Posting Guidelines - revised

A

AlastairSC

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1. Always avoid alliteration.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid clichés like the plague - they're old hat.
4. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
5. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
6. All generalisations are wrong.
7. Foreign words are not a propos.
8. Comparisions are as bad as clichés.
9. Eschew circumlocatory methods of communicating the intended concept to the recipient.
10. Understatement is always best.
11. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
12. The passive voice is to be avoided.
13. If a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
14. Who needs rhetorical questions?
15. Exaggeration is a million times worse than understatement..
16. No redundancies; don't use more words than necessary; it's superfluous.
 
This is actually an example of assonance, not alliteration.
Click to expand...

Alliteration: "having the same sound or letter at the beginning of several words" (Oxford)

So I guess it's both, Caveat!
 
Hmmm...seems the jury is out these days for some reason.

I was always led to believe that assonance=vowel sounds & alliteration = consonant sounds.

Anyway, what about:

17. I think you'll find generally that patronising posts are not too well received now are they? Good man.
 
So do you have one for pedantry?
Click to expand...

“Pedantry is the showy display of knowledge which crams our heads with learned lumber and then takes out our brains to make room for it.”

- Charles Caleb Colton (English sportsman and writer) 1780-1832

That do you, Pique318? Not aimed at Caveat, who makes a good point.
 
Last edited:
AlastairSC said:
1. Always avoid alliteration.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid clichés like the plague - they're old hat.
4. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
5. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
6. All generalisations are wrong.
7. Foreign words are not a propos.
8. Comparisions are as bad as clichés.
9. Eschew circumlocatory methods of communicating the intended concept to the recipient.
10. Understatement is always best.
11. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
12. The passive voice is to be avoided.
13. If a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
14. Who needs rhetorical questions?
15. Exaggeration is a million times worse than understatement..
16. No redundancies; don't use more words than necessary; it's superfluous.
Click to expand...
:DExcellent!
 
i think you will find assonance is for vowels internal in the word often used in poetry for rhyming as in wood, stood and could below

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Another example
"That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea" repeated use of o sounds
 
Assonance vs. alliteration?

19 Rules for Writers

1. Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.
2. Don't use no double negatives.
3. Use the semicolon properly, always use it where it is appropriate; and never where it isn't.
4. Reserve the apostrophe for it's proper use and omit it when its not needed.
5. No sentence fragments.
6. Avoid commas, that are unnecessary.
7. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
8. Hyphenate between sy-llables and avoid un-necessary hyphens.
9. Write all adverbial forms correct.
10. Don't use contractions in formal writing.
11. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
12. It is incumbent upon us to avoid archaisms.
13. Steer clear of incorrect forms of verbs that have snuck in the language.
14. Never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
15. Resist hyperbole like the plague.
16. Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration. WRONG! :D
17. Don't string too many prepositional phrases together unless you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
18. "Avoid overuse of 'quotation "marks."'".
19. Finally, eschew obfuscation.
 
sandrat said:
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth
Click to expand...

Er...surely this is simply just an example of ABAAB rhyme rather than assonance?

But generally, it seems you are correct - assonance usually refers to internal vowel sounds and not those at the beginning of a word.

So what is that then I wonder since it's not alliteration either seemingly?
 
sandrat said:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both [rhyming vowel internal to the line of verse = assonance, not end rhyme]
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could [rhyming initial consonants = alliteration]
To where it bent in the undergrowth
Click to expand...
 
Ok, after some more researching.. http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~felluga/eng241/guide241.html#alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of identical consonant or vowel sounds. Here's what C. Hugh Homan's Handbook to Literature has to say about alliteration:
A good example of consonantal alliteration is Coleridge's lines:
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free.
​
Vowel alliteration is shown in the sentence: "Apt alliteration's artful aid is often an occasional ornament in prose." Alliteration of sounds within words appears in Tennyson's lines:
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.
​
Old English versification rested in large measure on alliteration, as did much Middle English poetry

Wikipedia is obviously not as extensive as I thought. It also contradicts its self :

So seems it can be both assonance and alliteration. So 50% right, my humble apologies Caveat ;)
 
Everyone highly recommended. But the tin hat goes to AlastairSC - cardboard boxes are not sufficiently robust:D
 
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