Repetition is one of the most useful tools available to writers. Repetition allows a writer or speaker to hammer home an idea, image, or relationship, to force the reader or listener to pay attention. Two classic examples of the incredible power of repetition are Mark Antony's "They are all honorable men" speech in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar （3.2）, and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.
But many writers, especially young writers, fear repetition, apparently believing that repeating a word within a single sentence or short passage is bad style. H. W. Fowler, author of the old but still recommended Fowler's Modern English Usage （1st ed., 1926）, called this tendency elegant variation, and observed, "There are few literary faults so widely prevalent."
Here's an example of a student working hard to avoid repeating words within a sentence. It doesn't work well; the revision repeats words and reads more easily:
ORIGINAL REVISION
The test group got an average of seven test questions correct; the mean for the control category was thirteen valid responses.
The test group averaged seven correct answers; the control group averaged thirteen.
The original's nervous avoidance of repetition （for instance using first group and then category） makes it a bit hard to follow. The revision, by contrast, is easier to follow because it repeats words and syntactical structures. Note that repetition allows the writer to cut some repeated elements and focus attention on the key information, the contrast.
Practiced writers will also employ all sorts of variations on this pattern of repetition:
The test group averaged seven correct answers, the control group thirteen.
The test group averaged seven correct answers to the control group's thirteen.
Another example of a writer afraid of repetition:
ORIGINAL REVISION
First the North Koreans made an incursion almost all the way down the peninsula; then Americans and South Korean forces drove back into the north.
First the North Koreans drove almost all the way down the peninsula; then American and South Korean forces drove back into the north.
In the revision, the writer realizes that repeating the verb drove helps reinforce the passage's symmetry.
Let's close with one of the classic instances of repetition, from a speech by Winston Churchill after the British evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940. France had fallen to Nazi Germany, the United States was still neutral, and Britain stood alone:
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. . . .
Churchill's thundering we shall fights fall like hammerstrokes, building to that emphatic, defiant, and irresistible we shall never surrender. In 1940 Churchill's rhetoric was perhaps the most important weapon deployed against Adolf Hitler.
But many writers, especially young writers, fear repetition, apparently believing that repeating a word within a single sentence or short passage is bad style. H. W. Fowler, author of the old but still recommended Fowler's Modern English Usage （1st ed., 1926）, called this tendency elegant variation, and observed, "There are few literary faults so widely prevalent."
Here's an example of a student working hard to avoid repeating words within a sentence. It doesn't work well; the revision repeats words and reads more easily:
ORIGINAL REVISION
The test group got an average of seven test questions correct; the mean for the control category was thirteen valid responses.
The test group averaged seven correct answers; the control group averaged thirteen.
The original's nervous avoidance of repetition （for instance using first group and then category） makes it a bit hard to follow. The revision, by contrast, is easier to follow because it repeats words and syntactical structures. Note that repetition allows the writer to cut some repeated elements and focus attention on the key information, the contrast.
Practiced writers will also employ all sorts of variations on this pattern of repetition:
The test group averaged seven correct answers, the control group thirteen.
The test group averaged seven correct answers to the control group's thirteen.
Another example of a writer afraid of repetition:
ORIGINAL REVISION
First the North Koreans made an incursion almost all the way down the peninsula; then Americans and South Korean forces drove back into the north.
First the North Koreans drove almost all the way down the peninsula; then American and South Korean forces drove back into the north.
In the revision, the writer realizes that repeating the verb drove helps reinforce the passage's symmetry.
Let's close with one of the classic instances of repetition, from a speech by Winston Churchill after the British evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940. France had fallen to Nazi Germany, the United States was still neutral, and Britain stood alone:
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. . . .
Churchill's thundering we shall fights fall like hammerstrokes, building to that emphatic, defiant, and irresistible we shall never surrender. In 1940 Churchill's rhetoric was perhaps the most important weapon deployed against Adolf Hitler.