Making Redundancies Redundant, Tyler Grant

Redundant phrases are a waste of space, yet people use them all the time. Although you might find it difficult to think of one off the top of your head, you should at least be able to recognize one when you see it. Perhaps, you may not.

On pages 60 and 61 in the Creative Editing for Canadian Journalists textbook, there's a list of a few that you've likely heard, used, and will use in the future. Learn them, and learn not to use them. One redundancy from the list is used by many people: "very unique". How can something be more unique than unique? Well, according to people who don't think about such things, an object/person can be:

• really unique
• most unique
• incredibly unique
• very unique

And you get the idea. If there's only one object or person, then that object or person is simply described as unique. Nothing more.

Everyday-language is riddled with redundancies. Have you ever heard a boss say there's a regular weekly meeting? What he really means is that there's a meeting every week, or they meet regularly. Has someone at work said what the end result of a project was? Well, the result is at the end, isn't it? There are scads of redundancies used by people everyday. I bet you use them without even realizing it.

I catch myself using them from time to time. From reading over the list in my textbook, and the list you get to from clicking the link, I realize I spout redundancies more often than I'd like to admit.

At least we all do it.

My last thought is that we all need to say things right the first time. But we're allowed to make mistakes. In fact, we're expected to make them. Mistakes are important. As Chelsey Smith, a journalism student from MacEwan University, said in her We Regret the Error blog post, "mistakes are just another way to ensure better work."

The only thing is that you have to learn from them.

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