Once, as a twenty-something, newly minted U.S. Marine Corps officer, I was asked by my commanding officer to fill in at a big staff meeting. I was eager to impress this room full of experienced, ...

If you asked me to identify the most clichéd sentence in on-the-job writing, that sentence would be my nominee. Yes, it's common. Yes, it's handy. Yes, it's readily understood. (And no, this column ...