If you hate cliches, you are not alone.
We’ll pause now to allow the writers in the audience time to stop shrieking.
You see, the sentence “He (or She) is not alone” was the most reviled among the trite words and phrases nominated for extinction by Register staff members.
Nearly 40 writers and editors inundated me with responses to my request for examples of awful writing, the kind they would never inflict upon readers.
What irritates them appears below, but first, a list from the sole reader to reply.
“I don’t know if the following are actually cliches, but they’re words and phrases I’ve grown tired of seeing because they’re used over and over,” Michael White wrote. “I don’t necessarily have any alternatives to the words; they simply bug me.”
Among his annoyances: snapped up; sending a message; monster, when used as a label for a criminal; drug deal gone bad (“What’s a drug deal gone good?); and fastest growing, which he finds attached one week to one religion and the next week to a different one. (“They can’t ALL be the fastest growing,” he correctly observed.)
The journalists’ hit list:
Worn-out phrases: His own special brand of (fill in the blank); let’s touch base; if you build it, they will come; worst-case scenario; they want to find closure; stars shone brightly; I looked up (word) in the dictionary and (his, her) picture was there; meaningful relationship; gloomy skies; heated battles; spark controversy; voice opinions; mull things over; slippery slope.
Redundancies: brutal murder; cordoned off; advance planning; arson fire; in close proximity; hunker down
Word abuse: controversial; collaborative; tony; eyeing; weighing; vulnerable; probe; munching; eateries
Jargon: paradigm; workflow; at risk; dysfunctional family; ginning up; ratcheting up; transported.
Misuse: “I could care less,” instead of “I couldn’t care less”; “ironically” when the correct word would be “coincidentally”; “in the wake of,” instead of “after.”
Wretched writing: “No good can come of a story starting with the word ‘when.’” “Without question, the It-but leads (on articles) are the most overused lead in ANY newspaper.” “A book entitled … How can a book be entitled to anything!!!!!! It has a title, though.” “Murders always seem to happen on ‘quiet, tree-lined streets with well-kept lawns.’”
Lance Gilmore, quality team leader/news, hastened to inform me that copy editors are urged to avoid cliches when writing headlines. He directed me to the list of no-nos, including:
All “moo” puns; wreak havoc; “headlinese” cliches such as solon, mull, nix, parley; lash out at; ’tis the season; deck the malls; nothing to sneeze at (allergy stories); all that jazz (jazz stories); the right stuff/the write stuff; that’s the ticket; food for thought; deck the walls (design stories); kinder, gentler; that’s ducky; getting their kicks (soccer stories); room with a view (home stories); going for baroque; have a yen for (Japan stories); whale of a find, no fluke ( whale-fossil finds, live sightings); byte (computer stories); just say no; Lotto reasons to smile, or similar puns (Lotto-winner stories).
“I think the key to cliches is that if you use them, it’s tongue in cheek,” Travel Editor Gary A. Warner suggested.
On this, good writers agree: Avoid cliches like the plague.
