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If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing.

William Safire

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William Safire
Age: 79 †
Born: 1929
Born: December 17
Died: 2009
Died: September 27
Author
Columnist
Journalist
Writer
New York City
New York
William Lewis Safire
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The remarkable legion of the unremarked, whose individual opinions are not colorful or different enough to make news, but whose collective opinion, when crystallized, can make history.
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I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.
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Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation.
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Previously known for its six syllables of sweetness and light, reconciliation has become the political fighting word of the year.
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Never put the story in the lead. Let 'em have a hot shot of ambiguity right between the eyes.
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Sometimes I know the meaning of a word but am tired of it and feel the need for an unfamiliar, especially precise or poetic term, perhaps one with a nuance that flatters my readership's exquisite sensitivity.
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The Latin motto over Poindexter's new Pentagon office reads Scientia Est Potentia - knowledge is power. Exactly: the government's infinite knowledge about you is its power over you.
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I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.
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Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.
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George Washington had a tough second term.
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On the analogy of 'Dictionary Johnson,' we call Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the just-published Yale Book of Quotations (well worth the $50 price), 'Quotationeer Shapiro.' Shapiro does original research, earning his 1,067-page volume a place on the quotation shelf next to Bartlett's and Oxford's.
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Cast aside any column about two subjects. It means the pundit chickened out on the hard decision about what to write about that day.
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When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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You don't overturn a previous court's decisions lightly and I think most Americans are somewhere in the middle on abortion and there's not going to be a revolution here at all.
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Never look for the story in the 'lede.' Reporters are required to put what's happened up top, but the practiced pundit places a nugget of news, even a startling insight, halfway down the column, directed at the politiscenti. When pressed for time, the savvy reader starts there.
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By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
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The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.
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Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
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Took me a while to get to the point today, but that is because I did not know what the point was when I started.
William Safire
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It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
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