Sunday, May 20, 2012

How to Write Good

Thanks to my friend and brother-in-law, Gregg Lewis, for forwarding this to me:





How To Write Good

My several years in the word game have learnt me several rules:

    •    Avoid alliteration. Always.
    •    Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
    •    Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
    •    Employ the vernacular.
    •    Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
    •    Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
    •    It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
    •    Contractions aren't necessary.
    •    Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
    •    One should never generalize.
    •    Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said:
             "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
    •    Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
    •    Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
    •    Profanity sucks.
    •    Be more or less specific.
    •    Understatement is always best.
    •    Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
    •    One-word sentences? Eliminate.
    •    Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
    •    The passive voice is to be avoided.
    •    Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
    •    Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
    •    Who needs rhetorical questions?


By Frank L. Visco,
a vice-president and senior copywriter
at USAdvertising.

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Gleaning Facebook: 2012 Environmental Quiz Bowl Champs

Photo from Jaki Day: AES wins 2012 Environmental Quiz Bowl! Hooray!
Comment:
Barbara Jean Smith
Great Job!
 --------------

Armuchee's Fourth Grade Environmental Quiz Bowl Team ROCKS!! 2012 Champions of the Coosa River Basin!
Congrats also to the other great teams in the finals: Trion (4th), West End (3rd), and East Central (2nd).

Comments

Ruth Baird Shaw Congratulations Champions! Congratulations to Armuchee's Fourth Grade and to their teacher!!

Ruth Pinson Yea! Way to go AES!

Terrell Shaw Thanks. I am so proud of those eight kids. Each came through with at least one shining moment when they came up with the quick toss-up response or thoughtful bonus question reasoning... or even a very-timely surprise [How did he know that?!]

Ruth Pinson Well, they had great instruction! 

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Bob Doster Congrats to the kids.

Kathy Cannon Rogers Thanks for posting the other schools Terrell. That's awesome for AES!

Sherry Jean Sims Hey, way to go Terrell!!! The Quiz Bowl was great!


Autumn McClure Baker So proud of them!