18. 19. 20. 21. 22. Consequently, the principal words in the title of the Essay have capitals. The retention of these capitals in the body of the Essay is a matter of discretion which will be illustrated later. Words borrowed from foreign languages are printed in italics. In your manuscript, italics are represented by a line drawn underneath the word. With regard to the names of ships, usage varies. Some writers use italics, some use inverted commas, some make no distinction between the name of a ship and that of a person. You should follow Bishop Creighton and use italics. Never use abbreviations or symbols, such as etc., &, e.g., i.e., in an Essay, which is a formal composition: they are only admissible in notes. Write numbers in full, except in the case of the number of a year, or a series of exact statistics. Examples:-"Warren, the son of Pynaston, was born on the sixth of December 1732." "The British Regular Army consists of 31 regiments of Cavalry with 18,894 officers and men; 119 batteries of Field and Horse Artillery and 93 companies of Garrison Artillery with 37,624 officers and men; 62 companies of Royal Engineers with 7932 officers and men; 149 battalions of Infantry with 147,417 officers and men.' Whitaker's Almanac. COMMENTS ON THE RULES § 4. THE SHORT SENTENCE The short sentence is an essential feature of good modern English. The English language, from its wealth of phrase, its multitude of synonyms, its magazine of words acquired and constantly in process of acquisition from innumerable sources, is an extraordinarily powerful implement for the exact and accurate expression of every shade of meaning, and, philosophy excepted, of every kind of idea. But, like the character of the people for whom it serves as interpreter, it is essentially plain, simple and straightforward. For reasons that cannot be entered upon here, it does not lend itself to the elaborate and involved sentences which are found in Latin or Greek or German. You can express almost anything in English, and you can express it usually to the most delicate nicety; but you must be concise. The first thing, then, that a young writer must learn is to use short sentences. It is not natural to him to use them. To say a thing in a few words and leave it to stand by itself implies a self-confidence which, from the nature of the case, it is impossible that he should possess at first, but which he must make up his mind to acquire. The short sentence was brought to perfection by Macaulay, and was used by him relentlessly. If a thing could be said in three words, he said it in three words. If a thing could be better said in a half-dozen of short sentences than in a single long and elaborately balanced sentence, no consideration of elegance, no regard for rhythm, no fear of tautology, stopped him from using the half-dozen. In qualifying yourself to write sound English, you should know not only what to imitate but also what to avoid. What to avoid is Livy. I select Livy because few of you for whom this book is intended are likely to read our older English authors who build their style on Classical models; whereas most of you, probably, have read some Livy. You have been bewildered by endless parentheses and by artificial antitheses, and you have floundered in a fog of phrases, scarcely able to extricate any meaning for yourselves and still less able to present any meaning, through the medium of another language, to others. So long as Livy's Latin is read as Latin only, and no effort is made to convert it into English, the difficulty is not acute, because his Ablative Absolute clauses and Subjunctive clauses with quum have somewhat the effect to the mind of a string of separate short sentences. Directly, however, you try to convert Livy into English, you get into hopeless confusion. If you want a good specimen of what an English sentence ought not to be, translate a typical sentence of Livy literally. You will find that you have said a great deal. But you will have said it as badly as it can be said; and the effect on the reader's mind will be cloudy and unconvincing. For the human mind is limited. You can not exact too much from a man's attention and comprehension at a given moment. You must give him what his mind can hold and no more. One idea at a time is as much as any one can manage to express or to understand; and if you try for more you will defeat your own object. That is what we mean when we define a sentence to be the expression of one idea. A great orator once gave the following advice to a young speaker who was about to make his first appearance in the House of Commons: 66 Say what you have to say: don't quote Latin and sit down." It is good advice for a young writer, too: "Say what you have to say: don't quote Latin : and stop." § 5. RELATIVE AND ADVERBIAL CLAUSES It may, however, be urged that it is not always easy to keep one's sentences short. That is quite true. Beginners frequently find themselves, they know not how or why, struggling blindly in the midst of a wild waste of words, usually through the unwary introduction of some relative or adverbial clause which takes them insensibly off their legs and sweeps them out of their depth. The words "who" and "when" should be marked dangerous. Roughly speaking, you will do well to use the demonstrative instead of the relative, at all events at first, except in the very simplest cases. Turn the sentence in such a way that "he" comes instead of "who," and "then" instead of "when," and so on. Here is an example of a relative clause : "The prisoner, who was an old man, was unable to endure the fatigue of the march." This is safe enough, because the relative clause is short and simple. Even thus, the idea is quite as well expressed if you say: "The prisoner was an old man and he was unable to endure the fatigue of the march." Suppose, however, that the relative clause is full of matter. "The prisoner, who was an old man, broken down by the hardships which he had undergone and suffering from an incurable disease contracted during years of painful confinement, was unable to endure the fatigue of the march." There is nothing exactly wrong about this sentence as it stands, but you would do well to turn it thus: "The prisoner was an old man; he was broken down by the hardships which he had undergone; he was suffering from an incurable disease contracted during years of painful confinement; and he was unable to endure the fatigue of the march." Take, next, an example of an adverbial clause. "When the news of this fresh disaster reached the beleaguered garrison, and there was no longer hope of effective resistance, the general had no alternative but to surrender." This is safe enough, because the adverbial clause is short and simple. Even thus, the idea is quite as well expressed if you say: "The news of this fresh disaster reached the beleaguered garrison; there was no longer hope of effective resistance; and the general had no alternative but to surrender." Suppose, however, that the adverbial clause is a complicated one. "When the news of this fresh disaster, the details of which were corrected or confirmed by successive messengers, reached the beleaguered garrison, and when, as the expected diversion on the part of the allies was not forthcoming and food and water were becoming scarce, the inhabitants of the town were reduced to the last extremity of suffering, there being no longer hope of effective resistance, the general had no alternative but to surrender." This sentence, which might possibly be successful in Latin, is far too full of matter to be clear in English. Turn it thus: "The news of this fresh disaster reached the beleaguered garrison. Its details were corrected or confirmed by successive messengers. The expected diversion on the part of the allies was not forthcoming. Food and water were becoming scarce. The inhabitants of the town were reduced to the last extremity of suffering. There was no longer hope of effective resistance; and the general, therefore, had no alternative but to surrender." This is plain unembarrassed English; and this is all, at present, that you are concerned to produce. Later on it will be shown how a series of relative or adverbial clauses can be handled with brilliant cumulative effect. This development must not be anticipated at present. What you have to aim at in the first instance is the production of a clear and steady flame, not coruscations of fireworks. § 6. THE PAragraph The unit of the Essay is the paragraph. The unit of the paragraph is the sentence. Just as the sentence contains one idea, so the paragraph contains one set of kindred ideas, that is, one division of the Essay. Each of the main divisions of the subject will have its separate paragraph. So also will each. of the most important sub-divisions. Practically it is better to have too many paragraphs than too few. One of the objects of the writer is to attract and engage the attention of the reader. A heavy unbroken mass of matter is repulsive to the eye and suggestive of dulness and verbosity. The reader dreads that the subject has not been properly articulated or has been handled without discrimination, and he is likely to be right. Paragraphs are an indication that the writer has, presumably, put what he has to say into an orderly form. In all probability, if you find yourself with a paragraph of more than three-quarters of a page in length, you have mixed up two or three things which ought to have been kept separate. In practice, you had better make a point of having the commencement of at least one paragraph on every page. Rule 5 directs you to map out your subject into paragraphs. In using this book, you should try, first of all, to do this for yourself. You should then fall back upon the assistance given in the Analysis and the Sketch of the subject, according to the |