GRAMMAR

Most of us were taught that a preposition is not a good word with which to end a sentence. A small boy, home sick with a cold, managed to come up with a sentence that ends with five of them in a row: Mom, what did you bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of up for?

Bits & Pieces, May 27, 1993, p. 1.

William Safire gives a lighthearted look at grammar and good usage. The following are "fumblerules." Mistakes that call attention to the rule:

Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.
No sentence fragments.
It behooves us to avoid archaisms.
Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration.
Don't use no double negatives.
If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times: Resist hyperbole.
Avoid commas, that are not necessary.
Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Writing carefully, dangling participles should not be used.
Kill all exclamation points!!!
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Take the bull by the hand, and don't mix metaphors.
Don't verb nouns.
Never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
Last but not least, avoid clich�s like the plague.

William Safire, Fumblerules, Published by Doubleday.

1. Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.
2. Just between you and I, case is important.
3. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
4. Watch out for irregular verbs which has crope into our language.
5. Don't use no double negatives.
6. A writer musn't shift your point of view.
7. When dangling, don't use participles.
8. Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.
9. Don't write a run-on sentence you got to punctuate it.
10. About sentence fragments.
11. In letters themes reports articles and stuff like that we use commas to keep a long string of items apart.
12. Don't use commas, which aren't necessary.
13. Its important to use apostrophe's right.
14. Don't abbrev.
15. Check close to see if you any words out, and be careful to check everthing for spelling.

Dear Sir: you never past me in grammar because you was prejudiced but I got this here athaletic scholarship any way. Well, the other day I finely got to writing the rule's down so as I can always study it if they ever slip my mind.

1. Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.
2. Just between you and I, case is important.
3. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
4. Watch out for irregular verbs which has crope into our language.
5. Don't use double negatives.
6. A writer mustn't shift your point of view.
7. When dangling, don't us participles.
8. Join clauses good, lie a conjunction should.
9. Don't write a run-on sentence you got to punctuate it.
10. About sentence fragments.
11. In letters themes reports articles and stuff like that we use commas to keep a string of items apart.
12. Don't use commas, which aren't necessary.
13. Its important to apostrophe's right.
14. Don't abbrev.
15. Check to see if you any words out.
16. In my opinion I think that an author when he is writing shouldn't get into the habit of making use of too many unnecessary words that he does not really need in order to put his message across.

Peter Wallace, Kethiv Qere, DTS.