>>                               HOW TO WRITE GOOD
>>
>>                               by 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 more use 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?