Beware of redundancies
Website design By BotEap.comI edit large manuscripts, which means that in any given week, I probably read about a thousand pages. Eight hundred of those pages can be devoted to work and two hundred to pleasure. I can’t tell you how often I come across sentences that are redundant.
Website design By BotEap.comHere are some examples of redundant or irrelevant terms:
“Jack got home at 4 a.m. in the morning.” It’s okay to use one or the other; 4 am or four in the morning is enough. Saying both is repetitive. Website design By BotEap.com“The suspect is armed and dangerous.” Unless we’re talking about a soldier or police officer, armed says it all to me when I’m talking about someone who might hold up a convenience store, particularly since the person has already been called a suspect. Website design By BotEap.com“Before putting away his briefcase, the professor searched his cell phone for text messages.” Unless he’s trying to tell a cell phone from an iPad or a Skype conversation, a text is usually coming from a cell phone. Nine times out of ten, you can safely say, “Before I put his briefcase away, the teacher checked his text messages.” Website design By BotEap.comLastly, “Mahendra brought both of his parents to school for student teacher night.” Most people have two parents. It is understood. Some people in blended families have three or four parents as a result of the divorce, and other people are single parents. If you want to highlight the fact that Jimmy has two parents instead of four or just one, go ahead. But people are likely to assume that there are two parents. Therefore, the sentence can be written: “Mahendra brought her parents to the school for student teacher night.” Website design By BotEap.comLooking for redundancies is easy once you get used to paying more attention to detail during the writing process or when you’re rewriting. Website design By BotEap.comIf you do, the editor will play a completely different role than the writer. Let’s say the writer has written a novel and submitted it to a development publisher. The editor will examine the manuscript very carefully to assess character development, setting, conflicts between and within characters, and plot resolution. A development editor may recommend many changes to the story to make it clearer, more consistent, or less verbose. The editor of a newspaper can look for possible legal problems and the editor of a charitable foundation can look for inaccuracies in the monthly report. Once the author has implemented some of these recommendations, the manuscript goes to proofreading.
“Jack got home at 4 a.m. in the morning.” It’s okay to use one or the other; 4 am or four in the morning is enough. Saying both is repetitive. Website design By BotEap.com“The suspect is armed and dangerous.” Unless we’re talking about a soldier or police officer, armed says it all to me when I’m talking about someone who might hold up a convenience store, particularly since the person has already been called a suspect. Website design By BotEap.com“Before putting away his briefcase, the professor searched his cell phone for text messages.” Unless he’s trying to tell a cell phone from an iPad or a Skype conversation, a text is usually coming from a cell phone. Nine times out of ten, you can safely say, “Before I put his briefcase away, the teacher checked his text messages.” Website design By BotEap.comLastly, “Mahendra brought both of his parents to school for student teacher night.” Most people have two parents. It is understood. Some people in blended families have three or four parents as a result of the divorce, and other people are single parents. If you want to highlight the fact that Jimmy has two parents instead of four or just one, go ahead. But people are likely to assume that there are two parents. Therefore, the sentence can be written: “Mahendra brought her parents to the school for student teacher night.” Website design By BotEap.comLooking for redundancies is easy once you get used to paying more attention to detail during the writing process or when you’re rewriting. Website design By BotEap.comIf you do, the editor will play a completely different role than the writer. Let’s say the writer has written a novel and submitted it to a development publisher. The editor will examine the manuscript very carefully to assess character development, setting, conflicts between and within characters, and plot resolution. A development editor may recommend many changes to the story to make it clearer, more consistent, or less verbose. The editor of a newspaper can look for possible legal problems and the editor of a charitable foundation can look for inaccuracies in the monthly report. Once the author has implemented some of these recommendations, the manuscript goes to proofreading.