billLASTINIT
Thu Aug 26 15:51:51 CDT 2004
JaR wrote:
>
> Well, if we're gonna go down that road. I just happened to swipe this
> off another NG recently;
>
> Guide to good English grammar
>
> 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. Be more or less specific.
> 15. Understatement is absolutely and supremely always best.
> 16. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
> 17. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
> 18. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
> 19. The passive voice is to be avoided.
> 20. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
> 21. Who needs rhetorical questions?
They missed my favorite two:
22. Don't use no double negatives.
23. Don't never use no triple negatives.
--
Fris "Quadruple Negative Thug" bee®, MCNGP #13
The MCNGP Team - We're here to help!
http://www.mcngp.com
Certaholics
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/certaholics