Redundant Adjectives

If you want to improve your writing, then a good place to start is by teaching yourself to spot redundant adjectives. They appear in all writing, whether technical, academic, or fiction, and stick out like a gate with no fence. Once you learn to spot them, you will find them almost everywhere you look. They are characterised by being expendable: if you remove them from a sentence, the meaning survives and is often more effective.

Writing consecutive adjectives that mean the same thing—like a thesaurus entry that no one asked for, jammed into a sentence—does not make interesting reading. Perhaps this habit came from the rhetorical device, “the rule of three”, (link) where a specific point is reiterated to form a central idea that more easily sticks in people’s minds.

Whatever the reason, the use of too many adjectives is like cholesterol in the bloodstream, reduce them and you will have a much healthier text.

Adjective Strings

The easiest to notice are strings of adjectives, those that describe an object, animal or person, but all mean the same thing. Something like:

Look at that tiny little mouse!

Or even:

Look at that small, tiny little mouse!

In this instance, since it is common knowledge that mice are small creatures, you could argue that you do not need any of the words in orange and instead write:

Look at that mouse!

But this feels somewhat empty and the whole point of eliminating redundant words from your writing is to make it more interesting. You should definitely include at least one descriptor. Try using a word that people might not anticipate, something that contrasts expectation:

Look at that ferocious mouse!

Habitual Phrases

Some phrases are so ingrained in the way we speak, they are more difficult to spot, but they are still repetition:

It started raining and I got soaking wet!

Here the phrase soaking wet is used to intensify the meaning, that is: I got very wet, not slightly damp. However, if you write soaking there is no need for wet, you cannot be soaking dry! You might need to rephrase or find another, more potent word, but your writing will usually be better for it.

It started raining and I got soaked!

It started raining and I got drenched!

Wherever the phrase, “individual person” appears in a sentence, it is unnecessary. It is usually accompanied by “each” or “every”, something like:

Each individual person must agree to signing our NDAs.

I want every individual person to have a go at solving this problem.

I would like an individual person to volunteer.

First, a person is an individual. No matter how many words you use to describe them, a person will not become more individual, nor will it enhance the singular nature of their being. Second, besides the above examples sounding pompous and distant, they can be more effectively written as:

All of you must agree to signing our NDAs.

I want everyone to have a go at solving this problem.

I would like a volunteer.

By carefully selecting and limiting your use of adjectives to describe a single element in your writing, you will become more creative. You will find that you worry less about overusing a word or phrase, your writing will be less bland, and your meaning is conveyed more efficiently. No matter what field of writing: fiction, academic, long or short form articles, by removing pointless word strings you can become a more interesting and effective writer.

For more tips on writing style and eliminating useless words from your writing, have a look at The Tyranny of "Up".