THE MAGIC ART

2 Writing Mistakes That Annoy Readers And One That Delights

All three are rooted in the same rhetorical writing technique

Photo by Vitolda Klein on Unsplash

Creative writers know not to use unnecessary, superfluous, and redundant words. For some readers, it’s like you stuck a grain of sand in their eye. It will irk them, and they will do anything to avoid reading you again.

For example, unnecessary, superfluous, and redundant are close enough in meaning to make my first sentence tautologous.

Tautology has a sense of saying the exact same in different words, using multiple words with the same meaning (e.g. they arrived one after the other in succession). It is considered a fault of style.

Pleonasm is slightly different. Pleonasm has a sense of using an unnecessary overabundance of redundant words in one description. And for some, it’s like you rubbed chilli seeds in their eyes.

Irregardless of your feelings on the matter, it pays to be aware.

Irregardless is a prime example of the controversy words can cause. It is a non-standard form of regardless. They mean the same thing. But why anyone would anyone get upset about it is beyond me, it's a style choice.

Some people can run their eyes over such text with ne’er another thought. Others pull out their hair, gather their banners, and march through the town in protest.

We all make mistakes

That’s a true fact. Of that, I’m absolutely certain, which is the exact same as the reason why half the words here are not a necessary requirement.

• Fact: a thing that is known or proved to be true. True fact is like saying, ‘This true thing is true.’
• Certain: able to be firmly relied on to happen or be the case. You don’t need to be absolutely certain if you are already certain.
• Same: identical; not different. Exactly.
• Why: for what reason or purpose. The reason why is like saying what why why.
• Requirement: a thing that is needed or wanted. If it is a requirement, it is necessary.

There are many more examples —

Close proximity, collaborate together, end result, final outcome, free gift, future plans, join together, large in size, past history, personal friend, plan ahead, repeat again, safe haven.

They are so common, it is not until we point them out that they become an unexpected surprise.

And those who rally against this form of pleonasm have a point. ‘From whence’ is a common example. Whence means ‘from where.’ Thus from whence means ‘from from where.’

These examples are poor English. How affronted you are with their use is dependent on the state of your mind. Some huff and puff. Roil and rankle. Tormented into an early grave. Blithely unconcerned chappies, like myself, will open the fridge, pop open a beer and carry on watching the re-runs of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

We tend to use pleonasm in speech more than in writing.

Now you have seen it with your own eyes. Read it out loud so you can hear it with your own ears.

When you see something, we can presume you see it with one’s own eyes and similarly you hear it with one’s own ears. The addition of “with your own eyes/ears” is a pleonasm.

The Bible, whatever the version, has an abundant plethora of excess pleonasm —

• “Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings.”
• “Every one that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought the LORD’s offering.”
• “Dearly beloved, we are gathered together in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together this man and this woman…”

Which is fine, if you like that sort of thing.

The law is less forgiving. In legal circles, there has been some debate about the confusion caused by ‘within’ —

Suppose you are told to exercise an option within 30 days prior to the expiration of the option. Does this mean that you must exercise the option at least thirty days prior to the expiration date or that you may exercise the option at any time within the 30 days before the expiration date?

It’s the type of semantics that ensures the children of lawyers are chauffeur driven to the best private schools and spend their summers horse riding to their sailing lessons.

Syntactic pleonasm

There are so many examples of pleonasm it would be hard to list them all. I suspect that you have arrived at the same conclusion.

The insertion of the conjunction “that” is optional and considered unnecessary by those who study these matters. Indeed, the addition of all at the end of the first sentence is surplus.

Students of creative writing will spot I didn’t say ‘surplus to requirements’ and conclude I am learning.

These are syntactic pleonasms. Based on the arrangement of words in a sentence, we can omit certain grammatical forms. We see this in double negatives — we don’t want none of that.

I hope this article will lift up your spirits, that you will treat it as a free gift and one day you might buy me a tuna fish sandwich.

It’s easy to overlook pleonasms when they aren’t highlighted in bold, but it would grate pedants to read lift up, that, free gift and tuna fish.

The problem is, pleonasms can distract the reader. They waste time and effort. Not much, admittedly, but enough for purists to switch off to your writing. ̶O̶n̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶a̶l̶w̶a̶y̶s̶ strive for clear and concise text.

Unless…

Rhetorical pleonasms

Pleonasms can work in your favour if you are emphasising a point, creating a rhythm, setting the tone, or adding a sense of formality or grandeur.

Where would we be if we didn’t have an example from Shakespeare — Texas?

“The most unkindest cut of all.” — Julius Caesar.

‘Most’ is redundant but Shakespeare uses it to stress just how terrible the cut was.

“To be, or not to be? That is the question.” — Hamlet.

‘That’ stamps home the point.

F. Scott Fitzgerald used it to add emphasis to his character’s repetitiveness —

“He repeated the same thing over and over again, ad nauseam.” — The Great Gatsby.

There are plentiful examples of rhetorical pleonasms here on Medium. There is no requirement to be dead before you are read —

“You were anchored so tight, so secure it gave me a feeling that I too was anchored, being anchored through your anchor.” — Michelle Scorziello.

“Putting empty words on a blank page sounds like a broken silence — echoing over and over again in your mind.” — Braden Turner

“The wanting, the desiring, the break-up, the heartache goes on and on like one long run-on song.” — Breathe & Be Still

In conclusion

Now that you know about pleonasms, you can keep your eye out for them. You might like to avoid them in your writing or use them for your benefit and amusement, as did my local parlour when they advertised —

“Ears pierced while you wait.”

Or simply remember when you forget your PIN number at the ATM machine, you can shrug your shoulders, nod your head in agreement and then kick yourself with your foot.

Pleonasms are so ubiquitous that they can wash over us without wetting our consciousness. But they can be deliberate and beautiful. I tell you that free gratis and for nothing. And just like that, they can emphasise a point wonderfully.

Writing is a skill. It requires tools. This Writing with Eloquence series can provide you with them. It is often easier to see errors in the writing of others than our own, but the more we learn, the better we become.

Malky McEwan

The Magic Art (of saying more with less) is part of a series and can be found by clicking here.