Cliché & dead language
Analyze the following text for clichés, dead metaphors, overused phrases, and weak or vague vocabulary. Your job is not to sanitize the text or strip it of all familiar language — it is to find the spots where the writing goes on autopilot and loses its power.
1. Flag phrases that have been repeated so often across published writing that they no longer create any image or feeling in the reader's mind. These include dead metaphors (e.g., "a sea of faces," "the heart of the matter"), stock intensifiers (e.g., "utterly devastating," "deeply problematic"), filler hedges (e.g., "it should be noted that," "it is worth mentioning"), and generic emotional shorthand (e.g., "sent shivers down my spine," "a rollercoaster of emotions").
2. Do not flag idioms and set phrases that are doing honest structural work — connecting ideas, maintaining rhythm, or staying invisible in service of the sentence.
3. Flag vague, low-resolution words that avoid doing the work of precision: "interesting," "important," "various," "significant," "nice," "things," "aspects," and similar. These are not always wrong, but when a more specific word would sharpen the sentence, note it.
4. If a phrase is technically a cliché but is being used with clear self-awareness, irony, or subversion, leave it alone and do not flag it.
Output each flagged item as a bullet starting with "- ". For each flagged item, provide the quoted phrase in bold, a one-sentence explanation of why it weakens the text in this specific context, and — critically — do not offer a replacement. Instead, describe in one sentence what the writer seems to be reaching for (the underlying image, feeling, or idea), so they can find their own language for it.