Tuesday, December 4, 2018

DO NOT AVOID CLICHES


Today I’ll keep it short. The photograph below these lines is an ironic tongue-in-cheek reminder of some of those guidelines that certain would-be writers tend to forget. Alright... Except for the second and the third points, I completely agree with all that advice. Allow me to explain.

The notion that ending sentences with prepositions is bad English was debunked decades ago. So disregard that suggestion. It might have been appropriate in Victorian England but now it just doesn’t make any sense at all. As for the third tip, let me repeat that it is not your job to be creative. Not yet, anyway. “Avoid cliches like the plague” is sound advice for an actual native speaker who aspires to be a writer. Indeed trite phrases (just like proverbs and commonplace observations) are the hallmarks of uninteresting lazy writing but for someone who is learning a foreign language (someone like you) idioms and predictable expressions are an absolute must. So please, do use idioms, cliches and all the rest of it and steer clear of any attempts at literature. Right now you need unnecessary complications “like a hole in the head” 😜



N.B. Writing tasks for this long weekend:
C1.1: a 300-word problem-solution essay on any social issue you deem worth discussing.
C1.2: a 300-word essay about a trailblazer that deserves our

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