{"id":357,"date":"2012-08-02T16:14:49","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T16:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/?page_id=357"},"modified":"2022-06-16T13:12:23","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T13:12:23","slug":"rules-of-good-english","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/about\/handy-hints-for-writers\/rules-of-good-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Rules of good English."},"content":{"rendered":"

I wish I could say I made these up, but it would be untrue. Let me credit the uncredited source who put them on the Internet. These are more for formal writing than for fiction: but again, remember that to break the rules, you must know what the rules are.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Avoid alliteration. Always.<\/li>\n
  2. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.<\/li>\n
  3. Employ the vernacular.<\/li>\n
  4. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.<\/li>\n
  5. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.<\/li>\n
  6. Remember to never split an infinitive.<\/li>\n
  7. Contractions aren’t necessary.<\/li>\n
  8. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.<\/li>\n
  9. One should never generalise.<\/li>\n
  10. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”<\/li>\n
  11. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.<\/li>\n
  12. Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.<\/li>\n
  13. Be more or less specific.<\/li>\n
  14. Understatement is always best.<\/li>\n
  15. One-word sentences? Eliminate.<\/li>\n
  16. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.<\/li>\n
  17. The passive voice is to be avoided.<\/li>\n
  18. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.<\/li>\n
  19. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.<\/li>\n
  20. Who needs rhetorical questions?<\/li>\n
  21. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.<\/li>\n
  22. Don’t never use a double negation.<\/li>\n
  23. Capitalize every sentence and remember always end it with point<\/li>\n
  24. Do not put statements in the negative form.<\/li>\n
  25. Verbs have to agree with their subjects.<\/li>\n
  26. Proofread carefully to see if you words out.<\/li>\n
  27. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.<\/li>\n
  28. A writer must not shift your point of view.<\/li>\n
  29. And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.)<\/li>\n
  30. Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!<\/li>\n
  31. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.<\/li>\n
  32. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.<\/li>\n
  33. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.<\/li>\n
  34. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.<\/li>\n
  35. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.<\/li>\n
  36. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.<\/li>\n
  37. Always pick on the correct idiom.<\/li>\n
  38. The adverb always follows the verb.<\/li>\n
  39. Avoid run-on sentences they look terrible.<\/li>\n
  40. Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.<\/li>\n
  41. About those sentence fragments.<\/li>\n
  42. Just between you and i, case is important.<\/li>\n
  43. Don’t use, commas, which aren’t necessary.<\/li>\n
  44. Its important to use your apostrophe’s correctly.<\/li>\n
  45. Correct spelling is absoluteley essential.<\/li>\n
  46. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I wish I could say I made these up, but it would be untrue. Let me credit the uncredited source who put them on the Internet. These are more for formal writing than for fiction: but again, remember that to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":353,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-357","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3951,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/357\/revisions\/3951"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}