Words to “X” from Your Writing

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I’m a day behind on my A to Z posts. Shoot me. Go ahead. Put me out of my misery because I’ve hit a wall with three posts left.

 
X is for…well, “X”

Let’s discuss words you should “X” from your writing. If you’re like me, you may have occasionally padded your writing in school to meet minimum word or page counts. No? Does this scenario sound familiar?

It’s 2 a.m. Your history essay is due in a few hours, but you’ve fallen short of the page requirement. You’ve racked your brain and can’t think of anything else to write. What do you do?

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Have You Met Captain Obvious? Master of Superfluous Redundancy

Fellow colleagues, if you’re not careful, Captain Obvious can make a cameo appearance in your own work. This unanticipated surprise visit can occur at the present time or at three a.m. in the morning. Captain Obvious causes words to blend together so you make unexpected mistakes in what you’ve written down by repeating words with the same exact meaning or adding an additional word  that is extraneous. Redundant phrases cause a cacophony of sound to circulate around your work. If, after careful scrutiny of your work, you’re absolutely certain redundant phrases are nonexistent or too few in number to worry about, reconsider. Your story can be completely filled with words you’ve repeated again during the course of storytelling. Don’t let your story depreciate in value. Learn about unnecessarily redundant phrases so you can positively identify them for complete annihilation. Pick and choose your words carefully so you won’t receive an unexpected surprise visit from the Master of Superfluous Redundancy.

R is for Redundant Phrases

Did you find all the redundant phrases in the paragraph above? Let’s look at it again:

Fellow Colleagues, if you’re not careful, Captain Obvious can make a cameo appearance in your own work. This unanticipated surprise visit can occur at the present time or at three a.m. in the morning. Captain Obvious causes words to blend together so you make unexpected mistakes in what you’ve written down by repeating words with the same exact meaning  or adding an additional a word that is extraneous. Redundant phrases cause a cacophony of sound to circulate around your work. If, after careful scrutiny of your work, you’re absolutely certain redundant phrases are nonexistent or too few in number to worry about, reconsider. Your story can be completely filled with words you’ve repeated again during the course of storytelling. Don’t let your story depreciate in value. Learn about unnecessarily redundant phrases so you can positively identify them for complete annihilation. Pick and choose your words carefully so you won’t receive an unexpected surprise visit from the Master of Superfluous Redundancy.

Click on the following links for more examples of redundant phrases and how to avoid them:

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/50-redundant-phrases-to-avoid/

http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/redundancies.htm