When is something “clichéd” or “trite”?

A cliché is an expression that used to be clever, but became worn-out with too much use, like an over-played pop song. Clichés show laziness in composition, a return to the same expressions that your grandfather used to dazzle his friends with. Leave these expressions alone; instead, come up with another way of saying what you want to say — something fresh and creative. Here are some examples, as if you need them:

• beat around the bush
• busy as a beaver
• dead as a doornail
• kill her with kindness
• playing with fire
• water under the bridge
• since the dawn of time
• goes without saying
• first and foremost
• scratch the surface
• burning question
• contrary to popular opinion
• bite the bullet

Often clichés are so old, they have lost their original significance, like “dead as a doornail.” Clichés are to be avoided like the plague, and never put quotation marks around them.

Like clichés, trite expressions are so familiar in popular vernacular (“marketing speek”) that they have become tired, like a those overly baggy jeans. Like wearing those once-cool jeans, avoid trite expressions and clichés in your writing: they are inappropriate, tired, and predictable:

• startling new developments
• coming out of the closet
• good people
• cutting edge
• hard data

A trite expression could also be one that is too obvious to have been stated, like:

Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is a very interesting piece of literature that is often analyzed.

If you can answer it with a “duh!” then you should leave it out of your paper.

---

Composition FAQ