Don’t Do That!

I love rules that violate themselves. Somewhere on the Internet, I’m sure, you’ll find a long list. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Avoid cliches like the plague.
• A preposition is something you should never end a sentence with.
• Every sentence a verb.
• Eschew obfuscation.
• No more than one exclamation point is needed for emphasis!!!!!

And here are a few that I came up with myself:

• An affectation unnecessary is word order inverted.
• It must have an antecedent.
• Using a mixed metaphor will dump a bucket of cold water on your souffle.
• A comma-splice is when two independent clauses are connected with the word “and” and a comma-splice is poor usage and you should avoid comma-splices.