As writers, editors, and PR professionals, we are keenly aware that we must fight for readers’ attention. My daily sanity check is to ask, “Is someone actually going to read this?”

To help readers, I use concise language and eliminate redundancies. As Strunk and White say, “Make every word tell.”

Below are phrases in which every word does not tell. They are redundant, repetitive, wordy, verbose, and superfluous. Eliminate such phrases to tighten your writing. (Redundant words are italicized.)

• added bonus
• advance planning
• armed gunman
• circulate around
• close proximity
• completely full
• consensus of opinion
• each individual person
• fewer in number
• final outcome
• free gift
• future plans
• general public
• invited guests
• join together
• large in size
• major breakthrough
• my personal opinion
• on a daily basis
• past experience
• past history
• period of time
• predict in advance
• red in color
• revert back
• round in shape
• firm in consistency
• still continues
• sum total
• true fact
• unexpected surprise
• unsolved mystery
• visible to the eye
• 12 noon (or 12 midnight)
• 7 a.m. in the morning

Ragan readers, which of these redundancies do you find most annoying? Have any to add?

Laura Hale Brockway is the author of the writing/editing/random thoughts blog, impertinentremarks.com.

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