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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:	The Joy of Lex
Notice:	A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:	THEBAY::SYSTEM

Created:	Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:	Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1192
Total number of notes:	42769

142.0. "How To Write Good" by CHEV02::NESMITH () Thu Jan 30 1986 13:06

"How To Write Good"
                    by Sally Bulford

(reprinted without permission from somewhere)

1.  Avoid alliteration.  Always.
2.  Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3.  Avoid cliches like the plague.  (They're old hat.)
4.  Employ the vernacular.
5.  Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6.  Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7.  It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8.  Contractions aren't necessary.
9.  Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotiations.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations.
    Tell me what you know."
12. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
13. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly
    superfluous.
14. Be more or less specific.
15. Understatement is always best.
16. One-word sentences?  Eliminate.
17. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
18. The passive voice is to be avoided.
19. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
20. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
21. Who needs rhetorical questions?
22. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.


Susan

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
142.1		CHEV02::NESMITH		`Thu Jan 30 1986 13:12`	1
	Oops... Sorry about the type-o in #11.
142.2		GRDIAN::BROOMHEAD		`Thu Jan 30 1986 14:31`	1
	Eschew obfuscation.
142.3		AJAX::CALLAS		`Thu Jan 30 1986 17:15`	1
	And about those sentence fragments.
142.4		DONNER::STEWART	Long Live Dead Composers	`Sat Apr 18 1987 13:08`	32
	Scot Morris, in the May '87 issue of OMNI, offers a few more of these Writer's Rules. - Subject and verb always has to agree. - It behooves the writer to avoid archaic expressions. - Do not use hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it effectively. - Mixed metaphors are a pain in the neck and should be thrown out the window. - Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct. - Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas. - Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed. - Don't use no double negatives. - Proofread carefully to see if you have any words out. - Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them. - Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do. - No sentence fragments. - Remember to finish what
142.5	Don't reopen dead notes.	TKOV52::DIAMOND		`Tue Feb 13 1990 03:13`	4
	Run-on sentences are ungrammatical should not be used. And don't start a sentence with the word "and", and punctuation should go inside the quotation marks.
142.6		BOOKIE::DAVEY		`Tue Feb 13 1990 19:03`	8
	re .5 I think it's only in US English that the punctuation marks are supposed to go inside the quotes. In British English at least, the punctuation (where the quotation is not a question or an exclamation) is outside of the quotation marks, just as in your sentence. John
142.7	a matter of style	TLE::RANDALL	living on another planet	`Tue Feb 13 1990 19:21`	3
	And the French do it entirely differently . . . --bonnie
142.8		PROXY::CANTOR	Eat any good books lately?	`Wed Feb 14 1990 06:11`	3
	If I told you once, I've told you a thousand times: don't exaggerate. Dave C.
142.9	and what does that have to do with punctuation?	GLIVET::RECKARD	Jon Reckard, 381-0878, ZKO3-2/T63	`Wed Feb 14 1990 11:36`	4
	re: .7 > And the French do it entirely differently . . . Isn't that a bumper sticker?