Words Do Count

Clichés and redundancies are among the most common roadblocks to elegant, effective communication.

Typical descriptions of cliché include: trite, hackneyed, and stereotyped.

Clichés are slyly comfortable, because a communicator will expect an audience to "know" the phrase. Unfortunately, overuse of what began as evocative phrases prompts readers to skip the overly familiar and miss the writer's point.

"Apple of the eye" began as a delightful image in Psalms, but after billions of repetitions in millions of situations, readers gloss over the words and listeners really don't hear.

Clichés are popular with advertising copywriters and other manipulators of public opinion.

Theoretically, the use of cliché creates a folksy tone. At best, the theory is condescending toward an audience. It is by far better to plainly state matters or develop personal, creative descriptions.

In addition, writers need to turn away from the advertising/opinion tactic of employing redundancy and tautology to create false emphasis.

Yet in fiction, the ongoing value of clichés and other nonfiction errors is real. A character with cliché-ridden conversational style is described in context, just as one using a favorite trite saying or a treasured tautological expression can also be imprinted as a personality-type.

In general, clichés should be avoided in expository, nonfiction writing.

Language that avoids redundancy has more punch than communication clouded by verbiage.

Redundancy, pleonasm, and tautology have long provided material for humorists, who help us chuckle about human foibles by exploring such phrases as "self-impersonation" and "total annihilation."

The basic meaning of redundancy is unnecessary duplication of words to provide precise meaning. Typically, redundancies are created by adding modifiers.

Best writing/speaking practice is to prune unnecessary words.

Folks just can't plan backwards, so "advance planning" is redundant and, on reflection, can imply the communicator is a fuzzy thinker.

Yet, somehow, redundant phrases get locked into common conversation (perhaps because it's believed more words add emphasis/weight to a statement). But, if only "advance" planning becomes the norm, the meaning of "planning" is irrelevant.

Also, an admirable case or statement by a communicator might get dismissed because the term, "advance planning" signals imprecise analysis.

Wordiness is closely related to redundancy.

The content of one's communication is the key to gaining an audience, with cutting excess words crucial in keeping that audience engaged. Readers or listeners are more impressed with well-thought-out information than with adjectives that add nothing to meaning.

An excellent explanation of why you need human analysis to provide your readers with intelligent, valid information retrieval is given by indexer Kevin Broccoli at: this link. The human brain provides the best and fastest language analysis and information structuring. Software cannot compose and construct an index any more than it can write a novel, poem, or essay.