CLICHÉS & PAT EXPRESSIONS:
clichés, pat expressions, aphorisms, sayings, figures of speech, euphemisms
These are stock phrases that should be avoided in student writing
B/C:
they are unoriginal, trite, banal, hackneyed, overused
it's not that they're untrue; it's that they're unoriginal
once striking, clever, creative, poetical, elegant
they have lost their initial power and meaning
through overuse, excess, abuse
they're meaningless, tired, ineffective
as stale as chewing gum after an hour
(you wouldn't chew the gum under your desk!)
Salvador Dali, in his preface to Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp (1968), speaks directly to this point:
"The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot" (2).
your essay = your thoughts = your words
think for yourself!
use them in a rough draft but edit them out through the revision process
Article @ Clichés in Australia
Euphemisms for "stupid"
more at
http://www.clichesite.com/
http://suspense.net/whitefish/cliche.htm
cliché site
"where clichés come from"
phrase finder
American idioms
Idiom Connection