Puzzling Redundancies
You see them all the time. Phrases in which the main idea is repeated more than once. (Yes, I did that on purpose.)
Take, for example, the phrase I saw today in an article about ugly team uniforms. The author mentioned the “arm sleeves.” Why? When you are talking about clothing, sleeves are the arms. There are no leg sleeves, head sleeves, or butt sleeves. Sleeves are for arms. So there’s no point in saying “arm sleeves.” It’s an unnecessary repetition.
Or (and I hear this one all the time) consider a reference to “baby puppies” or “baby kittens.” A puppy is a baby dog. A kitten is a baby cat. To say “baby kittens” or “baby puppies” is redundant.
And then there’s the pet peeve of grammarians everywhere: the “A.M. in the morning” and “P.M. in the evening” gaffe. Since “A.M.” stands for ante meridiem, which is Latin for “before the middle of the day”, and “P.M.” stands for post meridiem, which is Latin for “after the middle of the day,” it’s redundant to add the phrase “in the morning/evening” after either time designation. Choose one. Say, “We’ll meet at 6 P.M.” or “We’ll meet at 6 in the evening.”
Watch your writing for this problem, called redundancy or tautology. Correcting it will tighten your style and make you look like a careful writer.