Writing Rules to Live By
1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's: Paul's friend.
2. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term, including a comma before the "and": red, white, and blue
3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas: The best way to see a country, unless you are pressed for time, is to travel on foot.
4. Place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause: Susan loves her trips to the mountains, but she does not get to go often.
5. Do not join independent clauses with a comma. Use a semicolon or a period: Grisham's thrillers are exciting. They are full of suspense.
6. Do not break sentences in two, as in the following example: He was an interesting talker. A man who had traveled all over the world.
7. A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to (and be close to) the word it modifies/describes: (incorrect) Walking down the road, trees dropped leaves on him. (correct) Walking down the road, he felt leaves dropping on him.
8. Write with varied sentence lengths.
9. It is best to unify the ideas in a paragraph around one topic, although with smooth transitions you may, at times, introduce other ideas.
10. Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence.
11. Write with purpose. Know your intent/argument/goal and your
audience.
12. Use the active voice as much as possible.
13. Put statements in a positive form. For example, instead of
writing, He was not very often on time, write, He usually came late.
14. Use definite, specific, concrete language. For example,
instead of writing, A period of unfavorable weather set in,
write, It rained every day for a week.
15. Omit needless words: Instead of writing, in a hasty manner,
write, hastily.
16. Express co-ordinate or equal ideas in similar form: (incorrect)
In spring, summer, or in winter (correct) In spring, in summer,
or in winter.
17. Keep related words together: (less preferable) Wordsworth, in the fifth book [chapter] of The Excursion, gives a detailed
description of this church. (better) Wordsworth gives a
detailed description of this church in the fifth book [chapter] of The Excursion.
18. Keep tenses consistent.
(The information on this handout was abridged and/or adapted from The Elements of Style Workbook--Tip Top Education.)