redundancy-checker

Redundancy Checker

What This Skill Does

Scans a draft for repeated ideas, redundant phrases, and unnecessary word clusters, then delivers a flagged report and a tightened version of the text without altering meaning or voice.

When To Use This Skill

• When a piece is over its word count and you need cuts that do not hurt the reporting
• When a reader or editor has said the copy "feels padded" or "goes in circles" but hasn't specified where
• Before submitting a long-form feature, investigation, or script to a commissioning editor for the first time
• When reviewing your own draft after time away and want a systematic redundancy audit rather than impressionistic re-reading

What You Need To Provide

Required: The full text of the article, script, or document you want checked. Optional: Target word count or percentage reduction goal; any sections marked as deliberately repetitive for rhetorical effect (a refrain in a documentary narration, for example) that should be left unchanged.

How the Assistant Approaches This

1. Reads the entire text before flagging anything, building a map of ideas, arguments, and phrases to identify repetition across the whole piece, not just within individual sentences.
2. Identifies three types of redundancy: (a) phrase-level — word clusters where one word does the work of several (for example, "at this point in time" instead of "now"); (b) sentence-level — sentences that repeat information already established earlier; (c) structural — paragraphs or passages that circle back to a point already fully made without adding new information.
3. For each flag, notes the location, identifies what is being repeated or what words are surplus, and proposes a specific cut or rewrite. Where a rhetorical repetition is intentional and effective, the assistant notes it as a deliberate choice rather than flagging it for removal.
4. Produces a structured report followed by the full tightened text.

Output Format

Two sections: