So long, William Safire

William Safire, one of the best NY Times op-ed writers, died today at age 79. His weekly column, "On Language", was priceless. And if you were to look in a typical English classroom, you might find a poster with a list of his rules for writers:

Remember to never split an infinitive.

A preposition is something never to end a sentence with.

The passive voice should never be used.

Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.

Don't use no double negatives.

Use the semicolon properly, always use it where it is appropriate; and never where it isn't.

Reserve the apostrophe for it's proper use and omit it when its not needed.

Do not put statements in the negative form.

Verbs have to agree with their subjects.

No sentence fragments.