Feel Like a Fish Out of Water Without Cliches?

How many times have you heard the admonishment, “Avoid cliches in writing?”

The advice opens up a can of worms because, even though it sounds good, it’s hard to create impact, synergize, and get buy-in for complex competencies with lots of moving parts. Most business writers are inclined to rely on leveraging robust ecosystems of corporate jargon to ensure their written communications will move the needs. However, consider that the aim of writing, for whatever purpose, is to clearly convey meaning. When we hear or read common phrases too often, those phrases no longer produce the reactions in our brains that they did the first time we heard them.

Our brains actually become desensitized to language that’s used too often.

When writers drink the Kool-Aid and throw in cliches and jargon, instead of thinking outside the box, those phrases have the opposite of the intended effect.

So use your daily business writing to get your ducks in a row. WIth each piece of writing, practice seeing and replacing the cliches and jargon and, at the end of the day, you’ll have a win-win for yourself and your readers.