Redundancy is a no-no

Redundancy is when you say (write) something twice that needs to be said only once.

The test for redundancy is to remove one of the candidates. Does the meaning change? If no, then you have a redundancy. Redundancies are easy to miss because you have to be paying attention to what you are saying to catch them. Many redundancies are idiomatic, and since we’re used to them, we tend to slide over them without close attention.

Here’s an easy one: “Let’s do it over again.” —You don’t need both “over” and “again.” Remove either word and you have not only the same meaning, but a cleaner, tighter (technical terms for “more concise”) sentence.

Here’s a hard one. I found it in a construction specification, a very technical document that needs to be as concise as possible so the reader can get to the content with the least effort.

“…uses a ship-lap joint system that allows for expansion and contraction to occur.”

I’ll spell out the redundancy below, so look at this sentence yourself first, to see if you can discern the redundancy.

…

Okay, class, time’s up.

Congratulations if you figured out that you can leave out either the “for” or the “to occur.” Go back and read the sentence with each choice left out. See?

Here’s why you have a redundancy. Read slowly—the explanation is a bit technical, but within the realm of basic grammar.

• “Expansion and contraction” stand comfortably as the object of the preposition “for.”
• The phrase “to occur”  is an infinitive, which can take a subject, as it does in this sentence. Its subject is  “expansion and contraction.”

So this sentence uses “expansion and contraction” as two things at once. Big no-no. (oops.)

(Delete the infinitive. “To occur” a way of saying “to be.” As a general rule, any time you leave out any form of “to be” from your writing, you produce better writing.)

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Word processors have advanced a lot since I started out in computing (a 64K Color Computer, on which I taught myself BASIC). When you type a quotation mark, the big word processors figure out which direction to make the curly quotes.  Text editors and other simple word processors generally use the simpler straight quotes.

Aside: I am the proud owner of a pocket knife I inherited from my grandfather that has the word “Rajah” inscribed on it, and the closing quote is not an upside-down version of the opening quotes. It’s a mirror image, which is how they ought to be. That convention died out a long time ago when typographers eliminated a bin of punctuation marks by turning the opening marks over. Since they were doing it all by hand, I suppose I can’t blame them, but I still like mirror-image marks.

By convention nowadays, we use the curly quotes for quotation marks, and the straight quotes as an abbreviation for feet and inches. This is a useful distinction, but how do you get your word processor to make the straight ones when you need them?

Here’s something I just discovered:

In the latest version of MS Word, version 2007, you can get straight quotes by typing the quote key, then pressing the backspace key. The curly changes to straight. Slick; only one extra keystroke.

Have you discovered a handy shortcut for something you do when you write? Share!

Lots of people like to quote the Bible. Unfortunately, lots of people like to quote some old saw and say it’s from the Bible. Now you certainly have permission to repeat old saws, but don’t betray your illiteracy by making the wrong attribution.

Here are a few aphorisms (fancy word for old saw) that lots of people get wrong:

• Money is the root of all evil—Sorry, it’s LOVE of money etc. Go look at I Timothy 6:10
• God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform—part of a hymn by William Cowper. Closest similar thought in the Bible would be Hebrews 1:1, maybe Isaiah 55:8f  (f is an abbreviation in verse references and elsewhere for “single (verse) following.” ff means “more than one (verse) following.”
• God helps those who help themselves—Poor Richard’s Almanack.
• Cleanliness is next to godliness—Ben Franklin again. Cleanliness is part of godliness. See Leviticus 10:10 and lots of other places.
• Do unto others what you would have others do unto you—Right idea, but stated backwards. Matthew 17:12 says. “… all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them…”
• To thine own self be true—Hamlet. His dad is giving him advice as Hamlet heads off to college. It’s a good list of advice.
• All things come to him that waits—Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn, first story (the student’s tale)

I could go on. What are your favorite Bible misquotes? Tell us in the comments, and be sure to give the correct citation. Today’s topic was stimulated by today’s Dilbert.

Lend—a verb. Something you do, possibly to regret later.

Loan—a noun. The loan is what you might or might not be repaid after you lend it to someone.

Do your lending carefully, and try to keep your loans affordable, in case they don’t pay back what you loaned them.