RE: Rules for Expository Writing

["Carnall, Jane" <Jane -dot- Carnall -at- compaq -dot- com>]

Dick Margulis' teacher ruled:
>20. If you find a sentence in your essay that you are particularly fond
>of, delete it. [I like Bruce Byfield's version better. He wrote: "I've
>heard this rule formulated in two ways. One of my teachers phrased it as
>"'Murder your darlings.' Robert Graves said, 'The writer's best friend
>is the wastebasket.'"]

"Read over your compositions and, when you meet a passage which you think is
particularly fine, strike it out." (Samuel Johnson)

And "Murder your darlings" is Dorothy L. Sayers (I believe - though she may
have been quoting someone else...).

Jane Carnall
Technical Writer and Compendium
of Useless and Arcane Knowledge

Unless stated otherwise, these opinions are mine, and mine alone.


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