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Wordiness 15167 Views


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English Language

Transcript

00:04

Wordiness, a la Shmoop. Mr. Zazzles, the algebra teacher, has some

00:09

bad news that's truly terrible.

00:11

He just wants to let his students know that they're going to have to go ahead and do

00:17

those fifty problems from page 127 for homework during the Thanksgiving holiday.

00:21

If Mr. Zazzles' students don't break out the pitchforks and torches over his homework

00:25

assignment...

00:26

...they'll send him to the guillotine for his wordiness and redundancy.

00:31

When we want to get someone's attention or sound important, we sometimes shoehorn

00:35

extra words into our sentences. We get wordy.

00:42

Redundancy is a kind of wordiness. It involves saying the same thing in a sentence more than

00:46

once, and sometimes in a different way.

00:48

While wordiness and redundancy can be annoying to listen to...

00:51

...they are really annoying to encounter in written sentences.

00:54

For example, when Ms. Razzle the science teacher puts a note on a lab assignment that reads,

01:00

"It is absolutely essential that students not mix Chemical A with Chemical B, inasmuch

01:06

as that would cause a massive explosion"...

01:09

...she's guilty of wordiness.

01:11

The word "essential" doesn't need to be preceded by "absolutely"...

01:15

...and Ms. Razzle could have used "since" or "because" instead of "inasmuch as".

01:21

When Ms. Doe the cook puts a sign up at the beginning of the lunch line that reads,

01:26

"Owing to the fact that we made too much broccoli-spinach-and-cheese casserole today,

01:31

go ahead and take two helpings"...

01:33

...she's guilty of wordiness...

01:35

...not to mention crimes against vegetables and cheddar.

01:38

The phrase "owing to the fact" could be replaced with "because"...

01:42

...and that "go ahead" could be excised from Ms. Doe's sign altogether.

01:48

When Mr. Moe the history teacher puts in his syllabus, "The required midterm book

01:53

report has a required length of five pages"...

01:56

...he's guilty of redundancy.

01:58

A redundancy-free sentence might read, "The midterm book report must be five pages long."

02:05

When Mr. Yoe the English teacher leaves a note on the whiteboard that reads, "The

02:10

writing assignment for the day is to write a poem about writing"...

02:13

...he, too, is guilty of redundancy.

02:15

He might have written, "Today's assignment is to compose a poem about writing."

02:20

When Ms. Johnson the PE teacher...writes in her journal that the reason

02:24

she loves Thanksgiving break is because she doesn't have to even think about work...

02:29

...she's also guilty of redundancy.

02:32

A redundancy-free sentence would be rewritten to exclude either "the reason" or "is

02:36

because", as these two sets of words mean the same thing.

02:40

Wordiness and redundancy are easy to avoid. Just look for those extra words or phrases

02:45

that muddy up the construction or the meaning of a sentence...

02:48

...and snip-snip those suckers.

02:50

Now, if only Mr. Zazzles would learn that using unnecessary words to announce holiday

02:55

math homework does not make that homework less awful... or his students less vengeful...

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