Advice on Editing

[Diane Oestreich <doestre@EIS.CALSTATE.EDU>]

This would have been more timely on April 1 instead of May 1, but I'm
trying to clean up the desk around my computer, and I found this:
On Editing
1. Don't use no double negatives.
2. Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.
3. No sentence fragments.
4. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
5. Take the bull by the hand, and avoid mixing metaphors.
6. Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration.
7. Avoid commas, that are not necessary.
8. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
9. Don't overuse exclamation points!!!
10. The passive voice should never be used.
11. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
        (Which reminds me of two of my personal favorites from the legendary
        Miss Linde of Fullerton High School in Fullerton, California:
                Hanging on the wall, I saw three Rembrandt paintings.
                Laughing and shouting, the bull chased us across the field.
12. In statements involving word phrases, make an all out effort to use
hyphens.
13. Don't string too may prepositional phrases together unless you are
walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
14. A writer must dot shift your point of view.
15. If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a great deal
of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
16. A preposition is something you never end a sentence with.
17. And last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.

Have a good week!
Diane Oestreich
Villa Park High School
18042 Taft Avenue
Villa Park, CA 92667
714-532-8020, ext. 48
doestre@eis.calstate.edu