There many words in everyday language that are redundant – or, at best, misused – in newswriting or, for that matter, in other writing genres.
In an earlier post, we looked at the misuse of decimate. Now let’s look first at some other words that should raise a “red flag” for writers.
- very
this word, which ironically has as one of its meanings precise, is more often imprecise when used as a qualifier (what does very pregnant or very angry really mean?)
- unique
we tend to forget this word means being the only one of its kind or unlike anything else and, therefore, should not be preceded by any sort of qualifier, so most unique, very unique, somewhat unique or sometimes unique are errors of expression, when better words to use in its place would be individual or rare
- perfection
like unique, perfection is an ultimate or absolute notion that means free from flaws and should not be preceded by any sort of qualifier, including absolute
- currently/at the present time
why use these lengthier ways of saying now?
- presently
this word means after a short period or soon, and is often misused to mean now
- self-confessed
use of the word confessed means that someone has publicly accepted their guilt and, in law, no one can confess for someone else, so self- is a superfluous prefix
Then there are a whole host of short phrases that fall off our tongues too easily in conversation but should not migrate on to the page or the screen. Here are just some to watch out for:
- (armed) gunmen
- (added) bonus
- (new) initiative
- (close) proximity
- consensus (of opinion)
- (free) gift
- revert (back)
- visible (to the eye)
- evolve (over time)
- (dead) corpses
- (completely) destroyed
To see many more examples, see the About.com Grammar & Composition webpages.
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If you like what you’ve read here, you can see reporting4work’s similar posts at Style Matters
Thanks Judith, hope you visit again and find lots of useful stuff on my site.