Excerpt/Summary
This is a chapter of scraps and morsels.
VERBS
Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb.
Verbs are the most important of all your tools. They push the sentence forward and give it momentum.
Use precise verbs.
ADVERBS
Most adverbs are unnecessary.
Again and again in careless writing, strong verbs are weakened by redundant adverbs.
Don't use adverbs unless they do necessary work.
ADJECTIVES
Most adjectives are also unnecessary.
Make your adjectives do work that needs to be done.
LITTLE QUALIFIERS
They dilute your style and your persuasiveness.
Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident.
Readers want a writer who believes in himself and in what he is saying.
PUNCTUATION
If you don't know how to punctuate, get a grammar book.
? ? The Period:most writers don't reach it soon enough.? ? ? There is no minimum length for a sentence that's acceptable in the eyes of God.
? ? The Exclamation Point:Don't use it unless you must to achieve a certain effect.? ? Construct your sentence so that the order of the words will put the emphasis where you want it.Also resist using an exclamation point to notify the reader that you are making a joke or being ironic.
? ? The Semicolon:The semicolon brings the reader, if not to a halt, at least to a pause. So use it with discretion.
? ? The Dash:The dash is used in two ways. One is to amplify or justify in the second part of the sentence a thought you stated in the first part. The other use involves two dashes, which set apart a parenthetical thought within a longer sentence.
? ? The Colon:it still serves well its pure role of bringing your sentence to a brief halt before you plunge into, say, an itemized list.
MOOD CHANGERS
but:there's no stronger word (than but) at the start.
however:a weaker word and needs careful placement. Don't start a sentense with "however", and don't end with "however".Put it as early as you reasonably can.
yet:does almost the same job as "but", though its meaning is closer to "nevertheless". Either of those words at the beginning of a sentence.
meanwhile, now, today, later:Always make sure your readers are oriented. Always ask yourself where you left them in the previous sentence.
CONTRACTIONS
Your style will be warmer and truer to your personality if you use contractions. Suggest avoiding one form— "I'd," "he'd", "we'd", etc.— because "I'd" can mean both "I had" and "I would".
THAT AND WHICH
Always use "that" unless it makes your meaning ambiguous.
If your sentence needs a comma to achieve its precise meaning, it probably needs "which". "Which" serves a particular identifying function, different from "that".
CONCEPT NOUNS
Nouns that express a concept are commonly used in bad wrtiting instead of verbs that tell what somebody did.
Don't get caught holding a bag full of abstract nouns. You'll sink to the bottom of the lake and never be seen again.
CREEPING NOUNISM
Today as many as four or five concept will attach themselves to each other.
OVERSTATEMENT
Don't overstate.
Let the humor sneak up so we hardly hear it coming.
CREDIBILITY
Don't inflate an incident to make it more outlandish than it actually was.
DICTATION
Dictated sentences tend to be pompous, sloppy and redundant.
Making sure that what they finally write is a true reflection of who they are.
WRITING IS NOT A CONTEST
Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself.
THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
Your subconscious mind does more writing than you think.
Stay alert to the currents around you. Much of what you see and hear will come back, having percolated for days or mouths or even years through your subconscious mind.
THE QUICKEST FIX
Surprisingly often a difficult problem in a sentence can be solved by simply getting rid of it.
PARAGERAPHS
Keep your paragraphs short.
But don't go berserk.A succession of tiny paragraphs is as annoying as a paragraph that's too long.
Each paragraph has its own integrity of content and structure.
Vocabulary
1.It's also ambiguous.
ambiguous:
that can be understand in more one way; having different meanings
not clearly stated or defined
反義：unambiguous
adv:ambiguously
2.Perhaps a monk's cell with wall-to-wall carpeting.
monk:a member of a male religious community that is usually separated from the outside world.
wall-to-wall:adj 覆蓋全部地面；墻到墻的
A wall-to-wall carpet covers the floor of a room completely.
You can use wall-to-wall to describe something that fills or seems to fill all the available space.
3.In syntax and punctuation so that the reader knows where he is at every step of the winding trail.
syntax:the ways that words can be put together, or are put together, in order to make sentences.
punctuation:
the symbols that you use to divide written words into sentences and clauses.
the use of symbols such as full stops or periods, commas, or question marks to divide written words into sentences and clauses.
這一章是關于詞性語法標點符號的使用。讀的時候忍不住想起小學作文課上，老師寫一黑板的語法，讓大家記下來。現在模糊記得，連詞就分了好多種，轉折因果并列……英語寫作與漢語寫作——或者其他語種的寫作——都離不開這些最基本的東西。不過作者關于but用在開頭的說法，還真是有趣。嘗試用書中句子進行總結，寫完后覺得還是太啰嗦了。下一次要試著進行壓縮或者提煉關鍵詞。
