My wife found the following list among her papers, so I don't know to whom to credit them. I thought you might find them useful and amusing. After the list I'll add comments about it.

GRAMMAR AIDS

1. Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.

2. Don't use no double negatives.

3. Use the semicolon properly, always use it where 
it is appropriate; and never where it isn't.

4. Reserve the apostrophe for it's proper use and 
omit when its not needed.

5. Do not put statements in the negative form.

6. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

7. No sentence fragments.

8. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

9. Avoid commas, that are not necessary.

10. If you reread your work, you will find on rereading 
that a great deal of repetition can be avoided by 
rereading and editing.

11. A writer must not shift your point of view.

12. Eschew dialect, irregardless.

13. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.

14. Don't overuse exclamation marks!!!

15. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially 
in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their 
antecedents.

16. Steer clear of incorrect forms of verbs that have 
snuck in the language.

17. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixed metaphors.

18. Never use repetitive redundancies.

19. Also avoid awkward or affected alliteration.

20. Always pick on the correct idiom.

21. The adverb always follows the verb.

22. Last but not least, avoid clichés like the plague; 
seek viable alternatives.

To be honest, I see no problem with sentences 5 and 21 as they stand. (I can't imagine saying or writing, "The adverb follows always the verb.") And I often violate 13 deliberately, though more often with "but" than with "and". In the papers I receive from Colgate students, I see few violations of 1, 2, 6, 10, 14, 15, 17 and 19. I hope and believe that 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16 and 22 are clear and convincing, though such errors do creep into student papers occasionally. That leaves 3, 4, 18 and 20.

• 3. The word "however" is very popular with students, as a fancier-sounding substitute for "but"; but that is a misuse of the word from a grammatical point of view. It is an adverb, not a conjunction, so it cannot link the clauses of a compound sentence. Thus, if two otherwise complete sentences are linked with "however", the first should end with a semicolon, acting as a weak period. The following examples are correct: "Donald is a strange duck, but I still like him." ["But" is a conjunction.] "Donald is a strange duck; however, I still like him." (The semicolon after "substitute for 'but'" above is playing another role of that punctuation mark, that of strong comma, because the clauses linked by the "but" that follows each have commas within them.) Two other adverbs that are commonly misused as conjunctions in the same way are "therefore" and "indeed." In quoting Donald Hegsted for their responses to his comments in the first article we read, many students incorrectly turned his two sentences into a single sentence with an incorrect "comma splice". It should have read, "One does not need to know all of the answers before one can make practical recommendations. Indeed, if we take that position, we will never make recommendations." [I have added a comma after "Indeed" for the ease of the reader, but it is not required.]
• 4. My wife says this is one of her pet peeves; it's one of mine, too. Signs with misused apostrophes are a blight on the landscape, and almost every student paper contains at least one such error.
• 18. I think redundancy is often used deliberately as a way of extending papers to a required length, but it tries my patience.
• 22. Students often misuse an idiom in an attempt to sound more formal or learned or emphatic or ... or just to avoid repeating a word used earlier. Sometimes the intent is clear, but the ambiguity can be amusing. (Popeye to his goilfrien', who is loudly proclaiming her peril: "Clams yourself, Olive!" Did he mean, "Calm yourself" or "Clam up!"?)