Clichés are hard to avoid.
As I was writing these words, I almost said it… you should avoid clichés ‘like the plague’.
Oops.
See, it’s hard to find new ways of describing things without falling back on those pesky old clichés.
After all, everyone knows what they mean, don’t they?
Clichés feel comfortable. Safe. Risk-free.
Of course, they can also be useful.
Clichés are shortcuts.
They can make your writing seem familiar, friendly. They can even add a bit of humour.
The definition of a cliché
Here’s the official definition:
Cliché or cli·che [pronounced: klee-shey]
noun
- a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse, as sadder but wiser, or strong as an ox.
- (in art, literature, drama, etc.) a trite or hackneyed plot, character development, use of colour, musical expression, etc.
- anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse.
- British Printing –
- stereotype or electrotype plate.
- reproduction made in a like manner.
adjective
- trite; hackneyed; stereotyped; clichéd.
You see the problem?
Words like ‘hackneyed’, ‘lost originality’ and ‘trite’ aren’t exactly inspiring, are they?
What’s the problem with using business clichés in your writing?
The trouble with most clichés is they’re overused, can be a tad irritating and have lost their impact.
Here are a few of my ‘favourites’…
- At the end of the day…
- Moving the goalposts
- Thinking outside the box
- Where the rubber hits the road
- Going the extra mile
An article in Forbes magazine last year managed to find 89 of the beauties.
If you’re trying to spark your readers’ imagination, clichés simply don’t cut it.
They don’t make people think.
They also sound like ‘corporate-speak’. Like they’ve been produced by a machine. This is the last thing you need when you’re trying to connect ‘human to human’.
There’s also business jargon, which gets lumped in the same category of YAWN. (Think: paradigm shift, cutting edge and leverage.)
How to seek and destroy clichés in your writing
I came across a nifty little tool at http://cliche.theinfo.org/
First, you copy and paste your text. Then it hunts down your clichés and highlights them nicely in red.
And voila! You can easily see the offending phrases and knock out the ones that drag your message down.
Highlighting clichés in this way can bring attention to the words you’re using.
You might keep some of them – but others… well, perhaps it’s time to ditch those tired old phrases.
Are there phrases that you find hard to shake?
