Avoiding clichés
Clichés are words and phrases that have lost specific meaning or interest over time, generally due to being overused. Whilst they tend to remain in use as part of everyday speech, they are not an effective means of communicating in academic writing. Be particularly careful to avoid clichés that may seem perfectly acceptable and yet have no inherent meaning in the context of your assignment. Examples of these include:
At this moment in time
Everyday life
At the end of the day
In the current climate
Throughout history
Few and far between
A level playing field
In this day and age
The fact of the matter
When all is said and done
In modern society
From the dawn of man
Pros and cons
In the final analysis
This day and age
Wordiness
Wordiness, or redundancy, often takes the form of circumlocutions (the use of many words to say something that could be said in fewer words without losing meaning), or filler words or filler phrases. Don’t be tempted to use redundant words to increase your word count: they won’t add to the quality of your writing! As an added danger, filler words/phrases can also be considered cliché.
Here are some examples of redundant words and phrases:
| Avoid | Instead use |
Still remains |
remains |
Absolutely complete |
complete |
At the present time |
currently |
The reason is because |
because |
Continue on |
continue |
Due to the fact that |
because |
During the course of |
during
|
Here are some more examples avoiding of how to avoid unnecessary repetition and qualifiers:
| Over-wordy phrase | Better | Because |
The Blue Whale is a huge, enormous, giant of an animal. |
The Blue Whale is an enormous animal |
Two words that essentially mean the same as “enormous” have been removed |
Blue Whales are filter feeders. Filter feeders, such as the Blue Whale, consume vast quantities of plankton. |
Blue Whales are filter feeders. Filter feeders consume vast quantities of plankton. |
Repeated information has been removed |
Blue Whales are very big |
Blue Whales are enormous. |
It is better to avoid overuse of qualifiers such as "very" by using a single word that means the same. |
Source: University of Hull
