What is tautology?
How do you know when you’ve written too much?
It’s not meant to be a trick question. There are many reasons for ‘wordiness’. Some writers actually seek out extended ways of saying things to boost word count. And there’s nothing wrong with lyrical descriptions or indulgence in the beauty of language, in the appropriate place. But for some less-experienced writers, words just appear because they haven’t tried NOT to use them.
Tautology is a particular type of wordiness. It means saying the same thing in two different ways. To be more precise, it’s where the overall meaning in a phrase is already contained within a smaller part of the phrase. Often, that’s within just one word. Our language is stuffed with single words that hold a wealth of meaning; if you choose wisely, you won’t need to embellish them.
Tautology can be found lurking in business writing, journalism or fiction. Rooting it out will tighten your prose, which is nearly always a good thing.
Business examples
A prime example of tautology from the business world is the phrase forward planning. Why? Because there is never any other sort of planning! The word planning, in itself, includes the concept of the future.
Other examples include:
serious crisis top priority
important focus absolutely unique
future prospects added bonus
easily facilitate another alternative
Descriptive examples
Hopefully you’ve got the idea from the two-word phrases in the above section. Here’s the kind of thing that might be seen in fiction or journalism:
yelled loudly crept quietly
asked curiously unexpected surprise
fidgeted restlessly devoured hungrily
usual routine finally reached the end
Some tautology may not be immediately obvious. Consider the following:
glass windows [They usually are!]
the perimeter is surrounded by a fence… [The perimeter is the surround.]
features characterised by… [Features are characteristics.]
died in a fatal attack [If someone died, it must have been fatal.]
walked in the entrance [That’s what an entrance is for.]
Speech examples
There’s a particular danger around dialogue. You may want to break up dialogue with narrative (a perfectly reasonable thing to do). But beware of using that narrative to repeat the meaning of the character’s spoken words. (The following are separate examples, not a single conversation!)
“What’s that gadget for?” she questioned, desperate to find out what it did.
His mother tried to comfort him. “Everything will be OK, darling.”
He didn’t understand. “What do you mean?”
“It can’t be true!” she cried. She couldn’t believe her ears.
Too much of this kind of thing, and the result is like being sucked into a wordy swamp.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Sometimes, repeated ideas can be used deliberately for effect. I’m not saying that you should never include tautology… but you need to be aware that you’ve done it, and be able to justify it. Unfortunately, if used a lot, it conveys uncertainty, as if the writer is unsure how to express their meaning. Worse than that, it can imply that they doubt the reader’s intelligence.
Once you start looking carefully, examples of tautology will begin to leap out at you. You have been warned!
[Photo of nearly-but-not-quite-identical twins from my own archives.]