Comments on: Clichés Don’t Belong in Professional Writing

By: Carolyn Wilker

Carolyn Wilker — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:06:57 +0000

Clichés or idioms have no place in writing for a general audience, as Meg says. I was recently attending a training seminar in which the chairperson shared a fictional and humorous story about the Pillsbury Doughboy.

I understood the story, having grown up in Canada and hearing those ads and terms on television, but the fellow trainee next to me was from Hong Kong and had only been in Canada for a few years. I speculated that he would not be familiar with the character since he wore a puzzled look on his face. When we talked afterwards, I asked him if he was familiar with the character names. He said, “No.” The value of the story was completely lost for him.

By: Maeve

Maeve — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:21:50 +0000

Sometimes the lines between idiom and cliché merge.

When I read the first paragraph of this post I thought it was going to be written humorously with a lot of clichés in order to impress the point on the reader.

What made me think that? The cliche “abundantly clear.”:)

By: Meg

Meg — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:12:51 +0000

I am from India, and often write for American audience. The clichés usign baseball terminology is not understood by many outside US. Even other English-speaking countries like UK and Australia.

By: DPeach

DPeach — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:15:53 +0000

Thank you Sam for pointing out that these are idioms and not clichés.

How did that get by this great panel of writing tip writers?

By: Sam

Sam — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:13:18 +0000

I presume you are talking about idioms, and not cliches?

Probably cliches do not belong in professional writing either, but you’ve described idioms. =)