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Read Ebook: The Century Handbook of Writing by Greever Garland Jones Easley S Easley Stephen
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Ebook has 1162 lines and 74013 words, and 24 pages
Self-contradictory: Chicago is larger than any city in Illinois.
Right: Chicago is larger than any other city in Illinois.
Impossible: Chicago is the largest of any other city in Illinois.
Right: Chicago is the largest of all the cities in Illinois. Chicago is the largest city in Illinois.
Note.--After a comparative, the subject of the comparison should be excluded from the class with which it is compared; after a superlative, the subject of the comparison should be included within the class.
Wrong: weak eyes
Right: He failed weak eyes.
Exercise:
Wrong: The great event is when the train arrives.
Right: The great event is the arrival of the train.
Wrong: Immigration is where foreigners come into a country.
Right: Immigration is the entering of foreigners into a country.
Wrong: A simile is when one object is compared with another.
Right: A simile is a figure of speech in which one object is compared with another.
Exercise:
Incomplete: We were now quite sure that we had lost our way, and Jack said he had a business engagement that night.
Better: We were now quite sure that we had lost our way, a fact which was all the more annoying as Jack said he had a business engagement that night.
Puzzling: Since McAndrew had inherited money, his suitcase was plastered with labels.
Right: Since McAndrew had inherited money, he had traveled extensively. His suitcase was plastered with the labels of foreign hotels.
Careless: In looking for gasoline troubles, we forgot to see whether the tank was supplied.
Right: In looking for the cause of the trouble, we forgot to see whether the tank was supplied with gasoline.
Note.--In giving information about books, do not confuse the title with the contents or some part of the contents. Be accurate in referring to the time, scene, action, plot, or characters.
Exercise:
The state of mind of a writer is not the state of mind of his reader. The writer knows his ideas, and has spent much time with them. The reader meets these ideas for the first time, and must gather them in at a glance. The relation between two ideas may be clear to the writer, and not at all clear to the reader. Therefore,
Space transition needed: We were surprised to see a house in the distance, but we went to the door and knocked.
Exterior-interior transition needed: We noticed that the house was built of cobblestones. There was a broad window from which we could look out upon the small stream that dashed down the rocky hillside.
Cause transition lacking: The Romans were great road-builders. They wished to maintain their empire.
General-to-particular transition needed: Modern machinery often makes men its slaves. Last summer I worked for the Chandler Company.
Transition to be improved by changing order: A careless trainer may spoil a good colt. A good horse can never be made of a vicious colt.
Better: A careless trainer may spoil a good colt. And a vicious colt can never be made a good horse.
When a student first learns the art, he is likely to use transition phrases in excess, and produce something like the following: "When I have to write a theme, I first think of my subject. As soon as I have my subject, I take out my paper. On the paper I then make a rough outline." This abuse of transition causes an overlapping of thought, like shingles laid three inches to the weather. An abrupt transition is better than wordiness.
Exercise:
Rewrite the following statements in sentences each of which expresses a complete thought.
Improve the following statements. Supply missing words. Make sure that each construction and each sentence is complete.
The following sentences are inadequate statements of cause, comparison, etc. Complete the thought.
Complete the thought of the following sentences, and secure a smooth transition between parts.
UNITY OF THOUGHT
Unity means oneness. A sentence should contain one thought. It may contain two or more statements only when these are closely related parts of a larger thought or impression. A writer should make certain, first, that his thought has unity; and second, that this unity will be obvious to the reader.
Wrong: The Spartans did not care for literature, and lived in the southern part of Greece.
Wrong: The coffee business is not difficult to learn, and the most important work in preparing coffee for the market is the roasting of the green berries.
The simplest method of correction is to divide the sentence.
Right: The Spartans lived in the southern part of Greece. They did not care for literature.
Right: The coffee business is not difficult to learn. The most important work in preparing the coffee for the market is the roasting of the green berries.
Another method of correction is to subordinate one idea to the other, or to change the wording until the relation between the ideas is obvious.
Right: The Spartans, who lived in the southern part of Greece, did not care for literature.
Right: The coffee business is not difficult to learn, since the only important work in preparing the coffee for the market is the roasting of the green berries.
Exercise:
Faulty: In the town in which I live there are several large churches, and about six o'clock one morning, in a violent storm, one of these churches was struck by lightning.
Right: In my home town there are several large churches. One morning about six o'clock, in a violent storm, one of these churches was struck by lightning.
Wrong: In 1836, in Baltimore, Poe married Virginia Clemm, his cousin, who was hardly more than a child, being then fourteen years old, while Poe himself was twenty-eight, and to her he wrote much of his best verse.
Right: In 1836 Poe married Virginia Clemm. Poe was then twenty-eight, and Virginia was only fourteen. To this girl Poe wrote much of his best verse.
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