How To Avoid Using I In Writing

How To Avoid Repetition In Writing

Do you have writing habits that might cause repetition? Let's look at how to avoid repetition in writing.

You don't have any problem at all in expressing yourself through your writing.

But there are some common writing mistakes that many writers make and sometimes without noticing them. In this case, it is repeating yourself.

Readers will spot repetitive words or phrases in any piece of writing.

Ways to avoid repetition in writing

Too much repetition might slow down the way readers understand your message. In turn, it can negatively affect their response to your writing.

Perhaps it is easy to repeat because of a focus on keywords and SEO rankings in blog writing.

Or it could be that we often use particular words or phrases over and over again by habit.

Repetition can occur without us even noticing it.

The following suggestions might help you reduce and avoid repetition when you are writing an article or a manuscript.

Vary your sentences

Repetition isn't limited to words. Repeating the same sentence structure is very common.

The problem with sentence structure is caused by starting them in the same way. Your readers may lose interest in your writing if your sentences lack variety.

He went to visit his doctor.

I wasn't ready for what happened.

She said she was too tired.

They decided to stay for another week.

To avoid repetition, change the rhythm, length, and even the syntax of your sentences to make them more dynamic and exciting for your readers.

You don't want your story to sound like a list of ideas using the same subject-verb form to start your sentences.

Try to find other ways to convey your message.

Avoid using long words

While many writers might think that using overly long words or complex ones may make one sound intelligent, the opposite is usually true.

If you can communicate the same meaning with a shorter, simpler, or common word, it is usually more effective.

English vocabulary is rich, and you will never be short of words.

But you don't want your readers rushing off to find a dictionary every time they read your work.

Use a thesaurus

A thesaurus comes in handy when you want to eliminate or at least avoid repetition in your writing as much as possible.

You can look up any of your commonly used words and replace them with ones that have the same meaning.

You can also use an online grammar checker that has an in-built thesaurus to help you.

However, don't take the use of synonyms too far. You don't want to fill your writing with complicated words that may not precisely mean what you intended.

When you use a thesaurus, use it wisely and sparingly.

You don't want your efforts to avoid repeating to appear too obvious.

Replace your character's name with a pronoun

There are words that you can repeat without any problem. That is, your reader is less likely to see it as a repetition.

Pronouns like he and she fall into this category.

When referring to your characters, it is useful to use pronouns to avoid repeating the names.

Reading your manuscript aloud will help you find a balance between name and pronoun use.

However, you should ensure that the reader understands who you are referring to or who is talking.

Read your writing

You don't have time to do any manuscript editing as you write your story.

Always work on building your story and ensure that there is a flow of ideas.

But when it comes time to start proofreading the document, you can then check for repetitions.

Take notes as you read and mark any words, phrases, or sentences you can see are being over-used.

By checking your writing carefully, you can quickly minimize and reduce any repetitive words or phrases.

Break up your sentences

Writers love using long sentences.

But long sentences are often great candidates for repetition.

To overcome the problem, you can use several short sentences to convey the same thoughts.

As you do this, you can eliminate unnecessary words that are often part of a long sentence.

Short sentences are also easier to read.

But you still need variety in your writing. So think about using a mix of both to have more impact.

Avoid wordy expressions

We often use phrases with too many words in our writing.

If you can express an idea in fewer words and mean the same thing, it's usually a far better option.

Be precise in what you want to get across.

But don't make something simple more complicated than it needs to be.

One excellent technique is to use gapping to delete repeated words.

Shorten your paragraphs

According to the American Psychological Association, Publication Manual, you can lose readers if they read articles that are longer than one double-spaced manuscript page.

If your paragraphs are too long, you should look for a logical position to break them.

If you can't, you can try reorganizing your ideas. In a single paragraph, you shouldn't use more than 125 words.

Readers want to get to the point in the shortest time possible.

Be clear in your narrative

When you are taken away by your thoughts and jotting them down, you might find yourself rambling a little.

If this happens, highlight your main points and then re-write the scene and make it easier for your readers to understand.

It doesn't mean that you can't spice up your words. Use succinct but precise words and phrases.

By getting to the point quicker, you will find that you can reduce a lot of unnecessary repetition.

You can use the same words

The use of repetitive words can help you build a rhythm in your sentences. Some writers play with consonant sound repetition to add emphasis.

The literary device, Anaphora is the repetition of words or phrases for emphasis. Think here of Martin Luther King's I had a dream speech.

Another use of repetition in literature is called negative-positive restatement. You start with a negative idea and then follow with a positive view.

A classic example is a quote from John F Kennedy, "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."

It's fine to repeat some words. As I said earlier, there are words that you can repeat without a problem, such as pronouns.

If you apply deliberate repetition, consciously and strategically, it may prove to be an effective use of your writing skills.

In the dialogue of a story, the word "said" is usually invisible to a reader. You can use it as often as you need to.

Also, depending on how your dialogue is structured, you may not need to add a dialogue tag at all.

This technique helps reduce repetition considerably.

Conclusion

You can avoid most types of repetition quite easily.

You can use some of the tips in this article or do more research to find other ways to help you.

A good writer usually knows the areas in their writing where repetition might likely occur.

Every writer has habits or tics that they know they need to find during editing and proofreading.

The best way to avoid repetition is to recognize your habits so that you can track them down quite quickly.

When you know that you overuse weak words like just, really, very, or quite, you can use the find function in your word processor to find and delete or edit them in a flash.

It is the fastest way to find and correct word repetition.