I want to make some long, sophisticated sentences in my writing, but evidently, I tend to use redundancies that damage elegance. The kind that has been pointed out to me is the use of multiple synonymous verbs as simple predicates within full predicates that differ in meaning. However, I don't understand why this is bad. What makes bad repetitions, why are they bad, and how do I omit them?
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Repetitions can be bad for precisely the reason you cite: because they are redundant.
The kind that has been pointed out to me is the use of multiple synonymous verbs as simple predicates within full predicates that differ in meaning. However, I don't understand why this is bad.
Without examples it is hard to understand exactly what you mean here, but from a conceptual standpoint you don't want to use many more words than you have to. In rare circumstances, or if you're writing poetry or the like, using verbs for meanings other than their usual might be merited, but not at great length. This is for the same reason you don't want to go on about one detail for too long: because it is redundant and boring.
A very important part of sophisticated writing (and speaking, for that matter) is conciseness. If Subject A has Property X, I want to know about the X of A, but I don't want to have to read/hear more about it than I need to in order to have a good understanding of A and its X. In most cases, that's probably one or two sentences, if the writing is good. If the author is trying to be poetic or really emphasize something, I will give it three or four. But beyond that, any further description is redundant, and I'll start to get bored and the words won't have any effect.
If it does not directly enhance the meaning (and by this I mean if it is not critical for the sentence to flow properly in ordinary language), it is not necessary. Afterwards, if you want to be poetic or what have ye, you can change things around or add a metaphor or something, but even then going too far is easy to do. A repetition is especially likely to take me over the edge into the chasm of boredom because it is, by definition, information that I already know. If a detail is to be repeated, it must be done in such a way that further meaning is somehow conveyed, otherwise it will contain no meaning and thus be completely superfluous.
Even as I write this answer, I have already overwritten. I very well could have explained everything I wanted to say with a quote from a manual of style. As William Strunk said, omit needless words.
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