RSVP, Please -- Today's Writing Tip Is on Redundancy

How many times do you run across phrases like this?

David just sent me a text from his cell phone.
I have to be there at 10 AM in the morning.
He was all alone by himself.
The rugged kayak lover grew up in a tiny little town.

Stop! There's no need to repeat yourself. We know that a text message is not being sent from a toaster, and that 10 AM will always be morning. When you're writing, it's good to be creative and allow your juices to flow. Get everything down. But when you're editing, streamline. Cut everything that's unnecessary. It will make for a much cleaner sentence... And there is no need to add "please" to RSVP because SVP stands for s'il vous plaît, the French term for please.


Sigrid Macdonald is a book coach, an editor, and the author of three books, including the newly released Be Your Own Editor, available on Lulu or on Amazon in paperback, and on Kindle.

http://tinyurl.com/2a3zx6t (Paperback)

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