William Lewis Safire (17 December 1929 – 27 September 2009) was an American author, presidential speechwriter, and political columnist for the New York Times. He started his career in public relations in 1955 and while working for Richard Nixon, set up the famous "Kitchen Debate” in Moscow in 1959 between Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev.

As a public relations professional working in politics it is not surprising that he developed a strong interest in the power of words. He joined the New York Times in 1973 as a political columnist but, from 1979, also wrote a column, On Language, in the New York Times Magazine, which focussed on words and other language topics. He published several books on language as well as politics.

Safire was engaged on Nixon's Presidential campaign in 1968 writing speeches and developing strategies on how to overcome Nixon’s image as a two-time loser and to get him into the White House. After the victory, Safire became a senior speechwriter for Nixon and his Vice-President, Spiro Agnew.

In 1968 he published The New Language of Politics (later republished as Safire's Political Dictionary), which he described as:

… an inventory of inventive invective, a lexicon of the words and phrases that have misled multitudes, blackened reputations, held out false hopes, oversimplified ideas to appeal to the lowest common denominator, shouted down inquiry and replaced searching debate with stereotypes that trigger applause or hatred.

He joined the New York Times as a political columnist in 1973 and won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for work on a now obscure financial scandal. In 1996 Safire called Hillary Clinton a congenital liar in his column, which prompted US President Bill Clinton to famously say that he would have liked to punch him in the nose.

In 1979, Safire started the On Language column, in which he explored popular and political usage of the English language. He had a devoted following of correspondents that he called his Lexicographic Irregulars.

He wrote a total of ten books on English, becoming one of the most widely read writers on the language. In his books he included several list of rules for writers, which are very good indeed. Here are twenty of the best.

Twenty rules for writers from William Safire

1. Remember to never split an infinitive.
2. A preposition is something never to end a sentence with.
3. The passive voice should never be used.
4. Do not put statements in the negative form.
5. No sentence fragments.
6. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
7. A writer must not shift your point of view.
8. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
9. Don't overuse exclamation marks!!!
10. Don't use contractions in formal writing.
11. It is incumbent on us to avoid archaisms.
12. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
13. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, resist hyperbole.
14. Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration.
15. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague …
16. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
17. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
18. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
19. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
20. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.