Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

4. Details enable the reader to form in his mind a vivid picture of the event narrated or the person described; and, before beginning to write, we ought always to draw up a list of such details as are both striking and appropriate. such details as tend to throw into stronger relief the chief person or event.

The following is a good example from the eloquent writer and profound thinker Edmund Burke. He is speaking of the philanthropist Howard :

"He has visited all Europe to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infections of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries."

GENERAL CAUTIONS.

1. Avoid the use of threadbare and hackneyed expressions. Leave them to people who are in a hurry, or to penny-a-liners.

INSTEAD OF

At the expiration of four years.
Paternal sentiments.

Exceedingly opulent.

Incur the danger.

Accepted signification.

Extreme felicity.

A sanguinary engagement.

In the affirmative.

WRITE

At the end, etc.

The feelings of a father.
Very rich.

Run the risk.

Usual meaning.

Great happiness.

A bloody battle.
Yes.

2. Be very careful in the management of pronouns.

(i) Cobbett says: "Never put an it upon paper without thinking well what you are about. When I see many it's in a page, I always tremble for the writer." See also 2 Kings, xix. 35: "And when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses."

(ii) Bolingbroke has the sentence: "They were persons of very moderate intellects, even before they were impaired by their passions." The last they ought to be these.

(iii) The sentence, "He said to his patient that if he did not feel better in half an hour, he thought he had better return," is a clumsy sentence, but clear enough; because we can easily see that it is the patient that is to take the advice.

3. Be careful not to use mixed metaphors.

(i) The following is a fearful example: "This is the arrow of conviction, which, like a nail driven in a sure place, strikes its roots downwards into the earth, and bears fruit upwards."

(ii) Sir Boyle Roche, an Irish member, began a speech thus: "Mr Speaker, I smell a rat, I see him floating in the air; but, mark me, I shall yet nip him in the bud." A similar statement is: "Lord Kimberley said that in taking a very large bite of the Turkish cherry the way had been paved for its partition at no distant day.'

4. Be simple, quiet, manly, frank, and straightforward in your style, as in your conduct. That is: Be yourself!

SPECIAL CAUTIONS.

1. Avoid tautology.

Alison says: "It was founded mainly on the entire monopoly of the whole trade with the colonies." Here entire and whole are tautological; for monopoly means entire possession, or possession of the whole. 66 He appears to enjoy the universal esteem of all men." Here universal is superfluous.

2. Place the adverb as near the word it modifies as you

can.

"He not only found her employed, but also pleased and tranquil." The not only belongs to employed, and should therefore go with it.

3. Avoid circumlocution.

This

"Her Majesty, on reaching Perth, partook of breakfast." should be simply breakfasted. But the whole sentence should be recast into : On reaching Perth, the Queen breakfasted in the station."

4. Take care that your participles are attached to nouns, and that they do not run loose.

"Alarmed at the news, the boat was launched at once." Here alarmed can, grammatically, agree with boat only. The sentence should be: "The men, alarmed at the news, launched their boat at once."

5. Use a present participle as seldom as possible.

(i) "I have documents proving this" is not so strong as "to prove this."

(ii) "He dwelt a long time on the advantages of swift steamers, thus accounting for the increase," etc. The phrase "thus accounting" is very loose. Every sentence ought to be neat, firm, and compact.

=

6. Remember that who and he or for he; while that introduces a merely adjectival clause.

"I heard it from the doctor, who told the gardener that-works-forthe-college." Here who and he; and that introduces the adjectival

sentence.

7. Do not change the Subject of your Sentence.

(i) Another way of putting this is: "Preserve the unity of the sentence !"

(ii) "Archbishop Tillotson died in this year. He was exceedingly beloved both by King William and Queen Mary, who nominated Dr Tenison to succeed him." The last statement about nominating another bishop has no natural connection with what goes before.

[ocr errors]

(iii) After we came to anchor, they put me on shore, where I was welcomed by all my friends, who received me with the greatest kindness. This sentence ought to be broken into two. The first should end with on shore; and the second begin "Here I was met and, etc." 8. See that who or which refers to its proper antecedent.

"Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a yeoman, to whom he left his second-best bed." Here the grammatical antecedent is yeoman; but the historical and sense-antecedent is certainly daughter.

9. Do not use and which for which.

(i) "I bought him a very nice book as a present, and which cost me ten shillings.' The and is here worse than useless.

(ii) If another which has preceded, of course and which is right.

10. Avoid exaggerated or too strong language.

Unprecedented, most extraordinary, incalculable, boundless, extremely, awfully, scandalous, stupendous, should not be used unless we know that they are both true and appropriate.

11. Be careful not to mix up dependent with principal

sentences.

"He replied that he wished to help them, and intended to give orders to his servants.' Here it is doubtful whether intended is coordinate with replied or with wished. If the former is the case, then we ought to say he intended.

12. Be very careful about the right position of each phrase or clause in your sentence.

when he died, Cardinal "He blew out his brains "Erected to the memory

The following are curious examples of dislocations or misplacements: "A piano for sale by a lady about to cross the Channel in an oak case with carved legs." "I believe that, Mezzofanti spoke at least fifty languages." after bidding his wife good-bye with a gun." of John Phillips, accidentally shot, as a mark of affection by his brother." "The Board has resolved to erect a building large enough to accommodate 500 students three storeys high." "Mr Carlyle has taught us that silence is golden in thirty-seven volumes."

PUNCTUATION.

1. Certain signs, called points, are used in sentences to mark off their different parts, and to show the relation of each part to the organic whole.

(i) Putting in the right points is called punctuation, from the Latin punctum, a point. From the same word come punctual and punctuality.

2. These points are the full stop, the colon, the semicolon, the dash, and the comma.

3. The full stop (.) or period marks the close of a sentence. 4. The colon (:) introduces (i) a new statement that may be regarded as an after-thought; or (ii) it introduces a catalogue of things; or (iii) it introduces a formal speech.

(The word colon is Greek, and means limb or member.)

(i) "Study to acquire a habit of accurate expression: no study is more important."

(ii) "Then follow excellent parables about fame: as that she gathereth strength in going; that she goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her head in the clouds; that in the day-time she sitteth in a watch-tower, and flieth most by night."-BACON.

(iii) "Mr Wilson rose and said: 'Sir, I am sorry,' etc."

5. The semicolon is employed when, for reasons of sound or of sense, two or more simple sentences are thrown into one.

(Semicolon is Greek, and means half a colon.)

(i) "In the youth of a state, arms do flourish; in the middle age of

a state, learning; and then both of them together for a time; in the declining age of a state, mechanical arts and merchandise."-BACON.

(ii) Learn from the birds what foods the thickets yield;

Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;

Thy arts of building from the bee receive;

Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave.”—POPE.

6. The dash is used (i) to introduce an amplification or explanation; and (ii) two dashes are often employed in place of the old parenthesis.

(i) “During the march a storm of rain, thunder, and lightning came on-a storm such as is only seen in tropical countries."

(ii) "Ribbons, buckles, buttons, pieces of gold-lace-any trifles he had worn-were stored as priceless treasures."

7. The comma is used to indicate a strong pause, either of sense or of sound.

(i) It is true that the comma is the weakest of all our stops; but there are many pauses which we ought to make in reading a sentence aloud that are not nearly strong enough to warrant a comma.

(ii) It is better to understop rather than to overstop. For example, the last part of the last sentence in the paragraph above might have been printed thus: "there are many pauses, which we ought to make, in reading a sentence aloud, that are not nearly strong enough to warrant a comma." This is the old-fashioned style; but such sprinkling of commas is not at all necessary.

(iii) Two things are all that are required to teach us the use of a comma: (a) observation of the custom of good writers; and (b) careful consideration of the sense and build of our own sentences.

(iv) The following are a few special uses of the comma :

(a) It may be used in place of and :—

"We first endure, then pity, then embrace."

(b) After an address: "John, come here."

(c) After certain introductory adverbs, as however, at length, at last, etc. "He came, however, in time to catch the train."

8. The point of interrogation (?) is placed at the end of a question.

9. The point of admiration (!) is employed to mark a statement which calls for surprise or wonder; but it is now seldom used.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »