Activity: Repetition

Read and do the associated practice for repetition to learn about two different types of repetition and get some practice fixing these types of errors.

Repetition Definition and Revision Activity

A third issue when it comes to diction is avoiding repetition. Any time you see a sentence with a repeated word in it, you should consider it a "red flag," meaning that you are going to look more closely at that sentence to see if there is a way to get rid of the repetition either through rewording the sentence or using a pronoun.  For example, instead of saying:

Repeated words/phrases: 

Nick spent a long time at the grocery store finding the right ingredients, but had to head back to the grocery store when he got home and realized he was short one egg for the recipe he wanted to make.

Revised:

Nick spent a long time at the grocery store finding the right ingredients, but had to head right back when he got home and realized he was one egg short for the recipe he wanted to make.


Another kind of repetition that can be trickier to see, but which also needs to be avoided in our writing is repeated ideas - saying the same thing in two different ways.  Here are some examples of phrases that contain repetition and how they can be revised:

Repeated Ideas

Revised

my theory that I have come up with 

my theory

the program's proposals and goals

the program's purposes

at the corner where Main Street meets Lincoln Avenue

at the corner of Main Street and Lincoln Avenue

Rewrite the following sentences so they no longer contain repeated words or ideas. It's ok to change the wording if you need to, but make sure your rewrite contains the same information and meaning as the original.

  1. Tara's middle name is Anne because she is named after her mother whose name is Anne and wanted Anne to be her daughter's middle name.
  2. Rinko decided to retire and not work at her job beyond the age of sixty years old.
  3. In conclusion, the final point I want to make clear and plain is that many students need to be free of diverting distractions while studying.
  4.  Engaged in agriculture, the farmer is governed by a wide variety of government regulations put out by the Department of Agriculture.
  5. Derrick won the blue ribbon which signified first place in the 50-yard dash for being faster than everyone else.

Source: Erin Severs
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