Monday Maladies: Writerisms

[Redlass]

There is an excellent article by C.J. Cherryh called "Writerisms and Other Sins: A Writer's Guide to Stronger Writing"

While the copyright notice says it can be copied and pasted as long as the copyright notice accompanies it, it's a little long, so instead I'll just encourage you to follow this link:

Writerisms and other sins

[tipu]

Thanks B! This is generally good stuff... a bit iffy... seems like whatever you write, you're doin something wrong...

I like #7!

I guess we gotta learn ourselves #9 for now, tho according to a bunch of linguists (McWhorter et al) 'whom' is gonna go the way of the dodo...

And of corse, I live by the final CHERRYH'S LAW!

[sylvanb]

That should be, "WHO is going the way of the dodo." Sheesh.

[proeditor]

Thanks for the link, Redlass. Those weren't the usual tips. I think I'll use it in a writing seminar I'm doing soon.

[infoscott]

# 9. "Whom" is just an irritating vestige of grammatical case, left over from English's Germanic origins. German still has four cases and declines all its pronouns. If you want a real exercise in declension, try Russian or Latin.

#10. -ing;

Technically correct, but not particularly for the reason cited. The example used a present participle which does indicate simultaneity, but the sentence is easily salvageable by using a past progressive participial form:

"Having shouldered his pack and set forth, he crossed the river..."

English doesn't get good use of its participles because you have to compound them for complexity. It's easier in a language like Russian that has four distinct participial forms (English only has two).

-Scott

[mnehr]

Thank you for the link. I need all the help I can get.


(As I try hard to be grammatically correct in this forum.)

[Prepoia[$]]

(As I try hard to be grammatically correct in this forum.)



__________________
Matthew (Mnehr)
*****

Matthew,

That is too funny! I do exactly the same thing. Most of the threads I just type it out and submit. But, each time I submit to this thread, I'm so scared someone will point out a glaring error. Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone. lol

Sandy