37.15 Final comments

Finally, excellent advice, with a humorous slant, appears on the offical plain language website of the US government, including these gems:

  • Avoid Alliteration. Always.
  • Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
  • Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
  • Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
  • Contractions aren’t necessary.
  • One should never generalize.
  • Be more or less specific.
  • Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
  • Don’t repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
  • Don’t use commas, that, are not, necessary.
  • Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice.
  • Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to catch typograhpical errers.
  • Use the apostrophe in it’s proper place and omit it when its not needed.
  • If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.