> [!cite]- Metadata > 2025-05-27 21:50 > Status: #primary #book > Lexicon: [[Writing & World-Building]] > Tags: [[Aesthetics]] [[Design]] [[Engineering]] [[Fiction]] [[Language]] [[Craft]] [[Creativity]] [[Heuristics]] [[Structure]] [[Synthesis]] `Read Time: 3m 44s` A classic guide to writing clearly and concisely in English. Seven Rules of Usage Eleven Principles of Composition A few matters of form A list of words and expressions commonly misused Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. --- I. Elementary Rules of Usage 1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's Ex. Charles's Poems Bruns's friends The pronominal possessives hers, its, theirs, yours and ours have no apostrophe. Indefinite pronouns use the apostrophe to add possession one's rights somebody else's umbrella 2. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last. Gold, Silver, and Copper He opened the letter, read it, and made notes of its contents. This comma is often referred to as the "serial" comma. In the names of business firms the last comma is usually omitted. 3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas. The best way to see a country, unless you are pressed for time, is to travel on foot. This rule is difficult to apply, it is frequently hard to decide if a single word, such as however, or a brief phrase is or is not parenthetic. If the interruption to the flow is but slight, the commas may be safely omitted. A name or a title in direct address is parenthetic. If, Sire, you refuse, I cannot predict what will happen. Well, Susan, this is a fine mess you are in. The abbreviations etc., i.e., and e.g., the abbreviations for academic degrees, and titles that follow a name are parenthetic and should be punctuated accordingly Letters, packages, etc., should go here. Horace Fulsome, Ph.D., presided. The Reverend Harry Lang, S.J. No comma, however, should separate a noun from a restrictive term of identification. Billy the Kid The novelist Jane Austen William the Conqueror The poet Sappho Although Junior, with its abbreviation Jr., had commonly been regarded as parenthetic, logic suggests that it is, in fact, restrictive and therefore not in need of a comma. Nonrestrictive clauses are parenthetic, as are similar clauses introduced by conjunctions indicating time or place. Commas are therefore needed. A nonrestrictive clause is one that does not serve to identify or define the antecedent noun. The audience, which had at first been indifferent, became more and more interested. In 1769, when Napoleon was born, Corsica had but recently been acquired by France. In these sentences, the clauses introduced by which, when, and where are nonrestrictive; they do not limit or define, they merely add something. In the first example, the clause introduced by which does not serve to tell which of the possible audiences is meant; the reader presumably knows that already. The clause adds, parenthetically, a statement supplementing that in the main clause. Each of the three sentences is a combination of two statements that might have been made independently. The audience was at first indifferent. Later it became more and more interested. Coleridge wrote *The Rime of the Ancient Mariner* at Nether Stowey. Nether Stowey is a few miles from bridgewater. Restrictive clauses, by contrast, are not parenthetic and are not set off by commas. Thus, People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Here the clause introduced by *who* does serve to tell which people are meant; the sentence, unlike the sentences above, cannot be split into two independent statements. The same principle of comma use applies to participial phrases and to appositives. People sitting in the rear couldn't hear. (restrictive) Uncle Bert, being slightly deaf, moved forward. (non-restrictive) My cousin Bob is a talented harpist. (restrictive) Our oldest daughter, Mary, sings. (nonrestrictive) When the main clause of a sentence is preceded by a phrase or a subordinate clause, use a comma to set off these elements. Partly by hard fighting, partly by diplomatic skill, they enlarged their dominions to the east and rose to royal rank with the possession of Sicily. 4. Place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause. --- ### **References**