Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace
Copyright. J M Williams, U Chicago Press, 1997 (edited to fit by jww) What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. --Samuel Johnson

1. Thoughtful: your readers probably know less than you do about your subject; so you must be clearer than you think you need to be.
2. Correct: Write not as the grammarians say you must write, but as writers you admire actually write.
3. Clear: Put your important characters in subjects, then join those subjects with verbs that name their specific actions.
4. Cohesive: Arrange the flow of information in each sentence so that you move readers from information that is familiar to them to information that is new.
5. Coherent: Begin series of sentences in a unified passage in a consistent way, with words that your readers will think constitute a reasonable unified set of ideas. Do not begin sentences randomly.
6. Emphatic: End your sentences on your rhetorically most salient, most powerful words. (Translation: emphasis at end of sentence.)
7. Pointed: Cut, cut again, then cut once more.
8. Flowing: Preserve connections betw. major grammatical parts:

   Avoid long subjects;

   Avoid interrupting connections betw. subject-verb & verb-object.

   If you must, interrupt with only a single word or short phrase.

9. Shapely:

   Keep introductory clauses and phrases short.

   Keep subjects short.

   Create coordinated structures after short subjects.

   Avoid tacking a clause or phrase of any kind onto another just like it, and especially avoid tacking on a third one.

10. Elegant: Create balanced and parallel phrases and clauses after the subject; in those phrases and clauses, echo one another's sounds, structures and ideas.