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67 Comments
- BalsamLane, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2953. Never say what has been said already, in other words don't repeat yourself.
- myFriendDerrik, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22There rules dumb! I already know how write good.
- TheSevenDuffs, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18I propose someone start the Darek Zoolander centre for kids who can't read good.
- svartgotik, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Actually, "always avoid alliteration" are agents of assonance's action.
- robbyjo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Priceless humor! Thanks for the laugh :).
- Lumiras, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Funny list, but not really all that useful.
If professional writers followed all those rules, we would end up with some very, very boring books - hackwrench, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I have one question: How do you employ the vernacular while going around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms?
- oskite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11"Always avoid alliteration."
Haha. Oh wait, they're all funny. - CanceledCzech, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15Don't you mean "How to write well"?
(I'm joking, not trying to be pretentious) - ajchavar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10i get it. u r dee-you-em-bee
- noseeme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Thats' wrong grammar!!!
- meatmcguffin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8@mrwiggl3s
You have to be megagaltastic to read them - Murphy71984, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7All Your Base Are Belong To Me.
- JoeCool1986, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6A few of the rules use humor to the point you can't actually tell what the rule is. Which, that fact in itself, is funny.
- Thrashtastic27, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Yeah, but this would be great for corporate writers. I recently did some copy editing for my mom. You would be amazed how bad some "professional" writers can be.
- Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I'd've advised against the use of multiple contractions. You'll'n't've wanted to miss that rule.
- CanceledCzech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Um, cellar door?
- washcapsfan37, on 10/12/2007, -0/+519. One-word sentences? Eliminate. Always!
- Gizza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Where's the list on "How to Read 'Good'", so i can read this list?
- lennon2600, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4What a crock of *****. Writers have styles, many are exceptional, but not all follow such rules. Does this list mean Hemingway screwed up royally and broke the code? No. It just means he wrote the way he wanted to write. This is a way to sequester language into easy-to-read redundant (author to author) crap. Safire himself should write something great for once, not just "good". Of course, some might like his writing, but we've all got our preferences, eh? Alliteration is sometimes necessary, as is prosaic redundancy, as are many other things attributable to the evolution of written languages.
- hman2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5The fact that it's called "How to Write _Good_" is icing on the cake :)
- baldycraig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4These are very well.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I don't think I can remember all those rules. :)
- MalDON, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Bush should check this one out.
- Enasni1212, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Ever read Ernest Hemingway?
- MuTeD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Who ever made this up is a flibbertigibbet.
- tybris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3G-O-O-D
- MetalUnderShock, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Cause I read there I done ready to get me my learning degree in a U.S. school system.
- GunsGermsSteel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3These are all good rules, but start breaking them as soon as possible.
- Arramol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"#42 Don't overuse exclamation marks!!"
So true. And there should also be a rule about spelling "you" with nothing but the letter U. - sTuDlYgUy97, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i think i only finished this list because of the humor
- DeathBorn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I concur that this selection of intelligent writing tips is splendiferous!
- washcapsfan37, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think they forgot the most important one:
Don't use Digg comments as a basis for learning to write 'good'. - jerbaker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I think it's funny that the submitter placed the word "good" in quotations changing the meaning from "can you write well" to "can you write [the word] good".
- martalli, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"38. Eschew Obfuscation"
The government publishes this list, but I wish they would practice #38 more assiduously. - ravenpen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No contractions?
Apparently they’ve never attempted to write realistic sounding dialogue. - Knivez, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2LOL yeah
For the slow, or non-native english speakers (i'm one of those), every rule is broken in the sentence where it's mentioned. - spingk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I caught that too, it would have been better just with out the quotes but if he felt that an alteration was needed I would do How to Write Good [sic].
- Arkitan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dugg for the clever title.
- jbsmith, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1Nice list, but the true judge of your writing is your audience. The rules will depend upon your audience. If you are writing a how-to, non-fiction guide to help someone achieve a goal, many of these rules don't matter - what matters most is the relevancy of the material and that it has been tested. In this video we discuss the critical factors in writing for your audience...http://www.infomarketerszone.com/public/312.cfm?sd ...
- davidlow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1#53. A monosyllable, or a word accented on the last syllable, when ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, doubles the final consonant when a suffix begining with a vowel is added.
- 4bit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1An alternative for 29,
"It's generally a good idea to be specific." - Stiffler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Agreed. Make your own rules and stick to them. Reading would be incredibly boring if everyone followed these rules. The most important are punctuation and spelling. People must be able to understand what you're trying to say.
- Spamiclese, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If only I could remember what half of those things mean...
- Knife720, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Navigate around the humor part of the site for some more gems such as this little section on ambiguity in headlines: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/humor/headlines.cfm
- offthewagon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The rules of grammar and style--with style, arguably, being somewhat more subjective and flexible--should only stand as a backdrop or scaffolding for a given work and not as an immutably rigid edifice repudiating change.
What follows is a famous example, attributed to Churchill, of what happens when a writer follows the rules too closely and refuses to end on a preposition:
"This is something up with which I will not put!" - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i stopped at the first tip
always avoid alliteration
thats an essential element of literature in many works. look at shakespeak, ayn rand, to kill a mockingbird, of mice and men, a separate peace
all of which have many themes presented in alliteration at certain points - teken894, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3flucking pristine BS, that is. I tried to write good but you can't never get them right!
- kettle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Just read 'The Elements of Style' by STrunk and White. The original, and still the best.
http://www.bartleby.com/141/ -
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