Get the show on the road.
Beat a dead horse.
More than meets the eye.

Cliches like these are common expressions that have been overused. They can make your writing wordy and cluttered, without contributing much to your meaning. Unfortunately, most of us have several favorite cliches that pop up in our writing. Rather than relying on them, however, you should take a few extra minutes when writing to compose sentences that truly say what you mean.

Below are two sentences so full of cliches that they barely make sense. Of course, we rarely see anything this bad in print, but rewriting these sentences is good practice for spotting and eliminating cliches in your own writing. Give it a try. Our rewrites are below.

Sentence #1:

I hope you can nip his sour grapes in the bud because that whole wild goose chase is really water under the bridge and we don't have time to go back to square one.

Sentence #2:

A good assistant who has her act together is worth her weight in gold. Once you find the cream of the crop, all you have to do is lay down the law and you'll be sitting pretty.

How We Rewrote the Cliches

Sentence #1:

I hope you can change his attitude about the decision because we don't have time to revisit it.

Sentence #2:

An organized assistant who follows directions is invaluable.

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