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Q&A How do I get rid of the tic of paired adjectives, predicates, etc.?

In technical writing, I have a tic of writing in pairs. Some examples from a recent piece: "When you speak, be sure to be clear and concise." "Face to face conversation is personal and private." ...

4 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by philosophyguy‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:35:05Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/18810
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar philosophyguy‭ · 2019-12-08T04:35:05Z (over 4 years ago)
In technical writing, I have a tic of writing in pairs. Some examples from a recent piece:

- "When you speak, be sure to be **clear and concise**."
- "Face to face conversation is **personal and private**."
- "Great communicators know how to provide the right degree of **guidance and structure.**

I'd like to get better at editing out these tics (or at least making them less prevalent), but I struggle because I want to use the pair to draw out shades of meaning. For instance, in the last example, great communicators provide guidance to the recipients about what the audience should think, but they also provide structure in how the audience will get there, organizing the thinking process along the way.

Are there any suggestions for how to work on this tic?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-08-28T12:33:06Z (over 8 years ago)
Original score: 6