I am sorry if you were expecting a discussion about a favourite foodstuff. I am going to talk about another kind of waffle – writing in a lengthy, vague, or trivial way.
If you have ever wished that your writing was more concise or ‘to the point’ you could look at eliminating redundant and wasteful words.
Redundancies are expressions that can often be omitted from a text without having any detrimental effect on the meaning. In fact, avoiding redundancies can make a text shorter, more concise, and easier to read. Examples are such phrases as along the lines of and it should be noted that.
The following words in italics are just a few examples of redundancies in phrases often found in newspapers:
adequate enough (adequate means of satisfactory quantity or quality)
ascend up (ascend means up)
awkward predicament (predicament means an awkward, difficult, or embarrassing situation)
co-operate together
divert away from (for example, divert someone from an inadvisable course of action)
green coloured car (green is a colour so does not need repeating)
hoist up (hoist means to raise something up)
in two years’ time (the word ‘years’ is a measure of time)
joined together
last of all
made out of
never at any time
old veterans
on the occasion when
pay off the debt
petrol filling station
quite empty
reduce down
sink down
sunny by day
totally destroyed
true facts
unite together
vitally necessary
whole of the country
widow of the late
young infant
Wasteful words are not necessarily incorrect words, they are over-elaborate words that could be substituted with something shorter and plainer. The words below on the left are examples of wasteful words and the ones following in italics are simpler versions.
Avoid saying / Prefer to use
absence of / no
accordingly / so
ameliorate / improve
beverage / drink
continue to remain / stay
demise / death
dispatched / sent
edifice / building
facilitate / help
gathered together / met
hails from / comes from
impossible of discovery / cannot be found
larceny / theft
made an approach to / approached
necessitate / force
on the part of / by
pay tribute to / thank or praise
remuneration / pay
since the particular time / since then
take action on the issue / act
underprivileged / poor or deprived
voiced approval / approved
was suffering from / had
with the exception of / except
(I am indebted to Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers by Harold Evans [Pimlico/Random House Books, 2000] for providing some examples of redundant and wasteful words.)
