Skill Focus – Redundancy & Wordiness

Because sometimes, less is literally more.

✨ Welcome to the Department of Excessive Repetition

You ever write something like:

“She nodded her head in agreement.”

Of course she did.
That’s what nodding is.

Redundancy and wordiness sneak into our writing when we’re trying to be clear, but end up saying the same thing... twice... in the same sentence... unnecessarily.
Oops. Like that.

Let’s clean it up without losing your voice.

🧠 What Is Redundancy?

Redundancy = repeating information your reader already got.

“He whispered softly.”
(Are there loud whispers?)

“She stood up.”
(“Stood” already means up!)

“He made a brief summary of the highlights.”
(Let’s just say “summarized.”)

🧹 What Is Wordiness?

Wordiness = using 10 words to do the job of 5.

“Due to the fact that” → “Because”
“At this point in time” → “Now”
“She was able to run” → “She ran”

You’re not wrong. You’re just taking the scenic route when the express lane’s wide open.

🛠️ Try This Rewrite Drill

Here’s your practice sentence:

“He returned back to the place where they had previously met before.”

🧽 Clean it up. Make it smooth. Make Quillwyn proud.

🎯 Bonus Challenge

Take a paragraph from your own draft and scan for:

• Repetitive pairs: “absolutely certain,” “completely full,” “final conclusion”

• Fluff phrases: “in order to,” “start to,” “really just,” “due to the fact that”

See what you can cut without changing the meaning.
Trim the fat. Keep the flavor.

💬 Need a Word Surgeon? Ask Quillwyn!

She can help spot sneaky redundancies and bulky phrases in your writing—and show you how to streamline without losing your style.

Just say:

“Can you help tighten this paragraph?”

She’ll grab the shears. (Metaphorically.)