I'm surprised this one hasn't popped up yet in this multitudinous page thread... Two little words: "planned route" in a route clearance readback. Seems to get missed more these days and more often than not, by airline pilots. One particular nice and professional Melbourne ATCer is regularly 'pinging' pilots on this one. I think the best comeback from him goes along the lines of, "Sorry sir, I need a 'planned route' after XXX. One day you will go from XXX direct to Perth and you will be in trouble and so will I!"
No doubt a simple oversight on occasions but one that does have significance in its meaning. As is so often the case in our profession, small errors can have results of major consequence.
Keep it professional but as this ATCer demonstrates, you can keep it fun and keep it real too!
PS - Perhaps one of the reasons we are so pedantic in Australia is because of the lack of radar coverage. ATC can't always 'see' what we are doing. They rely on accurate descriptions in our radio calls and procedures as per the example above. Standard phrases perhaps increase in importance as a result.