Those of you who frequent Linkedin may have seen a recent discussion amongst some of the older PLS alums on "Prof. Cronin's Checklist" - a writing style guide compiled by Professor Cronin and distributed to his students. Never one to be left out of the fun, I emailed one of said older alums and asked for a copy of it.
The Checklist is awesomeness, all 41 pages of it. It describes the purpose of a Checklist as " To identify what is rubble and how to get rid of it. Then, when all the rubble is cleared away, one will find what has always been underneath it—just plain good earth. Usually, only weeds grow in rubble. So let your hands get ink-stained in the good earth. You may not grow exotic orchids, neither you will grow weeds." It also includes lines like, "a Notre Dame priest of long ago—“in my time”—used to speak of the 'sanctity of the sentence.'"
The majority of it is just a long list of stylistic tips, useful but perhaps redundant for most of us. Nonetheless, I found it a nice glimpse at one of the great PLS figures of times past and perhaps a helpful refresher for those of us who are still writing.
Let me know if you would like a copy, and I am happy to email it to you!
-LC
The Checklist is awesomeness, all 41 pages of it. It describes the purpose of a Checklist as " To identify what is rubble and how to get rid of it. Then, when all the rubble is cleared away, one will find what has always been underneath it—just plain good earth. Usually, only weeds grow in rubble. So let your hands get ink-stained in the good earth. You may not grow exotic orchids, neither you will grow weeds." It also includes lines like, "a Notre Dame priest of long ago—“in my time”—used to speak of the 'sanctity of the sentence.'"
The majority of it is just a long list of stylistic tips, useful but perhaps redundant for most of us. Nonetheless, I found it a nice glimpse at one of the great PLS figures of times past and perhaps a helpful refresher for those of us who are still writing.
Let me know if you would like a copy, and I am happy to email it to you!
-LC
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