User:RedRabbit1983/Helpful advice

''This is only a draft, and is far from complete. I should be grateful for any help.''

As

Except at the beginning of sentences, avoid using as as a synonym of for or since. The causal as is weaker than both and may be mistaken for while.

Blunderbuss words


 * It is a curious fact that in the officials armoury of words the weapons readiest to hand are weapons not of precision but of rough and ready aim; often, indeed, they are of the sort that were constructed as weapons of precision but officials have bored them out into blunderbusses. (The OED defines this word as 'A short gun with a large bore, firing many balls or slugs, and capable of doing execution within a limited range without exact aim'). They have been put in the front rank of the armoury; the official reaches out for a word and uses one of these without trouble to search in the ranks behind for one that is more likely to hit the target in the middle. For instance, the blunderbuss integrate is now kept in front of join, combine, amalgamate, coordinate and other words, and the hand stretching out for one of these gets no farther. Develop blocks the way to happen, occur, take place and come. Alternative (a converted weapon of precision) stands before many simple words such as different, other new, fresh, revised.

(Quoted from Gowers' Plain Words)

In wikipedia, the chief blunderbuss words are impact and massive.

The careful writer preserves distinctions between similar words. The result is sharper prose.

Clichés

To be avoided like the plague. They are often spurted onto the page, by unwary writers, like a vomiting reflex.

Comma splicing

A comma splice results when a writer uses a comma as if it were a stronger mark—a semicolon or a full stop. Comma splices are usually, but not always, unacceptable (see Elements of Style for examples and exceptions).

Due to


 * Incorrectly used for through, because of, or owing to, in adverbial phrases: "He lost the first game, due to carelessness." In correct use related as predicate or as modifier to a particular noun: "This invention is due to Edison;" "losses due to preventable fires."

(Quoted from Strunk and White's Elements of Style)

Hanging participles

A common problem in wikipedia articles. A participle must attach to a noun phrase to be grammatical. Participles should not be considered adverbs, as some peope think of them, for they put the reader on a false scent (that is, they misleadingly suggest an attachment to the closest noun, even if only for a moment).

Wrong: The play is short, making it easy to read. (Making doesn't attach to anything in the sentence). Correct: He spoke to them, pronouncing every word distinctly. (Pronouncing attaches to He).

In the example Coming south, the country side was more lush, the sentence first suggests that the country side is moving south. Though the reader may decipher the meaning, the false scent mars the prose.

Note: certain -ing words may be considered as adverbs and not participles (e.g. according, regarding).

Elegant variation

Used far more than is necessary. Use pronouns or recast the sentence; often the frequently neglected device of ellipsis will solve the problem. Repetition of words should not be superstitiously avoided, and can sometimes be useful (the translators of the King James Bible did not shirk from it).

The device is often used carelessly in newspapers. Here is a typical example:

FRAN Bailey has blamed her apparent narrow loss in McEwen on a massive population influx in the seat, interest rates, the Kevin07 juggernaut and a sense that the Howard government had been in power too long.

But the former tourism minister has not given up the fight yet, with the Liberals intending to ask for a recount today after she fell just seven votes shy of victory.

The author uses the former tourism minister for she, which would have done just as well.

Many are enamoured of elegant variation, and it is difficult to talk them out of it. Putting the case against can be taxing. [I might write an essay someday, or copy someone else's.]

It is unnecessary to use while as a synonym of and: each has a separate job to do.

However, Moreover, In addition, etc.

Use with care. Consider replacing with "and" or "but" (even at the beginning of a sentence), or removing altogether. Ideally, the transition from one sentence to the next occurs without the need of such words.

Having said that, That said

Often a pointless refrain, sometimes a wordy substitute for However or But. Wikipedia articles should not be written in a conversational style.

Punctuation


 * It is a sound principle that as few stops should be used as will do the work. . . . Everyone should make up his mind not to depend on his stops. They are to be regarded as devices, not for saving him the trouble of putting his words in the order that naturally gives the required meaning, but for saving his reader the moment or two that would sometimes, without them, be necessarily spent on reading the sentence twice over, once to catch the general arrangement, and again for details. It may also be said that what reads wrongly if the stops are removed is radically bad; stops are not to alter the meaning, but merely show it up. Those who are learning to write should make a practice of putting down all they want to say without stops first. What then, on reading over, naturally arranges itself contrary to the intention should not be punctuated, but altered; and the stops should be as few as possible consistently with the recognised rules.

(Fower, quoted in Plain Words)

If commas are always put after leading adverbial phrases (e.g. "In 1941, . . .") the reader will have trouble sorting out which commas are there to mark emphasis and which merely added for their own sake.

The following examples each have different meanings, distinguished by punctuation.

(1) I walked in (2) and saw my brother. (Event 2 is the natural consequence of event 1, or happens at the same time) I walked in, and saw my brother. (Event 2 occurs separately to event 1) I walked in. And I saw my brother. (Event 2 is a suprise)

The class learnt nothing because they wouldn't listen. (A report of fact) The class learnt nothing, because they wouldn't listen. (An upbraiding of the class's refusal to listen)

Superfluous words


 * Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

(Quoted from Strunk and White's Elements of Style)

Always the first things copyeditors check for (and sometimes the only things).

See tautology and pleonasm. Also see How to satisfy Criterion 1a.

With

Often used to introduce trailing participles: The novel was written in 1994, with the main character being Shirley. The resulting sentence is usually stiff and awkward. Use a semicolon instead or recast.

Vogue words

Certain words, like ecletic, intrepid, and idiosyncratic, are used too frequently by those who are allured to things in vogue. The words' specific meanings are frequently abandoned, and some writers shape their sentences to fit in these words, and thus to indulge a habit. The words themselves are not to be deprecated, but one should be wary of their too frequent usage. See Blunderbuss words for an argument against shaping sentences according to words and not vice versa.

Parenthetical phrases and clauses

Be careful not to place them in the middle of a sentence when they are more welcome in a sentence of their own.

Dashes

In Plain Words, called the handmaiden of all stops [must check actual passage]. Using dashes as an all-purpose punctuation mark is unhelpful; for the reader has to work out which stop was intended (it may be a comma, semi-colon, parenthesis, or nothing at all). Aversion to precision should not be a reason for using the dash. And prose full of dashes looks ugly.

Recommended Reading

Fowler Modern English Usage Fowler The King's English Gowers Plain Words (good for beginners) Strunk and White Elements of Style (good for beginners) Eric Patridge You Have a Point There