Hello, and welcome to technique two. From strategy one. We were just going over technique one, which was to strip every sentence to its cleanest components by William's answer. And then we went through technique one and now we're going over technique to under strategy one works and technique to states to eliminate cliches and overused phrases. And the explanation to that is that cliches are phrases you so much that they become trite or boring or overused. For example, a broken heart, or bright as alignment or a bull in a china shop, and the list goes on, cut, replace, or subvert them to keep your voice fresh.

And then Google lists many cliches to familiarize yourself with them. You may want to think about going to these lists and just looking over them and being aware of do I use any of these phrases? How can I change the turn of phrase In a way to make it fresh, clear and meaningful in my own way, so that you avoid cliches. One thing that you can do and this especially works in creative writing, is if you have a cliche and you find a way to subvert it or turn it on its head to kind of make fun at it or satirize it. If it's appropriate in that particular kind of writing, then that's another way that you can eliminate cliches, but just be aware of the cliches in your writing. Look up lists of cliches on Google or Yahoo, and become familiar with them so that you know which ones to avoid in your own writing because they can make your writing seem tired and boring.

And the they're just the terms that have been used so many times that they're true. There's some truth to them, but because there's truth to them, they've been used and used and used and used. And so at this point in the game, they're just not good for writing anymore. At this point in the game, for example, is a cliche in itself. We use them in our speech all the time. And that's fine to a degree but we want to try to avoid them in our writing.

And an example of a cliche in a sentence is I think jack woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, or we've probably heard a more colorful version of who peed in your cornflakes this morning. Might be a similar cliche for someone who's been grumpy all day and snapping at everyone. A correction for this could be jack kicked the copier in three papers across the room because it shows us that jack is in a bad mood and he's having a rough day and he's taking it on the copier, and on other people. Another example of a cliche is the spider on my wall kick the bucket and was dead as a doornail. That sounds pretty silly. But sometimes people can get that crazy in their writing, especially if they're writing poetry.

A better way to phrase it would be just to be direct and straightforward. The spider on my sidewalk is dead. And that's clear, straightforward, and we get the point of what you're trying to say there. So in terms of strategy, one technique to work on avoid cliches become familiar with them by looking at lists of them and then try to avoid them in your writing by coming up with alternative phrases that are maybe more direct and clear or in the right context, maybe subvert those into something that satirizes the cliche, especially if you're trying to draw attention to the cliche itself in some way without actually using it. So that is technique two under strategy, one words