Best Tips for Good Writing

When I taught a class in public relations at Columbia College in Chicago, a fellow teacher shared with me Frank Visco’s original list of tips for good writing, entitled How to Write Good.

Over the years, I read additional points. Similar lists began to surface. I threw everything in a folder until last month when I decided to cull the list for a writing workshop in Melbourne. No, it’s not as concise as Visco’s original list but it also covers more of the basics.

I’m a clearly a word geek. This list always makes me chuckle.

• A writer should not shift your point of view.
• Alors!  Why use words from another language?
• Always avoid alliteration.
• Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
• As you know, don’t repeat what the audience already understands.
• Avoid &s and abbrev., etc.
• Avoid clichés like the plague. They’re old hat.
• Be careful of commas, that, are not, necessary.
• Be more or less specific.
• Choose words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
• Do not use hyperbole.  Only one in a million can do it effectively.
• Don’t never use no double negatives.
• Each sentence has one point, and you should write in short sentences too.
• Exaggeration is a gazillion times worse than understatement.
• Exclamation marks aren’t necessary!
• If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be eliminated by rereading and editing.
• It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions.
• It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
• It’s true when you think about this point: put the important message at the beginning of the sentence.
• Just delete unnecessary words. No, really.
• Like, you know, avoid colloquialisms.
• Never use a big word when utilising a diminutive alternative would suffice.
• No sentence fragments.
• One should never generalize.
• One-word sentences? Eliminate.
• Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
• Passive voice is to be avoided.
• Pick on the correct idiom.
• Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.
• Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
• Profanity sucks.
• Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
• Subject and verb always has to agree.
• Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
• The spell chekker helps to avoid mispelingz.
• There’s no reason to repeat yourself, or say again what you’ve already said.
• Use the apostrophe in it’s proper place and omit when its not needed.
• Using more words than necessary is highly superfluous.
• Who needs rhetorical questions?
• Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.

Any other comments you’d add?