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Old 03-27-2014, 11:59 AM
Honus Honus is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,288
I agree with the OP. Clear writing is a matter of courtesy. Everyone who attempts to communicate in writing needs to read and re-read The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White. It should always be within arm's length of your keyboard. Some people have nits to pick with its discussion of passive versus active voice, but those people need to get a life. The Elements of Style is without question the best book on writing I have ever seen. I don't know what the second best book is, but it's a distant second. The book is also a good read. Amazon has it for $6.95 plus shipping. Here's how it finishes:
Quote:
Full of belief, sustained and elevated by the power of purpose, armed with the rules of grammar, you are ready for exposure. At this point, you may well pattern yourself on the fully exposed cow of Robert Louis Stevenson's rhyme. This friendly and commendable animal, you may recall, was "blown by all the winds that pass / And wet with all the showers." And so must you as a young writer be. In our modern idiom, we would say that you must get wet all over. Mr. Stevenson, working in a plainer style, said it with felicity, and suddenly one cow, out of so many, received the gift of immortality. Like the steadfast writer, she is at home in the wind and the rain; and, thanks to one moment of felicity, she will live on and on and on.
So, onward and upward.
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