
"How To Write Good" by Frank L. Visco - ColinWright
http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/handouts/writegood.html
======
drcube
Is everyone seriously missing the joke(s)?

PS This is hilarious. :)

~~~
healsdata
"Profanity Sucks"

The only one that didn't "work", probably because the author and I have
different definitions of profanity.

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helpie
Isn't it meta-ironic for a style guide to use MS Comic?

~~~
jpredham
24\. Use appropriate font.

~~~
anon_koder
24\. Use comic sans.Always.Everywhere.

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ytNumbers
This should have a (1986) tacked onto the end of the headline. Hard to believe
it made its way onto the front page of HN. I guess if you've never seen it,
it's new to you. There must be more Internet newbies on HN than one would
imagine.

~~~
lucasjake
Hate to break it to you man, but most readers of HN probably weren't even born
yet in 1986, much less using the internet in 1986.

Maybe there is a Zen Koan in here:

"What did your spam look like before your parents were born?"

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shawndumas
Prohibiting sentence-ending prepositions? "This is the sort of nonsense up
with which I will not put," -- Winston Churchill

------
forgot_password
Splitting infinitives is done so frequently today that it sounds more natural.
Consider: "I was hoping to completely finish the project before the teacher
called on me"

~~~
tspiteri
From the _Oxford A–Z of Grammar and Punctuation_ by John Seely:

split infinitive

The infinitive is the form of the verb made by adding _to_ to its stem:

to go

Some traditionalists say that you should never place anything between the _to_
and the stem. They argue that since the infinitive is a part of the verb it
should never be split. So it is wrong to say _to boldly go_. You should
instead say _to go boldly_ or _boldly to go_.

There is no grammatical justification for this so-called 'rule', and people
have been splitting infinitives for centuries. Indeed sometimes it is
impossible to convey your meaning unless you do split an infinitive. For
example:

Everyone else thought they were too young _to really cope_ with adult
responsibilities.

If you move _really_ to another position you change the meaning of the
sentence:

Everyone else thought they were too young _really to cope_ with adult
responsibilities.

Everyone else thought they were too young _to cope really_ with adult
responsibilities.

(Amazon link to book:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199564671/ref=as_li_qf_sp_...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199564671/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=trevor-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0199564671)
)

~~~
ahpeeyem
"Everyone else thought they were really too young to cope with adult
responsibilities"

If you word it like this, the emphasis of 'really' is moved to 'too young' but
the sentence's meaning is the same, right?

~~~
tspiteri
But then 'really' modifies 'were too young', not 'to cope'.

------
grantbachman
Am I the only person who thinks most grammatical rules are complete crap?
Everyone has their own writing style, which is what makes reading works by
different authors so enjoyable. The one rule I especially dislike is the
'never end sentences with a preposition' rule, which if always abided by, will
dramatically overcomplicate many sentences.

~~~
munificent
Most rules of grammar are wonderful, unless you enjoy trying to extract
meaning from sentences like, "their works by makes enjoyable everyone has
style, which own what authors reading different writing".

The "rule" about dangling prepositions isn't much of a rule at all. Most
grammarians shun it and it's never been followed widely in prose and certainly
not in speech.

One related rule that _is_ worth following is: "don't end a sentence with a
preposition if removing it wouldn't change the meaning of the sentence." For
example, "where are you at" should be "where are you" since the "at" adds no
meaning (unless you want to convey a colloquial voice).

------
Alex3917
[http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/research/groups/protein/pert/safir...](http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/research/groups/protein/pert/safire.rules.html)

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zeynalov
first I thought he's serious, and decided to write a comment that I don't
think he is right. Now I got the Idea

