Two Unnecessary Words

Well, technically they’re unnecessary (aka redundant), but maybe not, given the context. We can use extra words for emphasis even though the words aren’t actually necessary.

I think “at this time” is also unnecessary…

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I preach against needless repetition in writing, called redundancy. You can find some of my other redundancy posts using the search box in the upper right corner. Here’s another. I think the speaker had a psychological reason for using it; maybe that’s okay. For speaking, anyway.

“The Greenland canyon we only know about through radar that can see through three kilometers of solid ice.”

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/greenland-ancient-grand-canyon

Ice is always solid, so “solid” is unnecessary (meaning redundant). In fact, in writing, I think the sentence has a little more punch if you leave the “solid” out. What do you think?

Almost forgot. Here’s a picture:

But it’s from The Washington Post, a place where I expect better writing. The quote is lengthy, so I made the solecisms bold.

Carrie Dennett writes about why the Traffic Light Diet, a system of assigning the colors red, yellow and green to foods, is too simplistic, doesn’t have much impact, and can lead to nutritional deficiencies (some “red” foods have essential vitamins and minerals) and obsessive eating behaviors. Cara Rosenbloom writes about why telling people how long they will have to walk or run to work off the calories from, say, a chocolate bar, is too simplistic, can lead to nutritional deficiencies and can encourage obsessive behavior.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/traffic-light-diets-label-foods-red-yellow-and-green-thats-too-black-and-white/2020/01/19/7d0c4030-3878-11ea-9541-9107303481a4_story.html

Simplistic already means “oversimplified.” Good writing has no such thing as “properly oversimplified” to be able to have too much of it. Use the word by itself!

Harrumpf.

This error is close to me because of my proximity to chickens. If you have chickens, you know not to do this, right? Bottom right.

It’s like saying a baby infant.

He calls it “fat,” I call it “fluff.”

Please don’t do this!

BTW, if you’re a teacher, I recommend this comic. The cartoonist is a teacher, and he’s pretty good.