I think my AP U.S. History teacher in high school must have read this same excerpt.

My teacher was generally well loved by everyone who had her. She was pretty much always smiling and you could tell that she had a real passion for what she taught. No one ever really complained about her, except for the fact that she was one of the hardest essay graders most of us had and still probably have ever encountered. She would cross out random words and phrases stating that stylistically, there was something off. None of us ever really understood why she crossed off the things she did and grammar wasn’t a huge part of our essay grades so most of us let it go.  After reading this passage, I now know why she crossed out the things she did. She pretty much used the if-all-else-fails rules from the second to last page and used it as her grading guideline.

Now that I know the reasoning behind my teacher’s system, I agree with her. I can remember all the times I put clichés and overused metaphors in my writing. There have been countless times that I’ve used longer words because I thought they made my writing sound better. Especially in history class, I’ve used “jargon” to enhance my writing, or so I thought. 

After reading these explanations, I now realize that none of these things make my writing sound better. In fact, it’s the opposite. If anything, it makes my writing worse.