---
title: "Five Ways to Avoid the “Congratulations” Cliche as You Start a User’s Guide"
date: 2012-11-29
description: "$( document ).ready(function() { // Handler for .ready() called. $("
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2012/11/29/five-ways-to-avoid-the-congratulations-cliche-as-you-start-a-users-guide/
---
# Five Ways to Avoid the “Congratulations” Cliche as You Start a User’s Guide
![Another congratulations cliche](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/congratulations.png)

"Congratulations on purchasing your iPod shuffle."

Have you seen this congratulations sentence before? I see this same pattern of congratulations on almost every manual for products I buy. Could no one think of any other way to kick off the start of a relationship between a product and user? Take the coolest kind of product, an iPod that goes underwater, and then drown the user guide with a cliche.