A tautology is when a sentence or short paragraph repeats a word or phrase, expressing the same idea twice. Often, this is a sign that you should trim your work to remove the redundancy (such as “frozen ice”) but can also be used for poetic emphasis. Example: “But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door” – The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe