left MEMT 812
AVOIDING BAD OR TORTURED WRITING

Rules for Writers

1. Each pronoun should agree with their antecedent.

2. Just between you and I, case is important.

3. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

4. Watch out for irregular verbs which have crope into the langauge.

5. Don't use no double negatives. Not never.

6. A writer should not shift your point of view.

7. Don't write a run-on sentence you have got to punctuate it.

8. About sentence fragments

9. In articles and stuff like that we use commas to kep things apart without which we would have without doubt confusion.

10. On, the other, hand, use commas, only when, absolutely necessary.

11. It is important to use you're apostrophe's correctly.

12. Dnt abbrvte unlss nec.

13. Check carefully to if you any words out.

14. In my opnion, I think that an author when he or she is writing something should not get accustomed to the habit of making use of too many redundant unnecessary words that he or she does not acutally need in order to get the message across to the readers of the article or piece in a magazine or journal.

15. About repetition, the repetition of a word is not usually repetition.

16. As far as incomplete constructions, they are wrong.

17. Plez spel correckly.

18. Last but not least, knock off the cliches.


Not Good Writing: Inflated with its own Importance

1. Members of an avian species of identical plumage congregate.

2. Surveillance should precede saltation.

3. Pulchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity.

4. It is fruitless to become lachrymose over precipately departed lacteal fluid.

5. Freedom from incrustations of grime is contiguous to rectitude.

6. The stylus is more potent than the claymore.

7. It is fruitfless to attempt to indoctrinate a superannuated canine with innovative maneuvers.

8. Eschew the implement of correction and vitiate the scion.

9. The temperature of the aqueous content of an unremittingly ogled saucepan does not reach two-hundred and twelve degrees fahrenheit.

10. All articles that coruscate with resplendence are not truly auriferous.


Good Writing: Succinct, clear

1. Birds of a feather flock together.

2. Look before you leap.

3. Beauty is only skin deep.

4. Don't cry over spilled milk.

5. Cleanliness is next to godliness.

6. The pen is mightier than the sword.

7. You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

8. Spar the rod and spoil the child.

9. A watched pot never boils.

10. All that glitters is not gold.


Writing Samples and Alternatives

1. "Hardly any research has been done..."
--Little research has been conducted...

2. "A lot of writers said that..."
--Writers agree...

3. "Music therapy hardly has been used in pediatrics."
--Rarely has music therapy been employed in the pediatric setting.

4. "Different things have been said about..."
--Disagreement exists as to whether...

5. "The experimental group got better..."
__The experimental group made greater gains...

6. "Many people believe that..."
--It is widely believed (accepted) that...

7. "The way we got the data was..."
--The procedures for generating the data were...

8. "Answers to question 7 showed that subjects wanted more listening examples."
--Subject responses to item seven indicated a desire for additional listening examples.

9. "Studies from before really showed..."
--Earlier studies clearly indicated...

10. "Many articles have been written on..."
-- ____________constitutes a considerable (notable) part of the literature in the area of...

11. "The study sort of says..."
--The findings generally agree...

12. "This study is like the ones mentioned before..."
--The present data are similar to those found in previously cited studies that found...

13. "Correlations were figured out to decide if the relationship...."
--Correlations were computed to determine whether the relationship...

14. "Mean scores are in Table 3."
--Mean scores are reported in Table 3.



For useful guidelines and examples of other errors that should be avoided, refer to Chapter 2 of the APA Publication Manual.