Thursday 3 January 2008

Ridding The World Of Cliches

A particular pet hate of mine is the overuse of cliches in everyday speak. The tabloids are especially bad for what amounts to lazy writing and i want to tweak the ear of every sportsman who tells us that they are over the moon or as sick as a parrot.
It really does irk me so hopefully the annual list of words and phrases that deserve to be banned published by The Times will help us turn the corner away from this slippery slope although admittedly, the extent of their use does leave us with a mountain to climb.
Avoiding such cliches may prove to be a steep learning curve for new journalists and even for those who have been around the block a few times but if we can catch the journalism students early doors then we can prevent things going pear shaped and the wheels coming off. Of course there will be those who bury their head in the sand and refuse to think outside the box or push the envelope but at the end of the day, the cream will always rise to the top.
Cliches. There really is no need for them.

5 comments:

Paula said...

I'm on the same page, girlfriend!

iMuslim said...

"the cream will always rise to the top" - not heard that one before.

My mum used to encourage me to learn proverbs when i was little; she reckoned their use made one sound more intelligent. I hope proverbs are not considered in the ranks of cliched phrases, as i do tend to throw them into spoken conversation a lot! :/

Cody Bones said...

Good job Lucy, it looks like you gave that post 110%.

Falling on a bruise said...

I heard this mentioned on the radio this morning and have been planning this post in my head all day.
Proverbs can be a bit of a grey area imuslim so to be on the safe side i would use them sparingly or say them in Latin, now that would make you sound intelligent because as Ceasar once said, Et tu veni vidi vici bird in the hand.

Anonymous said...

I don't think proverbs are cliches, though pop culture has made some of them so. Cliches are things like 'drinking the kool-aid' and so forth, IMO anyway.