@ Graham: Welcome. It’s a great blog – I highly recommend it.

Great post and great comments.

Alan

“The reason we have an unconscious tendency to use them is because they have been repeated a trillion times; they have become deeply imbedded in our brains …” makes me want to stop reading, and that would be a pity.

“We have an unconscious tendency to use them because they have been repeated a trillion times; they have become deeply imbedded in our brains …” Same sense, but not annoying.

Our writing style is a bit different, as is every individuals.

Thank you for your readership, It’s much appreciated.

@ Ryan: heh… Its actually a self improvement article. Or self development if you desire.

So, as much as I like those suggestions – they wouldn’t be entirely fitting.

I concluded on: “every point along the path.” It is longer, true – but it has a nice piercing quality to it.

But who knows, it may change once again until published.

Your point about words being finite, and thus being limited in permutability, is quite nice and absolutely true. It would be for this reason, I suppose, that some phrases (the less atrocious ones) come to be known as clichés; there is just no better way to say it.

I look forward to your next article!

Fair enough.

Another reason one may use them, is simply because they can’t think of another way to put it. And yes, that does happen.

I’ve just finished an article that I will be publishing this week. In one sentence I include the phrase, “every step of the way.”

It may be a cliché – but I have not been able to think of another effective way to put. And this phrase perfectly conveys my sentiment.

It’s important to realize that unlike numbers, language is finite. There is a fixed number of words and ways to arrange those words.

Some clichés are easier to replace. Others are much harder. Some clichés are particularly atrocious and others are better.

Minimizing ones prose with these things, though, is the ideal.

Another side of this is that there are instances in which the author might want to inject a cliché not as a means of stirring the reader, but rather instilling in them a certain familiarity, a feeling of being unimpressed, or a sense that nothing new is being demonstrated. Instances wherein the intention behind having used a cliché would be to provide exactly what you’ve described as being a detriment. They could be seen, in certain specific cases, as a tool with which to provide the author leverage in creating a bias.

@ العاب: You’re welcome.

D’Arcy Gregoire: I agree they can be used creatively for those purposes. But, since we’ve all read them so many times before – they often lose their effectiveness in stirring the readers that read them. New ways of saying things don’t carry with it that same detriment.

@ Minar: Thank you for your perspective. I didn’t find such constructions problematic. For me, what you have cited was just a clear way to communicate.

I suppose that I’ve always made an effort to avoid clichés when their inclusion would have added no benefit and would have served only to reiterate what had already been said.

I do, however, agree with Alex’s comment above; clichés can be used creatively in order to provide humour, liveliness, or personality to an article while in no way rendering it poorly written. It’s similar to using the word “ain’t”: we all know that it’s incorrect, but it can serve an author quite well when the intention is to emphasize.

That having been said, I think that we can all agree that there’s no challenge in determining whether an author’s inclusion of a cliché is motivated by what I’ve said above or simply the result of their lacking the creativity (or vocabulary) to come up with an original way in which to express themselves.

But hey, sometimes there just ain’t no better way to drive the point home!

It really is amazing how many cliches do enter into blog posts. I guess it’s just part of the colloquial language used on them for the most part. After all, most bloggers aren’t writing for a literary prize.

Also, thanks for the list of cliches link, quite funny and interesting.

@ Andrew: What an interesting idea!

IMHO, this is more distracting than random cliche.

Nice post. Concise, clear, and effective. Good argument.

The idea is to vow to not write a cliche, to force yourself to think through what you really want to say (in your own words), and then, on occasion, when a cliche might actually work, go ahead and use it.

Exhaust all other ways of saying it first, and then, if appropriate, drop a cliche on them.

Just be sparing and tactful in your employment of them.

Thanks for linking to my post as well.

Ryan has it right. We use a cliché to convey a message. But, to use them too often makes one’s copy bland.

So, the solution is to formulate our own way of expression that stems from our own unique personality. It would have all the elements of a cliché except it wouldn’t be one.

Use metaphors. Use idioms. Use similes. But instead of constantly looking into the Encyclopedia of clichés – use your own mind to convey the message. Your readers will appreciate your unique ways of expression.

I like Ryan’s suggestion to make them unexpected and why doing so would be effective.

I don’t claim to be a master at avoiding clichés. Moreover, *there are degrees here*. This is not an all or nothing proposition. If you usage of clichés is a little less tomorrow than it was today – you have made serious progress. Your writing will show for it.

Becoming a great writer is a process, which is wonderful – because it means your craft will continually improve.