How to not write bad: the most common writing problems and the best ways to avoid them

Introduction

Part I. How To Not Write Bad: The One-Word Version

Part II. How To Not Write Wrong

A. The Elements of House Style

1. Numbers and Abbreviations

2. Capitalization

3. Italics

4. There Is No Reason Ever to Use Boldface in a Piece of Writing, Except for a Section Heading (Like This)

B. Punctuation

1. '

2. -

3. -

4. ,

5. ;

6. :

7. " "

8. ( )

C. Words

1. The Single Most Common Mistake Is the Most Easily Fixable Mistake

2. Spelling

3. Wrong Word

D. Grammar

1. Sanitized

2. Skunked

3. Still Wrong

Part III. How to Not Write Bad

A. Punctuation

1. Quotation Marks

2. Exclamation Points, Dashes, Semicolons, Colons, Parentheses, Italics, and Rhetorical Questions

B. Words and Phrases

1. Really Quick Fix: Avoid These Words!

2. Short Is Good (I)

3. Precision: Words That Are a Bit Off

4. Avoid Clichés Like the Plague

5. Euphemisms, Buzzwords, and Jargon

C. Sentences

1. Word Rep.

2. Start Strong

3. End Strong

4. Short Is Good (II)

5. The Perils of Ambiguity

5. What Is the What? Or, the Trouble with Vague Pronouns

7. When You Catch a Preposition, Kill It

8. To Use to fie or Not to Use to Be

9. What the Meaning of "Is Is" Is

10. Tone

D. Sentence to Sentence, Paragraph To Paragraph

Author's Note