Comparable to the post's rule: in English, a few rules I've picked up are
- avoid words ending in "ly" (suffix weakens concepts; suggestion from Stephen King)
- never start a sentence with "I" and otherwise minimize its use
- "but" negates everything that came before
- avoid "to be"
Any other such suggestions, in natural or artificial languages?
Omit needless code. Omit needless code. Omit needless code.
And people so often substitute longer words, (e.g. 'myself' instead of 'me') when they want to sound professional.
"I hit myself" => OK "Please contact myself" => WRONG.
There are plenty of times to use "I" at the start of a sentence. Told by my boss "we're out of power converters", it's natural and correct to simply say/write "I will get some at Toshi station on the way in". Trying to find a sentence to say the same thing without starting with "I" is unnecessarily torturous.
The ~16 pages which are in fact about writing ("Toolbox") are worth more than the cover price.
My favourite crime author, by a long way. Who else can write about a killer and make him a sympathetic character.
That's easy, Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark. Though Block is probably my favorite crime author as well.
[1] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Wikipedia:Neu...
http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/2549...