- Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to
read.
- Recognize independent clauses, then you
will not commit comma splices.
- Subjects and verbs has to agree with each
other.
- A reference pronoun also has to agree
with their antecedent.
- Therefore, everyone should be careful to
use a singular pronoun with a singular antecedent
in their writing.
- Proofread carefully to see if you any
words out.
- Never divide one-syllable words or words
containing fewer than fi- ve letters.
- Avoid clichés like the plague.
- Passive voice should also be avoided
unless it absolutely cannot be avoided by you.
- Basically, definitely, really let your
readers know how extremely and greatly keen you
are on words that truly end in ly.
- For that matter, when you are very tired,
it is extremely hard to stop using weak
intensifiers like very,
extremely, greatly, and
really in your writing.
- Reserve the apostrophe for it's proper
use, and omit it when its not needed.
- No sentence fragments in your formal
writing assignments.
- Never, ever focus in on redundancies even
when you are hurriedly scribbling notes
separating out your future plans to win the exact
same free gift.
- Between you and I, never use a pronoun in
the subjective case following a preposition.
- Don't string too many prepositional
phrases together unless you are walking through
the valley of the shadow of death in the dark
night of the winter.
- Avoid commas, that set off essential
information.
- Use commas to set off, non-essential,
information.
- Needless to say, due to the fact that in
today's society good writing skills are in
demand, at some point in time you will have to
avoid using empty phrases.
- In point of fact, in the final analysis,
eventually at some later point in time you will
come to the realization that clutter gets in the
way of your message.
- No friendly grammarian insists that all
words ending in ly are
adverbs.
- Alot of time people think that alot
is a word.
- Use quality
and fun incorrectly
as adjectives instead of as nouns if you want a
quality education and fun job as a writer.
- Hopefully, you will never use hopefully
except when it correctly
modifies a part of speech rather than dangling in
never-never land.
- There is no better way to show your
reader there is no subject than there is by the
frequent and tiresome use of expletives like
there is.
- Use the semicolon and colon properly;
such as: always use them where they are
appropriate: never where they are not.
- Because all people make hasty
generalizations, avoid making them.
- That chapter on faulty comparisons was
better.
- It's to bad that some writers fail too
learn the difference between the preposition
to and the adverb too.
- A writer must not shift your point of
view and also must not have shifted tense.
- And do use parallel structure when you
write and in speaking.
- Don't use no contractions or double
negatives in formal writing.
- Place pronouns as closely as possible,
especially in long sentences, as of ten or more
words, to their antecedents.
- Also place your modifiers near the word
or group of words that they modify in the
sentence correctly.
- Writing carefully, dangling modifiers
must be avoided.
- In statements involving two word phrases,
make an all out effort to use hyphens.
- This advice bears repeating: "Always
place commas and periods inside quotation marks".
- Writters will invariably illicit bored
responses or otherwise effect they're enthused
readers if there usage is incorect and if there
words are mispelled.
- Also, avoid aimless, awkward, or affected
alliteration.
- And always pick on the correct idiom in
which you intend to use it.
- When writing about languages such as
english and french, be sure to capitalize them.
- Is is such a
handy verb, is it not?
- Faulty predication is when writers forget
that only adjectives or nouns (or pronouns) can
follow a linking verb.
- If I've told you once, I've told you a
thousand times: resist hyperbole.
- You can not forget that cannot
is the perferred usage.
- Everyone knows...well, almost everyone,
that an ellipsis consists of three spaced periods.
- It is not resultful to transform one part
of speech into another by prefixing and suffixing
because some writers have jargonized, impacted
on, prioritized, utilized, and maximized their
work ad nauseam.
- If any word is improper at the end of a
sentence, a linking verb is.
- Do you feel like feel
like should replace think
or believe
even if you¹re not
discussing your emotions? And, that even if you
are discussing your emotions, you should write feel
as if instead of feel
like?
- Do you also feel nauseous when your
friends confuse nauseous with
nauseated?
- I could care less that you earned praise
for writing "I couldn't care less."
- Just because you like starting a sentence
with "Just because" doesn't mean you
should always yield to your temptations.
By all means, always cite your sources. William
Safire, thank you for written permission to
borrow a handful of your "Fumblerules"
(from On Language, 1980)
to add to mine. Yours inspired me to add another
forty or so of my own creation aimed both at
serious instruction and a bit of whimsy. That you
both underline and mark your own title
deliberately to underscore a common error in
academic papers especially delights me.
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