Things That Annoy Me, Part CCXLIV -- "In and of Itself":

Blecch. Yes, it's an established idiom; I'm not saying it's wrong in some semantic or grammatical way. But "say it with extra prepositions," or for that matter "say it with clichés," is not the key to good writing. "By itself" or "itself" is almost always an adequate substitute; the "in and of" is just empty verbiage. Cut it out.