HACKNEYED

The daughter of an acquaintance finished her first semester of college this year. As a 40-year-old, she has found it difficult to be a student after being out of school since she was eighteen. Her mother suggested that she ask me for help on a paper as her mother knew that I had written a BLOG article about her daughter's topic: the former Children's Home. When she asked for my help with the paper, she needed to submit it the following day. I was irritated that she had waited so long. I had no time to do any research and I had to rely on my memory of the subject.

I reviewed her paper, made numerous corrections and suggestions. For example, she had written "for over twenty years" and I corrected it by writing "more than twenty years". When she asked why I made the change, I told her that "over" refers to something spatial as in "four feet tall" and that "more than" refers to amounts, countable numbers, and figures. She said she'd never heard anything like that in her life.

She used the phrase "the old stomping grounds". I crossed it out and she asked why and I said, "It's hackneyed and trite." She said she didn't know what those words meant. I said, "It's somewhat like banal or a cliche." She said she didn't know the meaning of those words either! (I was glad I didn't use "platitudinous"!) She said that she'd heard people say "stomping grounds" all of her life. I said, "Exactly--that's why it's considered stale and unoriginal!" I told her that I'd also heard it all my life but I explained that what might be acceptable in common, colorful, speech, it is not acceptable in writing unless one makes certain to refer to it as "vernacular". She said, "Huh?" I said, "Professional writers do not use those kinds of expressions." She said, "But we're not professional writers." I answered, "You're supposed to be aspiring to be a professional; the professor will skewer you for using such expressions." She said, "I never hear anybody use words like hackneyed and skewer." I said, "Trust me, professors do!"

I thought, "Maybe she'll be lucky and get a C." She called to thank me for my help and she said she had received an A! My first thought was "How on earth? I wonder what kind of instructor would give an A to such a poor paper?"

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