Cutting Redundancy: Say More with Less

Wordy phrases sneak into everyone’s writing — trimming them makes your writing sharper and more confident.

Notice

  • “Absolutely essential” → “essential” (essential already means necessary; “absolutely” adds nothing)
  • “Past history” → “history” (history is always past)
  • “Each and every” → “each” or “every” (the pair is redundant)
  • “Advance planning” → “planning” (planning happens in advance by definition)

Rule

Rule: redundant phrases repeat an idea that a single word already covers. Cutting them makes writing feel more confident and precise — a hallmark of skilled, economical C2 prose, as opposed to writing that pads itself out to sound more impressive.

Practice

  1. Simplify: “We need to plan in advance for future outcomes.”
    Answer: “We need to plan for the future.” (“in advance” and “future” overlap with “plan” and “outcomes”)
  2. Simplify: “Each and every employee must attend.”
    Answer: “Every employee must attend.”
  3. Why might a writer use redundant phrases like “absolutely essential” despite the repetition?
    Answer: For emphasis or out of habit — but skilled C2 writers usually recognise it as padding rather than genuine emphasis and cut it.

Connect

Practise trimming redundant phrases with Error Correction.

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CEFR: C2

Azizul Hakim
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