Online Journalism Redundancy

A redundancy in writing can occur from different errors, including:
- Repetition of a word, phrase, or idea
- Catgory redundancies
--- example: boiling hot temperature (just say boiling hot... or just say hot)
- Duplicate descriptions that mean the same thing

I spotted a severe duplicate today in a photo caption.

"Just as her last photo controversy seemed to be but a faint memory, Miley Cyrus and her penchant for self-taking scantily clad photos of herself has struck again, as new photos of the 15-year-old star raising her shirt and posing in underpants have hit the community site LiveJournal."

Let's see... The words "penchant for self-taking scantily clad photos" means "of herself." If the writer did not mean "of herself," there would be no need to say "self-taking."

The writer (or editor) should have picked one and deleted the other. The sentence could have been written:
1./ Just as her last photo controversy seemed to be but a faint memory, Miley Cyrus and her penchant for taking scantily clad photos of herself has struck again, as new photos of the 15-year-old star raising her shirt and posing in underpants have hit the community site LiveJournal.
2./ Just as her last photo controversy seemed to be but a faint memory, Miley Cyrus and her penchant for self-taking scantily clad photos has struck again, as new photos of the 15-year-old star raising her shirt and posing in underpants have hit the community site LiveJournal.

Writer's tips:

Locating redundancies can be as easy as reading words out loud. Writers can also:
1./ Copy and paste one sentence, and enter a line break after every descriptive phrase. Read each as separate ideas. If an idea repeats, revise and delete any redundancy.
2./ LOOK for words with similar meanings.
3./ Be cautious about over-emphasis, where redundancies can easily slip into a sentence.
4./ Don't list several words from the Thesaurus when hunting for adjectives. Learn to describe simplistically and precisely. Even saying a man was "strong, muscular, and Herculean" becomes redundant because each describes strength. Instead, pick one.
5./ Make characters with opposing attributes: "He was muscular but unable to even lift his 40-pound daughter." This is probably one of the easiest ways to avoid adjective redundancy when creating character descriptions.


When editing, always read to pick up redundancies and re-write or delete them. Avoid having your publisher, editor--or even your reader--end up pointing out your repetition.


Judith


Source of quoted material:
FROM: http://news.aol.com/entertainment/music/music-news-story/ar/_a/more-racy-miley-pics-see-daylight/20080523121109990001?icid=1615984944x1202945850x1200307242 (photo caption)