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How To vVRITE CLEARLY.
RULES AND EXERCISES
ON

ENGLISH COMPOSITION.
BY THE

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TENTH ENGLISH EDITION.

BOSTON:
R 0 B E RT S

BR 0 T H E RS.

1875.

PREFACE.
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J 4i~b?i:5Cnm0ridge:
Preu of Jo!t11 Wilson and Son.

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ALMOST every English boy ca n be taught to write clearly,
so far at least as clearness depends upon the arrangement
of words. Force, elega nce, and variety of style are more
difficult to teach, and far more difficult to learn; but clear
writing can be reduced to rul es. To teach the art of
writ ing clearly is the main object of these Rul es and
Exercises.
Ambiguity may arise, not only from ba d arrangement,
but also from other causes- from the misu s~ of single.
words, and from confused thought. · These causes are
not removable by definite rules, and therefo re, thou gh
not neglected, are not prominently consid ered in this
book. My object rather is to point out some few continually recurring causes of ambiguity, and to suggest
definite remedies in each case. Speeches in Parli ament,
newspaper narratives and articles, and, above all, resolutions at public meetings, furni sh abundant instances of
obscurity arising from the _monotonous neglect of some
dozen simple rules.
The art of writing forcibly is, of course, a valuable
acquisition-almost as valuable as th e art of writing
clearly. But forcible expression is not, like clear expression, a mere question of mechanism and of the
manipulation of words; it is a much higher power, and
implies much more.

6

Preface. .

Pref< lee.
Writing clearly does not imply thinking clearly.

A

~an may think and reason as obscurely as Dogberry

l11rnself, but he may (though it is not probable that he
will) be able to write clearly for all that. Writing
clearly-so far as arrangement of words is concerned
-:-is a mere matter of adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and auxili a ry verbs, Flaced and repeat ed according
to definite rules. 1 Even obscure or illogical thought can
be clearly expressed; indeed, the transpa rent medium of
clear writing is not least beneficial when it reveals the
illogical nature of the meaning beneath it.
On the other hand, if a man is to write forcibly,
he musl (to use a well-known illustration) describe
Jerusalem as " sown with salt," not as "captured," and
the Jews not as being "subdued" but as "almost exterminated" by Titus. But what does this imply? It
implies knowledge, and very often a great deal of knowledge, and it implies also a vivid imag ination. The writer
must have eyes to see the vivid side of everything, as
well as words to describe what he sees. Hence forcible
writing, and of course tast eful writing also, is far Jess a
matter of rules than is clear writing; and hence, though
forcible writing is exemplified in the exercises, clear
writing occupi es most of th e space devoted to the rules.
Boys who are study ing Latin and Greek stand in
especial need of help to enable tl;em to write a long
Engli sh sentence clearl y. The periods of Thucydides
and Cicero are not easil y rendered into our idiom withou t
some knowledge of the links that connect an English
sentence.
There is scarcely an y better training, rhetorical as well
as logical, than the task of const ruin g Thucydides into
1
.P u nc tuati on is fully cli sc ussc<l in most Eng li sh Grammar~, ;'l. nrt is there~
fore referred to in this book only so f:lr ;'I S is necessary to point out the
slove nly fauit o f trus ting too mt1 ch to punctuation, and too little to a.rrange-

ment.

7

genuine English ; but the flat, vague, long-winded GreekEnglish and Latin-English imposture that is often tolerated in our examinations and is allowed to pass current
for genuine English, diminishes instead of increasing the
power that our pupils should possess over their native
language.
By getting marks at school and college for
tonstruing good Greek and Latin into bad English, our
pupils systematically unlearn what they may have been
allowed to pick up from Milton and from Shakespeare.
I must acknowledge very large obligations to Professor
Bain's treatise on "English Composition and Rhetoric,"
and also to his English Grammar. I have nol always
been able to agree with Professor Bain as to matters of
taste ; but I find it difficult to express my admiration for
the systematic thoroughness and suggestiveness of his
book on Composition. In particular, Professor Bain's rule
on the use of "that" and "which" (see Rule 8) deserves
to be better known. 1 The ambiguity produced by the confusion between· these two forms of the Relative is not a
mere fiction of pedants; it is practically serious. Take,
for instance, the following sentence, which app eared
lately in one of our ablest weekly periodicals : "There
are a good many Rad ical members in the House who
cannot forgive the Prime Minister for being a Christian."
Twenty years hen ce, who is to say whether the meaning
is" a11d they, i.e. all the Radical members in the House,"
or "there are a good many Radical members of the
House· that cannot &c."?
Professor Bain, apparently
admit tin g no exceptions to his us eful rule, amends many
senten ces in a manner that seems to me intolerably harsh.
Therefor~, whi le laying due stress on th e utility of the
rule, I have endeavoured to point out a nd explain the
exceptions.
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Before meeting with Professor Bain's rnle, I had shown that the differ·
ence between the Re latives is gc ncr;iliy obser\'ed by Shakespeare. See
"Shake~pcarian Grammar,'' paragraph 259-

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Preface.

The rules are stated as briefly as possible, and are '
intended not so much for use b y themselves as for reference whi le the pupil is working at the exercises.
Consequ ently, there is no attempt to prove the rul es by
accumulations of exa mples. The few exampl es that are .
given, are given not to prove, but to illustrate the rules.
The exercises are intended to be written out and revised,
as exe rcises usually are ; but th ey may also be used for
vivtl voce instru ction. The books being shut, the pupils,
with th eir written exercises before them, m ay be questioned as to the reaso ns for th e several altera tions th ey
h ave made. Experienced teachers will not requ ire any
explanation of the arrangement or rather non-arrangement
of the exercises. They have been purposely mi xed together
. unclassified to prevent th e pupil from relying upon anything
but his own common sense and industry, to show him
what is the fault in each case, and how it is to be amended.
B esides referen ces to the rules, · notes are attached to
each sentence, so th a t the exercises ought not to present
any difficulty to a pa instaking boy of twelve or thirteen,
provided he has first been fairly trained in English
grammar.
The " Continuous Extracts" present rather more diffi- .
cult y, and are intended for boys somewhat older than
those for whom the Exercises are intended. The attempt
to m odernize, and clarify, so to speak, the style of Burnet,
Clarendon, and Bishop Butler,1 may appear ' ambitious,
and perhaps requires some explanation. My objec t ha s,
of course, not been to improve upon the style of these
auth ors, but to show how their meaning might be expressed more clearly in mod ern English. The charm of the
st yle is necessarily lost, but if the loss is recognized both
by teac her and pupil, there is nothing, in my opinion, to
1 Si r Archibald Alison stands on a very di!Terent footing.
The ex tracts
from th is author arc inlendcd to exhibit the dangers of verbosity and exag..
g cration.

Preface.

9

counterbalance the obvious utility of such exercises. Professor Bain speaks to the sam e effect: 1 " For a n English
exercise, the ma tter should in some way or other be
supplied, and the pupil disciplined in giving it expressio n.
I know of no better method than to prescribe passages
contai ning good matter, but in some respects imperfectly
worded, to be a mended according to the laws and the
proprieties of style. Our older writers might be extensively, though not exclusively, drawn upon for this
purpose."
To some of the fri ends whose help h as been already
acknowledged in " English Lesso ns for E nglish People,"
I am indebted for furth er help in revising these pages.
I d esire to ex press especial obligations to th e Rev. J.
H. Lupton, late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge,
and Second Master of St. Paul's School, for copious a nd
valu able suggestions ; also to several of my colleagues at
th e City of London School, a mong whom I must mention
in particular the Rev. A. R. Vardy, F ellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge.

Before electrotyping the Fourth and Revised Edition,
I wish to say one word as to the m anner in which this
book has been us ed by my highest class, as a collection
of Rules for referen ce in their co nstruing lessons. In
con struing, from Thucydides especially, I have found
Rul es 5, 30, 34, 36, 37, and 4oa, of great use. The rules
about Metapho r a nd Climax have also been useful in
correcting faults of taste in their Latin and Greek compos1t10ns. I have hop es that, used in this way, this little
book may be of service to the highest as well as tc;> the
middle classes of our schools.
1 "

Eni!lish Compo5ition and Rhetoric," p.

vii.

OF RU LES.
I. CLEARNESS AND FORCE.
WORDS•

CONTENTS.
J'AGS

11-;-13

INDEX. OF RULES
RULES

14-40

SHORT EXERCISES

41~63

CONTINUOUS EXERCISES-CLARENDON •

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64-:-70

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BURNET
BUTLER

74-75 /

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SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON

76-.:.78

70-73

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.. 1.,.Usi!: words in their proper sense.
~ 2. Avoid exaggerations.
';, 3.. Avoid useless circumlocution and" fine writing."
-; .+ ' Be careful in the use of "not , • • and," "any," "but,"
~"'only, 0 "not . . . or,,, " that."
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·~ 4 a. Be careful in the use of ambiguous words, e.g. "certain."
j.'-' 5. Be careful in the use of "he," " it," " thev," " these," &c.
6. Report a speech in the First Person, where necessary to
'""avoid ambiguity.
· .~ 6 a. ' Use the Third Person where the exact words of the
speaker are not intended to be given.
· ~ 6.6. Omission of "that" in a speech in the Third Person.
7.' When you· use .a Participle implying "when," "while,"
., though,:?; or " that," show clearly by the context what is
implied. ·,·•.. -.• .~ ..
,-.'_.8.· When using the Relative Pronoun, use" who" or" which,"
if the meaning is "and he" or "and it," "for he" or "for it."
In other cases use "that," if euphony allows. Exceptions.
· 9. Do not use "and which" for" which."
•! IO. Equivalents for the Relative : (a) Participle or Adjective;
6) Infinitive; . (c) "Whereby," "whereto," &c.; (d) "If a man·"
And he, !:.,: ' and •this," &c. ; (/) " what ; " (g) omission of
lative. · · ,,;-. : -· · - · ·
• o a'.. -Rep~at: the Antecedent before the Relative, where the
non·ree~tition causes any ambiguity. See 38.
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particular for general terms. A void abstract Nouns.
u ·a. ·Avoid Verbal Nouns where Verbs can be used.
1~/1:UsC:particular persons instead of a class.
13;~ U se metaphor instead of literal statement.
+'?Do not confuse 'metaphor.
4
Do not mix metaphor with literal statement.
4 6:~.Do not use poetic · metaphor to illustrate a prosaic
~ect.
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,~ORDER QF WORDS IN A SENTENCE.

s~ "' Emphatic words must stand in emphatic positions ; i.e., for

mO!!fpart, 'at the beginning or the end of the sentence.

Sa. Unemphatic words must, as a rule, be kept from the
· 'Exceptions.· ~.

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