flag” is redundant.

A snow event

“Parking During a Snow Event” (Source)

Snow (a form of precipitation) is an event; therefore, “Snow Event” is redundant.

Snow plowing events

“The City of Hudson has a specific ordinance that deals with snow plowing events that require all residents to remove their vehicles from all City streets, roadways and city-maintained alleys.” (Source)

Snow plowing is an event; therefore; therefore “snow plowing events” is redundant.

The Takeaway: Whether you are speaking or writing, be careful to avoid redundancy. If you use a lot of redundancies, your intelligent listeners or readers may conclude that you are ill-educated, stupid or careless.

See disclaimer.

A resource to help you avoid redundancy

Recently I published a post about a humorous but instructive essay about redundancies. Since then I learned of a good resource for avoiding redundancies; it’s a list of the more common redundant phrases, with a concise replacement for each. Here are five entries:

Instead of arrived at the conclusion, change to or try concluded.

Instead of I wish to take this opportunity to thank you, change to or try thank you.

Instead of same identical, change to or try same.

Instead of visible to the eye, change to or try visible.

Instead of warn in advance, change to or try warn.

The Takeaway: When you have the time, read through the entire list. Then keep the list in your resource file as a reminder and guide.

See disclaimer.

Thanks to Paul G. Henning for pointing out this resource.

Redundancies

Journalist Rob Reinalda (pictured) has published a fine essay on redundancies. As you can guess from the title, “Purge These Redundancies and Needless Phrases,” the tone of the essay is humorous. I think you would enjoy reading it.

The Takeaway: Like mixed metaphors, redundancies are difficult to spot in your own copy. Ideally, you should have someone edit your copy.

Thanks to Paul G. Henning for pointing out this essay.

See disclaimer.