More examples of removing redundancies

This post is an add-on to the one I wrote in August where I covered ten examples of redundancies and readers supplied a few of their own.

Here are some more redundant phrases, in bold, to keep in mind and keep out of your own writing.

1.  Many product landing pages going for the hard sell have “…and as an added bonus…“. It’s implied that a ‘bonus’ is in addition to the base product/service, so ‘added’ is extraneous.

2.  “She is not available at the present time.” ‘At present’ means ‘at this time,’ so you only need: “She is not available at this time.” Or even better: “She is not available now.”

3.  “The coyote is in close proximity to…” or “He is under close scrutiny.” Drop ‘close’ in both of these since proximity means ‘close in location,’ and scrutiny means ‘close study.’

4.  “My promotion came at a time when I was hoping to cut back on my hours.” Since ‘when’ refers to something coming, ‘at a time’ is unnecessary.

5.  Can you see the redundancy in each point below?

• Let’s collaborate together on this project.
• We should meet together to work through the details.
• The musicians joined together in harmony.
• The groups will merge together next month.

Can someone or something collaborate, meet, join, or merge in a way other than “together”? No.

6.  “She made a definite decision about his punishment.” If you make a decision that is good, bad, final, or temporary, it is always ‘definite’ at that time. And you can’t make an ‘indefinite’ decision. 

7.  Enter in – is there any way to enter other than ‘in’? No. Just use ‘enter.’

8.  I’ve fallen into this trap when free writing, have you? “The story first began…” There’s only ever one beginning, so ‘first’ can be tossed.

9.  One of my favorites is foreign imports. Imports originate in other countries, so  ‘foreign’ is redundant.

There are so many more, but these are on my current short list and I thought it would be fun to share.

Do any redundant phrases come to your mind right now? Share them below if you like.

Lisa Jackson is an independent editor, writer, New England region journalist, and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom which is now a 5-time winner of Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers, where she gets to chat with best-selling authors, non-fiction writers, publishers, and other writing professionals on a weekly basis.