The Century Handbook of Writing Part 1

The Century Handbook of Writing.

by Garland Greever and Easley S. Jones.

PREFACE

This handbook treats essential matters of grammar, diction, spelling, mechanics; and develops with thoroughness the principles of sentence structure. Larger units of composition it leaves to the texts in formal rhetoric.

The book is built on a decimal plan, the material being simplified and reduced to one hundred articles. Headings of these articles are summarized on two opposite pages by a chart. Here the student can see at a glance the resources of the volume, and the instructor can find immediately the number he wishes to write in the margin of a theme. The chart and the decimal scheme together make the rules accessible for instant reference.

By a device equally efficient, the book throws upon the student the responsibility of teaching himself. Each article begins with a concise rule, which is ill.u.s.trated by examples; then follows a short "parallel exercise" which the instructor may a.s.sign by adding an _x_ to the number he writes in the margin of a theme. While correcting this exercise, the student will give attention to the rule, and will acquire theory and practice at the same time. Moreover, every group of ten articles is followed by mixed exercises; these may be used for review, or imposed in the margin of a theme as a penalty for flagrant or repeated error. Thus friendly counsel is backed by discipline, and the instructor has the means of compelling the student to make rapid progress toward good English.

Although a handbook of this nature is in some ways arbitrary, the arbitrariness is always in the interest of simplicity. The book does have simplicity, permits instant reference, and provides an adequate drill which may be a.s.signed at the stroke of a pen.

TO THE STUDENT

When a number is written in the margin of your theme, you are to turn to the article which corresponds to the number. Read the rule (printed in bold-face type), and study the examples. When an _r_ follows the number on your theme, you are, in addition, to copy the rule. When an _x_ follows the number, you are, besides acquainting yourself with the rule, to write the exercise of five sentences, to correct your own faulty sentence, and to hand in the six on theme paper. If the number ends in 9 (9, 19, 29, etc.), you will find, not a rule, but a long exercise which you are to write and hand in on theme paper. In the absence of special instructions from your teacher, you are invariably to proceed as this paragraph requires.

Try to grasp the principle which underlies the rule. In many places in this book the reason for the existence of the rule is clearly stated.

Thus under 20, the reason for the rule on parallel structure is explained in a prologue. In other instances, as in the rule on divided reference (20), the reason becomes clear the moment you read the examples. In certain other instances the rule may appear arbitrary and without a basis in reason. But there is a basis in reason, as you will observe in the following ill.u.s.tration.

Suppose you write, "He is twenty one years old." The instructor asks you to put a hyphen in _twenty-one_, and refers you to 78. You cannot see why a hyphen is necessary, since the meaning is clear without it. But tomorrow you may write. "I will send you twenty five dollar bills." The reader cannot tell whether you mean twenty five-dollar bills or twenty-five dollar bills. In the first sentence the use of the hyphen in _twenty-one_ did not make much difference. In the second sentence the hyphen makes seventy-five dollars' worth of difference. Thus the instructor, in asking you to write, "He is twenty-one years old," is helping you to form a habit that will save you from serious error in other sentences. Whenever you cannot understand the reason for a rule, ask yourself whether the usage of many clear-thinking men for long years past may not be protecting you from difficulties which you do not foresee. Instructors and writers of text books (impressive as is the evidence to the contrary) are human, and do not invent rules to puzzle you. They do not, in fact, invent rules at all, but only make convenient applications of principles which generations of writers have found to be wisest and best.

THE CENTURY HANDBOOK OF WRITING SENTENCE STRUCTURE

COMPLETENESS OF THOUGHT

The first thing to make certain is that the thought of a sentence is complete. A fragment which has no meaning when read alone, or a sentence from which is omitted a necessary word, phrase, or idea, violates an elementary principle of writing.

=Fragments Wrongly Used as Sentences=

=1. Do not write a subordinate part of a sentence as if it were a complete sentence.=

Wrong: He stopped short. Hearing some one approach.

Right: He stopped short, hearing some one approach. [Or]

Hearing some one approach, he stopped short.

Wrong: The winters are cold. Although the summers are pleasant.

Right: Although the summers are pleasant, the winters are cold.

Wrong: The hunter tried to move the stone. Which he found very heavy.

Right: The hunter tried to move the stone, which he found very heavy. [Or] The hunter tried to move the stone. He found it very heavy.

Note.--A sentence must in itself express a complete thought. Phrases or subordinate clauses, if used alone, carry only an incomplete meaning.

They must therefore be attached to a sentence, or restated in independent form. Elliptical expressions used in conversation may be regarded as exceptions: Where? At what time? Ten o'clock. By no means.

Certainly. Go.

Exercise:

1. My next experience was in a grain elevator. Where I worked for two summers.

2. The parts of a fountain pen are: first, the point. This is gold. Second, the body.

3. The form is set rigidly. So that it will not be displaced when the concrete is thrown in.

4. There are several reasons to account for the swarming of bees. One of these having already been mentioned.

5. Since June the company has increased its trade three per cent. Since August, five per cent.

=Incomplete Constructions=

=2. Do not leave uncompleted a construction which you have begun.=

Wrong: You remember that in his speech in which he said he would oppose the bill.

Right: You remember that in his speech he said he would oppose the bill. [Or] You remember the speech in which he said he would oppose the bill.

Wrong: He was a young man who, coming from the country, with ignorance of city ways, but with plenty of determination to succeed.

Right: He was a young man who, coming from the country, was ignorant of city ways, but had plenty of determination to succeed.

Wrong: From the window of the train I perceived one of those unsightly structures.

Right: From the window of the train I perceived one of those unsightly structures which are always to be seen near a station.

Exercise:

1. As far as his having been deceived, there is a difference of opinion on that matter.

2. The fact that he was always in trouble, his parents wondered whether he should remain in school or not.

3. People who go back to the scenes of their childhood everything looks strangely small.

4. It was the custom that whenever a political party came into office, for the incoming men to discharge all employees of the opposite party.