Classic Books on Writing: Everyday English Writing- William Leavitt Stoddard

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EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

BY

WILLIAM LEAVITT STODDARD

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1919

All rights reserved

FOREWORD

Writing is a trade in which everybody, to some
extent at least, should have a certain amount of skill.
The professional writer, the man who makes his Uving
by writing, must be highly skilled in this trade, and
years of study and experience are necessary to per-
fection. But just as everybody has to know how to
talk, so everybody must know how to write : not how
to write poems, plays, fiction, learned books and essays,
but how to write such straightforward, everyday Eng-
lish as is required in a letter, a report, a simple de-
scription, or a newspaper article.

This book is organized around the idea that, like all
good workmanship, good writing depends on clear
thinking and on skill in handUng the tools and ma-
terials of the trade. The object of this book is not
to train finished writers. The object is to show the
average girl or boy, man or woman, the importance of
being able to set down ideas and facts in written form.

This book assumes that those who study it have had
or are obtaining an elementary granamar school educa-
tion. It is intended to inform the student and to help
the student to help himself by getting him to write as
well as to read good writing, and by emphasizing again
and again that writing is nothing but clear thinking
put in black and white ; and by showing, further, that
it is within the grasp of everybody with an ordinary
mind to master the elements of writing everyday good
English.

• ••
lU

iv FOREWORD

This book is intended to-be for the beginner a kind
of vade mecum or adviser. The author has tried to
put into it the best of his own ten years of experience
as a wage-worker in the great trade of writing.

William Leavitt Stoddard.
CAMBRmoE, Mass.
February, 1919.

LANGUAGE

The following paragraphs were written by Arthur
Holder, a machinist by trade and one of the original
members of the Federal Board for Vocational Educa-
tion. They are placed at the head of this book to
serve a double purpose : to show, first, that a master
of one trade may be also a master of another; and
second, because in a few words they explain why
writing is a trade in which every good citizen should be
thoroughly trained.

“Language, as well as the faculty of speech, is one of the
greatest gifts of nature to man. Language is not only the
vehicle of thought, but it is the greatest and most efficient
instrument in the art of thinking. Language is the armory
— the workshop — of the human mind. It at once contains
the trophies of the past, the weapons of future conquest, and
the accomplishments of the day.

“Language denotes the man. A coarse or refined char-
acter naturally finds its expression either in a coarse or in a
refined style of conversation. If a man expresses his thought
in a mean and slipshod way it will be very difficult for his
thoughts to escape being construed in the way in which he
has conveyed them. If, on the other hand, a man expresses
his thought in a personal, high-flown and bombastic manner,
he cannot maintain a reputation for natural simplicity,
truthfulness, and dependability.

“Thinking cannot be made clear until it has had proper
egression. A man must write, speak, or act his thoughts
or they will remain dormant in a half-developed form.
Feelings must have expression, or they will be as misty as
clouds. Clear, clean-cut expression develops inward feelings

VI LANGUAGE

and elevates one’s character. Thought is the bud. Lan-
guage is the blossom. Action is the fruit which follows.

“Language is the gem in which a thousand precious
thoughts have been safely embedded and preserved. It has
embodied thousands of lightning flashes of genius, which,
without having been so arrested, even though as bright,’would
have passed and perished as quickly as the lightning flash.

“Words uttered by the hiunan tongue convey the mental
treasures of one generation to generations that are to come.
Words thus laden are as precious freight. They can be stored ;
they can be transported speedily and safely to immeasur-
able distances or repeated when required across gulfs of time.

“Well-expressed language has been the most effective
human instrument in behalf of Uberty, freedom, justice, and
happiness. Men who have been able to talk with clearness
and force have never become slaves. Men who can talk
never fear imposition. No earthly power can succeed in
enslaving men who can orally defend themselves with ideas
properly and forcibly expressed.

“Cultivate this heaven-born gift, and when in doubt re-
member the inspiring lines of James Russell Lowell, wherein
he thus eulogized freedom of speech :

” ‘ We will speak out, we will be heard,
Though all earth’s systems crack ;
We will not bate a single word.
Nor take a letter back.

“‘We speak the truth, and what care we
For hissing and for scorn,
While some faint gleamings we can see
Of freedom’s coming morn ?

“‘Let liars fear, let cowards shrink;
Let traitors turn away ;
Whatever we have dared to think,
That dare we also say.'”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAOB

I Writing — A Universal Trade . . . . 1

II Sentences . . . 7

III More About Sentences 19

IV Paragraphs 33

V Whole Compositions 43

VI Words 59

VII Words — Grammar 68

VIII Punctuation 77

IX How to Write a Letter 86

X Accuracy 99

XI What Shall I Write About? 113

XII Reading and Writing ‘ 120

vu

k

EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

CHAPTER I

WRITING — A UNIVERSAL TRADE

Writing is a trade in which every educated man,
woman, and child should be skilled. Writing is a trade
with which every one, no matter whether his own trade
or ”job” is that of carpenter, electrician, clerk, machin-
ist, toolmaker, bricklayer, road builder, or policeman,
ought to be familiar. Writing is a trade which any one
can master if he goes about it in the right way.

It is true that writing is often the only trade of
some people — the poets, noveUsts newspaper re-
porters and editors, and the Uke. These might be
called speciaUsts in writing, and writing is their main
occupation and way of making a living. But writing
is a universal trade which it is as necessary for every
person to know to a certain extent as it is necessary
for every person to know how to add a column of figures
and how to read and speak his native language.

This book is called “Everyday English Writing” in
order to emphasize the facts that writing is a trade,
which is of use every day, that it can be learned by
any one who can learn any trade, and that writing is
not a mysterious thing which requires some special

2 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRJTING

ability and some special “genius.” We have all heard
of a “jack-of-all-trades/’ meaning a man who has
every trade at his fingers’ tips. There are not many
jacks-of -all-trades nowadays. But every man can be
a “jack” in the trade of writing, for writing is a trade
for all jacks.

All this does not mean that some people cannot write
better than others or that some people are artists in
writing, while most of us, including many of those who
make their hving by writing, are common tradesmen
rather than experts or artists.

Why is writing a trade which every one ought to
understand and use?

Why It Is Useful

The reason is that there is hardly a Une of human
activity that does not require writing. The carpenter,
for example, ought to know how to write bills, besides
statements and business letters, how to write a report
to a union meeting, how to express himself clearly in
writing to his friends and fellows wherever they may
be. So it is with the electrician, the railroad builder,
and the machinist. The clerk who knows how to write
in addition to knowing how to use a typewriter and to
keep accounts and records, stands a better chance of
promotion and success than the clerk who thinks that
writing is something to be left to the professional writers.
The doctor ought to be able to write clear accounts of
strange cases which come under his care so that they
may be published in the medical journals. The brick-
layer needs skill in the trade of writing if he is going
to rise in his trade of masonry, for knowledge of this

r

WRITING — A UNIVERSAL TRADE 3

trade means that he can turn his hand to preparing
notices, for example, or to writing a letter to an em-
ployer which, unless it is well done, may not bring
him a job. In all the activities of school and home,
the girl or boy who can write easily and well will surely
get ahead more quickly than the boy or girl who can-
not. Sooner or later in the work of everyone there
comes a time when it is necessary to write something.

Writing and Preparedness

We are all preparing all the time to be good and
progressive citizens of this great nation. Prepared-
ness for citizenship in every walk of Ufe requires that
we shall each be equipped to write. We ought each
to know how to apply for a position in a letter which
is so excellent that it will at least lead to a favorable
interview. We ought all to know how to write for
oiu* school paper an account of a football game or base-
ball game, what happehed at a dance, what we saw
when we visited the courthouse or the state capitol
or the Capitol at Washington. Later on in life we
should be able to write to the newspapers on questions
of importance in our town or city; we might be se-
lected to write reports of conimittees. We shall serve
both our fellows and ourselves if we know how to put
ideas down on paper in such a way that they can be
understood. Surely no trade is better worth a Uttle
daily practice than this one, for no trade but that of
writing is so useful everywhere and at all times.

In order to learn the trade of writing, just two things
are absolutely necessary. They are :

1. Clear thinking.

4 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

2. Knowledge of the tools or instnunents of the
trade of writing.

As a matter of fact, these two principles apply
to every trade, whether it is writing, drawing, car-
pentry, bricklaying, or anything else.

Building a Brick Wall

For example, you cannot build a first-class brick
wall unless you have planned or thought it out clearly
in advance. Before laying a single brick it is necessary
to decide where the wall is to be erected, how deep it
is to go into the ground, how thick it is to be, how
high, how long, and, above all, for what purpose it is
intended. A cellar foundation wall is different from a
garden wall, and a wall constructed on a foundation of
stone is different from one built on solid earth. The
contractor or mason who has a brick wall to construct
never lays a single brick till he has considered all these
matters and has drawn up his specifications or plans.

But the mere planning of a w^all, necessary as it is
and vital as it is to success, will not build a brick wall.
The builder of a brick w^all must be skilled in the use
of the tools of his trade and he must have knowledge
of the materials with >vhich brick w^alls are built.
Among other things, he must be trained in the handling
of the trowel and of the mortar board, he must have
experience in chipping or cutting bricks; he should
know how to mix mortar in different kinds of weather ;
and he must be familiar with the consistency of mortar
and able to judge how much or how little to use. No
man who does not understand the principles of brick-
laying and who has not proveii that he can put these

WRITESTG — A UNIVERSAL TRADE 5

principles into practice can make even the simplest
kind of brick wall. All this is so obviously true
that no one in his senses would employ a mason to
build a wall for him without being assured that the
mason knew how to use the tools of his trade.

Writing Is Building

Now, the trade of writing is in many ways remarkably
like the trade of bricklaying. Both the writer and
the bricklayer are building something. The brick-
layer is building a structure of bricks and mortar. The
writer is building a structure of words. The brick-
layer is making, let us say, a garden wall, and the
writer is making a composition about a Fourth of
July parade. Like the bricklayer, the good writer
never begins his task till he has first outlined, that is
to say, planned, what kind of thing he is going to
write, and has decided for what purpose or to whom he
is going to write it. In other words, before writing
a line, he thinks his work through. Most of the people
who fail to write easily and well do not succeed because
they do not think or plan in advance. The trade of
writing, in short, like all trades, demands thought before
action. .

This book was prepared in order to be of assistance
to those who desire to learn something of the universal
trade of writing. In the chapters which follow this
one the student will find information about the use
of the tools of writing — words, sentences, paragraphs,
and so on. But before studying those chapters and
before actually trying to practice with the tools of
writing, the student should realize th^t back of the

6 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

use of the tools is the use of the brain, and that no
matter whether he ever writes a single page in all his
life after leaving school, this training will teach him
to use profitably the most valuable possession he has
— his own mind.

Writing Makes Thinking

Benjamin Franklin was a ” printer’s devil ” or
apprentice when he decided that if he was to succeed
in the trade of printer or in any other trade, he must
learn the trade of writing. He taught himself to
write, as is explained in Chapter III of this book.
Who knows how much of Franklin’s greatness is due
to the fact that he mastered the trade of written expres-
sion in the English language? For, before he could
write, Franklin had to think, and when a man begins
to think, really and truly to think, to think deeply and
clearly, and to plan his thinking, then his thoughts begm
to grow and his mind is ready and able to grapple wSh
problems which before it would have not dared to touch.

Franklin’s mind, trained by his exercises in writing,
thought out or discovered facts about lightning and
electricity which no one else had thought. Franklin
became a great inventor and a great statesman because
he was first of all a great thinker: that is to say, a
man who had developed his brain as an athlete develops
his body. And Franklin’s training in writing no
doubt did more to develop his brain than anything
else that he ever did. Each one of us can become more
or less of a Franklin if we ” go and do Ukewise.”

Can any one afford not to learn this trade in addition
to the trade by which he intends to earn his living?

CHAPTER II

SENTENCES

All writing consists of sentences which may be de-
fined as series of words so arranged that they express
a thought. Sentences are the basis of written and
spoken language. Words do not make sentences
unless they are arranged in accordance with the rules
of granunar, logic, or common sense, any -more than
a pile of bricks and a tub of mortar make a brick wall.
One word may be a sentence, as for example : ” Oh ! ”
or two words, as for example : ” No, indeed.” In
both these cases, the word or words convey a distinct
thought : in the first the thought of surprise, and in
the second, a definite answer to a question. These
are rather special varieties of the sentence. The
vast majority of sentences consist of three or more
words put together in a manner and according to
principles which will now be described.

The Two Parts

Every sentence should have two parts, subject
and predicate. No sentence is complete without
both a subject and a predicate, and no sentence is
clear unless it is so written that it is impossible for the
reasonable, intelligent reader to make a mistake as
to which is the subject and which is the predicate.
The subject of a sentence is the topic of the sentence,

7

8 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

the thought about which the writer is saying some-
thing. The predicate is the rest of the sentence, —
that which is said about the subject.

Let us take the following sentence as an example :
” Schools are necessary.”

The subject of this sentence is ^’ schools.” The
predicate is ” are necessary.” The topic of which
the writer of this sentence desires to write is schools,
and he desires to say that they are necessary. This
sentence is so simple that no one who can read could
possibly misunderstand what the author had in mind.
This sentence is clear, logical, and intelligible. If every
sentence were as clear and logical as this one, it would
not be necessary to write a book about how to write
or a chapter on how to write sentences.

But the average writer does not confine his efforts to
sentences of three words, and the average writer who
has not been trained in the building of sentences
does not know how to handle longer sentences well.

A Poor Sentence

Here is a sentence prepared by a writer who had
little knowledge of the elementary technique of writing.

” Leaving the public schools at an early age, no
relationship is established between the theory learned
in school and the conmiercial or shop practice.”

The first question to ask is, What is the subject
of this sentence? This is not clear as the sentence
now stands. Apparently the subject is ”no rela-
tionship,” and apparently the predicate is “is estab-
lished between the theory learned in school and the
commercial or shop practice.” If this is the case.

d

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k

is
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SENTENCES 9

however, what connection have the first eight words
^^ with the rest of the sentence? Who leave schools
~” at an early age, and what has their leaving to do with
the lack of relationship between theory and practice?
Very Ukely we can guess at what the writer means,
but no sentence should be left so that the reader has
to guess at the meaning ; that is ” sloppy writing ”
and should not be tolerated.

Reading the sentence over again gives us a clue.
It now looks as if the author wished to say that because
pupils leave school early, they do not learn the rela-
tionship between theory and practice. Without con-
sulting the author, however, we cannot be certain
that this is what he has in mind. He may not mean
because pupils leave school early, but in those cases
in which pupils leave school early they do not learn
the relationship between theory and practice. Never-
theless, it is sure that whatever the author has in
mind, the sentence as he has written it fails to be
clear. The subject and the predicate do not accoimt
for all the words in the sentence, and the words left
over are not logically connected with the rest.

A Better One

One revision of this sentence would be this :
‘^ Because many pupils leave public schools at an
early age, they do not establish a relationship ” (or,
better, ^’ learn the relationship “) ” between the
theory learned in school and (the) conmiercial or
shop practice.*’

This sentence is better. Its subject and predicate
are distinct, and there is nothing in the sentence to

10 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

confuse the reader. The real subject of this new sen-
tence is ‘* many pupils *’ and the predicate is ” do
not establish a relationship between the theory learned
in school and (the) commercial or shop practice/’
This sentence could be made still better if cast as
follows :

” Many pupils do not learn the relationship between
the theory taught in school and commercial or shop
practice because they leave the public schools at
too early an age/’

Now at last there can be no question as to the mean-
ing of this series of words. They are clear and definite.
Had the writer of the original sentence stopped a
moment before writing it and planned out carefully
just what he had in mind, and had he, in addition,
realized that the two parts of a sentence must not be
confused with each other or with anything else, he
would probably never have had any difficulty in stat-
ing so simple an idea.

More About Subject and Predicate

Let us now go back to the sentence, ” Schools are
necessary.” Let us lengthen it into this :

‘* .Modern public schools are necessary for the educa-
tion of a democracy.”

The subject of this sentence is ” Modem public
schools,” and the predicate is ” are necessary for the
education of a democracy.” This sentence, stripped
to its skeleton, so to speak, is essentially the same as
the first sentence. The subject is ‘^ schools” of a cer-
tain kind and the predicate is ” are necessary ” for
a certain purpose. The important thing for the

SENTENCES 11

reader to remember is that the words must be so
arranged that there can be no mistake as to what is
the subject and as to what is said about the subject.

Let us take another sentence :

” That modern pubUc schools, well constructed and
efficiently managed, are necessary not only for the
education of a democracy, but also for national effi-
ciency, is the claim of all leading educators and states-
men.”

This sentence is a good sentence. It has a subject
and a predicate, and in spite of the fact that it is an
inverted sentence, it is inteUigible because it is gram-
matical and clearly arranged. Let us examine it.

Analyzing Sentences

First, what is the subject of the sentence? In order
to find the subject of such a sentence as this we must
” boil it down ” to the fewest possible nimiber of
words and ferret out the basic idea. Unlike the sen-
tences considered above, the subject of this sentence
is not ” schools.” The sentence does not say that
schools are necessary or democratic. Stripped to its
skeleton this sentence would read :

” That . . . schools . . . are necessary . . . is . . .
the claim of . . .”

Now we begin to see light. Let us take one more
step and turn the sentence right side up. It would
then read ” The claim . . . is . . . that . . . schools
. . . are necessary . . .”

The subject of this sentence is clearly the word
*’ claim,” modified or qualified by other words, and

12 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

the predicate is “is that schools are necessary/’ also
modified by some other ideas. In all probability
the reason that the author of the sentence began with
the predicate and ended with the subject was because
he desired to attract the attention of the reader to
the nature of the claim made about schools rather
than to the fact that educators and statesmen had
made such a claim.

How to Shift Emphasis

If the author had wished to emphasize the fact that
educators and statesmen rather than doctors and
lawyers claimed something about schools, he would
doubtless have written his sentence in another way,
as, for example :

” Educators and statesmen claim that modern public
schools, well constructed and efficiently managed, are
necessary not only for the education of a democracy,
but also for national efficiency.”

The subject of this sentence is clearly ” educators
and statesmen,” and the predicate is ” claim that . . .
schools . . . are necessary …”

The beginner in the trade of writing can take up
no more valuable exercise than to copy down a num-
ber of sentences from a book or newspaper and study
each sentence with a view to finding out how it is
made, what is the subject, what is the predicate, and
how the different parts of the sentence are put together
so that the whole sentence is clear and understandable.
Then take any subject that comes to mind, select
a predicate, and write not one but several different
sentences expressing either the same or different ideas,

SENTENCES 13

always trying, however, to make your sentence so
clear that no one can go astray in reading it.

For example, what is the subject and what is the
predicate of the following?

” Baby carriages, gocarts and bicycles will be
checked at a small charge as heretofore/’

” Wages and other conditions of labor are improved
by the recent decision.”

” Whenever we eat or drink, our digestive organs
become active.”

” Unless you do this, unless you do it honestly
and sincerely, there is no use in asking for any more
favors.”

” A penny which is thriftily saved is as good as a
penny earned by hard work.”

Rewrite these sentences in ‘^ skeleton ” form so
that there can be no doubt as to the subject and the
predicate. Then see if you can rewrite these sen-
tences so as to make them still more clear or more
emphatic.

Names of Sentences

We now come to the names of the different kinds
of sentences. After all, there are only two general
classes of sentences. Sentences in the first class are
described from the point of view of length and make-
up ; those in the second are described from the point
of view of purpose or character.

Class I

1. Simple 3. Complex

2. Compound

14 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

Class II

1. Declarative 3. Imperative

2. Interrogative 4. Exclamatory

Every sentence is either simple, complex or com-
pound, and every simple, compound or complex sen-
tence is either declarative, interrogative, imperative
or exclamatory.

A simple sentence is a single, independent sentence
which expresses one idea. ” Schools are necessary ”
is an example of a simple sentence. ” Thousands of
well-equipped schools are necessary in a country like
the United States ” is also a simple sentence. A simple
sentence is, literally, the simplest sort of sentence.

A compound sentence is two or more independent
or simple sentences written as one sentence. ” Schools
are necessary, but schools are impossible without
books,” is a compound sentence. It is really two
separate sentences linked together : (1) ^^ Schools are
necessary,” and (2) ‘^ schools are impossible without
books.” Each part of a compound sentence has its
own subject and its own predicate.

A complex sentence is a simple sentence or a com-
pound sentence which contains a dependent clause.
That is to say, a complex sentence cannot be divided
into two or more simple sentences because the parts
are not independent. To illustrate : “If civiUzation
is to go on, schools are necessary,” is a complex sen-
tence. One part is “if civilization is to go on” ; the
other part is our old friend, ” schools are necessary.”
The first part cannot stand by itself — it is not inde-
pendent. To test a complex sentence, take it to pieces

SENTENCES 15

and see if the pieces ” make sense” by themselves.
One of them at least will not stand by itself.

Study the following sentences and convince your-
self that they are correctly described :

Simple Sentences

1. ‘^ Every one ought to be able to read and
write.”

2. ‘^ Has the storm gone by? ”

3. ” Go forward courageously.”

4. ” What fun we had ! ”

Compoimd Sentences

1. ‘^ Every one ought to be able to read and write,
but very few of us can read and write really well.”

2. ” Has the storm gone by and has the blue sky
appeared? “•

3. “Go forward courageously, never falter, never
fail.”

4. ” What fun we had ; what times those were ! ”

Complex Sentences

1. ” Every one who has any ambition ought to be
able to read and write.”

2. ” Did you see the blue sky appear, driving the
storm before it? ”

3. ” Though the way be hard, go forward coura-
geously.”

4. ” What fun we had when we were young ! ”

It is just as important to understand these differ-
ences as it is for a carpenter to understand the names
of the different kinds of saws which he uses. The work-

16 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

man who does not know what to call his tools cannot
handle them as well as he who does.

So much for Class I. In addition to falling under
one of the three heads in this class, every sentence
also falls under one of the heads in Class II, which
may be explained thus :

A declarative sentence is a sentence which declares
or states a fact or opinion. Most sentences, including
this one, are declarative.

An interrogative sentence is a sentence which asks
a question. ” Are you there? ” is a simple interroga-
tory sentence.

An imperative sentence is one that gives an order,
as, ” Go quickly.”

An exclamatory sentence expresses a sudden or
forcible feeling : ” Down with him ! ” ‘^ Great guns ! ”

Look over the sentences given above as illustrations
of Class I and you will find that the first sentence in
each group is declarative ; that the second is interroga-
tive ; the third imperative ; and the fourth exclama-
tory.

These definitions apply to all sentences. A sen-
tence may be both simple and imperative, simple
and interrogative, or simple and declarative, or simple
and exclamatory. So with compound and complex
sentences. It is a wise plan to try to name each sen-
tence in a chapter of a book — say in this chapter —
remembering that each sentence must have two names,
one from Class I, the other from Class II. Is any
sentence in this chapter neither sunple, compound,
complex, declarative, interrogative, imperative or
exclamatory ?

SENTENCES 17

Thinking and Practice

The only way to learn to write sentences is to learn
to think clearly and then to practice writing sentences.
Write long sentences and short sentences ; simple and
compound sentences — write all kinds of sentences.
Take a book written by some good writer and copy
down some sentences and think them over. See if
they are clear. See if they mean what they say and
if they say what they apparently mean. See if you
can improve on them. Write down the Lord’s Prayer
or a paragraph from Mark Twain or a speech from
Hamlet and examine the sentences. Memorize these
sentences and write them down without looking at
the book and compare your work with the original.
Did you say what Shakespeare said? If you didn’t,
what was the reason? What is it that makes the
sentences in Mark Twain, for example, so clear and
intelligible ?

Every good workman has to be something of a
critic. A mason who knows his job can tell well-
built brick walls from badly built ones, and every
mason who is worth his wages can always learn some-
thing about bricklaying from examining the work of
another man. Be a critic of your own sentences.
But never criticize except to see how to make improve-
ments. Don’t condemn a sentence as poor without
satisfying yourself why it is poor and without trying
to make it better.

Sentence writing cannot be learned in a day or by
reading a chapter in a book. To write a perfect
sentence requires knowledge of words and their mean-

18 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

ings; knowledge of punctuation; knowledge of join-
ing sentence with sentence; and knowledge of the
way to handle groups of words or phrases so as to
place them most effectively in a sentence. These
matters are treated in the next and later chapters of
this book.

CHAPTER III

MORE ABOUT SENTENCES

Let us now a little more closely examine the pro-
cesses by which a sentence is constructed. It has
been said that writing should be planned or thought
out in advance of the actual task of putting words
down on paper. How is a sentence planned? By
way of illustration, let us suppose that we wish to
write a sentence to express the idea that people who
do not think carefully can never siuxeed in life except
by sheer luck.

The careless writer will write these thoughts into
a sentence just as they come into his head. H6 may
make a fairly good sentence — and again he may not.
But whether he makes a good sentence or a poor one,
he writes badly if he does not turn over the idea or
ideas mentally and consider at least some of the many
possible methods of formulating them in words.

” People who do not think carefully can never suc-
ceed in Ufe except by sheer luck.”

What are the ideas in that sentence? Can they be
better expressed ?

It was said in the last chapter that every sentence
must have a subject and a predicate, and that the
writer must write his sentence so that there shall
be no confusion between the two. Judging by this
standard alone, the sentence as we now have it is all

19

20 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

right. The subject is ‘^ People who do not think care-
fully,” and the predicate is ” can never succeed in
life except by sheer luck.” But it is not enough for
a sentence to be clear. It must be something more
than clear. It must be forcible ; it must be effective ;
it must be so composed as to save the time of the reader
and present to his mind in the best possible way exactly
what the writer wants him to know. A sentence
which is not effective is not worth writing.

How to Write with Efficiency

The writer, therefore, should also plan out his
sentence with a view to efficiency. And to write a
sentence efficiently, the writer must know how to
marshal or arrange his ideas and words. He must
realize that there are two places in a sentence
which may be called the places of emphasis or the
strategic positions, and that words located at these
places will receive more attention than if located else-
where in a sentence. These positions are the beginning
and the end. This does not mean that words near
the beginnmg or the end or in the middle are over-
looked by the reader. Neither does it mean that
the first word has more emphasis than the second or
the third. The general rule, based on common sense,
is that what is said at or near the end or beginning
will strike the eye and hence the mind of the reader
more forcibly than what is said anywhere else in the
sentence.

To illustrate, let us suppose that the writer wishes
to emphasize the idea of careful thinking in relation
to success. He might well frame his sentence thus :

MORE ABOUT SENTENCES 21

” Careful thinking is necessary to success in life,
and people who do not think carefully cannot succeed
except by sheer luck.”

This sentence is much more effective in every way
than the first version. In addition to presenting
the main idea at the beginning where it cannot escape
the attention, it emphasizes the idea by repeating it
later on. Furthermore, this sentence emphasizes the
idea of luck by placing the word luck at the end. It
is, perhaps, not a perfect sentence — if there is such
a thing. Like many of the sentences in this book,
it is composed rather mechanically, in such a fashion,
that is to say, as to be almost painfully definite and
exact. It is not a graceful sentence. But it is clear
and forcible.

Another way of expressing the same ideas would
be the even more forcible scheme of making two sen-
tences, thus :

” Careful thinking is necessary to success in Ufe.
People who do not think carefully cannot succeed
except by sheer luck.”

Supposing, however, that the writer wants to stress,
not the thought of careful thinking, but the thought
of. success. After all, he may be writing about suc-
cess and explaining the various factors that go to
make up success. He comes to the factor of careful
thinking. He frames his sentence thus:

” Success in life is gained not by sheer luck, but
by careful thinking.”

Here we find the emphasis placed on success by the
simple device of using it as the first word in the sen-
tence, and also on careful thinking^ by placing it at

22 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

the end. Sheer luck is placed in a less conspicuous
position in the middle.

So far we have considered merely the question of
where the emphasis should be placed in expressing
certain ideas. It is clear that success in writing a
sentence can only come after careful thinking. Even
the simplest idea is capable of many different modes
of expression. In the revision of the sentence first
given, we have rung only a few of all the possible
changes of emphasis, and presented but a fraction of
the many shades of meaning which the basic ideas
may be given.

The Reader to Be Considered

The effectiveness or force of a sentence is determined,
however, by something else than by an ideal theory
of what word or phrase to place first and what to
place second. It is determined by the purpose for
which the sentence is written and the readers for whom
it is intended. To illustrate, let us suppose that the
writer is writing to a boy of twelve. It is obvious
that the boy will be incapable of understanding an
abstract idea as readily as will the grown-up, and
that this difference in intellectual development calls
for a different choice of words. Supposing that the
last version of the sentence has the proper emphasis,
it might be recast as follows for the youthful reader :

” If you want to succeed in life, if you want to do
things better than other people, you must think about
what you are going to do. You must think carefully,
because if you do not think, you will have to trust
to luck, and you may not always have good luck.”

MORE ABOUT SENTENCES 23

Every important idea in this sentence is not only
emphasized, but is put into language which a boy of
twelve ought to be able to understand. Instead of
saying ” success in Ufe/’ which may or may not con-
vey the meaning as forcibly, we use the phrase ” do
things better than other people.” Instead of writing
in the third person, the second person is used for the
reason that it is less abstract and more direct.

A very valuable exercise for the beginner in writ-
ing is to experiment with the casting and recasting
of sentences. Such experimenting will teach him just
how to shift the emphasis and therefore increase the
effectiveness of the ideas which inspire the sentence;
and second, it will teach him how to use just the right
language and phrasing to suit the readers for whom the
sentence is intended.

How to Choose

For example, suppose you wanted to write a sen-
tence containing the same ideas as are in the first
sentence of the preceding paragraph. First state
clearly to yoiu^elf and in the simplest language possible
just what you desire to say. If you want to say that
” the casting and recasting of sentences is valuable
practice for beginners in writing,” and if you are satis-
fied that this is all that you desire to say, you have
before you several ways of saying it. You can use
a simple, a compound or a complex sentence. Your
simple, compound or complex sentence will be either
declarative, interrogative, imperative or exclamatory.

You will make your final decision for just two pur-
poses; first, so as to express the idea clearly; and

24 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

second, so as to express it as forcibly as possible. Let
us suppose that you decide to write a simple imperative
sentence. Realizing what this kind of sentence is,
you might write the following :

” Cast and recast your sentences.”

This is very well as far as it goes, but it does not
contain all the ideas. It says nothing about *’ a
valuable exercise for beginners in writing.” It would
be, in fact, difficult, if not impossible, to put all these
ideas into a simple imperative sentence. You might
say:

” Beginners in writing, exercise yourselves by cast-
ing and recasting sentences.”

This, however, would sound ” queer.” See if
you can improve on it.

If not, you must try another method. Would an
interrogative sentence be better? Would this one
fill the bill :

” Do beginners in writing realize that a valuable
exercise is to experiment with the casting and recast-
ing of sentences? ”

This contains all the ideas, but it is not a simple
sentence. It is a complex sentence. Moreover, it
merely asks a question and does not give your view
of the answer. If you want to say that it is your
opinion that beginners in writing should practice,
it is now clear as a result of experimenting that neither
the imperative nor the interrogatory sentence will
be effective. The exclamatory form might do; as,
for example :

” How fooHsh it is for a beginner in writing not to
practice casting and recasting sentences ! ”

1

^

rativf
je is

not

“a

di

lese

git

St-

if

MORE ABOUT SENTENCES ‘ 25

j^. This has some advantages. But does it say what
you desire to say? After all, are you not declaring
or stating an opinion, and therefore is not the declara-
tive form the best? How shall the sentence now be
written — shall it be simple, compound or complex?
Take your choice of these :

” A very valuable exercise for the beginner in writ-
ing is to experiment with the casting and recasting
of sentences.” (Simple)

”The beginner in writing should experiment with
the casting and recasting of sentences ; this is a very
valuable exercise.” (Compound)

” When a man begins to write, he should reaUze
that it is a very valuable exercise to experiment with
the casting and recasting of sentences.” (Complex)

Can you yourself suggest other ways of ” casting
and recasting” this sentence? An endless variety
is possible: the perfect sentence is the one which
best expresses exactly what the writer wants to say.
Do not stop till you have found the perfect form.

How Franklin Learned to Write

Benjamin FrankUn was one of the clearest of all
American writers, and his own story of how he taught
himself to write is full of sensible advice. When
Franklin began to study and practice writing he was
a hard-working printer’s apprentice of fourteen or
fifteen years of age. Here is what he says in his
*’ Autobiography.”

‘* About this time I met with an odd volume of the
Spectator. It was the third. I had never before
seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over

26 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

and was much delighted with it. I thought the writ-
ing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it.
With this view I took some of the papers, and, mak-
ing short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid
them by a few days, and then, without looking at the
book, tried to complete the papers again by expressing
each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it
had been expressed before, in any suitable words
that should come to hand.

” Then I compared my Spectator with the original,
discovered some of my faults, and corrected them. But
I found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in
recollecting and using them, which I thought I should
have acquired before that time if I had gone on making
verses ; since the continual occasion for words of the
same import, but of different length, to suit the meas-
ure, or of different sound for the rhyme, would have
laid me under a constant necessity of searching for
variety, and also have tended to fix that variety in
my mind, and make me master of it. Therefore I
took some of the tales and turned them into verse;
and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the
prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes
jimabled my collection of hints into confusion, and
after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the
best order, before I began to form the full sentences
and complete the paper. This was to teach me
method in the arrangement of thoughts. By com-
paring my work afterwards with the original, I dis-
covered many faults and mended them, but I some-
times had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain
particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough

MORE ABOUT SENTENCES 27

to improve the method or the language, and this
encouraged me to think I might possibly in time come
to be a tolerable EngUsh writer, of which I was ex-
tremely ambitious. My time for these exercises and
for reading was at night, after work or before it began
in the morning, or on Sundays. …”

FrankUn’s experience appUes.to whole compositions
as well as to sentences. In fact, it is difficult to dis-
cuss a sentence as if it could stand by itself, independent
of its neighbors. Good writing requires that one
sentence should be joined to another, much as bricks
are joined by mortar, so that one sentence cannot be
removed without making a gap or hole in the entire
structure. However, before considering this matter,
which will be taken up in the chapter on Paragraphs
and Whole Compositions, it is well to say something
more about the internal construction of a sentence.
Up to this point we have merely laid down a few of
the absolutely necessary general principles which
govern — or should govern — the writing of sentences.
We have also said that no one can learn to write by
reading this or any other book on writing. But
it has not been made clear, perhaps, how the different
parts of a sentence may be joined together.

Joining the Parts of a Sentence

/ A sentence is a series of words so arranged as to
express a thought. Before writing a sentence the
writer should decide exactly what thought the sen-
tence is to express. In case of a single thought this
is not a difficult matter, but in ordinary writing it is
usual to put more than one thought in a sentence, a

28 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

main thought, that is to say, and one or more secondary
or subsidiary thoughts.

In this sentence :

*’ Success in life is gained not by sheer luck, but by
careful thinking,” there are in reality four or five
ideas — the idea of sticcess in life, the idea of gaining
or winning, the idea of liLcky the idea of thinking.
These ideas must be arranged so as to be clear and
effective, and the different forms of this sentence,
given in the first part of this chapter, put these ideas
in different ways so as to emphasize different points.

The more numerous are the ideas in a sentence, the
more important is it that the writer shall be familiar
with the tools of the trade of writing so that with
those tools he may fashion a sentence of many more
than twenty words which shall still say what it means
and mean what it says.

Sentences may be divided not only into subject
and predicate, but into clauses or phrases. A clause
is a subdivision or fractional part of a sentence, hav-
ing a subject and predicate of its own. A phrase is
two or more words, not having a subject and predicate
and usually separated from the rest of the sentence
by commas. A clause is capable of being made into an
independent sentence ; a phrase is not. The following
complex sentence illustrates these subdivisions :

” Success in life, broadly speaking, depends not
on sheer luck, which is never to be relied on, but on
hard and careful thinking.”

The subject of this sentence is ” success in life,”
and the predicate is ^’ depends . . . on . . . careful
thinking.”

MORE ABOUT SENTENCES 29

The series of words in the middle beginning, with
^’ which is ” and ending with ” on ” is a clause. It
naight have been written independently as a simple
sentence : ” Sheer luck is never to be relied on.” It
was written as a clause or secondary part of the prin-
cipal sentence because the writer desired to add to
what he was saying about luck. He might have
avoided the use of a clause by writing ” sheer, unre-
liable luck/’ but he chose to emphasize the idea of
unreUabiUty by devoting a clause to it, delaying the
progress of the sentence, so to say, by injecting a
further remark on the subject of luck.

The words ” broadly speaking ” form a phrase. Its
purpose is to qualify or modify the whole sentence.
It is in reality an adverb modifying the verb ‘* de-
pends.” It might have been inserted after the verb
instead of before it — or at several other places in
the sentence, depending on the exact meaning the
writer desires to convey and on the persons to whom
he desires to convey it.

How to Handle Clauses and Phrases

The general principle which governs the handling
of phrases is that they should be located in the sen-
tence at that point where they will best serve the pur-
pose of the writer, provided that they do not interfere
with the swing or harmony of the sentence. It is
always well to read a sentence aloud so as to test it
for smoothness, and reading aloud will enable the
writer to readjust his words and his emphasis so as
to secure the best effect.

The general principle which governs the handling

30 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

of clauses is that they should be located as near as
possible to the word or words which they qualify.
Moreover, the connection between a clause and what
it modifies must be perfectly plain, otherwise the
clause will be worse than useless. For example,
take this simple case of a misplaced clause :

” People are unfortunate who forget what they
want to say/’

The clause begins with the word ” who ” and modi-
fies the word ” people/’ It is too far away from
” people/’ The sentence would be better if written
thus:

‘^ People who forget what they want to say are
unfortunate.”

This version of the sentence has the added improve-
ment that the most important word in the predicate
is now the last word, and hence in a good position
for emphasis.

The Need for Clear Thinking

The arranging of clauses in a long sentence is an
art — and a trade — that calls for all the qualities
which go to make a writer, and for the ability, above
all else, to think clearly and to lay the bricks of which
a sentence is composed with deftness and good taste.

For example take this sentence :

” People who forget what they want to say are
unfortunate even though they do not know it and try
hard to remember and are able to hide their lack of
memory.”

There are several ideas in this sentence, but they
are confused and jumbled together. The writer did

MORE ABOUT SENTENCES 31

not think clearly. The real sentence is to the effect
that people who forget what they want to say are
unfortunate, and the rest of the sentence ” strings
along” some ideas which modify the main idea.
The reader is likely to become as confused as the
sentence is. This sentence might be recast thus :

” Even though a person does not himself know and
tries hard either to remember or to hide his lack of
memory, he is unfortunate if he forgets what he wants
to say.”

This sentence is far from perfect, but it is better.
The student might try to improve it still more.

An obvious way would be to write more than one
short sentence ; as, for example :

” Many people forget what they want to say, try
as they will to remember it. Some are able to hide
their lack of memory; some cannot do so. Lack of
memory is unfortunate.”

As a general proposition the short sentence is both
easier to write and easier to understand than is the
long one. Short sentences, furthermore, have force.
But a composition, book, or magazine article consist-
ing entirely of short sentences would be very tire-
some.

For many reasons, then, the beginner in writing
should learn how to write long, complicated, but
clear and effective sentences. Read over Franklin’s
account of his own education in writmg, and go and
do likewise. Read and study good writing if you want
to learn the rules and customs governing it. Try
always to arrange your words, phrases and clauses
in a sentence so as to make the most of what you have

32 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

to say. Be clear as to what it is in your brain that
you want to express, and try to find out what the other
fellow’s mind is capable of understanding.

A sentence is like a shell shot from a gun — it must
be the right size, it must be aimed at what you want
to hit, it must be fired or started properly, and it
must strike with just the right amount of Jmce. Study
and hard work along the lines laid down in this chapter
will in a surprisingly short space of time teach any
industrious person who already knows a Uttle grammar
and who does not attempt to write about things of
which he is ignorant to turn out good workmanhke
sentences.

CHAPTER IV

PARAGRAPHS

The word is the unit of the sentence, the sentence
is the unit of the paragraph and the paragraph is
the unit of a complete piece of writing. Before dis-
cussing whole compositions, it is well to see how
paragraphs are constructed, and what is the relation
of sentences to paragraphs and of paragraphs to whole
compositions.

Subject and Predicate

Every well-written paragraph should have what we
may call a subject and a predicate. This is not a
common way of analyzing paragraphs. As a rule
we say that a paragraph has a subject, such as ” dogs,”
or ” the weather.” But it will make for clearness and
force if we reaUze that after all every piece of writing,
whether sentence, paragraph or whole composition,
says something about somethingj and that, broadly
speaking, it is possible to sum up every piece of
writing in a very short sentence, the subject of which
is the subject of the piece of writing and the predicate
of which is what the piece of writing relates, proves,
discloses or explains about the subject.

Thus we can imagine a paragraph about dogs, the
real subject of which would be this : ‘^ Dogs are very

intelligent animals.” The word ” dogs ” alone does
D 33

34 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITESTG

not actually tell what the paragraph is about, though
in one sense of the term, ” dogs ” is the subject of
the paragraph. But the sentence does describe the
paragraph by indicating what is its subject and what
is its predicate.

Obviously, the first thing to do before writing a
paragraph is to do as was done in the case of sentences ;
namely, to decide what it is to be about and what
you desire to say about the subject. The next thing
to do is to collect your thoughts or material and study
them over. Many a paragraph is poorly written
simply because the author failed to gather together
and plan his material before he began to ^’ write it
up,” and nothing will save more time and energy in
the long run than for a writer to set down on paper the
topics or points of his paragraph before composing them
or putting them together. In no other way can a writer
know what he is going to say and figure out how to say it.

Purpose — Readers — Emphasis

But no arrangement of the topics will be successful
unless the writer bears continually in mind, first, the
general purpose of the paragraph ; second, the readers
to whom it is addressed ; and third, the fact that
each topic should be so placed in relation. to every
other topic as to give exactly the emphasis desired.
The general principles of clearness and force which
were explained in the chapters on sentences apply
with equal truth to the writing of paragraphs.

In order to illustrate these points, let us take a
paragraph from some . well-written book and see how
it was put together.

PARAGRAPHS 35

” By his friends, John Silence was regarded as an
eccentric, because he was rich by accident, and by
choice — a doctor. That a man of independent
means should devote his time to doctoring, chiefly
doctoring folk who could not pay, passed their com-
prehension entirely. The native nobility of a soul
whose first desire was to help those who could not help
themselves, puzzled them. After that, it irritated
them, and, greatly to his own satisfaction, they left him
to his own devices.”

The subject of this paragraph is clearly John Silence,
the rich doctor. The predicate of the paragraph
might be summed up in the words *’ was misunder-
stood and left alone.” The paragraph tells about
John Silence and why his friends avoided him. Before
writing this paragraph the author must have planned
to put in it the following ideas :

” John Silence, — doctor — rich — independent —
charitable — glad to be allowed to do as he pleased —
misunderstood — left alone.”

The paragraph consists of four sentences. The
subject of the first sentence is the subject of the para-
graph, and the predicate of the first sentence tells
briefly the things about, the subject which the rest
of the paragraph tells in more detail. This is a good
paragraph because it does not ” string along ” about
a lot of different subjects. It is clear and forcible.

A Weil-Built Paragraph .

Let us examine this paragraph a little more and
see how it is made. Each of the four sentences is
complete in itself, just as each brick in a wall is com-

36 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

plete and finished in itself, and these sentences are
joined to each other as bricks are cemented by mortar.
The first sentence speaks of John Silence as a rich
doctor. The second sentence begins by referring to
the fact that he is rich — (“a man of independent
means “) — and tells us that he doctors poor people.
The third sentence enlarges on this and tells us that
John Silence’s generosity puzzled his friends. The
fourth sentence tells us what his friends did as a result
of being puzzled.

This paragraph ‘* holds together ” ; it is a complete
thing in itself. To test this, cross out one of the
sentences and you will find that the paragraph is
incomplete. It is like a wall with a brick gone —
weak and imperfect.

Another good illustration of how sentences should
be joined together in paragraphs is Lincoln’s famous
Gettysburg address. Much of the greatness of this
address comes from the fine workmanship of its para-
graph construction. Each paragraph has a definite
subject, and the whole address, which consists of
only three paragraphs, has a definite subject — the
idea of a Nation dedicated to liberty. Each sentence
in each of the whole three paragraphs is cemented to
the sentence preceding it by devices which are so
simple and eflfegtive that they should be models
to the student of sentences and paragraphs.

The Gettysburg Address

Let the student read the address through carefully.
The italicized words are the linking or connecting words
which bind the whole composition compactly together :

PARAGRAPHS 37

“Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought
forth on this continent a new Nation, conceived in liberty,
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
equal. Now we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing
whether that Nation, or any Nation so conceived and so
dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-
field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of
that field as a fina^ resting place for those who here gave their
lives that that Nation might Uve.

“It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot conse-
crate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living
and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above
our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note
no^ long remember what we say here, but it can never forget
what they did here.

“It is for us, the Uving, rather to be dedicated here to
the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus
far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated
to the great task remaining before us — that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for
which they gave the full measure of devotion — that we
here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in
vain — that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth
of freedom — and that government of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

” That Nation,” in the second sentence, links this
sentence to the first sentence, which speaks of “a
new Nation/’ ” That war,” in the third sentence,
refers to ” a great Civil War,” in the second ; ” that
field,” in the fourth sentence, harks back to ” battle-
field,” in the third sentence; and so on. Note how
the final sentence of all is led up to step by step ; how

38 EVERYDAY ENGLISH* WRITING

the idea that it presents is gradually built up by the
process of laying sentence on sentence, so to speak,
each firmly joined to the one before and the one
following, so that the whole composition is united
into what is actually a single sentence expressing the
idea which Lincoln desired the world to know and
understand.

Not all of us can write as Lincoln wrote — even
if we have that to say which he had to say on the memo-
rable November day in 1863 when, according to the
story told, he planned this speech and wrote the first
draft of it with a pencil on a piece of paper held against
his knee during the railroad journey from Washing-
ton to the battlefield. But it is possible to imitate
the structure of the Gettysburg address, because after
all it is built on the simple principles of all good para-
graph writing.

Paragraph Not Independent

No paragraph in a workmanlike composition is in
dependent of the paragraphs which precede or
follow it. As we have just seen, paragraphs should
be joined by words or phrases in such a way as to
connect all the paragraphs of a piece of writing, thus
making it an easy matter for the reader to follow the
development of the thought in the first sentence of
the first paragraph to the last sentence of the last
paragraph. Paragraphs are like links in a chain,
and each paragraph, in turn, is composed of lesser
links, called sentences. The trade of writing requires
training not only in constructing paragraphs, but in
so constructing them that they fit nicely together,

PARAGRAPHS • 39

. each sentence joined to the next within the limits
of the paragraph.

How can the writer join paragraph to paragraph
and sentence to sentence ?

This is a very practical question, but it is not easily
answered. Yet one simple, but incomplete, answer
to it is that somewhere near the beginning of each
sentence and near the beginning of each paragraph,
there should be a word or words which ” look back ”
to what went just before. For example the word
” This ” with which the first sentence of this para-
graph begins, looks back to the preceding paragraph.
In the same way the student will find a word or words
in each well-written paragraph looking back to the
paragraph just preceding it.

Joining Paragraphs

All sorts of devices may be used to bring about
this hitching together of paragraphs and sentences.
Sometimes the connection is in an idea rather than
in a word or phrase. Sometimes the connection can
be made by using ” on the other hand,” or ” more-
over,” or ” but,” or ”in addition to this.” The most
useful advice that can be given on this point to the
beginner in writing is: Study good writing; pull
it to pieces and find out how it is made. See for
yourself how one paragraph is united to another.
Experiment. Write sentences and paragraphs first
with Uttle or no thought about how they should be
joined so that they will flow together, and then go
back over your work and try to smooth them out
till you are satisfied that they actually do flow smoothly

40 -EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

from the beginning to the end. If you are writing
about the weather, do not leave the sentences in a
paragraph disconnected thus :

” It is a warm day. The sun is very hot and there
are no clouds. It seems to grow hotter and hotter
every hour. I wonder if the rain will come and cool
us off.”

Such writing as this is jerky. It is not necessarily
bad writing, because under some circumstances it
might be the best possible writing to produce a jerky
effect. But in general, it would be much better to
let one sentence slide into the next in such a fashion
as to lead the mind of the reader gradually from one
point to the next, thus :

” It is a warm day, one of those days when the sun
is very hot and there are no clouds. Every hour it
seems to grow hotter and hotter. I begin to doubt
if the rain will come and cool us off.”

By combining the first two sentences into one, two
ideas which really belong together are brought together.
By beginning the second sentence with *’ Every hour,”
the reader’s mind is carried on, so to speak, with the
growing heat, and the transition from the second to
the third sentence made by the phrase, ” I begin to
doubt,” is certainly less abrupt than the words, *’ I
wonder,” which open the last sentence in the first
version.

Subjects for Paragraphs

Making paragraphs is more interesting work than
making sentences. It is actually building your piece
of writing. Before going to the next chapter, which

PARAGRAPHS 41

will show how paragraphs are built up into whole
compositions, the student should practice planning
and writing sfanple, independent paragraphs on easy-
subjects, such as are suggested in the following sen-
tences :

” To-day has been a typical, moist, unpleasant
dog day.”

” A lead pencil and a notebook are indispensable to
a writer.”

” Football is more ” (or less) ” exciting than base-
ball.”

” Every automobile ought to have a speedometer.”

” A fireless cooker saves fuel.”

And many others which will suggest themselves.

Just as you have experimented with writing sen-
tences, so you should practice writing paragraphs.
The principles are the same. A paragraph calls for
skill in joining the different parts, just as it requires
skill to arrange or join the parts of a complex sentence.
To sum it all up :

A paragraph discusses one subject and only one.
It has its own subject and predicate, and there should
be nothing in a paragraph which does not tell some-
thing about that subject. The first sentence of the
paragraph should introduce the subject. The second
sentence should ”hitch on” to the first sentence;
the third to the second ; and so on to the last sentence.
The last sentence should complete the thought in
the paragraph, just as the last sentence in the John
Silence paragraph tells the reader what John Silence’s
friends did as a result of their feeling about him, and
just as xn the last sentence of the Gettysburg address

42 ‘ EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

Lincoln told what he hoped the Nation would do in
view of what the Gettysburg battlefield stood for.
A paragraph, in short, is a kind of grown-up sentence,
carefully planned, and written with all the skill that
the workman can muster.

CHAPTER V

WHOLE COMPOSITIONS

A WHOLE composition is a piece of writing consisting
of a number of paragraphs, each of which consists
of one or more sentences of one or more words each.
A whole composition is a finished piece of writing:
it is a complete structure built up according to plan,
out of the materials of writing and with the skill or
craftsmanship of the writer.

In the last chapter it was said that every well-
written paragraph should have a subject and a predi-
cate. The same is true of every whole composition;
and every whole composition, like every paragraph,
can be summed up in one sentence, the subject of
which is the subject of the piece of writing, and the
predicate of which is what the piece of writing relates,
proves, discloses, or explains about the subject.

Why Compositions Must Be Planned

Careful planning is even more necessary in writing
whole compositions ttan it is in writing sentences or
paragraphs. The reason for this is simple : composi-
tions are longer than either sentences or paragraphs,
and there is therefore more opportunity for confusion
and misunderstanding if the work is not plotted in
advance. Planning a whole composition is called
making an outline. Even writers who have worked

43

44 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WHITING

day after day for years ought to prepare outlines of
their compositions before actually beginning to write
them.

It is clear that the first thing to do when making
an outline is to decide what the composition is to be
about and what you desire to say about it. The next
thing to do is to collect your thoughts and material
and study them over. This will give you a number of
topics or subjects imder your general, main subject.
Write these down and think about them. But merely
writing them down and thinking about them does not
make an outline. A good outhne should contain
the topics which fit into the composition, arranged
in the best possible order.

You will probably find, if you write down all the
topics as they occur to you, that some of them over-
lap or duphcate others, and that therefore it will
be wise to leave some out or else enlai^ others. You
will probably also find that you have left out alto-
gether some topics which should be included. It is
a good scheme to write each topic on a separate card
or slip of paper, and to spread these sUps before you
on the desk, studying them and gradually working
them over into a satisfactory arrangement. The
particular arrangement for a given composition will
on the subject of the composition

themselves,
rule for the proper arrangement of

:omposition. If you are writing a

I explains how to do or make some-
say first what should be done first.

Id be done second, and so on. In

WHOLE COMPOSITIONS 45

a description of a building or of a scene in nature,
another order will have to be found. Sometimes, as
in an historical account, the order of time will be the
best. Thus in writing the story of the life, for example,
of a pet dog, you would naturally begin with his
birth, or when you first knew him, and take events
in order down to the hour of his death.

The Three Parts

But the arrangement of the topics of a composition
will not make a well-written composition. A well-
written composition may be described as consisting
of three parts, (1) the introduction, (2) the main body,
and (3) the conclusion. –

The introduction should tell the reader what the
article or composition is about so that he can decide
whether he cares to read it. Much depends, there-
fore, on the introduction. A carefully thought out
introduction may make or mar a composition.

The conclusion of a whole composition is a summary
of what the composition is about. Sometimes it repeats
the same phrases as were used before. That is not
important. But the summary should sum up and
” point up ” the article so that when the reader is
through, he has absolutely clear in his mind what the
writer had in his mind.

Between the beginning and the end lies the main
body tof the article. This is where the topics as
previously arranged are ” written up.” The main
body should develop the principal topics in the order
already determined, one after the other, gathering
them all together in the final paragraph or paragraphs,

46 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

which are, as it were, the knotting or tying together
of the whole piece. The skill of the writer of a well-
planned and well-written composition may be measured
by his skill in arranging his topics to the best advantage,
as well as by his skill in the use of the paragraph as
part of a whole composition.

A Composition Pulled to Pieces

Let us illustrate these principles by examining a
sUghtly adapted version of an official United States
Government pubUcation. Read this composition
through carefully, and then read the outline which
follows it. The composition consists of twelve para-
graphs, numbered in the margin. The introduction
is the first paragraph; the conclusion is the twelfth;
and the main body is paragraphs two to eleven, in-
clusive. Here is the article :

THE SMITH-HUGHES ACT

(1) “The Smith-Hughes Act provides a scheme of co-
operation between the Federal Government and the States
for the promotion of vocational education in the fields of
agriculture, trade, home economics, and industry.

(2) “Under this act the Federal Government does not
propose to undertake the organization and immediate direc-
tion of vocational training in the States, but does agree to
make from year to year substantial financial contribution
to its support. It undertakes, further, to pay over to the
States annually certain sums of money and to cooperate
in fostering and promoting vocational training and the
training of vocational teachers. These grants of Federal
money are conditional, and the acceptance of these grants
imposes upon the States specific obligations to expend the

WHOLE COMPOSITIONS 47

money paid over to them in accordance with the provisions
of the act.

(3) ” This cooperation of the States with the Federal Gov-
ernment is based upon four fimdamental ideas : First, that
vocational education being essential to the national welfare,
it is a function of the National Government to stimulate the
States to undertake this new and needed form of service ;
second, that Federal funds are necessary in order to equalize
the burden of carrying on the work among the States ; third,
that since the Federal Government is vitally interested in
the success of vocational education, it should, so to speak,
purchase a degree of participation in this work ; and, fourth,
that only by creating such a relatiqnship between the central
and the local Governments can proper standards of educa-
tional efficiency be set up.

(4) “The machinery established by the act is devised
to secure effective cooperation in promoting vocational edu-
cation. The law provides for the appointment by the
President of a representative Federal Board for Vocational
Education. The members of this board are the Secretary
of Agriculture, the Secretary of Conmierce, the Secretary
of Labor, and the Conmiissioner of Education, together
with three citizens who represent, respectively, the manu-
facturing and commercial, the agricultural, and the labor
interests of the Nation. One member is elected annually
by the board as chairman. To provide agencies repre-
senting the States, the act requires that State boards of
not less than three members shall be created by act of legis-
lature. Each State boajrd is to work in cooperation with
the Federal board in carrying out the provisions of the act.

(5) “Before this machinery can fully operate in a State,
the legislature must create a State Board for Vocational
Education to cooperate with the Federal board. After
the appointment or designation of such a board, any State

48 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

may accept the benefits of the appropriations made under
the law.

(6) “The scheme of education that is thus proposed con-
templates that each State shall submit to the Federal board
a plan outlining the method by which it proposes to con-
duct its vocational education activities. These plans
the Federal board must carefully examine; and if it finds
them to be in conformity with the spirit and purpose of
the act, it is authorized to direct that the moneys appor-
tioned to the various States be paid. In other words,
partly by the act itself, partly by the Federal board, and
partly by the State board in cooperation with the Federal
board, standards of vocational education are established
meeting the approbation of both the State and Federal
Governments. Each in its own field supreme, the State
board and the Federal board, in order to function at all,
must come together on the groimd thus briefly described.

(7) “The guiding principle of the vocational education
act — and it cannot be too strongly emphasized that this
principle applies to every phase of activity under that
act — is that the education to be furnished must be under
public supervision and control, and designed to train per-
sons for useful employment, whether in agriculture, trade
and industry, or home economics.

(8) “To the extent that it is subsidized by the Federal
Government under the Smith-Hughes Act, this vocational
training must be vocational training for the common, wage-
earning employments. It may be given to boys and girls
who, having selected a vocation, desire preparation for enter-
ing it as trained wage earners ; to boys and girls who, having
already taken up a wage-earning employment, seek greater
efficiency in that employment; or to wage earners estab-
lished in their trade or occupation, who wish through increase
in their efficiency and wage-earning capacity to advance

WHOLE COMPOSITIONS 49

•

to positions of responsibility. No academic studies can be
supported out of Smith-Hughes money.

(9) “The moneys set aside by Congress for vocational
education are appropriated on a graduated scale, the amount
increasing year by year up to 1926, when the maximum is
reached. This maximum becomes the annual appropriation
established by the act, and is continued indefinitely after
the year 1926. Every dollar of the Federal money appro-
priated for the purpose of cooperating with the States either
in the pajonent of salaries or in the preparation of teachers,
is furnished upon condition that it be matched by an equal
amount appropriated for the same purpose by the State,
the local community, or both, in which the Federal money
is to be spent.

(10) “Beginning with the year 1917-18, the total grant by
the Federal Government increases from $1,860,000 in 1917-18
to $7,367,000 in 1925-26, the latter amount being continued
indefinitely. The appropriation for salaries of teachers,
supervisors, and directors in agriculture increases from
$548,000 in 1917-18 to a maximum of $3,027,000 in 1925-26 ;
the appropriation for salaries of teachers in trade, home
economics, and industry increases from $566,000 in 1917-18
to $3,050,000 in 1925-26 ; and the appropriation for teacher-
training from $546,000 in 1917-18 to $1,090,000 — this
maximum for teacher-training being reached in the year
1920-21.

(11) “Since these appropriations must be matched, dollar
for dollar, by the States, it is obvious that the total amount
of money brought under cooperative supervision by the
Federal Board for Vocational Education and the State boards
is double these amounts. It should also be borne in mind
that the Federal grants and the State moneys matched
against the Federal grants are available only for payments of
salaries and for the maintenance of teacher-training. It is

B

60 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

obvious that the resources actually devoted to secondary
school vocational education under joint supervision and con-
trol of the Federal and State boards will greatly exceed
the Federal and State grants for the purposes specified in
the act, for the reason that the maintenance of secondary
vocational education involves expenditures for buildings,
equipment, and for many other purposes not brought imder
the purview of the act.

(12) ‘^Suchy in brief, is the aim and effect of one of the
most far-reaching pieces of legislation passed by any recent
Congress.”

Outline of Composition on Smifh-Hughes Act

The object of this article is to describe the essential
features of the Vocational Education Act.

A. Introduction (Paragraph 1). What the Smith-

Hughes Act is.

B. Main body (Paragraphs 2-11). Features of the

Smith-Hughes Act.

(a) What the Federal Government proposes.
(6) How the Federal Government proposes to
secure vocational education.

(c) The nature of the vocational education pro-

posed.

(d) The funds appropriated for the Act.

C Conclusion (Paragraph 12).

This is only one of several possible outlines of this
article. It is not a perfect outUne. Let the student
try to make a better one.

It will be observed that near the beginning of every
paragraph except paragraph 7, one or more words
are italicized. These are the words that link the

WHOLE COMPOSITIONS 51

paragraphs together, and in each case they refer
to the main idea or thought in the preceding para-
graph. In all probability the reason that the writer
failed to use a connecting word or phrase in paragraph
7 was that he desired it to strike the reader abruptly
so as to stress the idea which, as he says, cannot be
too strongly emphasized. The fact that this para-
graph is apparently independent of the rest while all
the others are closely woven together, serves to direct
the attention to it.

But before examining too closely the way in which
the paragraphs are joined, the student should read
through the whole composition, noting with a pencil
as he goes the main points or topics. Then, without
looking at the outline just given, he should try to
write his own outline, making sure that he includes
every topic, every important separate subject in the
article. This done, the student might well make an
entirely new outline showing which paragraphs come
under the different topics. In this way it is easy to
get at the value or importance of the different topics,
for in some cases more than one paragraph is needed
to discuss a topic, though, broadly speaking, each para-
graph ought to have only one topic or part of a topic.

In making these analyses the student will doubtless
find that this composition is far from perfect, and may
want to change it and improve it. There is no better
practice in writing than practice in rewriting or editing.

Making a New Composition

We have just seen how a composition is composed or
built by examining one already made, just as we might

52 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

pull a flower to pieces in order to learn about its parts.
Let us now see how we would go about making a new
whole composition. Let us suppose that the subject
is “The Care of an Automobile Radiator,” a sub-
ject, let us suppose further, in which we are deeply
interested and about which we have, or think we have,
some valuable information.

Dozens of different articles could be written on
this subject, in dozens of different ways, and every
single one of them might be admirable articles. For
example, one composition could be written on radiators
for the benefit of the reader who had never owned or
driven an automobile and never expected to ; another
could be written for the reader who had just begun
to run an automobile and who therefore might be
expected to know just a little about radiators ; another
might be written for the experienced amateur driver;
and another for the professional mechanic. Before
beginning to plan the article, and before going very
far in the task of collecting material for the article,
the writer must decide what class of readers he desires
to interest. When he makes this decision he can then
go ahead and decide what to put in and what to leave
out as well as how to arrange the topics.

Whom Are You Writing For?

Let us suppose that you decide to write for the
inexperienced amateur owner of a car. You now see
that you must put into your composition less infor-
mation than would be required if you were writing for
a reader who had never seen an automobile, and more
than if you were writing for a mechanic or automobile

WHOLE COMPOSITIONS 53

dealer. At this point in the work it would be well
to take paper and pencil and note the various topics
which form parts of the whole subject. Among them
would probably be these :

Purpose of a radiator — kinds of radiators — where
located — how built — size — the fan and its rela-
tion to the radiator — what kind of water should be
used and why — how to clean — small leaks and how
to stop — repairs — what makes water boil — how
to prevent freezing — and so on.

It is a good idea to write these headings down the
margin of a sheet of paper, leaving enough space for
fuller notes. In this way it will be a shnple matter
to go over the list and add more material as you get
it. Very often it takes more time to collect the ma-
terial for an article than it takes to write it. Some-
times quite elaborate notes must be made, including
references to books, newspaper clippings, letters,
abstracts of other articles, scraps of information
learned from conversation, and phrases or bits of
description which occur at odd moments during the
day and which may be transferred from a notebook
carried in the pocket to the paper on which you are
writing down your notes or ” raw material.”

In the case of very short articles, the work of assem-
bling material is slight, but it should nevertheless
be done in some such way as that just described, espe-
cially when the writer is learning to write. If the
writer begins to write before he has got together all
his material, in nine cases out of ten he will find
himself in trouble — usually he will find when it is
too late that he has left out a very important

64 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

subject, and there is nothing to do but to rewrite the
whole article.

The Question of Arrangement

The next question is the question of arrangement.
An article on the care of an automobile radiator in
summer would not be arranged in the same way as an
article on the care of a radiator in winter, nor as an
article written to show that an air-cooled engine is
better than a water-cooled engine. But with all the
material spread before you on separate sheets of paper,
one for each topic, it is not a difficult matter to sort
it out and put it into a logical order.

In beginning to arrange the topics, see if you can
first sum up in one sentence what you want to say
about the care of an automobile radiator. Remember
that you are writing for the inexperienced amateur
owner. Perhaps you will put it in this way :

” The automobile radiator, being a vital part of
a car, should be well cared for.”

This sentence suggests several general ideas, such as :

1. The radiator — its purpose.

2. Why it is vital.

3. How it should be cared for.

So far, so good. Now it is necessary to go over
again the topics already jotted down. Which topics
fall under the purpose of a radiator? Which fall
under why it is vital? Which fall under the subject
of care? Perhaps the first notes did not cover all
these points. Look them over and see if you need
more, or if you can leave some out.

WHOLE COMPOSITIONS 55

Suppose now that you have your topics all outUned,
and have also decided on their general order or arrange-
ment. You are now ready to outline your composition.
You will have :

1. Introduction.

2. Body.

3. Conclusion.

Your introduction should do at least two things:
it should tell what the subject of the article is, and
it should attract the attention of the reader in such
a way that he will want to read it. The first para-
graph of the composition which we are now trying to
write should contain words which suggest to the ama-
teur motor car owner that his radiator is an important
part of his machine, that he must care for it, and that
he will learn how to care for it if he reads what follows.
The introduction should not tell too much, nor should
it tell too little. When we introduce one friend to
another, we do not relate all we know about him — we
leave most of it to be foimd out later.

The Beginning

You might well begin the article in some such fashion
as this :

“Though many an inexperienced motorist does not real-
ize it as fully as an experienced car owner, the radiator is
as vital a part as the engine. In winter as well as in summer
its needs should be carefully studied and met. Why this
is so will be clear upon a little reflection and study.”

This paragraph is a ”good starter.” It states
to the reader what the article is about, and if the

66 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

reader feels in need of infonnation, he will be con-
vinced that he will get it by reading on. With such
a paragraph as this, you have fairly begun your article.
You have got over the hardest part of all — the begin-
ning.

In a short article one paragraph is enough for an
introduction. Your next paragraph, then, will be
the first paragraph of the body of the composition,
and if you follow your outline faithfully, it will tell
why a radiator is vital. It might read something
Uke this :

“Look at any car and you will see that the radiator is
really part of the engine. Although the radiator itself is
in front of the engine, yet the pipes through which the water
flows enter into and come out of what is called a jacket or
hollow space built into the engine. The object of this is to
allow the water in the radiator to circulate through the
radiator and about the engine. When you start your car,
the water is cool. As the car begins to warm up, the water
in the jacket warms up, and begins to flow into the radiator
while the cooler water in the radiator takes its place and
flows into the jacket, cooling the hot metal of the engine.
Without the cooling influence of a radiator, an engine would
soon get red hot and the gasoline would fail to ignite at the
proper intervals, and the engine would stop.”

Perhaps another paragraph would be needed to
convince your reader that a radiator is vital. Per-
haps this one — or one like it — would be enough.
You would in that case go on to the next topic in
your outline and carefully develop that in the same
way, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph.
The writing of the body of an article is not difficult

WHOLE COMPOSITIONS 57

if you have prepared your material and laid it out
so that it is handy to use.

The Ending

The conclusion of a composition may be very
short indeed. Thus, after telling how to care for a
radiator, you wish in your conclusion to sum up what
you have said and to impress on your reader all that
you have said. You might prepare a concluding
paragraph like this :

“All things considered, then, the radiator requires very
little care, but the care, though little, should be constant
and faithful. Otherwise the car owner is sure to be put
not only to inconvenience, but also to expense.”

It is not the purpose of this chapter to write an
entire article about an automobile radiator, but to
show how to go about doing it. Writing cannot be
learned without writing. The student might make
an outUne for a composition about an automobile
radiator, and then, using the opening paragraph just
given, try his own hand at writing the article. But
he should in no case attempt to write the article
unless he actually knows something about the sub-
ject, or can find out about it. Never write about
things of which you are ignorant.

Teach yourself how whole compositions are made
by reading them and making outlines of them. You
will find that niany printed articles are badly planned
and that you can improve them. Do so. Make an
outline of this chapter and see what is its subject.
See if you can condense the entire chapter into a

58 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

sentence. What is the conclusion of this chapter?
What are the separate topics and how many para-
graphs are devoted to each? Could they be arranged
to better effect? Are the paragraphs skillfully joined?
Is this chapter a whole composition as defined by the
author ?

Study whole compositions, analyze and pick them
to pieces ; build up plans for your whole compositions,
and practice writing them, remembering always that
just as a paragraph is a grown-up sentence, so a whole
composition is a grown-up and matured paragraph.

CHAPTER VI

WORDS

Most men who are master craftsmen in the use of
words are master craftsmen in the trade of writing.
Skill in the handHng of words and knowledge of what
words mean is absolutely essential to the production
of writing. Such skill and knowledge is of a higher
order than that required in the building of sentences
and the construction of paragraphs and whole com-
positions. Yet it is possible by careful and thoughtful
study of words and their ways for the average intelligent
person to train himself to utilize words efficiently.

A word may be described as the unit of speech or
writing. A word cannot be split into anything smaller
than itself and still have a meaning. A word repre-
sents an idea.

How to Choose Words

Good writing calls for training in the choice of
words. The general principle is simple, namely,
that no word should be used which does not express
exactly what the writer has in mind. To put it in
another way, the selection of a word demands the
same kind of careful thinking and planning that is
required in the planning of sentences, paragraphs and
whole compositions. But in addition to this, the
writer must have knowledge of words and the history of

59

60 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

words, as well as expertness in applying this knowledge
in actual practice.

There is no royal road to learning how to use words.
Naturally, every growing or grown person knows
something about words, but the writer must have
more than a general training in spelling and a general
familiarity with the shades of meaning of words and
how to produce desired effects with words. He
should study words as a botanist studies seeds and
plants. He should know something about the birth
and development of words. He should be able to
analyze words so as to get at their root or original
meaning as well as their present meaning or meanings.
He should know the relations between words and be
able to express a given thought in more than one way.

” House ” and ” Home ”

In order to illustrate the kind of knowledge about
words that the writer should possess, let us exajnine
two words which, as has often been pointed out, are
frequently confused, ” house ” and ” home.” Let
us go to that treasury of words, the dictionary. There
we shall find a kind of cross section of every known
word, and by looking at these cross sections and com-
paring them we shall gain an insight into words which
will enable us to use them with amazing skill and
dexterity.

According to almost any good dictionary, the word
^^ house ” is descended from the Anglo-Saxon ” hus,”
and in Middle English, GaeUc, Icelandic, and the
other languages closely related to Anglo-Saxon there
are words very similar to this in sound and spelling

WORDS 61

and precisely the same in meaning. It is believed
by some historians of words that ” house ” is also
related to ” hide/’ meaning to conceal, since a house
is a place where, people may be concealed or sheltered
from the weather. At any rate, the dictionary is
clear about the definition of ” house,” which is de-
scribed thus : “a structure intended for human
habitation, especially a human habitation which is
fixed in place and is intended for the private occupation
of a family or families.”

The dictionary goes farther than this, however.
A ” house ” may also mean a race or family of persons
with a common ancestor, as ” the House of Hanover,”
meaning the members of a family by that name. A
” house ” is also a body of legislators, as the ” House
of Representatives ” in the United States Congress,
or the ” House of Lords ” in the British Parliament.
” House ” has, furthermore, a special usage in astrology,
and another usage in zoology. ” House ” when
pronounced ” houz ” is a verb — to take or put into
a house or shelter.

The craftsman in writing may not know or remember
all the various meanings of every word which he
handles in the course of his day’s work. But if he
is really skilled in his occupation, he at least knows
that the majority of words have more than one mean-
ing, and that before using a word about which he has
any doubt at all, it is well to look it up and see what
it comes from, and see, also, how it differs from other
words which are more or less Uke it. In fact there is
no more interesting game than hunting down words
in a first-class dictionary.

62 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

Usually a complete dictionary will suggest to the
student who is looking up ” house ” that he see
” home/’ ” Home ” comes from ” hom ” or ” ham ”
or ” heim ” which are Middle English, Anglo-Saxon
and German, respectively, for ” abode.” A home
is ” one’s own dwelling place ; the house where one
lives; also birthplace.” We begin at last to under-
stand the difference between a ” house,” which is a
structure for human habitation, and a ” house ”
which is a ” home.” Reading further in the dictionary
we find other meanings of ” home ” which help to
sharpen this difference. Home is ” a place of refuge
and a rest, as a home for outcasts.” The Bible speaks
of death thus : ” Man goeth to his long home.”
” Home ” is also a goal, as in baseball. ” Home ”
is more than just a house. It is used, indeed, without
reference to the actual place where people live, as
in the sentence so often heard in connection with a
newly married couple, *’ Now they will have their
own home.” This ” home ” may be a cottage, a
tenement, or an apartment and not a house at all.
It is more than just a ” himian habitation.” It is
a particular kind of himian habitation.

The writer who has to use either the word ” house ”
or ” home ” must take all these facts into considera-
tion, else he may employ the wrong term. The
skilled writer, having somewhere in the back of his
mind knowledge of the real meanings not only of this
pair of words, but of hundreds of others, rarely makes
the kind of clumsy mistake which is seen in the writ-
ings of careless or thoughtless persons.

Neither ” house ” nor ” home,” however, may quite

i

WORDS 63

express the meaning which the writer has in mind.
The word ” domicile ” may come nearer to his idea,
and here again there is need for close study if we are
to use any one of these words correctly. ” Domicile ”
comes from the Latin, and means ” a place of residence,
either of an individual or a family.” It is used in
law to define the particular place where a man lives.
” Domicile ” is less definite than ” home,” and more
definite than ” house.” To put it another way, both
a ” domicile ” and a ” home ” must be in a ” house ” ;
but a ” hou^e ” may be a domicile and not a ” home>”
or a ” home ” and not a ” domicile.” An illustration
of these shades of meaning is the following :

” Where is your domicile? ”

” In New York. But I call Boston my home,
though I have a house in Springfield.”

Shades of Meaning

For almost every word in the language there is at
least one other word which means nearly the same
thing. One of the most interesting books showing
the relations between words is Roget’s ” Thesaurus.”
Under ” house ” in the index there are these sub-
heads: “family,” “locate,” “abode,” “theater,”
” make safe,” ” council,” and ” firm.” Reference
to the pages on which these terms are classified shows
a wealth of words, each shading off slightly from the
others. Under ‘ ^ abode, ‘ ‘ for example, are the following :

dwelling, lodging, domicile, residence, address, location,
habitation, where one’s lot is cast, local habitation, berth,
seat, lap, sojourn, housing, quarters, headquarters, residence,
tabernacle, throne, ark.

64 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

home, fatherland, country; homestead, stall; fireside;
hearth-stone; etc.

Each one of these words has in it, more or less
prominent, a part of the idea which is in the word
” house.” If each of these words were a number,
it would be possible to find a least common denominator
for them, and that least common denominator would
express the idea basic to all.

It is suggested, as an exercise in the study of words,
that the student should go to a good dictionary, and
read the history of each of those just listed. In every
instance he will find that the original or first meaning
of the word gives a valuable clew to the idea in it,
and that by remembering what a word comes from
it will not be difficult to use that word in an intelligent
manner — clearly and effectively. Exact information
about the term ” house ” will enable the writer to
write ” house ” when he means something different
from ” home,” and to write ” dwelling ” when he
wishes to bring out a still different idea about a place
where some one lives.

” Sentimental Tommy ”

An incident in the life of ” Sentimental Tommy ”
by J. M. Barrie gives a picture of the struggle of a
real writer for the right word in the right place.
Tommy and a boy by the name of McLauchlan were
given two hours in which to write an essay on “A
Day in Church.” At the end of the period Tommy
had got no further than halfway through the second
page. His rival had completed his composition and

WORDS 65

was awarded the prize by default. The judges asked
Tommy what was the matter.

” He had brought himself to pubhc scorn for lack
of a word. What word? they asked testily, but
even now he could not tell. He had wanted a Scotch
word that would signify how many people were in a
church, and it was on the tip of his tongue but would
come no farther. Puckle was neariy the word, but
it did not mean so many people as he had meant.
The hour had gone by just Uke winking ; he had for-
gotten all about time while searching his mind for the
word.”

One of the judges suggested ” manzy.”

” ‘ I thought of manzy,’ replied Tommy, woefully,
for he was ashamed of himself, ‘ but — but a manzy’s
a swarm. It would mean that the folk in the kirk were
buzzing thegither like bees, instead of sitting still.’

” ‘ Even if it does mean that,’ said Mr. Duthie,
with impatience, ‘ what need of being so particular ?
Surely the art of essay writing consists in using the
first word that comes and hurrying on.’ ”

Others suggested other words, all to be rejected by
the defeated author.

” ‘It is so easy, too, to find the right word,’ said
Mr. Gloag. .

” ‘ It’s no ; it’s as difficult as to hit a squirrel,’ cried
Tommy.”

Books on Words

Of books about words and their ways there are
many. A few of those which the beginner in writing
might do well to study are mentioned in Chapter

F

66 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

XII. When these books are not at hand, there is
always the dictionary. No writer can work without
a good dictionary, and for a small outlay of money,
from fifty cents to two or three dollars, it is possible
to purchase a very serviceable one which can be kept
on the desk and consulted in odd moments. Even for
the person who is not learning to write, the dictionary
is more interesting than a novel or magazine. The
dictionary is a storehouse of all the words of which
poetry, science and romance are made. The diction-
ary is a book crammed full of entertaining short
stories about words. From a good dictionary alone
one can gain a broad education not only in spelhng,
grammar, punctuation, pronunciation, but in the
way words are made and in the way words have been
used by all great writers from the earliest times till
to-day. Read your dictionary as faithfully as people
used to read the Bible if you desire to teach yourself
how to handle the tools of the trade of writing.

Barrett Wendell, a great teacher of writing, has
declared that a man can get along in hf e with knowledge
of a thousand or so words. But, he says, in his ” Eng-
lish Composition”:

How to Learn Words

” The vocabulary at the disposal of a master of
such a language as Enghsh … is comparatively
enormous. A modern dictionary contains something
hke a hundred thousand separate titles — all sanc-
tioned by more or less usage. Nobody would ever
think of using all these words. The total number
used by Shakespeare, an extremely copious writer,

WORDS 67

is, I believe, not above fifteen thousand. But any-
body who is anxious for the power of easily expressing
many and various shades of thought and feeling will
do well to keep at his disposal as large a vocabulary
as he can manage. The way to increase a vocabulary
is very like the way to increase your personal acquaint-
ance. Put yourself in the way of meeting as many
different phases of expression as you can, — read
widely, talk with clever people, — and whenever you
come across a new word or expression, train your-
self, so far as possible, to understand it, just as you
would train yourself to classify and remember people
you meet, gentle, and vulgar, good, bad or indifferent.
Each one has its place in that great composite fact,
— human nature and hmnan Ufe.”

CHAPTER VII

WORDS — GRAMMAR

. In addition to knowing exactly what words mean
and what they do not mean, the writer must also
know something about words as parts of speech.
As has already been said, words express thoughts or
ideas. But more than this, words have certain rela-
tions to each other which must be understood by him
who uses them. These relations are described and
explained in what is called granunar.

Grammar by itself does not teach writing. Grammar
assists writers to understand the way in which words
may and should be used.

It is not the object of this book to attempt to teach
grammar or even all the principal points in grammar
with which every writer should be familiar. The
rules of grammar are many, and it is impossible to
write by rules alone. Grammar should be studied
and absorbed and become a second nature. Grammar,
like good manners, must be learned so thoroughly
that it is not necessary to stop and think about it. A
well-brought up young man automatically raises his
hat to a lady : he does not need to carry a book on
etiquette in his pocket to consult every time this or
a similar courtesy seems appropriate. In the same
way, a well-brought up writer uses good grammar
without thinking about it.

68

WORDS — GRAMMAR 69

A skilled writer always begins his sentences and
proper names with capital letters, always writes
” he does ” instead of “he do,” never writes ” a
man which died ” for ” a man who died,” nor ” lay
down ” when it should be “he down.” During the
eariy years of training, the writer cannot help being
more or less self-conscious about grammar. But
persist^it and careful practice will rid him of this
embarrassing self-consciousness, and the use of gram-
mar will at last become largely a matter of habit.

What Grammar Is

Grammar consists, first of all, in naming or defining
the different kinds or classes of words. Since words
are the smallest tools or pieces of material used in the
trade of writing, it is absolutely necessary for the
craftsman to know what to call them so that he can
think and talk intelligently about his trade. Words,
or ” parts of speech,” as they are termed in grammar,
are either adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections,
nouns, prepositions, pronouns or verbs. Other terms
are in use which describe special uses of words and
parts of words, but the main thing which a writer
must know before using a word is into which of these
eight classes it falls. This does not mean that before
using the word ” find, ” for example, he must stop and
figure out whether ” find ” is a verb or a preposition
or neither; it means that he must know without
thinking that ” find ” is either a noun or a verb, and
that he desires to use it, let us say, as a noun, meaning
a ” discovery,” or thing found. Unless the writer
is familiar in this kind of way with the names of words,

70 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

it will be difficult if not impossible for him to handle
them efficiently.

After all, the name of a word is a description of
the use to which the word is put — a description of
what part it plays in the structure of writing. To
build good pieces of writing words must be used in
accordance with their character : an adverb must not
be used in place of an adjective. For example, ” soft ”
is an adjective, while ” softly ” is an adverb, and we
write grammatically when we say : ‘^ This bed is
soft ” ; but it is not correct grammar to use an adverb
to describe how something is done, as, ” The bell tolled
8ofV^ Practically all purely grammatical mistakes
are caused by the failure of the writer to employ words
as the rules and customs of the language require that
they be employed.

The Parts of Speech

Since there are eight parts of speech, it is not a
great demand on every educated person to memorize
permanently not only the names of these parts of
speech, but a short definition of the function of each,
such as the following :

An adjective is a word which is used to modify or describe
a noun. “Warm,” ”sweet,” “bad,” “first ” and “difficult”
are adjectives.

An adverb is a word which is used to modify or describe
a verb or adjective. “Warmly,” “sweetly,” “badly,”
“simply,” “soon,” “here” and “very” are adverbs.

A conjunction is a word which connects sentences or parts
of sentences. “And,” “but,” “or,” “for,” “unless” and
“yet” are conjunctions.

WORDS — GRAMMAR 71

An interjection is a word which indicates a sudden feeling.
“O,” ** hurrah” and “ah” are interjections.

A noun is a word which is a name of something. “Man, ”
“baby,” “weather,” “desk,” “cigar” and “fire” are
nouns.

A preposition is a word which is used before a noun or
pronoun to show its relation to some other word. “To,”
“on,” “of,” “in,” “across” and “with” are prepositions.

A pronoun is a word which is used for a noun. “He, ” “it, ”
“you,” “us” and “they” are pronouns.

A verb is a word which asserts or tells something. ” Run, ”
“be,” “move,” “open,” “step” and “deUberate” are
verbs.

Inflections — What They Are

Grammar not only gives names to words, but it
gives names to what they do. Granmiar is concerned
with the inflections of words. Inflection comes from
the LMin and means to bend or turn from the original
course. An inflected word, therefore, is a word which
is changed shghtly in spelling, or to which a syllable
has been added, not for the purpose of changing its
real meaning, but in order to make it fit into the
structure of a sentence.

For example, ” children ” is an inflection of the
noun ” child,” showing number, and we say *’ Children
are good ” when we mean more than one child. ” Is ”
is an inflection of the verb “to be,” showing person
and number ; we write ” He is good,” meaning one
. person, not several. ” Them ” is an inflection of
the pronoun “he,” showing number and case, as,
” I saw them,” meaning more than one person, the
object of the verb ” saw.” ” Should ” is an inflection

72 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

of the verb or auxiliary ” shall,” showing mood, as
” Should I do this? ” meaning that I am in a doubting
mood. ” Being suppressed ” is an inflection of the
verb “suppress,” showing voice, that is, showing
that some one or something is in the process of suppres-
sion. ” Actress ” is an inflection of the noun ” actor,”
showing gender, that is, in this case a woman, instead
of a man. And so on.

When a verb is inflected it is said to be conjugated
in its various moods, tenses, persons and numbers,
When nouns and pronouns are inflected, they are said
to he declined. When every part of speech in a sen-
tence is described the sentence is parsed.

All these names or granmiatical descriptions can-
not be learned in a few days or a few weeks. It re-
quires both study and practice to know what to call
the parts of speech and to know the relations between
words in a sentence. The old-fashioned exercise
of parsing sentences is the best kind of training in
grammar, and the would-be writer should consult a
good book on grammar and become thoroughly famihar
with the correct usages of words.

Common Errors to Avoid

Such common mistakes in grammar as to say,
“I come on the train yesterday,” meaning ” I came, ”
past tense, can thus be avoided. No one knowing
grammar could consciously make this mistake in the
tense or time of the verb.

Another common error is to say, ” Them things.”
The mistake here consists in using a pronoun for an
adjective. The adjective which is probably intended

WORDS — GRAMMAR 73

is “these” or “those,” and not the pronoun “them,”
which would be used in the sentence, ” I saw them.”

” Those kind of boys always get into trouble,” is
often used by people who do not know the rules of
grammar. ” Those ” is plural, and ” kind ” is singu-
lar. ” That kind ” would be correct. ” Those boys ”
would also be correct. In other words, an adjective
must be of the same number as the noun which it
modifies or describes.

If you understand granmiar you can easily detect
what is wrong when a person says : ” He done it.”
” Done ” is. the past participle of the verb ” do.”
The sentence should read, ” He did it.” ” He has
done it ” would also be correct. ” They done it ”
would be incorrect. Why ?

An example of a puzzling word is found in this
sentence, ” He laid down quietly.” ” He laid the
box down quietly ” is correct. If it is desired to say
that he placed himself in a lying position, the sentence
should be written, ” He lay down quietly.” ” Lie ”
and ” lay ” should be looked up in a grammar and
a dictionary and the beginner should study all their
different forms or inflections so as to be able to use
them granmiatically.

Again, ” to ” is a preposition, while ” too ” is an
adverb. ” He went to the house ” is correct, because
” to ” has as its object the words ” the house.” ” He
went to the house to late ” is incorrect, because the
second ” to ” in this sentence is an adverb modifying
the adverb ” late.” It should be ” too late.”

These are but a few of many possible mistakes in
grammar. It would take a book to repeat all the

74 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

common mistakes which can be avoided only by
knowing.

Expertness in the use of English can never be gained
without a thorough drill in these fundamentals of
grammar. Latin, Greek and German are much more
elaborately inflected languages than English, and for
this reason there is less opportunity for a writer of
Enghsh to make errors in inflection. There is no
royal road to learning inflections or the use of inflected
forms. The theory must be got from books and lessons
in class, but the practice can only be got from hearing
correct English spoken, from speaking it oneself, from
writing it and reading it.

Knowing What to Say

In order to write grammatically, the first thing
after knowing grammar is to know what you want to
say. The most learned grammarian in the world
is helpless with all his knowledge of moods, tenses,
compound relative pronouns, comparative degrees
and subjunctives unless he plans out in advance the
thoughts which he desires to express and the order
in which he desires to express them. A child who is
offered candy may say, ” Yes, please,” without know-
ing the grammatical names of these two words; and
on the other hand a scholar may compose a grammati-
cally good sentence which is so ” prosy ” that nobody
wants to read it. Even the grammarian may write
poor English in spite of his wisdom if in addition to
knowing grammar, he does not first map out his ideas
and then set them down so as to be at once simple,
clear and forcible.

r

WORDS — GRAMMAR 75

” If I should receive a letter to-morrow, it will not
be necessary for me to go home,” is a sentence illus-
trating the use of the subjunctive. This sentence
contains prepositions, pronouns, an adjective, noims,
verbs and an adverb. To write it required both a
famiharity with grammar and training in plain, every-
day thinking.

Many a beginner in writing makes the fatal mistake
of spending too much time in the study of grammar
and not enough time in the study of grammatical
writing. As long as a writer is equipped with a
thorough elementary knowledge of grammar, he
should not burden himself with a great deal of addi-
tional study of the subject. Grammar was invented
to explain language, and by using grammar as a
guide or help rather than as a slave driver, it will be
easier to progress.

Helps to Grammar

There is something more important for the writer
than to know every rule of granmiar by heart. That
something is that he should have the ” feel ” of gram-
mar, that he should know good English from bad as
a result of absorbing good English every day either
from listening to the conversation of persons who
speak good English, or from reading critically books
which are written in good English. One such book
is the Bible. Others are the works of standard authors
— Kipling, Bret Harte, Emerson, Shakespeare, and
so on. Many newspaper despatches as well as the
editorials and special articles in the big city papers
are as a rule grammatically correct. Poetry is a

76 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITrNG

splendid field for self-teaching in grammar. In fact,
it has been said with a good deal of truth, that there
is less grammar in a book on grammar than can be
found in the latest message of the President or in a
copy of a current magazine. What a beginner in
writing needs above all, in addition to some schooling
in the difference between verbs and pronouns, and
between possessives and tenses, is practical experi-
ence in grammar. This can better be gained from a
study of the written language than from studying
theory alone.

Everybody who speaks Enghsh really makes use
of the rules of grammar whether he knows it or not.
The vast majority of people employ the rules of gram-
mar correctly and unconsciously. To go back to
our comparison of writing with bricklaying, it may
be said that while words are like bricks and a wall
is like a sentence or a whole composition, the rela-
tions of words as described iii grammar is like knowl-
edge of the handling of bricks, trowel and mortar.
An apprentice writer can produce a very fau- piece
of work with very little knowledge of grammar, but
the further he progresses, the more he begins to ” get
into the swing ” of his trade, and the more necessary
it is for him to investigate and understand all the
rules and customs of language which have been devel-
oped through centuries of writing and thinking and
which are called grammar. The study of these rules
and customs should be carried on side by side with
regular practiCQ in writing.

L^

CHAPTER VIII

PUNCTUATION

In spite of the fact that many people consider
punctuation to be something mysterious and com-
plicated, it is one of the easiest parts of the whole
trade of writing to learn and master. ” Punctua-
tion ” comes from the Latin word ” punctimi ” which
means a point, and in writing to punctuate means
to point off or divide into sentences, clauses, and so
on by means of certain signs or symbols. In music
the ” rests ” are really punctuation marks. In arith-
metic the comma and period punctuate such a figure
as this, 1,272.03.

In writing the punctuation marks are the comma
( , ), the period ( . ), the [colon (:), the semicolon
( ; ), the dash ( — ), the exclamation point (!),
and the question mark ( ? ) . While not always called
punctuation marks, nevertheless it is convenient
to consider the hyphen ( – ) , the parenthesis ( ( ) ) ,
the brackets ( [ ] ), quotation marks (“”), and the
apostrophe ( ‘ ), as marks of punctuation.

The Purpose of Punctuation

The purpose of punctuation is to make clear the
meaning of written language. If we did not have
punctuation, it would be difficult sometimes to know
exactly what a writer intended to say. Anybody

77

78 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

who has ever puzzled over an unpunctuated telegram
can easily appreciate how valuable punctuation is.
Knowledge of the use of punctuation is essential to
clear writing.

Use of the Period

The most important use of a period ( . ) is to mark
the end of a sentence. In Chapter II it was said that
a sentence consists of two parts, subject and predicate.
The period should be placed at the end of the sentence,
in order to show that the sentence is complete. For
example :

” I am going to stop here.”

If the period were not used in this way, the reader
would naturally believe that the sentence was unfin-
ished, and he would run on into the next sentence as
in this illustration :

” I am going to stop here When you come, you
should stop here, too.”

The period is also used to show that a word has been
abbreviated or shortened. For example, ” Dr.” stands
for ” Doctor, ” ” Mr.” for ” Mister, ” ” etc.” for ” et
cetera”; and the ” M.” in ^’ Maurice M. Smith”
stands for a name such as ” Miller. ” In these cases
the period shows that something has been left out.

The Question Mark — Exclamation Point

A question mark (?) is placed at the end of a
sentence instead of a period when the sentence asks
a question, as “Are you there?” An exclamation
point (!) is placed at the end of a sentence or after
a word or phrase in order to show surprise or some

PUNCTUATION 79

strong emotion, as, ” I can’t believe it ! ” or, ” Good
gracious ! ”

So simple are these punctuation marks that it is
difficult to misuse them, and very little study is re-
quired to attain perfection in handling them.

In the case of the other marks of punctuation, however,
there are certain difficulties which should be explained.

But before going further into the matter, it is well
to repeat again that the object of punctuation is to
help to express ideas so that no reasonably intelligent
reader can misunderstand what the writer has in
mind. Punctuation is an aid to clear writing. While
there are certain hard and fast rules about punctuation
which should no more be violated than the rules of
grammar, nevertheless it is a fact that different writers
punctuate diflferently, the reason being that punctua-
tion, properly employed, will assist a writer to bring
out his exact meaning. This statement applies par-
ticularly to the comma and the semicolon.

The Comma

The general rule to follow with regard to the comma
is to use commas mainly for the purpose of preventing
confusion which would result if words, phrases, or
clauses were not so separated. This rule has excep-
tions, and it should be supplemented by another rule,
namely, that the commas should be used as sparingly
as possible. In other words, the comma marks a
short pause or breathing spell such as is taken naturally
by a speaker or writer. Too many commas produce
a choppy effect. Too few make the words run together
in a confusing fashion.

80 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

A comma should always be used to mark off certain
words or phrases such as ” however,” in a sentence
like this :

” No one, however, would do such a foohsh thing.”

Commas are also used to separate adjectives or
adverbs in a series, as for example :

” Keen, cold, driving winds and a cold, wet rain.”

It should be noted that there is no comma after
either ” driving ” or ” wet ” for the reason that there
is no need of a pause between the last adjective in
such a series and the noun which it modifies. But
there is need of a comma between the other adjectives
for the reason that without such a pause as is indicated
by a comma, the words would ” pile up ” on each other
and confusion would follow.

A comma is generally used to separate a short clause
from the rest of the sentence, but this is not a hard and
fast rule. For example, take this sentence :

” We are at the dawn of an era in education which
promises happiness and prosperity to all.”

Half a century ago many good writers would have
placed a comma after ” education.” But the mod-
em writer would not place a comma here because the
meaning is clear without it. In this sentence, how-
ever, the case is different :

” We are at the dawn of an era in education which,
according to the opinion of the best informed educators,
lises of happiness and prosperity to all.”
i omission of the commas after ” which ”
lation ” would — or perhaps might — result
^rstanding. Hence it is good punctuation

PUNCTUATION 81

Punctuation, in common with the rest of the trade
of writing, cannot be learned by merely learning rules.
In fact, it is difficult to make simple rules for punctua-
tion because the use of punctuation depends very
much on the use of language, on shades of meaning,
and not very much on hard and fast rules. The
general rules just stated and illustrated will serve
to assist the apprentice writer to teach himself how
to use the comma. In addition to studying these
rules and the principles on which they are based, the
beginner in writing can advance himself in no way
faster than to observe how good writers punctuate
and to try to figure out why they punctuate as they
do. And in making this study it should always be
remembered that there are fads and fashions in punctua-
tion as in everything else, so that it is not surprising
to find writers of the twentieth century using punctua-
tion marks, such as the comma, in quite a diflferent
way from the writers of a century or more ago.

The Colon

The colon ( : ) has a very much more restricted use
than the comma. The word ” colon ” means a ” portion ”
or ” member.” This punctuation mark serves to sepa-
rate parts of sentences which are more or less independ-
ent. The colon is generally used to indicate that what
follows is in the nature of a list or an explanation of what
precedes. For example, a common and correct use of
the colon is in the last sentence of the fourth paragraph
back from this paragraph — ”In this sentence, how-
ever, the case is different : ” The sentence following the
colon was an illustration or explanation of the ” case ”

Q

82 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

in question. A similar illustration of the use of the
colon is in the following sentence :

” Of all the things in the world worth having, none
are better than these: good health, wealth, and a
cheerful disposition.”

The colon is used after ” Dear Sir : ” in a letter.
It is also employed to separate figures in, for example,
” 6 : 30 P.M.” Other similar uses will come to mind.

Beginners in writing are often confused by the
resemblance between the colon and the semicolon.
According to modern practice, the semicolon has
not in reality half the value of the colon. There may
or may not be as long a pause after a colon as after
a semicolon. As a matter of fact, there is usually
a longer pause after a semicolon than there is after
a colon. As may be seen in the illustrations above,
the colon is most frequently used to indicate that
something more is coming, while, as is now about to
be shown, the semicolon usually indicates the con-
clusion, or nearly the conclusion of a thought.

The Semicolon

The semicolon marks a fuller or longer pause than
the comma. This fact can be easily remembered by
observing that the semicolon is a period on top of a
comma. In general, the semicolon is used to separate
more or less complete clauses in a sentence, that is to
say, to prevent more or less complete clauses from
running together. For example : I

” Up to the time of going to press, returns had
come in from only half the counties ; but by midnight
three-quarters had been reported.”

H

PUNCTUATION 83

Here the semicolon marks a long pause after the
first section of the sentence. Many writers would
use a comma, thus denoting a shorter pause. Still
another would make two sentences out of the one, in
this way emphasizing more forcibly the two sets
of ideas expressed in the two clauses. Either a comma
or a semicolon would be correct. In the following
sentence, however, a semicolon is necessary:

” Up to the time of going to press returns had come
in from only half the counties in Iowa ; only a quarter
of the counties in IlUhois, where the recorders were
extremely slow; and less than a score of counties in
Wisconsin, though here the polls had closed early.”

In this sentence the semicolon is truly a ” grown-
up ” comma, because it is necessary to make a con-
siderable pause after each clause, and if commas
were used instead of semicolons, there would be a
serious risk of confusing the longer clauses with the
shorter ones. The semicolon avoids such a risk —
and that is its real function, precisely as it is the func-
tion of the period to prevent sentences from running
together, and of the comma to prevent words or phrases
from running together.

The Dash — Parentheses

The dash ( — ) is a less formal punctuation mark.
It is used, as in the last sentence of the preceding
paragraph, for the purpose of making a break in a
sentence, after which the sentence may.begin again, so
to speak, sometimes with an entirely new subject.
It is not advisable for the beginner in writing to use
the dash unless it is absolutely necessary; in the

84 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

majority of cases a comma or a semicolon will answer
the purpose better. Dashes, however, are correctly
used by many modern writers instead of parentheses
for the purpose of separating from the rest of the
sentence a phrase or clause which is thrown in by way
of illustration or explanation, as, for example :

“He is one of those men — charming, cultured
men — who rarely bores any one.”

Writers of former days would have used parentheses
instead of the dash here. But in either case the object
is the same, namely, to inject an idea or two into the
sentence at a certain point. A good way to deter-
mine whether dashes or parentheses are correctly
used is to decide whether the words inclosed by them
could be left out of the sentence without destroying
the grammatical structure of the sentence. If these
words could be removed without injming the sentence
grammatically, then the dashes or parentheses are
correctly used.

Not a Matter of Rule

Punctuation is thus seen to be a good deal more than
a matter of rule and regulation which can be learned
by rote. What the apprentice writer must learn
is not exactly when and where to use a given punctua-
tion mark, but, first, what the mark means, and, sec-
ond, what the writer desires to say. No skilled writer
likes to leave the task of punctuating his work to
another person because he realizes that no other per-
son knows as well as he does the precise ideas he has
in mind. The skilled writer uses a comma in order
to produce a certain effect ; similarly he uses a semi-

PUNCTUATION 85

colon or a dash. There is a humorous story of a man
who cared so little about punctuation — and probably
knew so little — that he wrote a book without any
periods or conamas in it. When he reached the end
he filled several pages with nothing but punctuation
marks, suggesting to the reader that he distribute them
to suit himself. It is probably unnecessary to say that
no one should take this as an example to follow.

How to punctuate effectively can be learned, first
by studying modem books on grammar and the usage
of punctuation; second, by observing how sentences
in books, newspapers and magazines are punctuated;
and thu-d, by experimenting with punctuation one-
self. In making such experiments and always in
punctuating one’s own work, it is well to read out
loud what has been written, pausing appropriate
lengths of time for the commas, semicolons, dashes,
periods and so on. By this practice — which, by
the way, is admirable for many other reasons — the
writer ” hears himself,” so to speak, and can thus
decide whether he has punctuated so as to bring out
the meaning most clearly. Punctuation is largely
a matter of dividing off sentences so that the voice
and hence the mind of the reader will pause, rest
or stop at those places where the thought or thoughts
require a pause of a given length or else a full stop.
Just as a musician places an eighth rest, a half rest
or a whole rest where the musical meaning demands
it, so the writer can secure a nearly infallible guide to
punctuation by reading aloud his sentences and thus
determining by the sound where the breaks or divisions
should come and by what marks to indicate them.

CHAPTER IX

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER

The writing of a letter, like the writing of a report
or an article, may be either an art or a trade, depend-
ing on the ability of the writer and on the occasion
which calls for the letter. Concerning the writing
of letters as an art this book has nothing to offer,
except to say that he who can sit down and in a few
pages communicate his thoughts, observations and
emotions to a friend in such a manner as to cause his
friend to cherish the letter and re-read it and read it
to others, is a man to be envied. Robert Louis Stev-
enson was one of the most finished letter writers of
recent years, and his Vailima letters should be read
both because they are delightful* hterature in them-
selves and because they are remarkable examples of
artistic letters. The same could with justice be said
concerning the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, which
are to be found in the New Testament.

But the majority of letters written in the ordinary
course of the day’s work are not artistic productions,
and there is no reason why they should be. The
ordinary business letter, and the ordinary friendly
letter as well, should be a plain, matter-of-fact pro-
duction, conforming to the rules of all plain, clear
writing. Every well-educated person should possess

86

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER 87

the ability to prepare such a letter, and this chapter
is intended to develop such ability.

Form

Let us first consider the form of a letter.

According to prevailing custom and usage, all
ordinary letters are cast or written in a regular form,
which varies little no matter what the subject or the
purpose of the letter may be. This form may be
outlined as follows :

Na,Tne,
Address.

Salutation :

Street Address,
, City, State,
Date.

Body of letter.

Valediction,

Signature.

All well-prepared letters should be in approximately
the above form, and for the following reasons :

It is essential that a letter should show the place
at which it was written. This is, first, a piece of
information to which the person who receives the
letter is entitled, and which the writer should give if
he expects to receive a reply. The more complete
is the address line of a letter, the better. This line

88 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

should contain the number of the house on the street,
the name of the street, the section of the city in which
the street is located (N.W., South, and so forth) in
case of a large city, the name of the city or town, and
the State. In rural districts the number of the rural
free delivery route should be included. If a letter
is written from a room in a large office building or
from an apartment in an apartment house, the number
of the room or apartment should also be given.

Details of the Form

In addition to the address of the writer, a letter
should also always bear the date on which it was
written. The date should be complete and definite.
It should not be merely ” Monday,” or ” January
30.” The date Une should contain : first, the name
of the month, either in full or abbreviated ; second,
the number of the day of the month ; third, the year,
thus, “Jan. 10, 1918,” or “May 1, 1921.” The
name of the day of the week should not be given, as
“Monday,” “Wed.” or “Thurs.” for the reason that
by itself it will not identify the letter as to date, and
for the further reason that since the day of the month
is given, the day of the week can be determined if
desired by consulting a calendar.

The next item to be considered in studying the
physical form of a letter is the address of the person
to whom it is written. This should be placed several
lines below the date and place Unes and on the left
side of the.paper. The object of including the address
is to show to whom and to what place the letter is
directed. The address should be exactly as written

M

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER 89

on the envelope. Usually it will consist of three lines,
the first containing the name of the person addressed,
the second the street and number of his residence
or place of business and, third the city and state, thus :

Mr. J. C. Fitzgerald,

196 South Dakota Street,
Newark, N. J.

The matter of spacing these lines depends some-
what on personal taste. A very common way is to
begin the second line half an inch or so to the right
of the beginning of the first line so that the end of
the second line will extend beyond the end of the
first Une ; and similarly with the third Une. A style
which is perhaps more modern is as follows :

Mr. J. C. Fitzgerald,
196 South Dakota Street,
Newark, N. J.

The essential thing to remember is that the full
address of the person to whom the letter is written
should be placed in every business letter and that
it should be made to look neat and workmanlike.

Underneath the address, on a new line with the
space of a line between it and the address, is the
salutation. The salutation is the direct address to
the person — ” Dear John ” or ” My dear Mr.
Smith.”

The salutation is the opening of the letter proper.
Just as when in talking to a man one says, ” Mr.
Jones, I want to ask you a question,” or ^^ Bob, please

90 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

don’t talk so loud ” ; so when one man writes to
another he says, ” Dear John,” or, in case of a more
formal relation, ” Dear Mr. Jones.”

r

How to ” Salute ”

Exactly what salutation to use in a given circum-
stance depends on the circumstance. There is no
hard and fast rule. ^’ My dear Mr. Smith ” is generally
considered to be the most formal style of salutation.
To write “Dear Mr. Smith,” dropping off the “my,”
is less formal. ” My dear Sir ” is formal — too formal,
usually, for ordinary business letters which usually
begin ” Dear Sir.” ” Dear Sir ” is used when the
writer is not acquainted with the person to whom he
is writing, while ” Dear Mr. Smith ” or ” My dear
Mr. Smith ” is used when some sort of personal rela-
tionship has been established. Of course no one
would think of beginning a letter ” Dear Tom ”
unless the writer and Tom ordinarily called each other
by their first names.

In the matter of the salutation the letter writer
should be governed by three things: custom, good
taste and common sense.

There is no hard and fast rule as to the punctua-
tion which should be used after the last word of the
salutation. It should be either a colon ( : ), a dash
( — ), or both a colon and a dash ( : — ). Likewise
there is no arbitrary rule about the position of the
first word of the body of the letter after the salutation.
This and other technical details vary more or less,
and the student should consult his instructor or a
manual on letter writing for advice or assistance.

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER 91

The Valediction

Before considering the body of the letter, which,
after all, is the most important part of the letter, let
us take the valediction or leave-taking. No letter
is complete without a little bow, so to speak, at the
end, just preceding the signature of the writer.
There are a variety of forms of valediction. The
ordinary form used in business letters is ” Yours
truly,” or ” Yours very truly,” or ” Very truly
yours.” No one of these phrases implies intimacy with
the person addressed. ” Sincerely yours,” ” Faith-
fully yours,” ” Very sincerely yours,” ” Respectfully
yours,” and so forth, each has its particular shade of
meaning.

” Very truly yours ” is usually considered better
than ” Yours truly ” for the reason that it is less
abrupt. ” Sincerely yours ” is employed between
personal friends and between persons who have devel-
oped a friendship through correspondence. ” Respect-
fully yours ” is quite formal and should be used in
case the writer is addressing one to whom it is courteous
to show particular respect.

The broad rule which should guide every letter
writer in deciding what form of closing phrase to
employ is to choose that expression which best expresses
the object in view, and, in doubtful cases, to prefei*
the more formal phrase to that which is less formal.

The signature of a letter, which follows the leave-
taking phrase, should be the signature of the writer
as he desires to be addressed in reply. The simplest
signature is the last name and the initials, as for

92 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

example, ” C. W. Elliott,” ” James T. Tappan/’ or
‘* Wm. Cummings Story,” and so forth.

The Body

Important as are these details and incomplete as
a letter would be which failed to include them, the
main part or body of the letter is the principal con-
sideration. Let us therefore turn our attention to
the problem of how a letter should be written, how
it should be begun, how arranged, and so forth. In
this discussion it should always be remembered that
all the suggestions here made will not apply to every
instance, and that the writer should endeavor to look
behind the suggestions in order to see the reason lying
back of them ; and, further, that he should not hesitate
to discard any suggestion or rule which, upon careful
reflection, does not seem to apply to the job he has
in hand. No rule was ever made — including this
one — that did not have an exception.

Every letter, like every sentence, must have a
subject, and no one should sit down to write a letter
till he has decided what is to be its subject. For
example, take the case of a lettet to an employer
from an applicant for a position. The subject of
such a letter is the qualifications of the applicant for
the particular place. The writer should confine
himself strictly to this subject, and there should be
nothing in the letter which does not bear directly
upon the subject. The first sentence of the letter
should set forth as simply as possible the purpose of
the letter and the reason for writing it. The body
of the letter should set forth in detail and in logical

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER

93

order the qualifications of the writer. The conclusion
should express the hope that the infonnation given
is satisfactory, that the writer will be glad to furnish
additional information, and so forth. The letter,
in short, should be composed so that it can be read
and understood with the minimum . of effort on the
part of the reader.

Here is an example of a well-prepared letter of this
kind:

Mr. WilUam S. Snow,
688 New York Ave.
Washington, D. C.

23 Broad Street,
Norfolk, Virginia,
September 23, 1918.

Dear Sir :

In reply to your advertisement for a draftsman
published in this morning’s ”Post,” I desire to apply
for employment in your establishment.

I am twenty-one years of age, married, and in
good health. I was educated in the common schools
of Norfolk, Virginia, and had in addition two years in
the high school of the same city. For the past four
years I have worked in the factory of Smith Brothers
as a machinist’s helper, earning on an average of $18
a week. Since August, 1916, 1 have taken a night course
for draftsmaji, and now have my diploma.

Very truly yours,

Edwin H. French.

This letter is a good letter because it wastes no
time and because it gives information enough to

94 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

enable the recipient to judge whether it is worth his
while to examine the writer in person. A business
man receiving such a letter would perhaps say to
himself, ” Here’s a youngster who writes well, and
apparently is well trained. Guess I’ll send for him.”

No matter whether Edwin French secured the
position or not, the letter served its purpose — it
set forth the case for Edwin French in such a manner
as to attract attention and to predispose the employer
to give the writer a chance.

Let us analyze this letter a little further.

The first sentence or paragraph gives the reason
which prompted the writer to write it.

The second sentence presents the subject matter
of the letter in more complete form. It relates facts
which the person to whom the letter is addressed
desires to know.

The third sentence continues and adds to and en-
larges the second.

The fourth sentence sums up all that the letter
contains and leaves the way open for further corre-
spondence. It would be diflicult to imagine a better
arrangement for such a letter. The writer mig t
have begun by saying :

” I am twenty-one years of age, unmarried, and
have a good record as a machinist.”

How to Begin

This would have been an inefficient beginning because
the thought which would naturally come to the mind
of the reader upon seeing these words would be : ” What
of it?” It was necessary for the sake of clearness

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER 95

and to avoid even the sUghtest misunderstanding
for the writer to begin by saying why he was writing
the letter. A letter is a formal docmnent. It cannot
be started in the middle any more than a person
should ring the front door bell of a house and say:
” The Paragon dictionary is the best dictionary in
the world.” The only way to begin is to begin at the
beginning, and the beginning is the only place to begin.
Just as a book agent should state briefly why he desires
to see the lady of the house, so the writer of a letter
should state why he is writing it. Such a statement
serves the double purpose of introducing the writer
and the speaker. A letter properly begun will carry
the ideas more quickly to the persop who reads it
than one begun at any other point than the beginning.

The old proverb : ” It is difficult to begin,” applies
with great force to writing. . The beginning of a
piece of writing is vital to all that follows, and all
the energy expended on preparing just the right first
sentence will be more than repaid if the composition
is finished.

Once the first sentence of a paragraph of a letter
has been set down, the rest should be much easier,
provided the writer will continually bear in mind that
what he has to write should be arranged logically,
and expressed simply and briefly. In such a letter
as is given above the order adopted by the writer
might be called the historical or chronological order.
In other words, the writer has picked out the facts
which he desires to present and placed them one after
the other in order of time. First he tells his age and
personal history. Then he proceeds to summarize

96 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

his experience and training by giving first place to
the eariier things, second place to what happened to
him later and so on up to the present time.

What Not to Say

The writer, of course, does not ^ve a complete
history of himself. He does not tell everything he
has done or give a list of all the courses of study he
has taken. Had he failed to secure a diploma at
the night school, it would have been valuable to state
how far he had gone in his special training. But
to say that he was the holder of a diploma from a
well-known local school was evidence of his education
suflicient for the purposes of the letter.

In short, the contents of such a letter as this one
are determined by the situation, by the object which
the writer has in view; Just as in planning such an
article as was described in a previous chapter it was
necessary to decide for what purpose and for what
class of readers the article was designed, so in the
case of a letter it is essential that the writer frame or
outline what he intends to say with his reader always
in his mind.

A Friendly Letter

For example, a friendly letter is different both in
form and in tone from a business letter. Like a
business letter it should of course be dated and ” lo-
cated.” The person to whom the letter is written
should be ” saluted,” but it is not necessary to write
his address in the letter itself. The leave-taking in a
friendly letter is more informal than that in a business

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER

97

letter. ” Lovingly yours,” *’ With much love,” are
good valedictions for a letter to a near relative. ” Your
friend,” ” As ever, yours,” and ” Sincerely,” or ” Sin-
cerely yours” are also proper. The valediction
depends on how well you know your correspondent
and on what you want to say.

Here is a sample of a short, informal, friendly letter :

27 Round Hill Road,
Meekins, Ohio,
January 25, 1919.
Dear Jimmy :

I am much obliged for yoiir letter and the picture
you sent with it. You forgot to say when it was taken.
Please ‘tell me.

Things are very much the same here. I saw your
cousin Mabel the other day. She has taken a posi-
tion with the Fairfield Garage, — in the office, of
course. I see her now and then as I go by in the car.
My own job is interesting and is likely to become
more so, for the business is growing rapidly and we
may have a branch house in Illinois before spring. And
they may let me go there in some capacity or other. I
do not like to leave Mother just now, but the oppor-
tunity is inviting and she says she can get along all
right without me. Perhaps it would be more quiet with-
out me !
Drop me a Une when you get time.

Yours, as ever,

Tom Smith.

The main difference between a letter to a prospective
employer, for example, and a letter to a fellow worker

98 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

giving orders about a new piece of work, is a difference
in purpose. Letters do not differ greatly in form.
That is to say, every letter must be properly dated,
must have a proper salutation, must be properly
paragraphed, must have good margins, and must
be properly finished or concluded. Letters the object
of which is to give directions, and letters of friendly
gossip should both be clear, straightforward and
well planned. Any and every variety of letter, in
other words, is after all a piece of writing, and must
be made in accordance with the common principles
of all good writing.

To sum it all up, the writing of a letter involves,
first, last and all the time, all the principles of good
writing. The writing of a letter differs from the
writing of an article or report principally in the fact
that the form of a letter is peculiar. But the form of
a letter is based on the principles of clearness and
effectiveness, which have already been explained.
The only way to learn how to write letters is to write
them, to rewrite them, and then to write some more
of them, criticizing freely, and, if you are fortunate
enough to have friends who are willing and able to
criticize, to accept their criticisms and profit by them.

CHAPTER X

ACCURACY

It is the business of the writer not only to present
facts, ideas and thoughts so that they may be easily
understood by the readers for whose minds they are
designed, but it is also part of the writer’s trade to be
accurate. All good writing should have the quality
described by this term. Accuracy is the most pre-
cious single quality of writing. Inaccurate writing,
writing which is inexact and untruthful, is worse than
useless.

Accuracy is not a thing that can be learned in a
day. After all, accuracy is really a habity and habits
cannot be formed overnight. The development of
the habit of accuracy requires, first of all, the will
or desire to be accurate; and, second, training or
schooling in the practice of accurate writing. It is
the purpose of this chapter to describe the general
principles of accuracy rather than to describe in
detail how to attain accuracy in every respect, leav-
ing it to the student to teach himself by reading
and by practice.

” Physical Accuracy ”

It ought to be clear that all writing should be what
we may call ” physically accurate,” that is to say, in

99

100 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

” good shape ” or exact so far as the mere physical
requirements are concerned. This kind of accuracy
depends on :

1. The neatness and orderliness of the manuscript.
No matter whether the manuscript is solely for the
use of the writer or is to be submitted to a teacher or a
magazine, it should be clean and legible. Number
each page; write on only one side. Have a right
and left margin of at least an inch ; let the top Une
fall about one inch and a half below the top edge of
the sheet, and the bottom line about an inch above
the bottom of the sheet. The space between the
lines should be suflScient to permit corrections, and
the paragraphs should be property indented. The
manuscript, in short, should be attractive to look at
and easy to read.

2. Correct spelling. The writer should realize that
every word in the language has a definite physical
composition. The writer must either learn how to
spell correctly, or else consult a dictionary whenever
in the least degree doubtful. Inaccurate spelling is
a sign of ignorance or ” sloppiness ” — or both.

Knowledge of the physical composition of words
is also necessary to enable the writer to divide or
hyphenate words correctly. Study of the dictionary
and of the history of words will give this knowledge
and teach the writer why, for example, the word
” knowledge ” should not spht thus : ” knowledge.”

3. Correct capitalization; correct use of numerals
and words for numbers; accurate use of quotation
marks, single and double, as well as of parentheses
and brackets; accuracy in abbreviating words — in

ACCURACY 101

short, accuracy in the ” small things ” of writing.
The student should freely consult the dictionary or
some good book on grammar for information on these
points, remembering always that a piece of writing,
hke a man, is frequently condemned because of failure
to conform to the best manners or etiquette.

Accuracy in Form

To go back to the kind of accuracy described under
1, the student should reread the chapter on Punctua-
tion and the chapter on Letter Writing. He should
observe carefully the form of letters, and the rules
of punctuation. He should consult books which
show how bills, telegrams, technical specifications,
notices and other pieces of writing designed for special
purposes are drawn up. He should copy samples
and try to write original specimens himself without
the aid of models. Examine the following and explain
to yourself how they illustrate the principles of ac-
curacy :

A. A notice.

ALL STUDENTS!

Every student who is interested in supporting the
school band should send his or her name to W. J. Cooley,
Room 21, before 12 M., December 19.

Alvin S. Thomas,

Principal.

102

EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

B. A bill.

Springfield, Mass. Oct 21, 1919.

Mr. W. S. Jones,

To Clark Hotel Co., Dr.

Carl Gay, Prop.

To rent of room (No. 68) from 10/1 to 10/21 $21.00

To laundry 1.87

To pressing suit .50

Total $23.37

R’c’d payment,

Clark Hotel

C. G.

Why are these pieces of writing accurate?

In the first place, they are neat and clear. There
is a good margin at both right and left, at the top and
at the bottom. The independent lines, such as the
signature, are set off or indented. The punctuation
is correct. There is space between the lines. It
would be difficult for any one to be confused as to
what is meant in either case. This, after all, is the
underlying purpose of all accurate writing.

Spelling Correctly

We now come to correct spelling, as explained in
paragraph 2. Many people who ought to know better
boast that they cannot spell, and argue that as long
as their writing can be read, it can be understood.
This is a lame excuse for laziness. If you cannot

ACCURACY 103

remember whether ” comment ” has one ” m ” or
two, look it up in the dictionary. If you are answer-
ing an advertisement for a position and wish to prove
to your prospective employer that you have really
had a good business training, be sure that you do not
spell ” business ” as if it were ” bizyness.” The
man who reads a letter with such a mistake in it
would be justified in throwing it into the waste basket
without replying. It is the bvMness of every one to
spell correctly. Spelling is a little thing, but bad
spelling may make all the difference between failure
and success.

Again, when you come to the end of a line and find
it is necessary to divide a word by a hyphen, make
sure that you know where the division should be made.
Remember that it is wrong to split a word of one
syllable like ” large ” in this way : ” la-rge.” Hyphens
divide words into syllables, and a syllable is a definite
part of a word — a part which may be briefly described
as having a sound of its own. Thus the word ” syl-
lable ” is not ” syll ” plus ” able. ” It is ” syUable. ”
Consult your dictionary and learn the reason and be
accurate.

Accuracy, lastly, in the ” small things ” of writing
is as necessary to good writing as accuracy in the big
things, just as a brick wall is poorly built if bits of
mortar are smeared about, the edges unfinished, and
the bricks not even and true. It would require a
chapter twice as long as this one to explain all the
rules of capitalization, abbreviation, and so on, but
a few of the most common errors may be given as
examples of ” what not to do.”

104 EVERYDAY ENGLISH’ WRITING

For example :

” I saw James the other day/’ is incorrect or inac-
curate because James is a proper name, and proper
names should always begin with capitals. Names
of countries and places, months of the year, titles
used as or with names, as ” the President ” or ” Presi-
dent Lincoln,” and of course the first words of sen-
tences and of lines of poetry should begin with capital
letters. These are not all the rules concerning capitals.
What are the rest ?

Again:

” The score was 2 to one and the high school was
beaten ” illustrates an inaccurate use of words for
numbers. The writer should have said ” 2 to 1 ”
because it is customary in giving a score or a record
of this kind to write the actual numbers. On the
other hand, it would be inaccurate to write :

” He is 1 of 2 brothers,” because it is not customary
to use mmierals unless giving a score or record or
something of the kind.

These examples are somewhat puzzling. There
may seem to be no rule or reason to explain why one
way of writing a thing is right and another wrong.
There is a reason for every correct detail in writing,
and most of the reasons are very interesting histories
of the way the English language has developed. Look
them up in the dictionary and in your other books.

A good exercise in accuracy would be to try to
correct the following paragraphs, which are inaccurate
in many of the respects just mentioned. Explain
to yourself just what the mistakes are. (The ruled
lines represent the edges of the paper.)

i

ACCURACY 105

Composition. October.

The October weather was beautiful and mild last year
but this year it wasmurky and wet. We were kept in
the house by the rain and dampness, my uncle Jim
tolled us that 5 years ago it snowed in October. Did
You know that.

One day towards the end of the month we went
to the hbery and got out a book called days in the
Autumn. I red it all thorough one afternoon and did’
nt stop untill the bell rung for supper.

I think that autumn in the alleganiys is a splendid
season as a rule, but this was ceartinly unpleasant.

Jqhn Snow 5th grade.

Are the margins good in this composition? How
about the paragraphs — are they properly and evenly
indented? Do you detect any inaccurate spelling?
Are all the words which are divided by hyphens at
the ends of lines, correctly divided? Are any words
improperly capitalized, or are any words not capital-
ized which should be? Are there any other inaccu-
racies ? Rewrite this little article till you are satisfied
that it is a model of accuracy.

But physical accuracy, important as it is, is after
all the least important kind of accuracy. The most
important kind of accuracy is accuracy in observation.
To illustrate what this involves, let us take a concrete
case:

Acctiracy in Observation

Suppose that a writer is plamiing to write a descrip-
tion of an ordinary carpenter’s hammer. Before he

106 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

can plan what he is to say, it is clear that he must
first see the hammer. Now, it is also clear that if
he is to ” see ” the hammer thoroughly, he must
do more than just look at it : he must take it in his
hand, feel its balance, swing it, and perhaps drive
or pull a nail with it. A skilled writer desiring to
write a good article, an accurate article, about a
hammer would do more than this. He would learn
from what kind of wood the handle was made and
why, and what kind of metal was used for the head ;
how the handle was shaped, whether by hand or
machine ; how the head was attached to the handle ;
possibly where the particular hammer in question
was manufactured and something about the hammer
industry. Of course, the writer of an article for
an encyclopedia should collect not only all this infor-
mation but more also. Yet the writer of even a short
” theme ” about a hammer will find that the more
he observes, and the more accurately he observes,
the better will be the product of his pen.

In the course of his questions the writer may learn
that the heads of hammers are polished by means of
some process which is picturesque or more than or-
dinarily interesting. Learning this — observing this
fact accurately — may suggest to him a word or a
phrase which may well prove to be the best thing in
the entire article.

In order to observe accurately, the writer must
have good eyes and he must use them. Like the
camera, he must take in everything that comes within
his field of vision; but, unlike the camera, he must
not reproduce everything that comes within his field

w

ACCURACY 107

of vision. A photograph of a hammer would show
all the little scratches or defects in the wood or metal.
Provided these were important enough, the writer
should mention them, but he would not describe each
of them. The writer, in other words, must see all,
and then pass judgment on what he hsts seen in order
to decide what to write about and what to leave out.
Unless he has observed accurately, that is to say,
thoroughly, he will be utterly unable to select the
things which should be mentioned out of the entire
mass of things which he has observed.

How to select, from a mass of observed facts, those
which are the best to put in writing is the hardest
single task in the whole trade of writing. The general
rule is that the writer should choose those items
which, after due study and thought, he thinks will
best convey to the particular class of readers for whom
he is writing, the particular idea or set of ideas and
impressions which he desires to convey. This process
of selection, however, does not strictly come under
the head of accuracy, though, as has been said, it
is impossible to select effectively unless the writer
has first observed accurately.

Selection of Facts

Observation requires that the writer shall have the
” seeing eye and mind.” This is true whether the
writer is an artist or a craftsman. He cannot write
unless he sees and, further, unless he sees what really
” is so.” It is a well-known fact that no two persons
see the same thing even when looking at it at the
same identical moment. For example, two men

108 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

looking at a house will actually see different houses.
This is because no two pairs of human eyes are alike ;
and further, because even if the pairs of eyes were
alike, the minds back of them would not be alike.
Therefore the features of any given house would
make two different sets of impressions on the two
brains. This curious physical fact, however, dis-
concerting and confusing as it is, should not prevent
either man from both seeing what he does see accu-
rately, and reproducing it accurately in writing.

Accuracy is more than a question of observing;
it is a question of remembering ; and, in addition to
remembering, a question of selecting the right words
and the right order of words in which to write what
has been seen and memorized.

An aid to accurate observation is an ordinary
pencil and notebook which should be used on the
spot to record what is being observed. Writers of
experience need not use a notebook as freely as begin-
ners in the trade of writing, for the reason that experi-
ence trains the mind to remember without the assist-
ance of written notes. The important thing for all
writers, however, is to secure practice and training
in noting either mentally or on paper what they see
at the time when they are seeing it.

If, for ex£imple, a writer desires to describe the
outside of a certain building, he should visit the
building. He should inspect it from more than one
point of view. He should observe what are the out-
standing features when regarded from a distance, and
then from close by. He should look it over thor-
oughly, jotting down on his memorandum pad those

ACCURACY 109

things which strike him at the moment with partic-
ular force and as of particular interest. In all prob-
ability he will not use all the material which he thus
collects, but it is better to have more than, not to have
enough. Every item, whether thrown away or em-
bodied in the final piece of writing, is valuable be-
cause it teaches the writer how to record quickly
and correctly the features of the things which he is
studying.

Accuracy in writing depends first of all on accuracy
m observing, and second upon skill in translating
separate observations into an article which when
read by one who has not observed the same object,
will picture, describe or explain that object. In the
best sense of the term an accurate writer is a writer
who knows how to select words, how to build sen-
tences in order to produce the desired effect, how to
construct and join paragraphs and how to design and
execute a whole composition. Accurate writing, in
other words, calls for skill in every process of writing
ab-eady described in the previous chapters.

Ideal Accuracy

Thus it is that the really accurate writer is the
greatest writer, the writer who can describe a building
so that the reader can see it as the writer saw it ; who
can describe an event so that the reader in effect
witnesses it himself ; who can explain a set of facts
so that the reader will understand them precisely
as the writer intended that he should. The heaviest
toil and labor in writing is performed in attaining
accuracy, or as it is perhaps better termed, the truth.

110 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

Superficial accuracy is a simple matter ; the physical
preparation of manuscripts, correct spelling, capitali-
zation, and so forth, are not difficult. It is neither
tedious nor impossible for any person to learn how
to observe accurately. . The task of writing accurately,
the task of telling the truth, is no child’s play even
when the writer is attempting to write about common-
place objects, ideas or occurrences.

In the poem called ‘^ The Story of Ung,” Kipling
says some important things about this kind of accu-
racy. Ung, Uving ages ago in some semi-arctic land,
made his living by carving pictures of the familiar
things about him. The tribe of Ung admired these
pictures and admitted that they were accurate. But
”how does the picture man know?” they asked.
Ung had not hunted or killed game; how could he
picture the truth? ” These are toys of his fancy! ”
they said.

Whereupon Ung retorted :

“‘Hunters and fishers and trappers, children and fools are

ve all !
Look at the beasts when ye hunt them !'”

Then Ung goes to his father :

”And the father of Ung gave answer, that was old and wise

in the craft,
Maker of pictures aforetime, he leaned on his lance and

laughed :
‘If they could see as thou seest they would do what thou

hast done
And each man would make him a picture, and — what

would become of my son?'”

ACCURACY 111

The poem ends with this :

“‘Son that can see so clearly, rejoice that thy tribe is
blind!'”

True Vision

The moral of this story is a very useful one for the
writer, who may well be compared to a man possessing
good vision among men who are blind. The friends
of Ung had the same opportunity that he had to see
the beasts which they hunted, but they did not use
it. They did not observe, accurately; they did not
observe in such a way as to be able to record their
observations. They resembled those people who can-
not relate an incident half an hour after they have
seen it. What they saw, they saw inaccurately,
vaguely. What they saw made no sharp, clean-cut
impression on their minds.

It will now be understood why it is that training
in writing is at the same time training in thinking,
and is therefore training which is useful in any and
every walk of life. In order to write well, one must
think; and in order to think well, one must think
definitely, concretely and accurately. No energy
expended conscientiously on writing is ever wasted,
because it goes toward building up permanent good
habits of thought which are, after all, the most im-
portant kind of habits that can be formed.

Every man in the tribe of Ung had eyes and a mind
probably as good as those possessed by Ung himself.
But Ung alone trained his eyes and mind to accurate
observation and accuracy in translating that which
he observed into pictures. So it is with all the tribes

112 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

of human beings. There are few amongst us whose
vision is so poor and whose brains are so weak that
we cannot be trained to see what we look at and
to set down on paper in simple, intelUgible words
that which we have seen. Some small fraction may
be able to do this with very little training; but the
vast majority of us will require training, and the
proper kind of training will work seeming miracles.

The machinist whose Uttle essay on language
stands at the beginning of this book taught himself
to write only after he had taught himself both to
think and to use his eyes and his mind as accurately
in writing and thinking, as he had to use his mind,
his eyes, and his hands in his daily work in the shop.

CHAPTER XI

WHAT SHALL I WRITE ABOUT?

Up to this chapter we have studied the broad out-
Unes of the main principles of the trade of writing
— words and how to choose them, sentences, what
kind to build and how to build them, the mechanics of
paragraphs and whole compositions, and punctuation.
But studying these principles will not teach us how to
write any more than poring over a book on swimming
will teach us how to swim. Writing can only be learned
by writing, and the best possible thing for the apprentice
at this trade to do after absorbing as much as he can
from books, lectures, and observation, is to go coura-
geously ahead and begin to write. But when he arrives
at this point there comes the natural question : What
shall I write about, and how shall I begin to write it ?

This is an important question, and if it is not prop-
erly answered the beginner may start out in the wrong
direction and consequently waste considerable time
and effort.

This question may be answered as follows :

1. Do not write about something of which you know little
or nothing.

2. Do not write about something in which you are not
interested.

3. Be familiar with your subject.

4. Be interested in your subject.

I 113

114 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

Something You Know About

As has been said again and again in this book, writ-
ing is thinking in black and white. Now, in order
to think, you must think about something, and if
your thinking is worth anything at all, you must
have knowledge. For example, you cannot really
think about the moon unless you have some informa-
tion about that planet. You cannot even dream
about it and imagine about it without having seen it
and thought about it, or at least heard about it. You
cannot tell how the moon looks unless you have seen
it and have thought whether it is bright or dark,
round or square, motionless or moving. And cer-
tainly you cannot write a composition about the moon
and its relation to the sun and the earth unless you
have studied — which is another word for thought —
about the facts in the case. In short, writing requires
facts and thought about facts.

” Oh, I can’t write, I have nothing to say,” is a
frequent complaint of students of writing.

The solution of this difficulty may be put as fol-
lows : “It would be extremely foolish to try to write
till you have something to say. It would be like
trying to make a wooden box without boards or nails.
Find something to say or say nothing.”

There are i^enty of things for every one to write
about, and it is not difficult to discover them if you
go about it properly. What do you know about,
and in what are you interested? Do you play base-
ball, for example, or are you learning to use a fireless
cooker? Suppose you are a first baseman. Why

WHAT SHALL I WRITE ABOUT? 115

not plan to write a composition on the duties of a
first baseman, on the particular skill which he has to
have, on the best way to play first base? Suppose
you have been arguing that a fireless cooker is a
nuisance to keep clean. Why not sit down and plan
out a few paragraphs about cleaning fireless cookers,
endeavoring to tell all that you know from actual
experience about the difficulties of fireless cooker
sanitation? Suppose you are interested in a story
which you have been reading. Why not write about
that story, explaining why you are interested and
letting other people share your enjoyment?

Some Topics

If you can think of nothing to write about and if
you realize that you ought to practice writing for the
sake of your general education and future success,
try one of these subjects :

My home.

The automobile.

The Junior Red Cross.

Why a boy or girl should go to High School.

What a paragraph is.

Something funny which happened recently.

Perhaps none of these subjects seems interesting
at first glance, but if you will think them over one by
one you will find at least one or two in which you are
interested and about which you know something.
You have a home, for instance. Where is it? What
kind of house is it? What is it Uke inside? Who
lives in it? What do they do? What are your

116 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

duties or ” chores ” at home? Why is your home a
good one? Take pencil and paper and write down all
the things which you can think of about your home.
Soon you will find that in this way you have a page
full of topics which will be excellent material for a
composition.

After all, the problem of what to practice writing
about can be solved by putting one’s mind to it and
by observing the four simple rules given above. The
next and more difficult part of the task is how to begin
to write.

By this time you have so many different topics
that you do not know where to start. They confuse
you. A minute ago there was nothing to write about
— and now there is too much.

How to Begin

Right here is the opportunity to test all that has
been learned in the previous chapters of this book,
and above all else, what has been said again and again
about planning out a composition in advance. ‘^ My
home,” let us say, is the subject. What are you to
begin to write concerning your home? This requires
more thinking.

Try to simmiarize in one sentence what your article
is to say. ” My home is comfortable,” would be a
good summary. Why is it comfortable? Look over
your topics and see which ones will now fit into the
composition. Some of them will not fit at all. Some
new ones occur while you are looking them over.
Presently, by dint of studying your material, you
begin to see that most of the topics suit this title very

WHAT SHALL I WRITE ABOUT? 117

well indeed. Your task has now all of a sudden become
quite simple. All you need to do is to arrange your
topics, make your outline, and write.

Yet at just this point you are likely to have trouble
again. Apparently you are ready to write, but again
you do not know how to get under way. You write a
sentence which seems very good at first, but on reading
it over it does not seem good at all. You write an-
other. Perhaps you write a paragraph like this :

”My home is situated oji the side of a hill just at the edge
of the town. It is a large frame house, painted dark green.
My father, my mother and my sister live there. Besides
we have a dog and several chickens.”

If you do not Uke this paragraph to begin with,
what is the trouble with it? Does it, in the first
place, tell what the composition is about and does it,
further, excite the reader’s interest? Read it over
and note that it does not really give an idea of what
the article is going to relate. For all the reader can
tell, the writer might be intending to write a story
of something which happened at or near his home.
Furthermore, this first paragraph tells too many differ-
ent separate things, and does not emphasize the one
thing which is the subject of the composition, namely,
your home, and how comfortable it is. For these
reasons this is a poor start. But a poor start is, after
all, a start, and it teaches one what not to do.

Trying Again

Try again. Remember that the first paragraph
should have as its subject the subject of the composi-

118 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

tion and that it should tell neither too much nor too
little about it. See if this would be better :

“A large frame house stands on the hillside at the edge of
the town. It is painted dark green and harmonizes with
the trees and fields near by. Its color and its general setting
give the passer-by the impression that it is a happy, com-
fortable home.”

This is distinctly better. It is far from perfect,
but it is at least a fair beginning. See if you can
improve on it.

There are endless ways to begin to write, but the
general principles are always the same : strike the
keynote of your composition at the very first; let
the reader know what you are writing about ; interest
him ; lead him on. And once again it should be said
that it is impossible for a writer to write either the
introduction, the body or the conclusion of a composi-
tion, unless he has carefully planned it out in advance.
Only as a result of careful planning will he have a
list of topics from which he can select one topic with
which to begin. Try to write a composition about
home without planning, and convince yourself that
this method not only wastes time but fails to secure
good results.

What shall I write about ?

This question is one which the student of English
will ask himself many times. Write about the things
you know about. Write about the common, every-
day things. Train yourself to see what is going on
around you on your way to and from school — how
the sidewalk is repaired; what caused that auto-

WHAT SHALL I WRITE ABOUT? 119

mobile accident ; why certain kinds of trees lose their
leaves in the fall before others ; ^yhy it is that Mary-
Jones may spend twice the time and money on clothes
that Mary Smith spends, but still cannot make as
good an appearance as Mary Jones.

In short, be Uke Ung in the poem, and look at the
people and things in the world in which you Uve.
Look at them and think about them, and having
looked and thought about them, you will never be
at a loss for a subject on which to practice writing;
nor will you, if you look carefully and think and plan
clearly, ever have any great trouble beginning to
write a composition.

CHAPTER XII

READING AND WRITING

No matter whether a writer is training himself
to become a professional writer, or just to do every-
day writing, an important part of his education is
reading. The beginner in writing should read widely,
well and wisely. He should read all kinds of writing,
bad as well as good. He should read with his mind
open and ready to see and explain errors as well as
good points in (1), grammar, (2), sentence structure,
(3), choice of words, (4), paragraphing, and, (5),
planning of whole compositions. He should read for
information as well as for pleasure. And he should
read so as to absorb not only the thoughts of the greatest
thinkers, but their methods of expressing their thoughts
in language.

Do not neglect the reading side of writing.

Many students of writing realize that they ought
to read and are quite ready to devote time to reading,
but for one reason or another they do not feel that
they know how or what to read. They see the vast
number of books of all kinds — history, fiction, science,
biography, poetry, drama — and like a small boy
turned loose in a candy shop and told to help himself,
they do not know where to begin, what to take and
what not to take.

120

READING AND WRITING 121

Of course nobody, no matter how industrious he is,
can read everything. Nobody who is reading in
order to learn how to write needs to read everything.
What, then, are the general principles which should
guide a writer in the matter of reading?

Why Writers Should Read

Naturally any one, whether he is learning how to
write or not, must read for general information. But
yp^. the boy or girl who desires to be able to express him-
self or herself correctly in everyday English should
read for other reasons. These will include the fol-
lowing :

unsei

iek

^^ 1. To learn words and how they are used.

^^ 2. To learn how sentences are made.

re 3. To learn how paragraphs are built up and joined to-

‘)), gether.

)i 4. To learn how whole compositions are planned.

i 5. To learn accuracy.

[ 6. To learn, in short, how other writers write.

In other words, reading for students of writing is
different from reading for pleasure or for general
information. It is reading to learn ‘^ the tricks of
the trade ” from the masters of the trade.

How should one read in order to make his re ding
count the most m learning to write?

One should go about it in the same way as a car-
penter, for example, examines the work of another
carpenter — critically. Your reading will help your
writing if you go to books determined to learn from
them the most, not the least, that they have to offer.

122 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

Do not try to read too much at a time. Realize
that a few pages carefully read will be of much more
value to you than a hundred pages carelessly read.

In the beginning the writer who is a student of
reading, or rather the reader who is a student of writ-
ing, should go slowly. He should make sure in his
own mind that he understands the full meaning of
each word; that he understands why one word was
used instead of another something Uke it; that he
understands why a certain sentence was made in
just that particular way ; that he understands why
one paragraph came before another one; that he
understands, also, how the whole composition is
fitted together.

In short, the writer who is to profit the most from
reading must read with intelligence and must regard
reading not as play but as work.

Reading for Words

If reading is undertaken in this spirit and for this
purpose, it will help to increase the vocabulary of the
would-be writer. As was said in the chapter on Words,
a wide knowledge of words is invaluable to every one
who writes, whether he makes his Hving by it, or
merely uses writing as a useful side trade. Words
can best be learned by studying the writing of the
great writers. This study will teach you new words,
and it will also make you familiar with varied and
unsuspected shades of meaning of common words
which you already know. As you go along it is good
practice to make a note of the phrases and words
which seem particularly well chosen, later looking

READING AND WRITING 123

up in the dictionary the words about whose meaning
you are not sure. If you desire to get the most benefit
from this practice, try to use the new words or phrases
in your own compositions.

The books of ahnost any famous writer wiU be help-
ful in this task, but the student should not read just
one author or the authors of any one period of history
— either present or past. Read modern books, read
books written a hundred years ago, and go back to
books like Shakespeare written three hundred years ago.

The English Bible has much to teach about the
use of words, and the simplicity of the language of
that book has inspired thousands of writers. The
gorgeous speeches in the plays of Shakespeare, the
clear prose of Addison, Swift, Steele, the more rhetorical
essays of Macaulay, the stories of Kipling and Mark
Twain, the poems of Whitman, the fiction and poems
of Poe, the current stories in the magazines, the articles
in the Atlantic Monthly — these are only a few of
the hundreds of sources of writing which will intro-
duce the young writer to the wealth of words in the
language. It is only a step from the discovery of this
wealth to making use of it.

For example, read and note the words in the fol-
lowing :

The ”To be or not to be” speech in Hamlet.
”The Brushwood Boy” by Kipling.
“The One Hoes Shay” by Holmes.
“Horatiiis Qn the Bridge” by Macaulay.
“The Lord’s Prayer.”

If your reading is to be of value to you, do not fail
to try to write from memory a summary of what you

124 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

have read. It is surprising to find how quickly one
can add fresh words to one’s vocabulary.

Reading for Planning

In reading, furthermore, the student of writing
should observe not only the words, but the methods
by which words are formed into phrases, clauses,
sentences, and the ways in which sentences are formed
into paragraphs and paragraphs made into whole
compositions. While each writer has a different way
of working, nevertheless close reading will show that
all good writing is based on a few simple and funda-
mental principles, the most important of which have
been explained in the previous chapters. It will
be found that every good writer is, first of all, a clear
thinker ; and second, that he is skillful in putting his
thoughts down in black and white.

Read, for instance, the story of Ruth in the Bible
and try to decide in your own mind what it is that
makes this such an effective and memorable story.
Would the same story told in other words be as effec-
tive? Would you rearrange the sentences? Would
you shorten them or lengthen them? If not, why
not?

Read Kipling’s story called ” The Gate of a Thousand
Sorrows ” and analyze it to see why it is a really great
story. Is there a sentence in it which is not clear,
or a word which is misplaced? If so, what are they,
and how could you improve them? Read an essay
in the Atlantic Monthly or an editorial in a newspaper
and make an outline of each. Find out how they
were planned. Read Shakespeare’s sonnet beginning

^

READING AND WRITING 125

” When in disgrace with fortune and naen’s eyes/’
and try to do the same with the verses or the groups
of lines. Read the books and writings recommended
for the study of words and study the sentences and
paragraphs in them.

Whenever you are reading for instruction in writ-
ing, always try to see how the writer made his writing.
Remember that every one of the writers of the world
had to sit down at a desk and laboriously learn the
elements of the trade, partly by writing himself, and
partly by studying the work of others.

Reading for a ‘^ Sense of Form ”

Much and careful reading will teach you what may
be called a ” sense of form.” You will learn from
absorbing good writing how many words are necessary
to present effectively a certain topic ; how many
paragraphs are required to ” drive home ” a set of
facts or an argument ; how long a whole composition
should be when addressed to one set of readers, and
how much longer or shorter it ought to be when ad-
dressed to another kind of reader. The grouping of
ideas, the kind of sentences to be used, the general
shxiTpe or mold in which a piece of writing should be
cast can be studied in the works of authors who are
known to have solved these problems with success.

Always in studying the writing of others, the student
should keep clearly in mind the fact that for his own
purposes it is more important to see and understand
how the thing is said than what is said. While it is
true that the purpose of writing is to express ideas
or thoughts, or to convey information, and while it

126 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

is the general purpose of reading to learn ideas and
information, yet in the special kind of reading which
is here recommended, the main object is to learn
methods or ways of expression. In other words, it
is the same difference as that which exists between
listening to a piece of music for pure pleasure and
hstening to the playing of a piece in order to see how
the composer put it together and how the pianist
renders it. Yet in reading with this object in view,
the student must pay attention to the subject of
the writing, for the reason that the subject controls
or governs the means which are used to express it.

Special Reading

In addition to general reading, every student of
writing should read and study books which have to do
with writing and the tools of writing. A list of books
of this kind would include :

Books on words, as for example, Roget’s “Thesaurus”
and Greenough and Kitteredge’s ‘* Words and Their Ways in
English Speech.”

Books on grammar and rhetoric. Yoiu* school library
and your teacher will supply you with titles. For ambitious
students among the best are ”Principles of Rhetoric” by
A. S. Hill, ”English Composition” by Barrett Wendell, and
“Talks on Writing English” by Arlo Bates.

Books on writing as a trade, art or profession, as, for
example, Arnold Bennett^s ” The Truth about an Author,”
and William Salisbury’s “The Career of a Journalist.”

Biographies or autobiographies of great writers, for
example, BoswelFs classic “Life of Samuel Johnson,” the
biographies of Mark Twain and 0. Henry.

READING AND WRITING 127

This list is not intended to be complete. It is
intended to suggest the kind of books which will help
the beginner to write.

As has been said before, the dictionary is a book
which should be consulted freely and frequently.
The reason is that no other single book contains more
exact information, all ready for practical use, about
words and the way they have been used by writers.
Such a book of synonyms as the revised ” Roget ”
is valuable because it adds to the vocabulary. Books
on grammar and rhetoric will supply plenty of examples
of good and bad writing, collected from all over the
worid of writing. Books on writing as a trade and
books on the experiences of writers will chiefly interest
students who are spending considerable time in study-
ing writing, but no one who realizes that writing is a
universal trade can fail to be helped by reading such
volumes.

Careful reading and practicing writing after reading
will show the student that underlying all writing
is just good, plain clear thinking. It required much
thought on the part of Robert Louis Stevenson, for
example, before he could write ” Treasure Island.”
He had to think out and plan the story, and he had
to think out and plan how to tell it so that it would
interest young and old. Read a description of a
gasohne engine in a textbook, or a set of directions
in a cookbook, or the rules of a game. If they are
well written, you can be sure that they were first
well thought out ; and if they are not well written,
you can be equally sure that the writer did not really
put his mind to his task.

128 EVERYDAY ENGLISH WRITING

The proverb which tells us that there is ” safety
in nmnbers ” may be applied to reading and writing.
There is safety or success for the beginner in writing
in the niunbers of books he reads. The truth about
any subject cannot be learned from one book : it can
hardly be learned from a himdred books. And it
can never be learned only from books. But the wise,
wide and persistent reading of books will give the
student two things which will stand him in good stead
all his life — first, it will furnish him with an appre-
ciation and understanding of the great and wonderful
world of books and thought ; and second, it will furnish
him with a constant source of practical experience
which will help him to think clearly and to convey
effectively his thoughts to others.

INDEX

AddiBon,123
adjective, defined, 70
adverb, defined, 70
AOarUic Monthly, 123

Barrie, J. M., 64

Bates, Arlo, “Talks on Writing

English,” 126
Bennett, Arnold, “The Truth about

an Author,” 126
Bible, The. 66, 123
Boswell, “Life of Samuel Johnson,”

126

Clauses, defined, 29
colon, defined, 81-82
comma, defined, 79-80
common errors, 72-74
complex sentence, defined, 14
compound sentence, defined, 14
conjugate, defined, 72
conjunction, defined, 70

Dash, defined, 83-84
declarative sentence, defined, 16
decline, defined, 72
dependent clause, defined, 14

Emerson, 75

“English Composition,” Barrett

Wendell’s, 66, 126
exclamation point, defined, 78-79
exclamatory sentence, defined, 16

Franklin, Benjamin, 6, 25

“Gate of a Thousand Sorrows, The.”

124
Gettysburg Address, The, 36-37
grammar, defined, 68-69
Greenough and Kittredge, “Words

and Their Ways in English

Speech,” 126

(i

Hamlet,” 17, 123
Harte. Bret, 75
Henry, O., biography of, 126
HiU, A. S., “Principles of Rhetoric,”

126
Holmes, 123

“home,” definition of, 60-64
“house,” definition of, 60-64
hyphen, 103

Imperative sentence, defined, 16
inflection, defined, 71
interjection, defined, 71
interrogative sentence, defined, 14
introduction, of whole composition,
defined, 45

” Johnson, Samuel. Life of,” Boswell’s,

126
“Journalist, The Career of a,”

William Salisbury, 126

Kipling, 75, 110, 123, 124

Lincoln, 36

Lord’s Prayer, The, 17

Macaulay, 123

Main body of whole composition,
defined, 45

Noun, defined, 71

Observation, accurate, 105

Paragraphs, subject and predicate

of, 33-34
parenthesis, defined, 83-84
parse, defined, 72
Paul, Epistles of, 86
period, use of, 78
phrase, defined, 29
Poe, 123

129

130

INDEX

predicate, defined, 8

preposition, defined, 71

“Principles of Rhetoric.” A. S. Hill’s,

126
pronoun, defined, 71
punctuation, defined, 77

Question mark, use of, 78-79

Roget’s “Thesaurus,” 126, 127
Ruth, story of, 124

Salisbury, William, ” The Career of a

Journalist.” 126
salutation of a letter, defined, 89-90
semicolon, use of, 82-83
sentence, defined, 7
“Sentimental Tommy,” 64
Shakespeare, 66, 75, 123, 124
“Silence, John,” 35
simple sentence, defined, 14
Smith-Hughes Act, 46-50
Spectator, The, 25
speech, the parts of, 70-71
spelling, correct, 102
Steele, 123

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 86, 126
subject, defined, 7
Swift, 123

“Talks on Writing English,” Arlo

Bates, 126
“Thesaurus,” Roget’s, 126
“Treasure Island,” 127
“Truth About an Author, The,”

Arnold Bennett, 126
Twain, Mark, 17, 123; biography

of, 126

«<

Ung, The Story of,” 110

“Vailima Letters, The,” 86
valediction of a letter, defined, 91-92
verb, defined, 71

Wendell, Barrett, “English Composi-
tion.” 66, 126.

“When in disgrace with fortune and
men’s eyes.” 125

Whitman, 123

“Words and Their Ways in English
Speech,” Greenough and Kit-
tredge. 126

(N. B. For main headings, such as
• • sentences, ‘ ‘ * ‘ words. ‘ ‘ * ‘ para-
graphs,” etc., see chapter captions
in Table of Contents.)

Printed in the United States of America.

*

T

HE following pages contain advertisements of a
few of the MacmiUan books on kindred subjects.

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