69. "Now we're writing again, and that's great."

"Not so many years ago, e-mail was brand new. When it first came out, many teachers and writers were concerned that the informal way people write e-mails would have a bad effect on people's writing in general. However, before e-mail, people rarely wrote letters and almost always used the phone to communicate with each other. Now we're writing again, and that's great."

From "Painless Grammar" by Rebecca Elliott, Ph.D., Barron's Educational Series, Inc.

68. "What is the difference between the way students write and the way professionas write?"

"What is the difference between the way students write and the way professionas write?

Easy question--here is the difference:

Average student: write it, hand it in

Above-average student: write it, edit it, rewrite it, hand it in

Exceptional student: write it, edit it, rewrite it, edit it, rewrite it, hand it in

Professional writer: write it, edit it, rewrite it, edit it, rewrite it, edit it, rewrite it, edit it, rewrite it, edit it, rewrite it, hand it in

Good writing is 20 percent inspiration and 80 percent cleanup."


From "Painless Grammar" by Rebecca Elliott, Ph.D., published by Barron's Educational Series, Inc.

67. "Even worse than lots of exclamation points are double exclamation points!!"

"Some people use exclamation points all the time! Every single sentence is so excited it jumps for joy! Nothing looks sillier than a paragraph like this! Even worse than lots of exclamation points are--oh, no, not those!!--double exclamation points!! In formal writing, never (and I do mean never!!) use double exclamation points! In fact, don't use many exclamation points at all. Not every sentence you write is exciting enough to deserve an exclamation point, and too many make your reader tired."

From "Painless Grammar" by Rebecca Elliott, Ph.D., published by Barron's Educational Series, Inc.