“International” writers tend to love redundant adjective pairs— pairs of words that we can usually edit to remove excessive verbiage. They can also sound rather tired and overused.
Some examples in everyday speech and writing include:
Future plans (aren’t plans always for the future?)
Personal opinion (opinions are personal)
Close proximity (the word “proximity” means closeness)
Efficient and effective work (vague meaning: is something efficient, or is it effective? It might be efficient but not effective. )
Final outcome (can an outcome not be final?)
End result (a result is an end)
In United Nations drafting, redundancy is almost a house style — partly for emphasis, partly from legal tradition, and partly from multilingual negotiation. Here are some adjective (and adjective-like) redundancies you may see in formal texts:
- full and complete implementation
- fair and equitable treatment
- safe and secure environment
- free and fair elections
- just and lasting peace
- transparent and accountable governance
- prompt and timely response
- clear and unambiguous mandate
Legal terms
- null and void
- cease and desist
- terms and conditions
- rights and obligations
- rules and regulations
- final and binding decision
- proper and appropriate measures
Editing tip
Apart from in legal texts, if both adjectives answer the same question, try deleting one. If the meaning doesn’t change, one adjective is probably redundant.
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Author: Carol Waites
Presentation/editing by Christina O’Shaughnessy
https://worldwidewriting.org/
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Carol Waites (PhD)
Email: carolswritingtips@gmail.com
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