The Burden of Words: Investigating Redundancy in Undergraduate Academic Writing at Kwame Nkrumah University, Zambia

This article investigates redundancy, the use of unnecessary words, in undergraduate academic writing at Kwame Nkrumah University (KNU). Through qualitative content analysis of 150 student essays and research proposals across three faculties, supplemented by semi-structured interviews with 15 students and 5 lecturers, the study identifies common redundant phrases and explores their underlying causes. The analysis reveals that redundancy is pervasive, averaging 8 to 12 instances per 1000 words, with circumlocution (40%) as the most prevalent form, followed by tautological pairs (30%), padded verbs (20%), and pleonasms (10%). Interview data expose a significant dissonance: students employ redundant constructions believing that they enhance academic formality and sophistication, while lecturers view such language as obscuring meaning and reflecting poor editing skills. Framed within Grice's (1975) Maxim of Manner and Duff's (2010) theory of Academic Discourse Socialisation, the findings suggest that redundancies stem from three interrelated sources: a desire to sound formal and academic, a lack of lexical precision and vocabulary depth, and the unconscious imitation of bureaucratic and institutional language prevalent in university communications. The study further reveals that redundancies cluster most densely in introductory sections and literature reviews, where students are most self-conscious about establishing academic credibility. Lecturers' observations that institutional documents themselves model verbose language validate the Discourse Socialisation framework and point to a cyclical pattern of linguistic imitation. The article concludes with a discussion of evidence-based pedagogical interventions, including explicit instruction in concision, scaffolded learning approaches, enhanced writing centre support, assessment reform incorporating conciseness criteria, and institution-wide commitment to clear communication. By recognising redundancy as a learnable behaviour shaped by socialisation processes rather than an intractable deficit, KNU can implement targeted strategies to help students develop precise, effective scholarly communication. This study contributes to the limited research on redundancy in African tertiary contexts and offers practical recommendations applicable across similar educational settings.