[转帖]Tips for Writing(页 1) - 〖E-Writing〗 - 快乐英语论坛

charlieApr 发表于 1970-1-1 08:33 AM

[转帖]Tips for Writing

<H4 >· 10 tips for better writing</H4>
By Guest Writer Tim North 
As a proofreader of business writing, I see many of the same errors made again and again. Errors in your writing (be they in advertising copy, correspondence, or a web site) are more serious, I believe, than most people realize. 
Why? Well, the standard of your writing has always been important. Today, though, more than ever before, FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT. We are bombarded by the written word in its many forms -- books, pamphlets, magazines, signs, e-mail, web sites and many other media. 
We are all suffering from information overload and are forced to find ways of screening out as much as we can. We thus tend to make quick decisions on what to read and what not to. First impressions increasingly determine what we read and what we don't, and poor writing leads to a poor first impression. 
The following list of tips should help you to avoid some of the most common slip-ups. 
<H4 >1. Capitals:</H4>
Avoid the temptation to capitalize words in the middle of a sentence Just To Provide Emphasis Like This. If you want to be more emphatic consider using bold face, italics, color or larger text. 
<H4 >2. Commas:</H4>
The most common use of the comma is to join together short sentences to make a single longer sentence. We do this with one of the following small joining words: and, or, but, yet, for, nor, or so. For example: 
We have finished the work, and we are looking forward to the weekend. 
Notice that the two halves of this sentence could each be sentences in their own right. They thus need to be separated with a comma and joining word. In the next example, though, we don't need a comma: We have finished the work and are looking forward to the weekend. 
The halves of that sentence could not stand alone, so no comma was used. 
<H4 >3. Ellipsis:</H4>
The ellipsis is a series of three -- and ONLY THREE -- full stops used to mark missing words, an uncertain pause, or an abrupt interruption. Avoid the temptation to use six or seven dots -- it looks amateurish. For example, we write: 
· Niles: But Miss Fine's age is only ... 
· Fran: Young! Miss Fine's age is only young! 
<H4 >4. Excessive punctuation:</H4>
Only one exclamation mark or question mark should be used at a time. Consider the following over-punctuated examples: 
· Buy now!!! 
· Great bargains!!!!!!!!!! Excessive punctuation looks too much like hysteria and detracts from your credibility. Avoid it. 
<H4 >5. Headings: </H4>
For long works, establish a clear hierarchy of headings. Microsoft Word's heading styles are great for this. (They also allow you to automatically create a table of contents.) 
<H4 >6. Hyphenating prefixes:</H4>
Most prefixes don't need a hyphen; i.e. we write "coexist", not "co-exist". There are exceptions, though. The prefixes "self-" and "ex-" are almost always hyphenated. 
<H4 >7. Numbers:</H4>
Numbers of ten or less are normally written as words. 
<H4 >8. Quotation marks:</H4>
Users of American English should use double quotes (" "). Users of British English should choose either single quotes (' ') or double quotes and stick with them for the whole document. Incidentally, British English usage is increasingly moving towards single quotes. 
<H4 >9. Spaces:</H4>
Modern style is to use a single space at the end of a sentence, not two. Also, most punctuation marks (e.g. commas, full stops, question marks) are not preceded by a space. 
<H4 >10.Tables:</H4>
Set table text one or two points smaller than the main body text and in a sans-serif font such as Arial or Verdana. Avoid vertical lines as they tend to add unnecessary clutter.
 
 
Charlie

charlieApr 发表于 1970-1-1 08:33 AM

35 Tips on English Writing 1. Verbs has to agree with their subjects. 2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. 3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. 4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive. 5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat). 6. Always avoid annoying alliteration. 7. Be more or less specific. 8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary. 9. Also, too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies. 10. No sentence fragments. No comma splices, run-ons are bad too. 11. Contractions aren't helpful and shouldn't be used. 12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos. 13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous. 14. One should never generalize. 15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches. 16. Don't use no double negatives. 17. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc. 18. One-word sentences? Eliminate. 19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake. 20. The passive voice is to be ignored. 21. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas. 22. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice. 23. Kill all exclamation points!!!! 24. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them. 25. Understatement is probably not the best way to propose earth shattering ideas. 26. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed. 27. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." 28. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly. 29. Puns are for children, not groan readers. 30. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms. 31. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed. 32. Who needs rhetorical questions? 33. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement. 34. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. From <a href="http://www.math.odu.edu/~keyes/quotations/grammar.html" target="_blank" >http://www.math.odu.edu/~keyes/quotations/grammar.html</A>

charlieApr 发表于 1970-1-1 08:33 AM

[转帖]From http://members.core.com/~ppekin/writing.htm

<CENTER>The Written Word</CENTER>

<BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE> If you reached this page without going through the six week opening sequence, I suggest you go directly to <a href="http://members.core.com/%7Eppekin/page1.htm" target="_blank" >page one</A>, and don't come back until you have a few dozen pages of fresh writing in your notebook.</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE> I want to talk about writing now, the actual physical writing you put on the page, the words, the phrases, the sentences, the paragraphs, matters that lead toward grammar, vocabulary, syntax, diction, and all that other boring stuff you refused to learn when you were in school.
 In all of these exercises I instructed you to write as well as you could. Now I ask you to look at your work and read it as well as you can. 
 Here is the test. Take a single sentence, examine it word by word, and ask yourself, exactly what does this say? 
 Let me give an example: 
 "Fascination riveted her eyes to his broad shoulders and his narrow waist as he walked away. " Really? 
 My apologies to the author who probably meant to say, "She could not keep her eyes from his broad shoulders and narrow waist as he walked away." 
 Of course, my "improvement" itself leaves a bit to be desired. But that's the point I want to make. Some things take a little thought. How would you rewrite that sentence? 
 That's why I say, examine what you have written, and compare it to what you meant to write. 
 Words mean. Every word you use means something. 
 Sentences mean. Every sentence you write means something. 
 Make certain your words and sentences mean what you meant them to mean. Don't say "The dog wagged his tail like a madman." Not unless you know a madman who has a tail, or a dog that wags madmen. Don't say, "In my mind I thought it would be a good idea." Where else do you think, if not in your mind? In your foot? 
 A good rule for beginners is to use words that are part of your everyday vocabulary. If you wouldn't say it, maybe you should think twice before writing it. If the woman has green eyes, why would you want to say "emerald eyes?" Don't do it unless you have a really good reason. 
 Keep your sentences short and simple. Don't stuff them with clauses and dependent clauses, adverbial phrases and parenthetical statements. Leave that for Henry James who knows how to do it. 
 Don't start every other sentence with an "ing" word, "Walking down the street," 
 And especially don't start them that way in order to "vary" your sentence structure. This is something you learned in school, and it sounds like something you learned in school. At its best. At its worst, it leads you into dangling participles. 
 Keep in mind that written language differs from the language we speak because it must be more precise, and the reason it must be more precise is because it must communicate its message without the physical help of the author. Perhaps you have heard other writers read their work aloud, and perhaps you've heard some of them adding vocal emphasis, even to the point of acting out the lines, in hopes of getting the message across. 
 The bitter truth matter is that there is no joy for the reader in a piece that cannot deliver its message in silence. 
 When the adjectives and adverbs begin to pile up, this should be a warning sign. One adjective to a noun until you get the hang of it. No adverbs at all until you understand why it is peculiar to say "He shouted loudly." 
 Never, never, never say "Her eyes were like . . . " Every single time that word "like" comes up, stop and ask yourself, "Do I really want to do this?" 
 "He stood on the corner like a tattered clown." 
 You better have a good reason for writing a sentence like that. 
 Another word to watch out for is "as." Simple little "as." But "as" means something. It doesn't' mean "while" and it doesn't mean "during" and it doesn't man "since" and if you really wanted to use one of those other words, why in heaven's name didn't you do it? I have seen student manuscripts where the word "as" appears a dozen times on the very first page. 
 After a page of as's, I have to force myself to read what comes next. 
 Please learn some simple rules of grammar, beginning with pronouns. A non-English speaker might say, "Me hungry." A baby might say, "Me want candy." I can accept that. But when I hear a college educated adult say, "Between you and I," or "Someone left their coat on the table," I want to scream. 
 People do talk that way. You bet. But writers, well, writers should have more respect for the language they use. 
 If a writer does not master his or her language, who should? If a writer does not love the language, who shall? 
 A pronoun must relate to a noun. That's why we have them, so we don't have to say "see Dick run, Dick can run, Dick will run fast when Dick runs." We'd like to replace some of those "Dicks" with "he's." 
 (and oh yes, I know perfectly well that "Dick" does not always mean a young man's name. Let the above sentence serve as a warning to you.) 
 When a pronoun is singular, it relates to a singular noun. You should not say "see to it your child brushes their teeth." You can say "See to it your children brush their teeth." A singular child brushes his teeth, or her teeth, or simply brushes. I am perfectly aware that people are trying to avoid the use of the generic "he" and I sympathize with their motives. But we don't have to kill the language in order to get rid of sexism. "Someone left a coat on the chair" works perfectly fine. "See to it your child brushes after every meal," is not only better English, it is a better message. Only a person who has no respect at all for the language will not even try to get things right. 
 Find out when you should use "I," when you should use "me," and when you should use "myself." People who use "I" in the objective case give themselves away as total ninnies or snobs or simply lazybones with tin ears. The same can be said of people who use "he" when they should have said "him" and people who use "she" when they should have said "her." 
 People who use "myself" instead of "I" or "me" have been listening to too many Michael Jordan interviews on television. 
 In fact, it would be a rare fifteen minutes of television in which all of the above rules would not be gleefully violated at least a half dozen times, and always by people with degrees from journalism school. 
 When in doubt, look it up. Do not, under any circumstance, rely on any computerized grammar check program. I once wrote a full page in Word Perfect 6.1, and deliberately included an error in every sentence. The program missed them all. 
 A serious writer gets a handbook he or she feels comfortable using, and keeps it next to the word processor. 
 The real reason for using correct grammar is not because you or anyone else is a snob. It is because correct grammar communicates more accurately and is read with less effort and it sounds better. 
 Luckily, this is one aspect of writing almost anyone can learn. What cannot be learned is love for the language. Love begins with respect. In this case, your love will be repaid many times over. 
 Not everything can be found in a handbook. Many a college graduate with multiple degrees in English still cannot write. Thousands of journalists with millions of published words to their credit still cannot write. And most of these people, believe it or not, freely admit it. 
 You have to read and not just read magazines, newspapers, and the latest popular fiction. You have to read writers who know and love the language and have something real they want to say. You might start with George Orwell who could not and never did write a bad sentence. You might study Katherine Ann Porter and Flannery O'Connor, writers who embraced the American voice and made it sing on every page. You might turn to Ernest Hemingway who changed the way a whole generation of writers approached the language. You ought to read Ralph Ellison who knew words could be music and wrote pages so beautiful they bring tears to the eye. You should read F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote so easily and skillfully it almost does not seem fair. 
 I'm leaving out the living writers here, not because there aren't any who should be included, but because the real test comes after you are dead and are unlikely to write any more. If people still publish you and buy you and read you then, you know you must have done something right. 
 Or at least somebody knows it. 
 Read Chekhov, de Maupassant, and Isaac Babel. Even translators and editors cannot deflect the power of their voices. 
 Read. Read. Read. 
 And read as a writer. Watch how these other writers handle the very same problems that face you day after day. Let them be your teachers, the best you will ever have. 
[align=right][color=#000066][此贴子已经被作者于2005-5-14 13:15:19编辑过][/color][/align]

TheYeti 发表于 1970-1-1 08:33 AM

Charles,
 I think you should warn your readers that "35 tips on English Writing" is supposed to be A JOKE. Neophyts in English may not know that and may think it is for real.
Each of the 35 tips are contradictions of themselves.
E.g.
1. Verbs has to agree with their subjects. (Verbs have to agree...) The joke here is that the statement refers to subject verb agreement, yet the sentence itself has a plural subject and a singular noun.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. ( The sentence itself ends with the preposition "with.") *(By the way, many English teachers no longer consider this rule as important)
3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. ( "And" is a conjunction.)
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive. ( The infinitive "to split" is being split by the word "ever.") 
5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat). ( They are old hat) is a cliche.
 OK, I guess you get my point.
BTW: Since you like to write, consider posting some of your creation at our 'Featured Articles" section ( <a href="http://www.rainlane.com/list.asp?boardid=26" target="_blank" >http://www.rainlane.com/list.asp?boardid=26</A> ) at the Rainlane Treasure Island English Corner <a href="http://www.rainlane.com" target="_blank" >http://www.rainlane.com</A>
 There is no rule saying that one cannot publish his/her work in more than one BBS. In fact, many people do just that. The work does not have to be perfect, it just has to be comprehensible. We are all non-native speakers, so we all make mistakes.

charlieApr 发表于 1970-1-1 08:33 AM

Dear the Yeti, 
Thanks, the Yeti! Yes, I got your point. Actually I was hoping
that our forum firends could figure them out by themselves and do trust
me they already have. 
 
Small world! How did you find our forum? I wonder if we could be
friends and get to know each other through writing here. 
 
The " Treasure Island must be a good place to go. I am thinking maybe
we could form a Online English Writing Association or
something with a better name. Communication is what language was
created for and connection is how the world gets smaller. 
 
Yesterday I tried to enter your forum, but foolish enough, failed to
get registered and take a bite at the fun you people enjoy
there. I sure will try again. Probably right now! 
 
Keep in touch. 
 
Best wishes, 
 
CharlietheAprilfool

TheYeti 发表于 1970-1-1 08:33 AM

Hey Hey Hey, I am back. I thought you guys are no longer in business. Turns out that it is just you have changed your URL--that's why I could get back on. 
 I do my visits by rotations. I have to go to my own forum everyday (and the ones I have long association with.) For the other ones, I will pick 2 or 3 and visit them continuously for a week or so,and then I will rotate to another group, and so on.

charlieApr 发表于 1970-1-1 08:33 AM

Hi TheYeti,
Hey,I was always wondering what you special nickname means. 
Seems you have been enjoying your online "rotation" tour so much that you got so many forums to visit. I can only manage to frequently get engaged in one or two. But your idea sounds pretty constructive in that it may help you get new thoughts on forum building. I am sure there is quite a lot that I wish I could learn form you, The Yeti.
Best wishes,
CharlietheAprilfool

北极莜蓝 发表于 2007-7-11 04:50 PM

:'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

sunhailan66 发表于 2007-8-26 07:44 PM

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[转帖]Tips for Writing

[转帖]From http://members.core.com/~ppekin/writing.htm