Taken from Literally, The Best Language Book Ever – Annoying Words
and Abused Phrases You Should Never Use Again by Paul Yeager
Errors of Redundancy and Repetition
1. Brief Summary
A summary is a condensed (meaning shortened) version of a larger piece
of information; it should be brief by definition, so avoid saying brief
summary.
2. Combine Together
Unless combine apart makes sense, adding together to combine is not
necessary. Combine already means to bring together.
3. Completely Finished
Finished means that it’s done. It’s time to stop. There’s nothing left to do. In
other words, it’s completed. Adding the word completely, as in completely
finished, doesn’t make it more so; in fact, it means there’s one more word to
get to before the finish.
4. Follow After
To follow means to come after, as in follow the leader, not follow after the
leader.
5. Postpone Until Later
Postpone means until later, so postpone until later is redundant.
6. Revert Back
Revert means to return to a previous condition, such as revert to my old
ways. In other words, it means to go backward in some way; therefore, the
word back is not needed in revert back.
7. 12 Midnight and 12 Noon
The 12 part is already included in the midnight or noon, so there is no need
to say both (12 midnight or 12 noon). It’s either midnight or noon, or 12 a.m.
or 12 p.m.
For the record, the m in a.m. and p.m. stands for meridian, which means
midday. Since ante means before and post means after, a.m. means
morning and p.m. means afternoon; therefore, saying a.m. in the morning
and p.m. in the afternoon both mean that you spend too much time
repeating yourself.