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Murder your darlings: Difference between revisions
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*", whether ... or otherwise," - kill it. Go on, just kill it. You'll feel so much better. | *", whether ... or otherwise," - kill it. Go on, just kill it. You'll feel so much better. | ||
*''We may, but shall not be obligated to, ...'': collapses quite happily down to “we may ...”. | *''We may, but shall not be obligated to, ...'': collapses quite happily down to “we may ...”. | ||
*And while we're on the subject of obligations, | *And while we're on the subject of obligations, “[[obligated]]” is only a word if you have some kind of aversion to verbs: It is a {{tag|verb}}, inevitably used in the {{tag|passive}} (I am ''[[obliged]]'') that was then [[nominalisation|nominalised]] into a noun (I am subject to an ''[[obligation]]'') and then inexpertly converted back to a verb again (I am ''[[obligated]]''). There's a better, {{tag|active}}, English {{tag|verb}}: “[[must]]”. | ||
*''Please be advised/please be aware/please note'': If your intended audience is reading and has the intellectual capacity to comprehend your prose, you may be assured it is being advised, becoming aware, and taking note. If it is not, | *''Please be advised/please be aware/please note'': If your intended audience is reading and has the intellectual capacity to comprehend your prose, you may be assured it is being advised, becoming aware, and taking note. If it is not, asking an audient to do so won't make a damn of difference. | ||
*''The parties agree that...'': A curiously redundant thing to write, it being an agreement and everything. Try something novel - ''don't say it''. | *''The parties agree that...'': A curiously redundant thing to write, it being an agreement and everything. Try something novel - ''don't say it''. | ||
{{c|Plain English}} | {{c|Plain English}} | ||