Last modified: 2026-10-28 01:12:24 (PDT)
AI-Assisted Authorship
This chapter was written with the assistance of GitHub Copilot, which expanded on outlined ideas and draft notes provided by the author. The content represents the author’s perspective and has been reviewed for accuracy, but the detailed prose was generated through AI assistance.
Definition 1 (Cliché) A cliché is a word, phrase, sentence shape, or formatting habit that a writer uses by reflex rather than choosing it for the sentence at hand.
Clichés recur across unrelated documents, so they make writing read as generic and unconsidered, even when the underlying content is sound.
AI writing assistants often produce these patterns in clusters, and many readers have learned to treat the patterns as signs that a draft was generated and to doubt that its author checked it.
Definition 2 (AI tell) An AI tell is a cliché that readers associate with text written by an AI assistant.
Human drafts use the same patterns, so this chapter is for any writer, including anyone editing a draft that an assistant helped write. It catalogs the most common clichés so you can remove them.
The rest of this chapter uses these terms.
Definition 3 (Register) A writer’s register is the level of formality and kind of language they choose for a particular audience and setting, such as conversational, technical, or promotional.
Definition 4 (Antithesis) An antithesis is a construction that sets two contrasting ideas side by side in parallel form, such as “not X, but Y” or “X, not Y”.
Definition 5 (Hedge) A hedge is a word or phrase that softens a claim or marks uncertainty about it, such as “may”, “suggests”, or “possibly”.
Definition 6 (Copula) A copula is a verb, usually a form of “to be”, that links a subject to a description of it, as “is” does in “the estimate is biased”.
Definition 7 (Participial clause) A participial clause is a clause built on a verb form ending in “-ing” or “-ed” that has no subject of its own, such as “ensuring that the data are clean” at the end of a sentence.
Definition 8 (Aphorism) An aphorism is a short, quotable sentence that states a general truth or verdict.
No single word or pattern below is wrong on its own. Each has legitimate uses. The signal is clustering and mechanical repetition, the same constructions appearing again and again regardless of what each sentence needs. Edit for the cluster, not the isolated instance, and do not flatten your prose into a voiceless register trying to avoid every word on a list.
Some words turn up more often than needed, in stock prose and especially in machine-generated text. Many of them are also Latin-derived words with plainer alternatives, so the advice here overlaps with the Word choice chapter. Table 1 lists frequent offenders and plainer replacements.
| Overused | Plainer alternative |
|---|---|
| delve into | examine, study |
| leverage | use |
| utilize | use |
| showcase | show |
| robust | reliable, well-tested |
| seamless | smooth |
| pivotal, crucial | important, key |
| testament to | shows, demonstrates |
| tapestry, landscape, realm | field, area, or name the thing |
| navigate | handle, work through |
| underscore, highlight | show |
| foster, bolster | encourage, strengthen |
| intricate, meticulous | detailed, careful |
| comprehensive | complete, or say what it covers |
| groundbreaking | new, or say what changed |
| unlock, harness, empower | enable, use, allow |
| myriad, plethora | many, or give the count |
| seamless, seamlessly | smoothly, or say what does not break |
| holistic, multifaceted, nuanced | say which parts or distinctions |
| paramount | most important |
| embark, elevate | start, improve |
| streamline | simplify, speed up |
| synergy | say what the combination does |
| actionable | say what action it supports |
| beacon | example, model |
| game-changer, gamechanger, state-of-the-art, cutting-edge | say what changed and by how much |
| ever-evolving | changing |
| treasure trove | collection, source |
| ship(s) with | come(s) with, accompany, are included with |
Whole phrases recur too. “In today’s fast-paced world”, “it is important to note that”, and “plays a vital role in” add length without content; delete them and start with the actual point. Two more families recur, and each member should give way to the literal claim:
Writers reach for a few sentence shapes by reflex, whether or not the content calls for them.
The most recognizable is the not just X, but Y antithesis. It promises a profound contrast and usually delivers a hollow one.
Example 1 (The “not just X, but Y” reflex)
❌ This method is not just fast — it is transformative.
✅ This method runs in half the time of the previous approach.
The plain version makes a concrete, verifiable claim. The antithesis frame makes none.
Other reflexes to watch for:
When a sentence needs both a positive claim and a denial, state the positive claim first. The reader learns what the subject is before being told what to rule out, and the denial then attaches to a claim already made. Opening with the denial makes the reader carry an unsupported denial until the second clause arrives.
Example 2 (Positive claim, then denial)
❌ The padding is not a convention, it is an identity.
✅ The padding is an identity, not a convention.
The first version says “not a convention” before the reader knows what the padding is, then repeats the subject and verb to supply the claim. The second version states the claim once and ends on the contrast.
The order matters even when the sentence stays grammatical:
❌ The padding is not a convention but an identity.
✅ The padding is an identity, not a convention.
Both are correct sentences; the second puts the claim first. For the first pair, see the linear regression chapter of lds.
Often the denial can be cut. Keep it only when the reader might plausibly believe the rejected reading, as with a convention versus an identity. A denial that rejects a view nobody holds is the reframe (see Clichéd sentence shapes) in miniature: cut it and keep the claim.
Beyond the antithesis, clichéd drafts lean on a set of sentence shapes that stage a point instead of stating it.
Example 3 (A staged point)
❌ It can read like a definition that says nothing. Its use is in what it forces you to name: a project that cannot say what its \(E\), \(T\) and \(P\) are has not yet stated a machine learning problem.
✅ A machine learning problem is stated only when its experience \(E\), task \(T\) and performance measure \(P\) are named.
The first version packs six clichés into two sentences:
The second version states the claim once.
Watch for these shapes:
Four more habits blur the referent or delay the claim. Other chapters cover each:
Some clichés are typographic rather than verbal.
**Term:** explanation bullet is fine once, but applying the pattern to every list turns it into a tic. Use it when the label earns emphasis, plain bullets otherwise.The last group of clichés is about register.
Write plainly first, then scan the draft once before you share it. Use the same list when you review someone else’s writing.