Tip: Repeat or not (2)
By Isaac Tan, Singapore
IRRITATING is the only word capable of fully establishing the abusive use of repetition.
In part one of To Repeat or Not To Repeat, we ended off with a really irritating passage. It wasn’t just irritating, it was really really irritating. Now, doesn’t that irritate you too?
“Bad” repetition happens especially with “crutch” words. These “crutch” words are defined as words that we use so often we don’t realize. They are usually not the most outstanding of words. That is why they slip past the editing stage more often than not. For example, some writers like to pepper their writing with many examples, but have trouble finding verbiage to use other than, “For example,” to start an illustration.
Poor use of repetition questions the writer’s vocabulary. To see the words being used again and again without effort to use an alternative is just pure ignorance to your work.
The wrong use of repetition also results in readers not having a very clear picture about what the writer is getting at. When I used “immediacy/immediately/immediate” in my previous post, it did not give readers a good understanding of exactly how fast things went. This resulted in poor communication from me to you.
How than do we eradicate this issue?
1) Read your work aloud. It forces you to go through everything you have written verbally so that you can better notice the repeated words.
2) Get a thesaurus. If you feel you’re using a word too often, refer to the thesaurus to get relevant substitutes.
Endnote:
Repetition has its purposes and beauty. God, our Creator, used reiteration to teach us aptly. However when misapplied, it is just plain annoying.
Challenge:
Write a short reply of between 25 – 50 words and challenge yourself not to use any word more than 3 times.
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Well this is my attempt at this challenge, I hope that I didn’t repeat anything more than three times!
‘What can you say in twenty five words? How much will I be able to fit? With this limited number words it is possible to declare your love for someone, curse the person next door or try explain why God exists… I can do more than that using twenty five words!’
CYYC
Hey Cora!
Well done. Really cool that you did it =)
XD.
Thanks