It’s a Foregone Conclusion: Clichés Kill Good Writing

We use cliches all day long in our casual conversations. But when writing, we would do well to avoid them (like the plague). Clichés are often idioms—forms of expressions people use routinely in communicating a thought, idea, or in making a point.

An uphill battle.

Easier said than done.

At the end of the day.

Read between the lines.

Any phrase that’s overused to the point it’s boring and ineffective can be a cliché. And these tired phrases can easily sneak into our writing even when we are trying to be original and creative with our word choice, voice, and overall style. While it’s fine to use them as placeholders as you write your first draft, swap them out for crisper, more innovative and provocative language in later iterations. Find your own way of conveying an idea that comes across as uniquely imaginative. 

The number of clichés is infinite, as new ones emerge every day; it’d be impossible to keep a comprehensive list nearby. You can find lists online and software programs that will help you weed out (cliché!) these unoriginal blemishes in your content. I love Michael Massing’s opinion piece for the New York Times a few years ago. He calls out a few one-word clichés you might not think would qualify: outsize, gobsmacked, weaponized, preternaturally, turbocharged, morph, bingeable.

Indeed, buzzwords and business jargon of the day are clichés too. The ones that annoy me the most of late: bandwidth, 100 percent, new normal, pivot, circle back, take this offline, paradigm shift, low-hanging fruit, synergy.

The moment someone coins a clever phrase that propagates in various media, it’s a cliché.

George Orwell was right: “Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print” (or hearing in media). This is ranked #1 among his six rules that he articulated in a 1946 essay called “Politics and the English Language.” Here are the other five worth abiding by:

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Now write like the wind.

Credit: Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash