Deep six all clichés
10/1/2009

In business writing, you don't want to drone. You want to buzz. Avoiding cliches like the plague helps.

It's as plain as the nose on your face. Deep six all clichés.

 

As far as the eye can see, they multiply like rabbits. It’s hard to swallow the hare brained idea that we cannot avoid these old as dirt phrases. Rely on clichés and people will think your elevator doesn’t go to the top floor or that you’re a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Don’t you see eye to eye with me on this?

 

Say what you will, clichés bore us to tears. Even if you must burn the candle at both ends, find substitutes for them. Doing so is more than a feather in your cap. It means your copy can fire on all cylinders and won’t read flat as a pancake. Even a writer as dumb as a bag of hammers, knows that variety is the spice of life and that clichés have lost their salt.

 

So drag those squealing, stinky rodents of writing to the paper shredder and show no mercy.  And don’t shred on me, I’m just the messenger. 

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