Content5 min read
Repeated Phrases in Writing: The Words You Use in Every Post
A crutch phrase is invisible inside one post by definition. You cannot find it by re-reading more carefully - you find it by putting thirty posts next to each other.
Repeated phrases in writing are almost impossible to catch in the piece you are writing. "Let's dive in" is unremarkable in one caption and unbearable in the eleventh caption in a row that opens with it, and no amount of re-reading a single post will show you that. You find it by putting a batch of posts side by side.
Why re-reading one post never works
A crutch phrase is defined by recurrence, and a single post contains no recurrence to see.
Inside one caption the phrase is doing its job. It reads naturally, it fits the sentence, and there is nothing to flag. The problem only exists at the level of the channel, where somebody who follows you has now read the same six words eleven times — and they will not tell you, because from their side it is a mild irritation rather than a thing worth commenting on.
This is also why the people around you do not catch it. Your editor reads one post at a time. Your audience reads them all, weeks apart, and registers it as a vague sense that everything sounds the same.
Why frequency counting finds the wrong repeated phrases in writing
The obvious approach is to count words across a batch and look at the top of the list. It finds the wrong thing, and the reason is worth stating precisely, because it inverts the ranking.
- A phrase appearing eight times in one post is a subject. That is what the post was about, and
flagging it would mark every well-focused piece of writing as a problem.
- A phrase appearing once each in eight posts is a habit. Nothing in any individual post is
wrong, and the channel has a tic.
A raw frequency count treats those two as equal, and since a well-focused post repeats its subject several times, the first case dominates the list and buries the second. The ranking that finds crutch phrases is how many posts contain the phrase, with the raw count used only to break ties.
| Phrase | Posts it is in | Total uses | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
sourdough starter | 2 of 20 | 14 | The subject of two posts |
let's dive in | 16 of 20 | 16 | A habit |
honestly | 11 of 20 | 19 | A habit, plus clustering |
FreeMentioned in this article
Crutch Phrase FinderThe phrases you use every time, which you are the last to notice.It reads a batch at once, ranks on how many posts contain a phrase rather than on frequency, and pulls the opening of every post into its own table.
Openings are where it costs the most
The first three words of a post are the only words every reader reaches. Everything else is behind a decision to keep reading; the opening is not.
So a repeated opening is the most expensive repetition you have, and it is also the most common, because an opening is the hardest sentence to write and a formula that worked once is very easy to reuse. Fifteen posts that begin "So I've been thinking about" is a signature you did not choose. The same instinct is what the Plain English Campaign's A–Z of alternative words is built to interrupt.
The fix is not to ban the formula. It is to have three or four openings rather than one, which is enough for nobody to notice a pattern. The first line of a caption covers what that sentence needs to do; the only additional rule here is that it should not be the same sentence as last time.
Not all repetition is a fault
Worth saying before anyone deletes their voice.
A catchphrase is repetition doing a job. So is a sign-off, a series format, and the name of the thing you make. Those are recognisable on purpose, and a tool telling you that your sign-off appears in every post is telling you it is working.
What you are looking for is the repetition you did not choose — filler that recurs, hedges that recur, and transitions that recur. The test is simple: if you did not know you were doing it, it is a crutch. If you did, it is a format.
How to run this on your own writing
- Gather twenty posts. Ten is the point it starts working; below eight there is not enough of
a run to distinguish a habit from a coincidence.
- Strip the hashtags. A tag set repeated across every post is a tag set, not a phrase — that
is a job for the hashtag validator.
- Read the openings table first. It is the shortest and the most actionable.
- Pick two or three phrases, not fifteen. Removing every recurring phrase at once produces
writing with no voice in it.
- Leave the catchphrases alone.
The sentence-level version of the same problem — writing that reads the same all the way through for structural rather than lexical reasons — is in sentence length variety, and filler words covers the words that carry nothing within a single script.
How do I find repeated phrases in my writing?
Put a batch of posts together and rank phrases by how many posts contain them, not by how often they occur. A phrase in most of your posts is a habit even at once each.
What is a crutch word?
A word or phrase you reach for automatically rather than deliberately - a filler, a hedge, or a transition. It is invisible in one piece and obvious across twenty.
Is repeating a phrase bad?
Not automatically. A catchphrase, a sign-off and a series format are all repetition doing a job. The test is whether you knew you were doing it.
How many posts do I need to check?
Around twenty. Below eight there is not enough of a run for a habit to separate itself from coincidence.
Paste a batch into the crutch phrase finder and read the openings table before anything else.
Put it to work
Tools for the job you just read about
Free to run, most of them without an account.
FreeContent
Crutch Phrase Finder
The phrases you use every time, which you are the last to notice.
Find →1 runs
FreeUtilities
Social Media URL Cleaner
Strip the tracking off a link — and see what each parameter was telling somebody.
Clean →1 runs
FreeAnalytics & growth
Instagram Money Calculator
What to charge for a post — priced the way a brand actually prices it.
Calculate →
FreeContent
Caption Line Break Generator
Paragraph breaks that survive the paste into Instagram.
Generate →1 runs
FreeContent
Invisible Character Remover
Names every character in your text that you cannot see, and takes out the ones you did not want.
Run tool →2 runs
FreeContent
Sponsorship Disclosure Generator
The right wording, and — the part that actually gets people in trouble — the right placement.
Generate →1 runs
Keep reading
More from the blog
Content5 min read
How to Avoid Jargon Without Sounding Like You Are Explaining Everything
Jargon is not bad writing, it is expensive writing. It buys precision from people who share the vocabulary and charges everyone else the cost of looking something up.
Content5 min read
The First Line of a Caption Is the Whole Caption
Everything after the fold is read by people who already decided to read. The first line is the only part that talks to everyone else, and it is usually the part written last.
Content5 min read
A/B Testing Captions: What You Can Actually Learn From an Organic Post
Two posts is never a result. The confounds - time, day, subject, an audience that has already seen one version - are larger than any caption effect you are looking for.