A Modified Tech Writer Motto

I don’t generally display comics that contain a grawlix, but the tech writer motto is about as bad. Here’s the comic:

The tech writer motto is RTFM.

I’ll let you figure it out, but the first word is “read” and the last word is “manual.”

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I’d say it needs about a dozen more stanzas. You’re invited to write one or more in the comments.

I’d call the one labeled “unreal” “subjunnctive,” which is the more common name.

Sigh. Another hobbyhorse of mine. Redundancy is when you say (or write) the same thing twice, unnecessarily repeating yourself. You don’t need both “first” and “original.”

I got it from a friend-of-a-friend’s Facebook post.

A misplaced “only”! Always put “only” immediately before the word it modifies, not at the beginning of the whole clause.

It’s “We need only one.” harrumpf.

You can find more examples of this pleonasm by doing a search in the upper right corner for “only.”

This one merits a comment or two:

Question:

Should I use a comma in this sentence, “My friend Tom earns 300 dollars in a week.”?
My reply:
You need two commas, one before and one after “Tom.”

My comment:

—or no commas! This is a good example of the difference between restrictive and non-restrictive phrases.

• Saying “my friend Tom” says that Tom is one of your friends. It’s restrictive.
• Saying “my friend, Tom,” adds the extra (technically unnecessary) information that your best friend’s name is “Tom.” It’s non-restrictive. You can remove what’s between the commas without changing the meaning of the sentence.