5O Suggestion for Gooder Writng (what-ever job your in by, er, Hugh Gibbons

1.Spellcheck for errors what devalue credibility. 2.Don’t, though it’s easily done, allow interjections (or asides) which - though you don’t mean them to - often, by impeding the flow, produce stumbling (or clumsy), spaghetti-like, sentences. 3.On 01/04, avoid ambiguous date formats. 4.Be aware that verbs has to agree with their subjects 5.Never ever generalise - or be unduly dogmatic. 6.Avoid redundancy, saying the same thing twice, and tautology. 7.Ask any good writer about sensitivities over gender, and he’ll tell you. 8.Beware of running sentences together they are hard to figure out, make them separate. 9.At all points in time be sure to employ verbal terminologies which are the least extensive in lengthiness and non-familiarity. 10.In typing,put a space after commas.And two after full- stops. 5O Gooder Writng Suggestion

11.Dear Sir/Madam: observe up-to-date etiquette and courtesies. 12.Try to keep your sentences short so that they sound natural, because when we speak we tend to do so in bursts of just words at a time so that other people have the opportunity to take in what we are trying to communicate and not have too much for the mind to process at one time - even though the sentence flows. 13.Always avoid artificial-sounding alliteration and assonance. 14.Never use a long word when a diminutive alternative will suffice purposefully. 15.Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc. 16.Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are often unnecessary. 17.Don’t use contractions - you’ll do best to avoid ‘em even when you want to sound informal and friendly. 18.Be more or less specific. 19.One-word sentences? Eliminate. Yes! 20.Who needs rhetorical questions? 5O Gooder Writng Suggestion

21.Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement. 22.If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. 23.A writer must not shift your point of view. 24.Don't overuse exclamation marks!!!!! 25.Take out a comma, that isn’t needed or misleads. 26.Three things to check are a)completeness ii] do be consistent. 27.Make every pronoun agree with their antecedent. 28.Remember that hyphens-unlike dashes-have a joining - up job to-do. 29.Being a dangling participle, you may create a problem. 30.Avoid clichés like the plague – seek viable alternatives. 5O Gooder Writng Suggestion

31.Read your writing aloud to see if you’ve any words out. 32.And, easy to miss, see if any words any words any shouldn’t be there (that’s easy to miss) 33.Foreign words and bon mots are better verboten. 34.Butt cheque you’re words ah write four there plaice. 35.Use apostrophe’s correctly - its a big test of ill’iteracy. 36.When using comma pairs, for asides like this in sentences make sure you include the second. 37.If you want to minimise the possibility that readers may give up on you out of weariness or lack of interest, put the important things at the start of sentences. 38.Put link and signpost words at the start of sentences, moreover. 39.Possibly avoid work-shy and vague expressions which may, in the course of time, lead to your writing having no reasonable meaning in the generally accepted sense of the term. 40.It is recommended by us that the passive voice should usually be avoided. 5O Gooder Writng Suggestion

41.Steer clear of typefaces and fonts that send WRONG sorts of messages ABOUT YOU. 42.Extirpate and eschew pompous language. 43. ing people send out may turn into garden path sentences. 44.Writers, who use incorrect punctuation, may mislead. 45.Be aware that all causes of misunderstanding are not obvious - not all that glisters is gold. 46.Stay clear of SUAJ (Sudden Unfamiliar Acronyms and Jargon). 47.And never start sentences or bullet points or paragraphs with And or But or Or. 48.Or use prepositions to end them with. 49.But check that your content matches any headline or claim you are making 50.Eschew pompous language – and check for repetition 5O Gooder Writng Suggestion

52.Check that your numbering is consistent 53.capitalise the word at the start of sentences and for proper names - i think that’s a dead giveaway 54.Be careful when you put a word inside quote marks, as they call into question the “validity” of even “good” writers and their “academic credentials”. 55.Never write one-sentence paragraphs. 56.Ever. 57.Always be sure that your writing is big enough to be easy to read. Important ( 58.DON’T overdo formatting designed to draw attention to parts of the text, because when too much is emphasised nothing stands out - and the reader doesn’t know what’s really Important (or NOT!!!!!!!!!) 59.Even though word-processing allows, never use formatting to show the point of emphasis in a sentence 60.Remember that how and what you write tells the reader a lot about you - so 4 gdnss sake aim 2 use appropriate style 4 yr rdrs or ordience. 5O Gooder Writng Suggestion

And always be prepared to ignore the suggestions. Here’s a gem of appropriate writing such as this from a good-humoured medical information manager keen to show he’d taken things in – probably to while away a Friday afternoon…

5O Suggestion for Gooder Writng (what-ever job your in Hugh Gibbons