5 College Essay Clichés You Should Avoid

By Albina Welsh

According to Your Dictionary, clichés are overused expressions. Their continued use is trite. They do not add value to an academic essay or a personal statement. For your paper to be smooth, interesting and superb, avoid using essay clichés. This article identifies college essays clichés and explains how to avoid them.

Common essay clichés to avoid
To understand the common clichés to avoid, you need to identify different types of writing genres where you can find them. Examples of these genres are academic writing, application essays, book reviews, etc. Students are vulnerable to using different essay clichés to different types of writing genres. Therefore, you need to identify the genre of your text, before looking for the clichés that may make your essay to appear vague.

There are circumstances you may fail to identify these clichés. If you are faced with such a situation, get assignment help. Nonetheless, the following are some 5 college essay clichés that may make your academic paper lack credibility:
In other words: This is a cliché that is common in college academic papers. When using this cliché, you are in danger of repeating yourself.  This is a phrase that is used to provide a simpler explanation of a concept that is contained in the text. Overusing this phrase will make your paper boring. Furthermore, the sentence that contains the phrase will have an obscure meaning.                  
First and foremost: Overusing this phrase in your sentence will make you look lazy. A person reading your text containing this cliché will conclude that you are not creative. They will lose interest in reading it further. Professional writers know how to limit the use of such phrases.
As a matter of fact: This is an expletive phrase. These are phrases that do not add any meaning to your sentence. It is good to avoid this phrase because it dilutes the quality of your text, and the ideas contained in it. As a professional writer, I strongly discourage you from using this phrase. It will make your paper look unprofessional.

In light of this: According to the Collins English Dictionary, this is a phrase that has a number of synonyms. Examples of its synonyms are: considering and taking into account. You can use these identified alternative phrases in your paper. The use of these alternative phrases will prevent you from overusing the identified cliché.

It is an obvious fact: Try to avoid using this phrase when talking about issues that are obvious or factual. A good example is a sentence such as “It is an obvious fact the sun is a star”. The use of this phrase makes the sentence to be wordy and vague. Just write a simple and easy to understand a sentence like: “The sun is a star”.
Well, these are the most common college essay clichés you can find. For your paper to be flawless, smooth and interesting to read, avoid them. However, it is not enough to know them. Below are some of the ways you can avoid using them in your essay.

How to avoid the identified college essay clichés

To avoid the essay clichés, you need to follow these simple rules.
Identify the unique angle about the cliché: Identification of a unique angle is important because it helps to make an uncommon point about your cliché. This result in a fresh and creative sentence.          Also, be specific: Essay clichés can result in the creation of a wordy sentence or paper. To avoid them, you need to be specific when talking about issues or facts being addressed in your paper.
Do not forget to proofread your paper: When you proofread your paper, chances of identifying and removing essay clichés are high. This is a process you should not ignore. Ignoring this process will make you vulnerable to writing a paper that is full of grammatical mistakes.
Moreover, these papers will contain essay clichés that make it dull and lack originality.
Well, the above steps will make you produce a paper that is free from college essay clichés. Papers containing essay clichés are boring and difficult to read. Submitting such kind of papers to your professor is risky. He may judge you as a student who lacks writing creativity. This means low grades for you. Nevertheless, identification of a unique angle for the cliché, being specific and proofreading your work will guarantee you the production of an essay that is flawless and free from clichés. Ignore this advice at your own disadvantage.

Albina Welsh is an international student at UC Berkeley. She is an outgoing person with a lot of dreams. Albina loves to read and write short stories for UC Berkeley Odyssey Community.