Update on Roberts Clan March 2013

Life is crazy, I volunteer at Emma and Alex's preschool twice a week, take care of my sister Mary 5 days a week, go to school fulltime... was still able to pull off some good grades for the first half of the semester. Second half of the semester I am taking an American Cultural History course that covers from the Civil War through "How Rock'n'Roll Changed America" and also taking a women's studies class for my minor, called Gender, Drugs and Alcohol. Also, Alex lost his first baby tooth and Emma has her first loose tooth. Everyone is growing up too fast!

How to Write Good

The first set of rules was written by Frank L. Visco and originally published in the June 1986 issue of Writers' digest.
The second set of rules is derived from William Safire's Rules for Writers.

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My several years in the word game have learnt me several rules:
Avoid Alliteration. Always. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.) Employ the vernacular. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive. Contractions aren’t necessary. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos. One should never generalize. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”	Comparisons are as bad as cliches. Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous. Profanity sucks. Be more or less specific. Understatement is always best. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement. One word sentences? Eliminate. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake. The passive voice is to be avoided. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed. Who needs rhetorical questions?

Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas. It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions. Avoid archaeic spellings too. Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before. Don't use commas, that, are not, necessary. Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively. Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice. Subject and verb always has to agree. Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct. Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to catch typograhpical errers. Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed. Don't never use no double negatives. Poofread carefully to see if you any words out. Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.

Eschew obfuscation. No sentence fragments. Don't indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions. A writer must not shift your point of view. Don't overuse exclamation marks!! Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing. Always pick on the correct idiom. The adverb always follows the verb. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing. And always be sure to finish what

The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown by Claire Ridgway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This really was a countdown to Anne Boleyn's fall. After a brief introduction, the book jumps straight into Summer of 1535 and The Royal Progress. It doesn't just end with the execution of Queen Anne; There are a few short chapters on Jane Seymour and a sort of "where they are now" of many of the royal "players" after Anne's execution. It was very informative, clearly written and interesting.

I am a history major with a concentration is on US history, therefore, although I have studied some European and Asian history, it has been mostly in a general context which covered vast periods of time. From this book I was able to get a better understanding of a very specific period of history; Henry VIII's "love life" from 1535-1536.

I also wanted to mention, that the author used footnotes, but although the number was there, I was unable to find the corresponding footnote, unless I went to her website where she listed Notes and Sources plus a full Bibliography. I found that a bit tedious and inconvenient.

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