We did a Twitter chat last week in which the most spirited discussion, started by Samantha Grossman, was about which overworked journalism words people hated the most.
“Arguably,” Clive Griffin said. We covered that a few years ago, noting that, depending on context, “arguably” could mean “probably” or “it’s something that has to be discussed.” Even the definition of “arguable” in Webster’s New World College Dictionary is arguable: “that can be argued about” and “that can be supported by argument.” Best to avoid it; just say what you mean.
“A toss-up between ‘to be sure’ and ‘it remains to be seen,'” said Mathew Ingram. Those are both wishy-washy phrases that journalists love to use, as transitions or a way to end a story. Indeed, there are better ways to do both.
Michelle Ghoussoub hates “on the brink.” Did you know that “brink” comes from various languages denoting the border of something, not always a cliff or precipice? In fact, “brink” used to go hand in hand with “brim,” which meant the sea. So someone “on the brink” could just be standing on a nice beach.
And John Fricker got the biggest reaction with “breaking,” for news. As we said in the chat, “‘Breaking’ gets overused on news crawls. Not every news event is worth the ‘breaking’ designation.” Besides, why does news “break” in the first place? It “occurs,” or “happens.” If it “breaks,” are journalists supposed to fix it?
To be sure, these kinds of expressions are trite, overused, hackneyed. Most border on cliché, but don’t quite cross over.
It’s been a long time since we last addressed clichés head on, so let’s take them on again. As WNW says, a “cliché” is “an expression or idea that has become trite.” That doesn’t mean a cliché has no value: An appetizer of beets and goat cheese is a restaurant “cliché,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not delicious. It’s just not very original.
The argument has been made that people understand a “cliché,” so it’s good for communicating an image. But the “cliché” itself often becomes a label, removed from the original image (see “on the brink” and “breaking”). Who wants to be “as snug as a bug in a rug”? Creepy.
Last year, Carlos Lozada* of The Washington Post compiled a list of 200 or so journalism clichés. Like the ones we list above, they are overused and trite, if not actually as well known as “to be sure.”
Journalism and “cliché” go way back. In fact, “cliché” comes from a French word for a block used in the printing process, a “stereotype.”
The younger among you may not know that a “stereotype” was a kind of negative, a wood, metal, or paper form that was used to make printing plates. “Stereotype” was later used figuratively for “something continued or constantly repeated without change,” the Oxford English Dictionary says. From there, it’s just a short distance to the “preconceived and oversimplified idea of the characteristics which typify a person, situation, etc.,” or today’s “stereotype.”
As it was in the beginning, a “stereotype” remains negative. And since “clichés” are also “stereotypes” of sorts, you should avoid them as well, or any overused dishes of words. Try beets and Brie instead.
*The name spelling has been corrected.
Merrill Perlman managed copy desks across the newsroom at the New York Times, where she worked for twenty-five years. Follow her on Twitter at @meperl.