IELTS, TOEFL & TOEIC Writing: Beware of tautologies!

ScottsEnglish · July 2016

Something's wrong with the following sentences. Can you tell what's wrong?

In my opinion, I think children are the best language learners.
From my perspective, a love of the subject is a necessary requirement for all university students.
I believe that in this decade, smart phones are the best new innovation we have.
I would like to repeat again this important point...
There must be other alternative ways to solve the problem.
Once a PIN number is entered, the transaction can take place.
Full-time jobs did not allow students to return back to post-graduate studies.
I am able to translate a chapter of French into English without making any errors or mistakes.
In my own experience, the biggest factors that bring happiness are...

The problem is that there was an unnecessary use of two words to express one meaning - in other words, 'a tautology'. Here are the repeated words which are wrong:

my opinion, I think
necessary requirement
new innovation
repeat again
other alternative
PIN number
return back
errors or mistakes
my own

We don't need to write both these words - if you do this, you are making a mistake.

Make sure that you don't 'repeat again' these types of words in your writing