Repetitive redundancy
Editing a magazine for 10 years gives one a new appreciation of the English language and how badly the general public mutilates it. Now, I don't claim to speak or even write perfect English, but at least I try. Joe Average American doesn't really seem to care if his language use makes him sound like an idiot.
Back in college, before the days of the Internet (at least, as we know it today), and even before dial-up BBSs became popular, we had an on-line message board on our IBM 370 mainframe. I loved to join in the various technical discussions with other students, both undergrad and graduate. It didn't take me long to notice that, regardless of what someone had to say, if their spelling, punctuation, and grammar were awful, they came across sounding like a fool. I spent lots of time looking things up as I wrote to make sure my presentation didn't get in the way of my message.
As a result of my having to deal with other peoples' writing, I have lots of pet peeves when it comes to language. This will be the start of a series of pontifications on the subject.
What's the purpose of an acronym? It's to shorten a sequence of words or phrase into a quick, easily recognized unit. If that's the case, why must people defeat its simplicity by repeating a portion of the acronym with the acronym itself?
For example, ATM. We all know and love this modern banking wonder when we run short on cash on Saturday night and we need to buy milk. Almost everyone also knows it stands for Automatic Teller Machine. Then why do people call it an ATM machine? There are large, professionally printed signs outside convenience stores boldly announcing that there is an ATM machine inside! Do they take us for idiots, or was it an idiot who made the sign?
Another is the standard college rite of passage, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT. I hear more often than not people talking about taking the SAT test. Argh!