"How to Write Good "
Avoid alliteration. Always.
Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
Avoid clichés like the plague.
Employ the vernacular and eschew obfuscation.
Eschew, as well, ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
Contractions aren’t necessary.
Foreign words and phrases are not a propos or de rigueur.
One should never generalize.
Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said,
“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know. ”
Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
Be more or less specific.
Understatement is always best.
One-word sentences? Eliminate.
Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
The passive voice is to be avoided.
Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
by Sally Bulford
Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
Avoid clichés like the plague.
Employ the vernacular and eschew obfuscation.
Eschew, as well, ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
Contractions aren’t necessary.
Foreign words and phrases are not a propos or de rigueur.
One should never generalize.
Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said,
“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know. ”
Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
Be more or less specific.
Understatement is always best.
One-word sentences? Eliminate.
Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
The passive voice is to be avoided.
Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
by Sally Bulford
posted by wordperson at 5:21 PM
2 Comments:
There's one more thing you need to know, that is, if you want to write really, really good:
Adjectives and adverb's are the devil's sinister playthings. He will place them surreptitiously in your work, but you must deftly eliminate them at all costs.
I agree wholeheartedly: we must always strive mightily to eschew such menacing constructions which threaten slyly to undermine the flawless integrity of our matchless writing. Whew!
We might also consider eliminating the use of comma's to make our singulars's into plural's : )
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