But apart from these laziness of logic, what makes the story so tired is the failure of the writer to reach for anything but the nearest cliché'. "Shouldered his way," "only to be met," "crashing into his face," "waging a lonely war," "corruption that is rife," "sending shock waves," "New York's finest," - these dreary phrases constitute writing at its most banal. We know just what to expect. No surprise awaits us in the form of an unusual word, an oblique look. We are in the hands of a hack, and we know it right away, We stop reading.

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction