Iain Broome

A personal weblog. By Iain Broome, novelist, copywriter and founder of Write for Your Life.

Five unrules for writing 

bobulate:

We All Need Words point out that “That’s not what I was taught at school” are words we hear a lot. They post five unrules:

5. Write short or ‘fragmented’ sentences.
4. Split infinitives.
3. Use contractions (eg that’s instead of that is).
2. Don’t sign off letters with ‘Yours Sincerely if you know the person you’re writing to or ‘Yours Faithfully’ if you don’t.
1. And you can start a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘but’.

And a bonus rule from Kurt Vonnegut:

Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.

Ignore Microsoft Word’s green squiggly line. Dare I say, ignore Word altogether. There. Just in time for school.

I can add no more. Perfect.

Source: bobulate

99 notesShowHide

  1. tbjlikes reblogged this from bobulate
  2. pro-crastinate reblogged this from iainbroome
  3. sari-skirt reblogged this from bobulate and added:
    All I really need to know I learned on Tumblr.
  4. estrellascomodiamantes reblogged this from iainbroome
  5. kiloboxold reblogged this from bobulate
  6. nothingplaces reblogged this from iainbroome and added:
    Wow, I learned 6 things today already. I shall not use semicolon anymore. Never. (but i really love semicolons, yknow?)...
  7. thevampsfreako reblogged this from iainbroome
  8. bostonmargy reblogged this from iainbroome
  9. rockandrora reblogged this from boltinthenight and added:
    We All Need Words point out that we hear “That’s not what I was taught at school” are words we hear a lot. They post...
  10. just-another-tragedy reblogged this from iainbroome
  11. opheliahyde reblogged this from oxygensonata and added:
    But I like semi-colons; they are my BFFs.
  12. break-blow-burn reblogged this from iainbroome
  13. iainbroome reblogged this from bobulate and added:
    I can add no more. Perfect.
  14. archalisa reblogged this from bobulate and added:
    The rules we’re taught at school are stifling. It’s why I’m horrible at writing papers, so many freakin’ rules to...
  15. thecollectedworksof reblogged this from austinkleon