Dear Editor,
I remember when I was at school there was this English teacher who abhorred clichés. She often told the class writing a review or essay or short story that all clichés would immediately attract a five-point deduction. Therefore if you had four clichés you were staring at a definite ‘D.‘ She wanted us to stay away from the overused hackneyed words that make up our vocabulary.
As I read the newspapers and listen to the local news on the television I am overwhelmed by the consistency with which clichés appear. Are these articles, or news items written for the newspaper and for the television seen by competent sub-editors? That is the question that keeps popping into my head, and the answer that I get is that no experienced sub-editor would allow such trite expressions to be printed or read on the news.
We seem to be lost in a fog of trite overused phrases. It’s as though English has become a foreign language, and our dependence on these hackneyed descriptions makes reading painful and intolerable.
The most overused one is proved futile; this cliché is often used when it is difficult to make contact with someone about something. It seems as if no other words can be found to describe this situation. If it’s something that is elastic then it speaks volumes.
Our politicians are no better; in front of the camera they trip over themselves using clichés. If a project has the potential to be questionable then it’s a recipe for disaster, or if it seems out of place then it boggles the mind. When some form of corruption is uncovered then it’s the tip of the iceberg.
Our vocabulary appears to be so limited that using these archaic descriptions seems to be the best we can do. Our sports’ people regardless of the discipline are taken through their paces, because soon it will be crunch time.
Occasions can be months away, but the description is it’s just around the corner, which also means that measures have been put in place, therefore it’s moving apace. Whether one realizes it or not these hackneyed expressions are used when the speaker or writer has nothing more to say. Using the game of dominoes as an analogy it would be like resting blank.
Yours faithfully,
Milton Bruce
