Skip to main content

Why Superfluity Sustains

I saw it with my own eyes!

An uneducated man who never went to school

A man without his eyes sees through his heart

It is an actual fact that

The idea is wonderfully miraculous

He arrived at midnight 12

At the strike of 12 noon, he departed

Early dawn prayer is good

A sum total of ten people

He is a close companion to me

Each and every man should attend

The reason was exactly the same

Free gifts

New innovations

Dark nights

A period of eleven hours

One and the same

Personal opinion

Repeat again

Reason why

And the list never ends! Never really ends. These are all redundant words you can see in amateurish writing. If only you are a bit more careful, you can avoid redundancy in your writing. The redundancies in the examples are italicized; and they are actually very self-explanatory.

When 12 itself strikes at noon, why you need an extra ‘noon’? So is the case with your extra-close companion. Look at “dark nights,” are there bright ones? Gifts are always free, otherwise why would you not charge them? “Actual fact” is another despicable usage. And “repeat again” is indefensible.

Certain other blunt usages come with the scantiness of vocabulary: for instance, see the third example above of “Man without eyes.” Theblind’ is not a word that should be easily missed. However, when it comes to subtler and more technical situations, people tend to make such usages as “A man who repairs watches,” “A woman who assists in pregnancy,” etc.

The main reason of redundancy is not understanding the actual meaning of the word. The reason behind this is the overuse of a particular word in different, largely unrelated contexts, mostly to emphasize it. For instance, the word ‘noon is highly used with the word 12 to give accentuation. But this is where you go wrong. An emphasis not based on meaning (not even the figurative) of words is not an emphasis at all.

You should give more importance to the meaning of words. Companion is anyone that accompanies someone all the time. Like, Mumtaz Mahal was a companion to Shah Jahan. So, companions cannot be closer than that. It is the closest a friend can be. Most probably, your spouse is your companion. However, a companion who is close to you (meaning near you) is a close companion (of course, you can have more than one companion, and one of them can be away in toilet for some time!). Distinguish this physical sense from the figurative sense.

To avoid these redundancies, since they actually make your work jarring and boring, do check up the meaning of words. You should take a pledge never to type a word in an inappropriate situation. Never, ever! Always find the right, the best word to use in a situation and use it. When you want to be crazy with your language—crazy-creative—you can well go about it. But being creative is not about writing unnecessary words that can only lengthen your pieces of writings and weaken the point you wish to make. You can just be prolific and experiment a lot without any actual result being seen. So, be as concise and to the point as possible, and experiment within your realm, which itself is quite vast and productive.

Copyright © Lenin Nair 2008

Comments

  1. Do you believe that "Close companion" about the companion who went to toilet is absolutely correct? I never found such a usage anywhere actually.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, Ann I understand your concern, Thanks for the subscription of my blog. I believe the concern about close companion is to be addressed more clearly here. The idea was just to express physical meaning of the word close, you see. When we see somebody near us, we say it is close to us right? in a physical senese? Like a close kitten, close to the wall, close to his wife, etc. That's expressed here. hope I cleared your doubt. Thanks for commenting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What you say is correct, Lenin, but the usage is rather awkward in a situation like this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, I understand. But one thing is: however obsolete or however uncommon a usage may be, it never goes awkward as long as it obeys the accepted rules. Correct? Here the meaning is taken care of also the usage. Nothing actually wrong there. But I accept when you say it is largely uncommon.

    ReplyDelete
  5. And I believe I addressed that concern of you. Thanks once again for the either or problem you noted earlier.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated very strictly

Popular posts from this blog

Power of Short Sentences

Post dedicated to Thomas Hardy (see History Today below). There are monster sentences like the one you encounter as the first paragraph of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens . One of my friends, whom I am getting equipped for his IELTS ( what is this? ), told me that the examination recommends long sentences. In writing classes also, I guess it’s longer sentences most tutors promote. But indubitably shorter sentences are more powerful . We will see why. Take a long sentence for instance: Tom Cruise, one of the finest actors in the whole world, is perhaps the most powerful celebrity to exist ever according to Time Magazine, but many people still dispute this fact and point out that there are more powerful and popular actors than Cruise, though they were unsuccessful in providing the total number of fans, who liked the films of those actors. This is a long sentence and it is very confusing . Though it has a logical construction and conveys a meaning, it falters in many occasions and seems

Creative Writing: Crafting Characters With Emotional Appeal in Mind

When you read the greatest fiction works ever, have you ever asked what was so compelling about them that you not only kept reading it, but you ended up reading all other major works of the writer? It may well be because the writer touched your emotional quotient quite a bit. Every reader has a unique taste . Some like to read suspense thrillers , some tender love stories, and some others dark horror and bloodshed stories . That’s why there are all sorts of genres out there. When a writer gives you what exactly you want, you will keep reading. Here we come to the emotional appeal. Character Imperfection Perfect characters may not always be the upshot of a writer’s deliberation. It may well be due to ignorance . Usually the upcoming writers take it for granted that if they create perfect characters, they will be able to garner a bigger audience . It is not true. You have to ask yourself what a character would do in a particular situation. Perfect characters—perfect gunmen, perfect

Another Tiny List of Confusables

Earlier, you may remember we published a list of confusable words . Here we are again, with such a list of words. Abjure/Adjure: Abjure means "to formally renounce (give up) something" such as a position. Adjure on the other hand means 'to appeal to' or 'solemnly order'. The governor decided to abjure his position due to political pressure. Normally, adjuring to the subordinates doesn't give many results. Amount/Number: Use amount when you have uncountable subject. Use number when it is countable. The amount of love one gets depends on the number of friends one has. Appraise/Apprise: Appraise is the word applied to quantitative evaluation of something. Apprise means 'communicate' or 'inform'. Appraising diamonds is the work of an expert. Joe apprised me of the schedule of events. Attorney/Lawyer/Solicitor: These terms are highly misinterpreted and confused by many people. Let me clarify. In the US, an attorney is any member