Rules of Thumb for Writers

25 Points to Remember

• 1.Don't abbrev.
• 2.Check to see if you any words out.
• 3.Be carefully to use adjectives and adverbs correct.
• 4.About sentence fragments.
• 5.When dangling, don't use participles.
• 6.Don't use no double negatives.
• 7.Always use the spellcheker. (See note 1 at end.)
• 8.Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.
• 9.Just between you and I, case is important.
• 10.Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.
• 11.Don't use commas, that aren't necessary.
• 12.Make sure you don't any switch words around.
• 13.Its important to use apostrophe's right.
• 14.It's better not to unnecessarily split an infinitive.
• 15.Never leave a transitive verb just lay there without an object.
• 16.Only Proper Nouns should be capitalized.
• 17.a sentence should begin with a capital and end with a period
• 18.Use hyphens in compound-words, not just in any two-word-phrase.
• 19.In letters compositions reports and things like that we use commas to keep a string of items apart.
• 20.Watch out for irregular verbs which have creeped into our language.
• 21.Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
• 22.Avoid unnecessary extra redundancy.
• 23.A writer mustn't shift your point of view.
• 24.Don't write a run-on sentence you've got to punctuate it.
• 25.Avoid cliches like the plague.
• 26.Always recount lists when enumerating in the title.

Editor's notes:

1)Don't depend on spelling checkers for things they don't do. In udder voids, a spellcheck won't ketch worms that are wrung, butt are split rite.

2)This list originally contained a statement to the effect that a preposition is a bad thing to end a sentence with. English is not Latin, and in plain point of fact a preposition is a perfectly acceptable thing to end a sentence with. (While I personally shudder a bit when I encounter a split infinitive, the prohibition against those, too, seems to be a case of fools trying to make English behave like Latin. Forget it. You want to boldly split where no pedant has split for many years, it's your affair.)

3)...And finally, in case some yutz has told you that serial commas are bad or unnecessary, consider the following:

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