My Pet Peeve by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Pardon me while I go on a little rant.

This is absolutely my major pet peeve.

The other day, while scrolling through social media, I came across an ad for a TV series or a movie (so purportedly a professional job) where they said it was about “two twins.”

Now first, let me point out that a good writer should write concisely, or in other words, they are expected to convey their message with as few words as possible, and most decidedly are not supposed to use two or more words together that mean the same thing.

This is redundant, and something to be avoided.

One would think that professionals would know this. I, myself, took a college course entitled “Concise Business Writing” which was on this very subject. Though I have to admit, I was better adept at being concise than my classmates were as evidenced in the incident I have previously mentioned about being assigned to reduce a four paragraph quote from Howard Cosell to as few words as possible and I managed to accomplish the feat alone while none of my classmates, who all teamed up to do the task managed it.

Let me reiterate that I condensed that massive quote to just four words. Cosell was known for being bit wordy, and most certainly is someone writers are encouraged not to emulate today.

(For you youths who are too young to remember or know who Cosell was, and what he was like, a good example of him is an old Disney movie from 1973 titled "The World’s Greatest Athlete.” A really good movie and Cosell plays himself.)

Point two, the word “twin” shares a root word with “twain” and both mean “two,” which is to say that anyone saying, “two twins” is actually saying "two two.”

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense.

However, I find this phrase so annoying, not so much because it is redundant, but well, I am a twin. As such, I know what twin means, and yeah, that is just plain senseless to me and most irritating when I find people who are supposed to be professionals using this phrase.

And the most disconcerting thing is this isn’t the first time I’ve come across this exasperating phrase in a published work.

I previously found this phrase in a book blurb about twin girls, now this was about twin boys.

How can any self-respecting editor allow this error to get past them? Or are they so uneducated that they don’t know that “twin” literally means “two?”

I certainly can’t imagine that I am better versed on what the word means simply because I am one, so I can’t see how any other adult in this world doesn’t know this fact.

It is such simple word.

Then again, I have heard people say things like “three triplets, or four quads,” which is exactly the same as “two twins!”

Yeah, I do get that saying, “two twins” is fewer words than saying “a set of twins,” but why can’t they just say, “twins” or, in this case, “twin boys, or twin brothers?” In this way, they would not have committed the faux pas of redundancy and still gotten their message across.

And, after all, the job of a writer is to get their message across and concisely and eloquently as possible. Excessive wordiness is not concise or eloquent, and frankly, in this case, asinine.

Can it possibly be that the editors in these published cases are so ignorant they simply don’t know the meaning of the word twin? I mean I knew the meaning of the word before I even entered school, and I’d honestly have assumed everyone by adulthood would know the meaning, but maybe I am better informed because I am one.

Except I can’t imagine any scenario where no one would be aware of the fact that twins means two! I mean it is in reference to a couple of people born at the same time to the same mother! How could anyone not know it means two? Just how?

So, let’s make this clear, twins means two, triplets means three, quadruplets mean four, and quintuplets means five, etc. Please refrain from using the corresponding number with these words!

Though now that I’ve seen this mistake get past more than one editor, I find myself wondering what will happen when Konnie or I publish one of our novels, which features twins, and have an editor insist we should write “two twins.”

I mean, we are twins, we know what it means, so you won’t find it in any of our manuscripts, period.

And now I have gone on too long about something that should never happen but unfortunately does. Here’s hoping more people have now learned better.

Happy writing everyone!