Same old, same old...

Around last week of March, some jobless people like me decided to do a survey about the most annoying clichés. For me, the concept of such a survey is annoying and clichéd. I believe it's best to deliver bad news to people when they're already miserable and if you have come to read my blog then definitely there are few souls on this planet who are more miserable than you are. So, let me give you the three most annoying clichés in English language:

1. "At the end of the day"
2. "At this moment in time"
3. Constant use of the word "like"

When readers or listeners come across these tired expressions, they start tuning out and completely miss the message -- assuming there is one. My personal favorite is "Bottom line" and it does appear in my speech atleast 3 times a day. George Orwell's advice from 1946 is still worth following: “Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print”.

If you are thinking that the people who did this survey are some couple of language geeks then you are highly mistaken. This was done by a group named Plain English Campaign, which is an independent pressure group fighting for public information to be written in plain English. They have more than 6000 registered supporters in 70 countries.

At the end of the day, you do need to ask yourself about how annoying you are and what can you do to change it. At this moment in time, I don’t think I am ever going to change.