The Century Handbook of Writing Part 20

5. The freshman has no spirit until the soph.o.m.ores have provoked him until he resists until he finds that he has spirit.

6. Some socialists are against the present system of initiative, referendum, and recall, but advocate a system much like it but applied in a different way.

7. The gun with which the Germans bombarded Paris with had a range of seventy-five miles.

8. Basketball is a game that I have played for years, and I am greatly interested in.

9. This is the lever which throws the switch which directs the train that takes the track that goes to Boston.

10. Short talks were made by the captain, the coach, and by the faculty.

11. At this school one can study to be a doctor, dentist, farmer, a lawyer, or an engineer.

12. I like to cross the harbor on the ferry, to dodge in and out among the s.h.i.+ps, see the gulls dart among the waves, smell the sharp tang of salty air, and to feel the rocking motion of the boat.

13. In the sultry autumn, and when the winter's storms came, and when in spring the winds whistled, and in the summer's heat, he always wore the same old coat.

14. He knew that if he did not ignite the piece of wet bark this time, that he could not dry his clothing or broil the bacon.

15. The next speaker said that the need was critical, the schools must be enlarged, and that the paving now begun must be completed, and a new board of health should be created, that the interest on past debts had to be paid, and the city treasury was at this moment out of funds.

EMPHASIS

=Emphasis by Position=

=40. Reserve the emphatic positions in a sentence for important words or ideas. (The emphatic positions are the beginning and the end--especially the end.)=

Weak ending: Then like a flash a vivid memory of my uncle's death came to me.

Weak: I demand the release of the prisoners, in the first place.

Weak: This principle is one we cannot afford to accept, if my understanding of the question is correct.

Place the important idea at the end. Secure, if possible, an emphatic beginning. "Tuck in" unimportant modifiers.

Emphatic: Like a flash came to me a vivid memory of my uncle's death.

Emphatic: I demand, in the first place, the release of the prisoners.

Emphatic: This principle, if my understanding of the question is correct, is one we cannot afford to accept.

Exercise:

1. "War is inevitable," he said.

2. The cat had been poisoned to all appearances.

3. There are several methods of learning to swim, as everyone knows.

4. A liar is as bad as a thief, in my estimation.

5. He saw a fight below him in the street, happening to look out of the window.

=Emphasis by Separation=

=41. An idea which needs much emphasis may be detached, and allowed to stand in a sentence by itself.=

Faulty: The flames were by this time beyond control, and the walls collapsed, and several firemen were hurt. [The ideas here are too important to be run together in one sentence.]

Right: By this time the flames were beyond control, and the walls collapsed. Several firemen were hurt.

A quotation gains emphasis when it is separated from what follows.

Faulty: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley,"

are some lines from Burns which McDonald was always quoting.

Right: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley."

McDonald was always quoting these lines from Burns.

Direct discourse is more emphatic when it is separated from explanatory phrases, particularly from those which follow.

Faulty: Mosher leaped to the stage and shouted defiantly, "I will never consent to that!" and he looked as if he meant what he said.

Right: Mosher leaped to the stage and shouted his defiance: "I will never agree to that!" And he looked as if he meant what he said.

Exercise:

1. After the tents are pitched, the beds made, and the fires started, the first meal is cooked and served, and this meal is the beginning of camp-life joy.

2. He tried to make his wife vote for his own, the Citizen's Party, but she firmly refused.

3. At the word of command the dog rushed forward; the covey rose with a mighty whir, and the hunter fired both barrels, and the dog looked in vain for a dead bird, and then returned disconsolate.

4. I sat and gazed at the motto, "Aim high, and believe yourself capable of great things," which my mother had placed there for me.

5. "A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness."

were the four things Omar Khayyam wanted to make him happy.

=Emphasis by Subordination=