TITLE: Patterns in My Writing AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: July 07, 2008 1:58 PM DESC: ----- BODY: While reading this morning I came across a link to this essay. College students should read it, because it points out many of the common anti-patterns in the essays that we professors see -- even in papers written for computer science courses. Of course, if you read this blog, you know that my writing is a poster child for linguistic diffidence, and pat expressions are part of my stock in trade. It's sad to know that these anti-patterns make up so much of my word count. This web page also introduced me to Roberts's book Patterns in English. With that title, I must check it out. I needed a better reason to stop by the library than merely to return books I have finished. Now I have one. -----