Editors confront many demons when doing their work. At the Producer, they range from interpreting farm programs to explaining the latest trends in seed variety propagation.
However, our editors share much with their brethren at other newspapers, magazines and trade publications. All of them wrestle daily with the English language and its myriad foibles and fancies, and when the day is done, they are rarely able to leave their work behind.
Posters, newsletters, signs, billboards and restaurant menus continually present spelling, grammar or punctuation errors that editors itch to correct.
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One of the largest and hairiest demons to regularly confront the editing knights who protect the noble lexicon is the clumsy and prolific redundancy.
Given limited space, it is the editors’ job to include as much information as possible. Allowing the use of two words (or three or four) when one word will do, is a primary way editors ensure space is not squandered.
Veteran editor Wilf Popoff recently shared his lists of common writing redundancies among fellow editors in Saskatoon. Heads nodded as he recited the repetitive phrases known to drive editors crazy.
If for some reason that is your sadistic goal as a writer, here is some guidance.
Give first priority, even plan ahead, to string together general conclusions from past history. Speak aloud of prior accomplishments, no matter how teeny tiny, such as reserving tickets in advance or calculating the sum total of sales volumes to deduce a total gross amount.
Connect together tales of free gifts and temporary loans. Include statistical details of old cliches and new records. Leave nothing to random chance.
At this point in time, by judging historical records and gauging previous precedent, we know the current trend among the general public is not to co-operate together in minimizing repetitive redundancies. In actual fact, it seems as though a sudden explosion has produced a countable number of them that is large in size.
You’d likely have to travel a distance of at least five miles at a high rate of speed to avoid the large majority of repetitious redundancies. Will they ever be completely destroyed?
The known facts are such that if editors unite together, and additionally combine every tiny speck of respectful adulation they possessively hold for the language, they could become part of the historical annals.
This column probably set our copy editor’s teeth on edge. He could easily remove 60 words from the last six paragraphs without affecting the meaning. Try it.
