Get Rid of Extra Words!

rogersgeorge on August 4th, 2021

Good writing is concise. That means you got rid of extra words but didn’t get rid of too many words. (Getting rid of too many words is being terse.) Okay, we have a couple synonyms here that involve not being concise. Definitions after the comics.

Frazz Comic Strip for October 31, 2010 — https://www.gocomics.com/frazz/2010/10/31

Frazz Comic Strip for April 18, 2010 — https://www.gocomics.com/frazz/2010/04/18

Redundancy—needless repetition; “do it over again.”
Pleonasm—unnecessary words; “on a daily basis” instead of “daily.”
Tautology—the same thing twice; “he was prepared and ready.”

I’ll let you decide which of these are in the comics.

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Rogers George has been a technical writer for more than 20 years. He has written on subjects as diverse as outhouse assembly, restaurant reviews, software, information security, and scientific equipment. He has his own writing consultancy and is always happy to discuss writing and grammar. Drop him a line at curmudgeon@writing-rag.com.

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