Words Fail Me (22 page)

The New York Public Library Writers' Guide to Style and Usage.
Edited by Andrea J. Sutcliffe. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction.
William Zinsser. 5th ed. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994.

The Reader over Your Shoulder: A Handbook for Writers of English Prose.
Robert Graves and Alan Hodge. New York: Macmillan, 1943.

Simple & Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers.
Jacques Barzun. Revised ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

Style: Toward Clarity and Grace.
Joseph M. Williams. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English.
Patricia T. O'Conner. New York: River-head Books, 1998.

Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing.
John R. Trimble. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1975.

academic writing,
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,
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,
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,
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active verbs,
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,
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adjectives,
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overuse of,
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unnecessary,
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See also
modifiers

adverbs,
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-
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overuse of,
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-
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unnecessary,
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-
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See also
modifiers

Allen, Woody,
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and,
beginning sentences with,
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anecdotes:

beginning with,
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,
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humorous,
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,
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,
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arguments, building,
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-
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Astaire, Fred,
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audience.
See
readers

Austen, Jane,
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,
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,
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autobiographical writing,
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,
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,
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Baldwin, James,
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Balzac, Honoré de,
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,
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,
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Beattie, Ann,
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because,
confusing use of,
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beginnings,
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,
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believable writing,
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Bible,
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Bishop, Elizabeth,
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,
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Blake, Robert,
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borrowing from other writers,
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breaks:

in paragraphs,
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from writing,
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Brontë, Emily,
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,
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Brooks, Mel,
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but,
beginning sentences with,
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Capote, Truman,
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Chapman, Graham,
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children's literature,
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,
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chronological approach,
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Churchill, Winston,
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clarity,
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,
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in use of pronouns,
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-
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of time and place,
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Cleese, John,
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Coltrane, John,
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comma,
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computers:

grammar-checkers,
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the Internet,
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,
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spell-checkers,
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,
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conjunctions,
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Conrad, Joseph,
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contractions,
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Cooper, James Fenimore,
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Cosby, Bill,
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Coyote, Wile E.,
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creativity,
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criticism,
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dashes,
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Davis, Miles,
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DeCaro, Frank,
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denial, back-door,
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Dickens, Charles,
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,
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dictionaries,
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Didion, Joan,
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dishonest writing,
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Disraeli, Benjamin,
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,
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Downs, Hugh,
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echo effect,
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Edison, Thomas,
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effortless, writing that seems,
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Einstein, Albert,
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Ellison, Ralph,
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emotion,
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Estleman, Loren D.,
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euphemisms,
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exaggeration,
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humorous,
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,
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exclamation point,
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expectations of readers,
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explanations,
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clarity of,
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of subject matter,
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fear of readers,
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fiction writing,
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first-person use in,
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point of view in,
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,
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what, why, and how,
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-
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first drafts,
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See also
revision

first-person writing,
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See also I

Fisher, M. F. K.,
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Fitzgerald, F. Scott,
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Flaubert, Gustave,
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,
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flexibility, importance of,
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Ford, Ford Madox,
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foreign phrases,
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former/latter,
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France, Anatole,
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Fraser, Antonia,
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Fraser, Kennedy,
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Frazier, Ian,
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Freud, Sigmund,
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Friedan, Betty,
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Gamow, George,
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Gettysburg Address,
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good writing,
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Graham, Virginia,
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grammar,
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computer grammar-checkers,
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misconceptions about,
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Graves, Robert,
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Greene, Graham,
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habit, writing as a,
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-
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See also
work habits

he/him,
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Heimel, Cynthia,
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Hemingway, Ernest,
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-
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,
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,
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here,
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here/there,
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Herodotus,
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him/he,
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Hitchcock, Alfred,
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Hodge, Alan,
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Hogan, Ben,
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honesty in writing,
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Hoyle, Fred,
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humor,
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,
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anecdotal,
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exaggeration in,
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Hurston, Zora Neale,
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I,
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I/me,
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ideas,
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,
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illogical writing,
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,
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See also
logical writing

imagery,
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imagination of readers,
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incongruity in humor,
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indirect writing,
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scientific,
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infinitive form of verbs,
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splitting,
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insensitive writing,
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Internet,
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introductory material,
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Ishiguro, Kazuo,
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it,
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its/it's,
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jargon,
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Jefferson, Thomas,
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Jekyll, Gertrude,
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Johnson, Samuel,
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journalists,
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See also
newspapers

Joyce, James,
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Kael, Pauline,
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King, Martin Luther, Jr.,
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Kingsolver, Barbara,
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Krakauer, Jon,
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Kuwait, oil-rich,
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latter/former,
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Lawrence, D. H.,
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lay/lie,
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length:

of paragraphs,
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of sentences,
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Leonard, Elmore,
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Levi, Primo,
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lie/lay,
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Lincoln, Abraham,
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list making,
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logical order,
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logical writing,
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Lopez, Barry,
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Macdonald, Ross,
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Mailer, Norman,
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manipulative writing,
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See also
indirect writing

Margolis, Matthew,
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McCourt, Frank,
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McCullers, Carson,
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me,
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me/I,
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Melville, Herman,
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,
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Milton, John,
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Mitchell, Joseph,
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modifiers,
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illogical use of,
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-
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imaginative use of,
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-
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misplaced,
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monotonous use of,
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overuse of,
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,
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placement in sentence,
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prefabricated,
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rhyming,
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unnecessary,
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,
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See also
adjectives; adverbs

Moncrieff, C. K. Scott,
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Moore, Marianne,
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Morton, Charles W.,
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mystery writing,
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Nabokov, Vladimir,
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Naipaul, V. S.,
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newspaper clippings,
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newspapers,
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,
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,
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,
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Nixon, Richard,
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none,
as plural,
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not,
confusing use of,
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notes and note-taking,
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,
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,
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nouns,
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