the Zealous

Sometimes it's a good idea to remind ourselves of that which makes this place special: the Redline Membership Code of Conduct:

Redline is a global association of Legal Professionals dedicated to elevating our profession – legal artisans coming together in a unique and dynamic online collaboration environment. Members must treat each other with the utmost courtesy, respect and consideration. Conduct that violates these norms, in our sole judgment, may result in account termination, including without limitation: (a) ad hominem attacks; (b) submitting Content that calls into question another Member's honesty, judgment, competence or intelligence in a personal and belittling way; (c) revealing another Member's identity when that Member has chosen anonymity; (d) posting private correspondence openly in public; (e) impersonating any person or entity or misrepresenting any affiliation or relationship; (f) forging headers or manipulating identifiers or otherwise disguising or attempting to disguise origin; (g) sending unsolicited marketing, spam, or similar materials; (h) stalking or otherwise harassing or abusing a Member; (i) using a Member's Content against that Member in any litigation or negotiation in order to show inconsistency or contradiction, in violation of section 8.2; and (j) conduct that would violate applicable standards of professional responsibility or these Terms. In addition, reference is made to the Core Rules of Netiquette, with which you agree to comply to the best of your ability:

1) remember the human;
2) adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life;
3) know where you are in cyberspace;
4) respect other people's time and bandwidth;
5) make yourself look good online;
6) share expert knowledge;
7) help keep flame wars under control;
8) respect other people's privacy;
9) don't abuse your power; and
10) be forgiving of other people's mistakes.

A federal district court in Massachusetts has reminded all of us legal drafters that even the most trivial article in the English language can make or break your client's case.

Software coder Eric Suh writes, in a piece entitled, Writing code and prose:

One of the most important qualities for effective programming in large codebases is good writing ability—not writing code, but writing prose for other humans.
 
Undoubtedly, this is not a surprise to long-time industry veterans (after all, we don't often program in machine code anymore), but it's a quality I often find is overlooked by engineers that arrive straight out of college. Those that I see write the cleanest, most maintainable code are those who write prose well, whether in documentation, in emails, or in their everyday lives.
 
Many aphorisms about writing style translate fairly well to coding. Consider the following selection of principles from The Elements of Style by Strunk and White:

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