3 Useful Tips on How to Avoid Repetition and Improve Readability

The Importance of Readability

Now, you might be wondering exactly what readability is.

Readability refers to how easy, enjoyable, and interesting a piece of writing is to read. And one of the main features of readable text is a lack of repetition.

Here are three tips to help you reduce repetition in your writing:

1. Avoid having the same word twice in a sentence

This one is HUGE.

When a word is unnecessarily repeated, the sentence comes across as awkward and clumsy. Let’s consider an example:

• The boy turned on the TV because the boy wanted to watch cartoons.

The statement above is grammatically correct but clunky. Here’s how to fix it:

• The boy turned on the TV because he wanted to watch cartoons.

That’s better! By adding a pronoun, we can improve readability.

2. Make use of synonyms to vary your word choice

Building on point #1, we can use synonyms to keep from repeating the same word.

Instead of overusing ‘very good’ as a descriptor, choose adjectives like ‘terrific’, ‘excellent’, ‘amazing’, or ‘incredible’. For example, take a look at this article about some useful synonyms.

Also, if you don’t know any alternatives for a particular word, you can consult a thesaurus or even use the built-in synonym lookup feature that some word processors have.

3. When summarizing a point, use different phrasing

Sometimes, you need to summarize information or reiterate an idea. However, the writing becomes redundant if you use the exact same phrasing. Let’s take a look at another example:

• We need to finish the work quickly since the deadline is nearing.

If you want to restate this point, you can reword it like so:

• As the work must be completed soon, we have to hurry and finish up.

Conclusion

There you have it! Keep these three pointers in mind while polishing up your sentences to help improve the fluidity of your writing.

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Finally, stay tuned for another English lesson coming next week!

See you soon 🙂