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Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence contains no unnecessary words, and a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing contains no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. Style requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid detail, but that every word tell.
Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's, regardless of the final consonant, preserving forms like Charles's friend and Burns's poems. Enclose parenthetical expressions between commas, and place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause. A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject, preventing absurdities like walking down the street, the house came into view.
Active voice is direct and forceful, making he thought the decision unwise stronger than the decision was thought unwise by him. Express negative ideas in positive form, turning not honest into dishonest and did not remember into forgot. Coordinate ideas require similar grammatical construction, grouping items of a series into matching noun, adjective, or verb forms, while placing the most emphatic words at the end of the sentence.
Titles require careful capitalization and omission of unnecessary quotation marks when standing alone on a title page. Numerals belong in figures for dates and statistics, but spelled out as words when opening a sentence or expressing small cardinal numbers. Direct quotations preserve exact phrasing within quotation marks, while parenthetical citations and footnotes remain unobtrusive to keep the primary text continuous.
Disinterested means impartial, whereas uninterested means lacking interest or bored. The word claim means to lay claim to, not simply to declare or assert. Colloquial shortcuts like alright fail standard usage, requiring all right, while split infinitives and misused prepositions blur intended meaning and erode the authority of the prose.
Essential rules of plain English grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and clear expression for effective writing.