January 11, 2010

26 Golden Rules for Writing Well

Iain D. Campbell posted 26 “Golden Rules” for writing well over at the Reformation21 Blog. For your convenience I’ve reproduced them below:

  1. Don’t abbrev.
  2. Check to see if you any words out.
  3. Be carefully to use adjectives and adverbs correct.
  4. About sentence fragments.
  5. When dangling, don’t use participles.
  6. Don’t use no double negatives.
  7. Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.
  8. Just between you and I, case is important.
  9. Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.
  10. Don’t use commas, that aren’t necessary.
  11. Its important to use apostrophe’s right.
  12. It’s better not to unnecessarily split an infinitive.
  13. Never leave a transitive verb just lay there without an object.
  14. Only Proper Nouns should be capitalized. also a sentence should begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop
  15. Use hyphens in compound-words, not just in any two-word phrase.
  16. In letters compositions reports and things like that we use commas to keep a string of items apart.
  17. Watch out for irregular verbs that have creeped into our language.
  18. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
  19. Avoid unnecessary redundancy.
  20. A writer mustn’t shift your point of view.
  21. Don’t write a run-on sentence you’ve got to punctuate it.
  22. A preposition isn’t a good thing to end a sentence with.
  23. Avoid cliches like the plague.
  24. 1 final thing is to never start a sentence with a number.
  25. Always check your work for accuracy and completeness.

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December 17, 2009

How To Read A Book by Mortimer Adler

A while ago I mentioned How To Read A Book by Mortimer Adler. Well yesterday, thank to Matt Newboult, I discovered you can download a copy from Scribd. It states on the site that it’s not breaking any copyright and if the description at Scribd is accurate then you should probably read it:

“Until this book is read, all other books are moot.”

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December 2, 2009

Get Back To Work

Recently, Tim Challies wrote about a time management tool he discovered and recommends. Furthermore, he created the above graphic to remind him of the importance of not procrastinating

If I had that graphic popping up every time I ventured into the land of “virtual distraction” I’m sure it would be jarring enough to get me back to work…at least until the next distraction.

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October 20, 2009

The Pomodoro Technique

Following on from yesterday’s post on How to Read I thought I’d mention the Pomodoro Technique, which I stumbled upon today:

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method. For many of us time is an enemy. The anxiety triggered by “the ticking clock” and deadlines to be met leads to ineffective work and study habits and procrastination. The Pomodoro Technique transforms time into a valuable ally.

Francesco Cirillo created the Pomodoro Technique in 1992 after a long search to improve his own study habits. Starting in the late ’90s the technique was embraced by professional teams. It can help us accomplish what we want to do and chart continuous improvement in the way we do it.

They have a free e-book entitled The Pomodoro Technique, which I’ve downloaded and will try to read later on. From my quick browse it looks like it could be a really helpful time management system.  Web Worker Daily mentioned Tomatoi.st, a timing service designed to be used in conjunction with Pomodoro.

Have any of you used this technique, or have any tips on how you make the most of your time in order to glorify the Lord?

 

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How to Read

Reading is a blessing as it enriches greatly, but it can be a curse as well.  As reading for most people is time consuming it can be a hard juggling act to find the balance between reading what you need to read (for work or schooling) and reading what you want to read.  What’s the cure? I don’t know, but maybe learning how to read — and how to read quickly – will be a start.

Yesterday, Stephen McDonald pointed me to an article entitled How to Speed Read Like Theodore Roosevelt.

Today, James H. Grant, Jr. recommended the book How to Read a Book.

Now I just need to find enough time to read both the article and the book.  ;-)

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