One of the best pieces of advice on writing I’ve seen – and don’t always follow – is the demand author Martin Amis would make of his close friend, the late journalist Christopher Hitchens: Purge all clichés.
Not only, I’ve found, does this eliminate worn phrases from your prose. It also makes you think of something original, and helps your writing sparkle.
Nowhere perhaps is the resort to cliches more prolific than in political dialogue and, I’m sorry to say, in journalism. Once a phrase takes hold in the discourse, every lazy mind in Washington uses it repeatedly and well past its expiration date.
I thought you might enjoy this cliché compilation from Politico. As you can see, the proof is in the pudding.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
After reading The Daily Caller’s exposé on Media Matters, I wouldn’t be surprised if a good many overused clichés are courtesy of the Obama team talking points.
“As you can see, the proof is in the pudding”
Ha! Thought I wouldn’t notice.
Well..it was under the sun…
Kinda beating a dead horse with a broken record?
Sharp as expected!
Tried to view the video but it is “currently unavailable”. What’s up with that?
Kinda like the 30-60 second TV commercials reduced to 15 seconds since that is all the modern brain can absorb at one time.
I didnt know Callista “frigid, stuck-up, ice queen” Gingrich could speak or had a voice… -lol
Have you met her langley? To me she seems like a very loving wife to Newt. Regardless, she isn’t running for office, and as long as she keeps her nose out of my family’s life I could care less how well she speaks.
I haven’t met any of these people, but I have impressions–and of course, snarks.
The only politician I enjoy hearing from is Sarah Palin. So refreshing, folksy and uplifting. She had me at the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull :D
I agree.
Sarah is the type of person that built this Country.
Down to earth no nonsense, straight into the wind, never say die.
An attitude that says ‘BRING IT’ !
Why doesn’t Sarah wear lipstick anymore…just wondering…
Never noticed myself. In my opinion, what she is saying is more important than what she is wearing.
Next time look–she looks better with lipstick.
Women with natural beauty don’t have to paint their faces.
She has plenty of makeup on–just not lipstick. It makes her look wan and less powerful.
Reminds me of some of Rush’s media montages. What a gaggle of goofy geese.
File that with “nattering nabobs of negativism and an “effete corps of impudent snobs.”
Gee…I sure do miss the old days when you could pistol whip the press with panache.
Politics is bad. Sports is worse. A teacher friend of mine and I used to regularly watch football w/ the sound off and the rule was to ONLY speak in cliches. “you can throw out the record book when these two teams get together”. It’s remarkably easy and all too revealing. But “at the end of the day”, I’ve got a lot of time invested in it.
We’ve become a nation of sound bytes and cliches.
The video does bring that point hom.
At the end of the day, at the end of the day, at the end of the day……….this too, is so overused, just as basically was some years ago.