Reading This Is A Necessary Requirement

Last week I wrote off the cuff on Wednesday, chose an image of a doggy style greeting and scheduled the post for 5am Friday. 

Usually I check it a couple of times with a day in between each quick proofread, before scheduling it to be sent, but this week didn’t. I was already behind on a couple of other tasks (I was procrastinating remember?) so needed to crack on.   

When the email arrived in my inbox I was a little trepidatious because I thought it would be error strewn. Missed words, typos and maybe whole sentences out of place. 

To my satisfaction, and no small surprise, I couldn’t see any major errors. Nothing that jumped out anyway. But one thing annoyed me when I re read it. This sentence:

“our shiny new neo cortex emerged”

It’s a tautology. Neo means ‘new’ so writing “new neo” is just a little jarring.

Oops, I Did It Again

And look there's another! In the single sentence above this paragraph the word ‘just’ just isn’t needed. To be honest I am just as guilty of tautology as the worst offenders. I just can’t help it. I just do it all the time. 

I’m aware that I use the word 'just' just a bit too much. I’m generally quite good at spotting it in a quick proofread though. I just scan the page and then when I identify it being used as a tautology I just delete it. No messing about, I just cut it. Just like that.

I do it quite a lot with boring sentences overusing the word ‘that’ when it’s just not required. I often write sentences that use the word ‘that’ when it’s clear that they don’t really need it. 

Also, I often find myself striking out superfluous words from a pair. Extraneous words that replicate the meaning of the other word in the phrase.

free gift

new invention

GPS system

PIN number

first priority

Football commentators deserve a special place in hell for their crimes against efficient language use. Danny Mills take a bow. Martin Keown take a jump.

“Personally, for me, he’s not trying hard enough”

“In my opinion, I think they need to take a more direct approach”

“It’s not been their best performance but they played adequately enough”

To Be Or Not To Be

To be fair it’s often a fine line. Even though something can be tautologous, it may well have a justified effect, by adding emphasis for example. The Beatles knew this:

"There's nothing you can do that can't be done

There's nothing you can sing that can't be sung" 

I’m  not going to argue with John Lennon’s tautology here in 'All You Need Is Love'. Technically there’s no need for that second line, it reaffirms what the first line has already explained but with a lesser example. 

The meaning of the second line has already been established in the first. The use of repetition, however, really emphasises the point being made. Artistically it obviously has its place, so we’ll allow that one.

Think Twice

But in our lives we lose a lot of time and energy to tautologies. Stuff that doesn’t need doing but that we’re still doing. Actions that we’re taking on top of what’s needed.

Here’s another caveat. Look at those last two lines I’ve written. They’re saying the same thing. 

I’m aware that when I deliver my training, and write these emails, I tend to reiterate the same point more than once, but using slightly different wording. That’s definite tautology. But there’s a purpose to it.

I use this method in order to share a point in as many ways as possible. I’ll employ different words, metaphors and examples that might resonate with the audience in as many ways as possible. Hearing the same information explained in different ways can be useful to help the audience understand and digest the ideas.

Nevertheless, those artistic and technical caveats aside, we still all do stuff that is not necessary. We could stop doing it, and save time, energy and money.

Cut Here

My Top Tip this week is to identify the stuff you do that is just not required. This weekend take a few moments to consider where you double up and inadvertently use tautologies.

What actions are you taking that are surplus to requirements?

Where could you save unnecessary effort?

Have fun identifying them and let me know what you come up with. I’m interested to hear what you class as a tautology, at work, home or play, and how it affects you. And how you intend to remove or reduce it!