[Billthedrill]

Good advice, most of it. Taken too far one risks falling into chatspeak cant. "U", for example, is not preferable to "You" in the interest of concision.

Neither. Are sentence. Fragments.

[Bethaneidh]

In the case of many of these prescriptions, my answer is
“Never, never, unless it’s pertinent”.

Useful advice I’ve heard and followed is simpler: Describe rather than tell, such as, “I couldn’t see the houses unless lightning struck near them, and I was in continual danger of getting wetter than was prudent.” rather than, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Usually.

Then I’ve also been told to say one and only one thing at a time. A second message cuts reader acceptance in half, so if you’ve additional messages, keep them subtle or save them for another time.

Oh, and of course pay attention in Comp class.

‘.

[Dan Baker]

True. Singling out a single word — while not grammatically correct — often works. Twitter-speak might encourage more of this.