How to Write Clearly, Edwin A. Abbott [most recommended books TXT] 📗

id="id00455" > (a) Begin with "In this line of action." Why? (b) Write "than was France" or "than France was."

6. "There was something so startling in (a) (5) this assertion, (a) (4) that the discoveries of previous investigators were to be (b) (47 a) treated as though they had never been made, and (4) that one who had not yet (47 a) attained the age of manhood had superseded the grey-headed philosophers (8) who had for centuries patiently sought after the truth, (4) that (a) (5) it naturally provoked derision."

(a) "This," "that," and "it," cause a little perplexity. Write "The startling assertion that the discoveries…." (b) "ignored." (c) "a mere youth," "a mere stripling."

7. "One of the recommendations (on which very (a) (26) (47, a) much depended) of the Commission was that a council in each province should establish smaller councils, each to have the oversight of a small district, and (b) (37) report to a central council on the state of Education in (c) (5) it."

(a) Write "cardinal recommendations." Derive "cardinal." (b) Write, either (1) "and should report," or (2) "and to report." (c) Write "in its province," or "district."

8. "At this (a) (1) period an (b) (11) event (c) (1) transpired that destroyed the last hopes of peace. The king fell from his horse and died two hours after the fall (d) (30), which was occasioned by his horse's stumbling on a mole-hill, while he was on his return from reviewing his soldiers."

(a) What is a "period"? (b) Express the particular kind of event ("accident"). (c) What is the meaning of "transpired"? (d) Transpose thus: "While the king was on his return … his horse …; the king fell and &c." The cause should precede the effect.

9. "He determined (c) on selling all his estates, and, as soon as this was done (40 a), to (c) quit the country, (a) (33) believing that his honour demanded this sacrifice and (40) (40 a) in (b) the hope of satisfying his creditors."

(a) Begin with "Believing that &c." (b) "hoping thereby to satisfy &c." (c) "to sell" or "on quitting.".

10. "He read patiently on, Leading Articles, Foreign Correspondence, Money Article and all; (a) (43) during which his father fell asleep, and he (b) went in search of his sister."

Point out the absurdity of "during which" applied to the last part of the sentence. (a) "Meanwhile." (b) Insert "then."

11. "The general was quite (a) (1) conscious (40 a) how treacherous were the intentions of those who were (b) (49) entertaining him, and (40 a) of the dangers from which he had escaped (15) lately."

(a) Distinguish between "conscious" and "aware." (b) "entertainers."

12. "If certain (a) (11) books had been published a hundred years ago, there can be no doubt that certain recent (b) (11) historians would have made great use of them. But it would (c) (15 b) not, on that account, be judicious in a writer of our own times to publish an edition of the works of one of these (b) (11) historians, in which large extracts from these books should be incorporated with the original text."

(a) "Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs." (b) "Mr. Hume." (c) Add at the end of the sentence, "Surely not."

13. "He made no attempt to get up a petition, (32) though he did not like the new representative quite so well as (a) (37 a) his colleagues."

(a) "as did his colleagues" or "as he liked his colleagues."

14. "Though he was (a) (15) obstinate and (15) unprincipled, yet he could not face an angered father (15 a) in spite of his effrontery."

(a) Begin with "Obstinate."

15. "He was known to his country neighbours (a) (15) during more than forty years as a gentleman of cultivated mind, (40 a) whose principles were high, (40 a) with polished address, happy in his family, and (b) (40 a) actively discharging local duties; and (40 a) among political men, as an honest, industrious, and sensible member of Parliament, (40 a) without (c) eagerness to display his talents, (40 a) who (10 g) was stanch to his party, and attentive to the interests of those whose (d) (47 a) representative he was."

(a) "During more &c.," is emphatic, and affects the latter as well as the former half of the sentence: hence it should stand first. (b) "in the discharge of." (c) "not eager." (d) Condense into one word.

16. "The poor think themselves no more disgraced by taking bribes at elections than (a) (37 a) the rich by offering them."

(a) Write (1) "Than the rich think themselves disgraced," or (2) "Than they think the rich disgraced."

17. "We are told that the Sultan Mahmoud, by his perpetual wars, (a) (41) and his tyranny, (a) (41) had filled his dominions with (b) (1) misfortune and (c) (11) calamity, and greatly (d) (11) diminished the population of the Persian Empire. This great Sultan had (e) (50) a Vizier. We are not (f) (55) (15) informed whether he was a humorist or an enthusiast, (g) but he pretended (h) that he had learned from (i) (11) some one how to understand the language of birds, so that he (j) (5) knew what was said by any bird that opened its mouth. (k) (44) One evening he was with the Sultan, returning from hunting. They saw a couple of owls which (10 g) were sitting upon a tree (l) (8) which grew near an old wall out of a heap of rubbish. The Sultan said (6) he should like to know what the two owls were saying to one another, and asked the (m) Vizier to listen to their discourse and give him an account of it. The Vizier, (n) (31) pretending to be very attentive to the owls, approached the tree. He (o) returned to the Sultan and said that (6) he had heard part of their conversation, but did not wish to tell him what it was. (p) (5) He, not (q) (31) being satisfied with this answer, forced him to repeat everything the owls had said (20) exactly. (r) (44) (5) (6) He told (5) him that the owls were arranging a treaty of marriage between their children, and that one of them, after agreeing to settle five hundred villages upon the female owl, had prayed (6) that God would grant a long life to Sultan Mahmoud, because as long as he reigned over them they would never want ruined villages. The story says (s) that (t) (5) he was touched with the fable, (30) and (s) that he (a) (39) from that time forward consulted (15) the good of his people, and that he rebuilt the towns and villages (v) which had been destroyed."

(a) "abroad … at home." (b) "ruin." (c) "desolation." (d) "half unpeopled." (e) "The Vizier of &c." (f) "We are not informed" is emphatic, and therefore should be inverted, "whether he was, &c., we are not informed." (g) "but he" will be omitted when "the Vizier" is made the subject of "pretended." (h) "Pretended" once meant "claimed," "professed." Write "professed." (i) "a certain dervish." (j) Introduce a new subject that you may substitute "Vizier" for "he," thus: "so that not a bird could open its mouth, but the Vizier knew &c." (k) "As he was, one evening, &c." (l) Note that the tree is represented as growing out of ruins. This is in accordance with the story of the mischief Mahmoud had done. (m) Omit this. (n) "Suspense" is out of place in a simple narrative like this; the sentence therefore ends with "owls." (o) "Upon his return." (p) "The Sultan" (q) "would not be satisfied." (r) "You must know then, &c." (s) Omit. (t) "so touched … that." (u) end with "people." (v) Addison here uses "which" probably because of the preceding "that." We have to choose between sound and clearness. "Which" implies that all the villages in the country had been destroyed, whereas the country had been only (see above) "half unpeopled."

18. "Though this great king never permitted any pastime to interfere with the duties of state, which he considered to be superior to (54) all other claims and of paramount importance, and (a) (37) kept himself so far under control that he allowed no one pursuit or amusement to run to any excess, yet he took (54) great pleasure in the chase, of which he was (b) (2) excessively (54) fond, and for the purposes of which he created several large parks of considerable (54) magnitude."

(a) Either repeat "though," or else strikeout the first "though" and begin a new sentence after "excess." (b) Point out the contradiction between "excessively" and what precedes.

19. "To inundate (a) (11) their land, to man their ships, to leave their country, with all its miracles of art and industry, its cities, its villas, and its (b) (11) pastures buried under the waves (c) (11); to bear to a distant climate their (d) (11) faith and their old (e) (11) liberties; to establish, with auspices that(10 a) might perhaps be happier, the new (f) (11) constitution of their commonwealth, in a (g) (11) foreign and strange (h) (11) land, in the Spice Islands of the Eastern Seas, (38) were the plans which they had the spirit to form."

(a) Introduce "dykes." (b) Introduce something peculiar to the Dutch, e.g. "canals," "tulip gardens." (c) "of the German Ocean." (d) The Dutch were Calvinists. (e) The country was in old times "Batavia," so that "Batavian" would be a fit epithet to denote what the Dutch had inherited from their forefathers. (f) "Stadthaus," the German for "town-hall." (g) "other stars." (h) "strange vegetation."

20. "During twenty years of unexampled prosperity, during (a) which the wealth of the nation had shot (14 a) up and extended its branches on every side, and the funds had (14 a) soared to a higher point than had been ever attained before, (b) (15) speculation had become general."

(a) Omit. (b) Begin a new sentence: "This, or Prosperity, had increased the taste for speculation."

21. "At that time (a) (16) a mere narrow-minded pedant (for he deserves no better name) had been set up by the literary world as a great author, and as the supreme (b) critic, alone qualified to deliver decisions which could never be (b) reversed upon (15 a) the literary productions of the day."

(a) End with " … one who was—for he deserves no better name—a mere narrow-minded pedant." (b) "Which could never