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 quotations.
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.