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Remember when your teacher in elementary/middle school first taught you essay writing? Chances are high that during your introductory lessons, he or she gave you suggestions on how to begin your essay to “hook” the attention of readers and make them want to read the essay to the end.

These suggestions could’ve been popular phrases or sayings that could reinforce the goals of writing an essay. At that point, they seemed perfectly fine, so your teacher did well at providing good essay help.

Today, however, if you want to “draw your readers in,” these clichéd writing aids you’ve been using all these years won’t work.

“The main problem is that anybody could use clichés, and the readers won’t learn anything specific about you if you choose to rely on them,” explains Dorian Morrison, a writing consultant at A-Writer. “They are just general statements that cannot provide unique support or detailed evidence of your writing talent, so they must be avoided at all cost.”

Check out the list of essay writing clichés below to know how to avoid making yourself appear lazy and uncreative.

It’s a known fact

Essay writers often rely on this phrase when describing obvious and well-known issues or statements. A good example is a sentence like “It’s a known fact that Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun.”The use of the cliché makes the sentence boring and vague, so it’s recommended to eliminate it.

As a matter of fact

This cliché doesn’t add any meaning to a sentence and often reduces the quality of the text and ideas described in it. The only thing you’ll achieve is making yourself look lazy.

Broadened my horizons

Many essay writers use this statement to demonstrate that a certain experience made a strong impact on them. However, the problem is that the writer using it just tells, but not shows what impactthe experience made on them. As the result, any experienced reader will know that the writer tries to hide their superficial ideas.

In other words

Overusing this phrase is common in college paper writing. If you use it, you’re running the risk of repeating yourself; moreover, overusing it could easily make your paper boring because you’ll be explaining ideas multiple times throughout the essay. Remember: you’re writing an essay, not a detailed instruction manual.

In modern society

As all the clichés above, this one lacks specificity and complexity and doesn’t make any memorable contribution to your writing.

First and foremost

Any writer from a professional essay writing service will tell you that an overuse of this cliché will result in the reader concluding about your lack of creativity. As the result, they’ll easily lose the interest of reading further.

In this day and age

This cliché is often substituted for actual evidence, which is a really bad idea that makes you look like you need some essay help. Not only it does nothing to provide strong commentary and prove your point, but also is really vague and meaningless.

In the current climate

Using this statement is a good way to lose credibility because it’s boring, vague, and makes the reader want to yawn. Remember: the reader relies on you to be an authoritative source of information, so you should come up with something else.

In conclusion

Often, essay writers rely on this one to power through what they consider a difficult part of the paper. While it signifies the beginning of a conclusion, it sounds like it could belong in any generic essay.

Strategies to Avoid Clichés in Essay Writing

1. Use Synonyms

If you’ve spotted a cliché in your text or thinking about including one in your text, take a moment and think about what it actually means. Then, think about the sense of that expression. Are there any other statements that convey the same meaning without making your writing look unprofessional?

2. Don’t Forget to Proofread your Essay

Anyone working in an essay writing service will tell you that the overuse of clichés and lack of skills to identify a unique angle are among the reasons why so many students ask for essay help. Ignoring proofreading will make you vulnerable to writing an essay that’s full of grammar, punctuation, and, of course, clichés that make it boring to read.

3. Decide whether you need a cliché at all

Many clichés are used as tools to maintain the flow of writing or simply long-winded ‘fillers.” Reading your essay after you completed it may reveal that you can simply remove them without any replacement.

4. Rewrite sentences with clichés

If you can’t think of a way to replace a cliché, the only option left is rewriting. You can rewrite the part of the sentence where the cliché is located, or come up with a new, unique sentence.

The list above is by no means comprehensive but does highlight some of the most common clichés in essay writing. The good thing is that you can reduce your use of clichés or avoid them altogether, so feel free to apply the strategies described in this article.