DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS
TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL
(U) Write Right: Too Much Redundancy is Redundant (repost)
FROM:
of the Reporting Board (S12A)
Run Date: 12/28/2005
(U) This article first appeared on January 28, 2005:
(U) We start off the New Year with an excerpt from comedian and wordsmith George Carlin's
latest book, which we consider an appropriate follow-up to our recent admonition against
redundancy. Mr. Carlin calls this exercise...
"Count the superfluous redundant pleonastic tautologies"
(U) "My fellow countrymen, I speak to you as co-equals, knowing you are deserving of the
honest truth. Let me warn you in advance, my subject matter concerns a serious crisis caused
by an event in my past history, the execution-style killing of a security guard on a delivery truck.
At that particular point in time, I found myself in a deep depression making mental errors which
seemed as though they might threaten my future plans. I'm not over-exaggerating; I needed a
new beginning, so I decided to pay a social visit to a personal friend with whom I share the same
mutual objective and who is one of the most unique individuals I have ever personally met. The
end result was an unexpected surprise. When I reiterated again to her the fact that I needed a
fresh start, she said I was exactly right, and as an added plus she came up with a final solution
that was absolutely perfect. Based on her past experience, she felt we needed to join together in
a common bond for a combined total of 24 hours a day in order to find some new initiative.
What a novel innovation! And as an extra bonus, she presented me with a free gift of a tuna
fish. Right away I noticed an immediate positive improvement and although my recovery is not
totally complete, the sum total is that I feel much better now, knowing that I am not uniquely
alone."
(U) Be careful; not every adjective or adverb in the above paragraph is superfluous and many
are arguable, so we are not going to publish a "correct" number; this is merely an exercise
intended to help writers examine their word use. This brings us back to last month's column as
well; we admit we could probably have worded our punch line about "successfully" better, as
several indignant computer scientists have informed us. The use of "successfully failed" is indeed
a legitimate computer term -- but it is non-redundant only in that limited context. This is what
"jargon" means, and why one should avoid it out of that context.
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS
TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL
DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108