“Theory and Practice of Editing New Yorker articles” (pdf) by Wolcott Gibbs, sets out his list of 31 rules for editors at the New Yorker. (via Futility Closet)
3. Our writers are full of cliches, just as old barns are full of bats. There is obviously no rule about this, except that anything that you suspect of being a cliche undoubtedly is one, and had better be removed.
20.The more “as a matter of facts,” “howevers,” “for instances,” etc., you can cut out, the nearer you are to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Two Wrongs and a Write 