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A laudable pursuit, I guess, but one that left me oddly cold. (Just a bit too brittle.) Like "diamond geezer", which I'd never heard before, and must assume is a UIKism, and "taking another bite of the cherry" (cherry picking"), aren't clichés for me, man. (I'd never heard or read them before dipping into the list.) Anyway, I think more of a distinction must be made between vocabulary, style, and inflated periphrasis. It seems to me that most mission statements and other texts of that ilk are dreary because they were written by illiterate committees of non-writers, who had been tasked with the unpleasant and unwanted AI (i.e., agenda item) of coming up with a statement in the first place. Most of these statements can be boiled down into a simple phrase or two, but then those words stand naked in the wind, shivering, exposed, etc. I wish them luck, but they need less of a campaign to reform English, than an educational reform that teaches students how to write well. Make up your own clichés, etc.
BTW, on the etymology of cliché, it's onomatopoeic from the sound a camera makes when taking a snapshot, in the French.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted ![]()
Avoiding clichés isn't rocket surgery
AnnaStrophic 03/24/2004 9:05 PM ![]()
Re: Avoiding clichés isn't rocket surgery
belMarduk 03/25/2004 1:11 AM ![]()
Diamond Geezer?
Faldage 03/25/2004 1:29 PM ![]()
Taken in
shanks 03/26/2004 6:15 PM ![]()
Re: Taken in
Faldage 03/26/2004 6:26 PM ![]()
Re: Taken in
shanks 03/26/2004 7:59 PM ![]()
Re: Taken in
grapho 03/26/2004 8:19 PM ![]()
Re: Avoiding clichés isn't rocket surgery
jheem 03/25/2004 2:29 PM ![]()
Re: Mission statements aren't brain science
Faldage 03/25/2004 2:35 PM ![]()
Re: Avoiding clichés isn't rocket surgery
AnnaStrophic 03/25/2004 2:59 PM ![]()
Re: Avoiding clichés isn't rocket surgery
tsuwm 03/25/2004 3:28 PM ![]()
Re: corporate settings
AnnaStrophic 03/25/2004 4:06 PM ![]()
Re: corporate settings
jheem 03/25/2004 9:52 PM ![]()
Re: corporate settings
inselpeter 03/26/2004 3:06 AM ![]()
Re: corporate settings
jheem 03/26/2004 2:24 PM ![]()
Immortal settings
musick 03/26/2004 6:34 PM ![]()
Re: Immortal settings
grapho 03/26/2004 7:36 PM
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