The rules
- Say each thing once, since words that repeat a meaning are errors: return the book, not return the book back.
- Replace padded phrases with the plain word: because, not due to the fact that; if, not in the event that; since, not being as.
- Prefer an active verb to a noun made from it or a needless passive: the council decided, not the decision was made by the council.
- The shortest option is right only if it keeps the meaning: almost nothing but bamboo is not the same as nothing but bamboo.
- Put only and not right next to what they limit: open only on weekdays; not every frog is green.
- A long modifier does not make a sentence, so the subject still needs its own verb: the stone, found in 1799 and carved in three scripts, helped scholars.
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