How To Write Good & Rules For Writers! – Enjoy

How To Write Good

Frank L. Visco

 

My several years in the word game have learnt me several rules:

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 quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once 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. Profanity sucks.

15. Be more or less specific.

16. Understatement is always best.

17. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

18. One word sentences? Eliminate.

19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

20. The passive voice is to be avoided.

21. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

22. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

23. Who needs rhetorical questions?

 

Rules for Writers

William Safire

1. Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.

2. It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions.

3. Avoid archaeic spellings too.

4. Don’t repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.

5. Don’t use commas, that, are not, necessary.

6. Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.

7. Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice.

8. Subject and verb always has to agree.

9. Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.

10. Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to  catch typograhpical errers. 11.Don’t repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.

12. Use the apostrophe in it’s proper place and omit it when its not needed.

13. Don’t never use no double negatives.

14. Poofread carefully to see if you any words out.

15. Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless  of how others use them.

16. Eschew obfuscation.

17. No sentence fragments.

18. Don’t indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions.

19. A writer must not shift your point of view.

20. Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!

21. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.

22. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.

23. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.

24. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.

25.  Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.

26. Always pick on the correct idiom.

27. The adverb always follows the verb.

28. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.

29. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.

30. And always be sure to finish what

 

The Learning Curve Is Steep

I’m finding it incredibly stimulating learning about blogs and social media…so much to learn and so little time.

It really is my desire to in some small way help raise the level of conversation about creating safety excellence. So much that is available on the internet is based on meeting the minimum standards in health and safety management. We need to do much better…if we don’t, predictably people die and are injured because of their work or play.

Welcome to all of the new visitors…please leave a comment!

Well I finally did it…after several years of thinking that I should do this I finally found the time to create a Blog. I hope you enjoy it as a place to come to discuss the search for Safety Excellence. Please leave a comment and let us know you were here!

Best Regards

Alan D. Quilley CRSP