See Harbrace Handbook 20a1.

2. AVOIDING TRITE EXPRESSIONS LIKE "EASY AS PIE"?

See Harbrace Handbook 20b and c.

3. AVOIDING PASSIVE VOICE? 

Passive voice The peace treaty ending World War II in the Pacific was signed by General Douglas MacArthur on the deck of the USS Missouri.

Active voice On the deck of the USS Missouri, General Douglas MacArthur signed the peace treaty ending World War II in the Pacific. 

        See Harbrace Handbook 29d and 7c. 

4.     AVOIDING WEAK VERBS, THOSE FORMED FROM "BE," "DO," AND "HAVE"? 

        Weak The traffic downtown today was bad. 

        Revised Heavy traffic clogged downtown streets today.

5. USING COORDINATION AND SUBORDINATION APPROPRIATELY TO SHOW RELATIONSHIP OF IDEAS IN SENTENCES?

See Harbrace Handbook  24a, b, c for suggestions on subordination and coordination, on conjunctions (see p. 10) and on subordinate conjunctions (see p. 41).

6. WRITING WITH SENTENCE VARIETY? Be sure to 

Vary sentence length.

Vary sentence openings by occasionally 

See Harbrace Handbook  30a-e

    Beginning with single-word transitions:    

    Afterward, we discussed the difficulties of being a single parent. (See
    Harbrace 3c for lists of words.)

    Beginning with prepositional, verbal, or absolute phrases:    

      Before dawn, the mountain etches its silhouette against the sky.    
      Talking around the clock, negotiators finally reached a settlement.
      Our business concluded, we decided to go out to lunch.

    Beginning with a dependent clause:

     Once Valerie had become a vegetarian, the thought of a medium-rare steak
     no longer tempted her.

Vary sentence types.

    Use an occasional question, command, and exclamation. 

    Use all the sentence types: simple, compound, complex,    
    compound-complex. (See Harbrace Handbook, 1h.)

    Use the periodic sentence (which saves its main idea for the end of the
    sentence, using phrases or dependent clauses to build up to the independent
    clause):

    For job training, for fostering an understanding of values and beliefs, for
    meeting other people with similar interests, for drama or forestry or
    philosophy, for waking yourself up--a college campus is the place.

    Use the cumulative sentence (which begins with the main idea followed
    by several phrases or dependent clauses):

    A college campus is a place for job training, for fostering an understanding
    of values and beliefs, for meeting others with similar interests, for drama or
    forestry or philosophy, for waking yourself up.

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