Recently glancing again through Bill Bryson's "Troublesome Words", I came across this.

precondition, preplanning, prerecorded etc.
Almost always redundant. "A lot of headaches can be avoided with a little preplanning." (Chicago Tribune) All planning must be done in advance. Pre- adds nothing to the meaning and should be deleted, as it should have been in these examples: "There are however three preconditions to be met before negotiations can begin." (Guardian); "The company's performance reflected... (the) growth in the worldwide market for prerecorded music." (advertisement in The Economist)

I won't say what I think just yet but do you agree with him?

I never use any of those, so I guess I must agree. I've only seen prerecorded on the opening credits of television shows: "This show was prerecorded".

It might be redundant, but that doesn't mean it "should be deleted." Redundancy is useful and often essential.

"Prerecorded" suggests to me that the program was recorded prior to the time at which one sees it rather than contemporaneously. I don't therefore see it as redundant.

I agree that "prerecorded" could with validity be used in the context of TV programmes, etc. The other examples seem, to me, to be redundant. However, as Goofy says, redundancy isn't always a Bad Thing.

And what about prerequisite?

I may be seeing shades of meaning where none exist but I can see a difference between precondition and condition. I see a precondition a something that must have been met prior to something else happening. A condition, I see, as being something that is true at the point that it happens. So, to give an example - attending eighty per cent of the course may be a precondition for taking an exam while not taking a mobile phone into the exam room would be a condition.

Similarly, to me, preplanning implies an existing, already made plan. The plan has been made and exists, whereas planning is the act of doing it.

Prerecorded is even less of a problem. "This program is recorded" allows of two interpretations - it has been recorded in the past and is now being transmitted or it is live but is being recorded now for future retransmission. Prerecorded allows of only the former.