Friday, March 5, 2010

How to Write Good

1. Always avoid annoying alliteration.
2. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
3. Employ the vernacular.
4. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
5. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
6. Remember to never split an infinitive.
7. Contractions aren't necessary.
8. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
9. One should never generalize.
10. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
11. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
12. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
13. Be more or less specific.
14. Understatement is always best.
15. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
16. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
17. The passive voice is to be avoided.
18. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
19. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
20. Who needs rhetorical questions?
21. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
22. Don't never use a double negation.
23. capitalize every sentence and remember always end it with point
24. Do not put statements in the negative form.
25. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
26. Proofread carefully to see if you words out.
27. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
28. A writer must not shift your point of view.
29. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.)
30. Don't overuse exclamation marks!!
31. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to the irantecedents.
32. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
33. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
34. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
35. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
36. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
37. Always pick on the correct idiom.
38. The adverb always follows the verb.
39. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
40. No sentence fragments.
42. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
43. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
44. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
45. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; They're old hat; seek viable alternatives.


Joke of the Day
See entire post.

6 comments:

MeganRebekah said...

OMG this is too funny! I was laughing along with it the whole time. I may have to steal this for a future post of my own (with credit of course)!

Tina Laurel Lee said...

Ha!

Jonathon Arntson said...

This is indeed funny. Tina's "Ha!" is the highest praise you can possibly get!

Brenda Susan said...

I so love this list!! I saw it over at Rebecca's blog, thnx for sharing it with us!

Brenda Susan said...

http://meganrebekahblogs.blogspot.com/
Sorry, it was Megan's blog!

Old Kitty said...

Hi

I came over from MeganRebekah's blog because of this list!

One word sentences? Laugh!

:-)

Take care
x