Today's writing tip is on double negatives

I was listening to a local radio station recently -- I won't give you the name because I never kiss and tell -- and one of the announcers was talking about the Nortel pension crisis. He said, "Most people are not going to get nothing." Using a double negative is always awkward. My announcer would have been better off saying, "Most people are going to get something." Not only does that sentence work better grammatically, but it also leaves the listener with a more positive impression about pension funds.

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