How to Identify Redundant Words In Your Publications and Speeches

Some words that we may use in written and spoken conversation add little value or meaning to the message. Developing the ability to spot potentially unnecessary words in a sentence, questioning their value and optionally removing the "hangers-on", can help turn an average, "amateur" publication into one that is "tight, snappy and focused."

After a few such sessions, you'll start to recognize your own familiar patterns that have contributed to excess wording in the first place. With a little practice, when working on a publication or speech script, you can learn to save time and effort by not creating your own verbose heap that requires cutting later.

Some redundant words are more common than others. Let's examine three of my favorites. Consider the following two sentences:

• "Jessica was genuinely impressed with his determination to get the job done."

• "Jessica was genuinely very impressed with his determination to get the job done."

Of the two examples above, which version do you prefer? Which word or words do you think are unnecessary? Here's my suggestion: including the word "very" usually adds little to the meaning, power or intensity of a sentence. So why should we avoid using "very" in most instances? Answer: the use of "very" suggests an extreme condition or characteristic and rarely are situations so extreme. Furthermore, in most instances, removing the word "very" does not affect the impact or meaning of a message.

In our second example above, Jessica may have been moved by "... his determination ...", however, she wasn't so impressed that his determination would unduly dominate her thoughts. Although we may commonly use "very" in relaxed speech, in writing or a carefully considered speech, rarely is the use of "very" justified.

Key tip: with some practice during the development of your writing, you can detect redundant words that are simply not required. For example, here are two additional potentially redundant words:

• Incredibly.
• Extremely.

When Might You Want to Keep Some Redundant Words?

In day-to-day speech, we often repeat ourselves using redundant words. However, in at least one area of writing, we may have full justification for keeping some redundant words: when creating dialog in fiction stories. Why? In fiction, we're mimicking how people act and behave in real life. As humans, we're often illogical, so when writing novels, let the personality of your character determine what is said. By all means, stay aware of possible word redundancy, yet allow your character's emotional profile determine word choices, word frequency and sentence construction in dialog.