How to Write Gooder

Ed Note: Richard Wanderman is an educational technology consultant and teacher. He has led students, teachers, parents, administrators, and other professionals through hundreds of workshops concerning technology and learning disabilities.

Avoid alliteration. Always.

Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

Avoid cliches like the plague (they're old hat).

Employ the vernacular.

Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

Contractions aren't necessary.

Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

One should never generalize.

Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.

Be more or less specific.

Understatement is always best.

Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

One word sentences? Eliminate.

Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

The passive voice is to be avoided.

Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

Who needs rhetorical questions?

This article was copied from Richard Wanderman's LD Reader #56. This is a free newsletter sent via e-mail periodically. If you'd like receive The LD Reader or know others who might want to receive it, send Richard e-mail requesting it with "Subscribe LD Reader" as the subject of the note. Be sure to include the e-mail address(s) you'd like it sent to, otherwise he'll simply use the "reply to" address. Send your e-mail to: richard@ldresources.com