How to write clearly.pdf

How to Write Clearly, by Edwin A. Abbott

Title: How to Write Clearly Rules and Exercises on English Composition

Author: Edwin A. Abbott

Release Date: September 14, 2007

Language: English

HOW TO WRITE CLEARLY.

RULES AND EXERCISES

ENGLISH COMPOSITION.

BY THE

REV. EDWIN A. ABBOTT, M.A.,

HEAD MASTER OF THE CITY OF LONDON SCHOOL.

[Illustration: QUI LEGIT REGIT]

THE AUTHOR'S COPYRIGHT EDITION.

BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1883.

UNIVERSITY PRESS: JOHN WILSON & SON. CAMBRIDGE.

PREFACE.

Almost every English boy can be taught to write clearly, so far at least as clearness depends upon the

arrangement of words. Force, elegance, and variety of style are more difficult to teach, and far more difficult to

learn; but clear writing can be reduced to rules. To teach the art of writing clearly is the main object of these

Rules and Exercises.

Ambiguity may arise, not only from bad arrangement, but also from other causes--from the misuse of single

words, and from confused thought. These causes are not removable by definite rules, and therefore, though not

neglected, are not prominently considered 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 Parliament, newspaper

narratives and articles, and, above all, resolutions at public meetings, furnish 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 the 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.

Writing clearly does not imply thinking clearly. A man may think and reason as obscurely as Dogberry himself,

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 auxiliary verbs,

placed and repeated according to definite rules.[1] Even obscure or illogical thought can be clearly expressed;

indeed, the transparent 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 must (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 imagination. 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 tasteful writing also, is far less a matter of rules than is clear

writing; and hence, though forcible writing is exemplified in the exercises, clear writing occupies most of the

space devoted to the rules.

Boys who are studying Latin and Greek stand in especial need of help to enable them to write a long English

sentence clearly. The periods of Thucydides and Cicero are not easily rendered into our idiom without some

knowledge of the links that connect an English sentence.

There is scarcely any better training, rhetorical as well as logical, than the task of construing Thucydides into

genuine English; but the flat, vague, long-winded Greek-English 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 construing 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 not 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. [2] 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 appeared

lately in one of our ablest weekly periodicals: "There are a good many Radical members in the House who

cannot forgive the Prime Minister for being a Christian." Twenty years hence, who is to say whether the

meaning is "and 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 admitting no exceptions to his useful rule, amends

many sentences in a manner that seems to me intolerably harsh. Therefore, while laying due stress on the utility

of the rule, I have endeavoured to point out and explain the exceptions.

The rules are stated as briefly as possible, and are intended not so much for use by themselves as for reference

while the pupil is working at the exercises. Consequently, there is no attempt to prove the rules by

accumulations of examples. The few examples that are given, are given not to prove, but to illustrate the rules.

The exercises are intended to be written out and revised, as exercises usually are; but they may also be used for

vivâ voce instruction. The books being shut, the pupils, with their written exercises before them, may be

questioned as to the reasons for the several alterations they have made. Experienced teachers will not require

any explanation of the arrangement or rather non-arrangement of the exercises. They have been purposely

mixed together unclassified to prevent the 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. Besides references to the

rules, notes are attached to each sentence, so that the exercises ought not to present any difficulty to a

painstaking boy of twelve or thirteen, provided he has first been fairly trained in English grammar.

The "Continuous Extracts" present rather more difficulty, and are intended for boys somewhat older than those

for whom the Exercises are intended. The attempt to modernize, and clarify, so to speak, the style of Burnet,

Clarendon, and Bishop Butler, [3] may appear ambitious, and perhaps requires some explanation. My object has,

of course, not been to improve upon the style of these authors, but to show how their meaning might be

expressed more clearly in modern English. The charm of the style is necessarily lost, but if the loss is

recognized both by teacher and pupil, there is nothing, in my opinion, to counterbalance the obvious utility of

such exercises. Professor Bain speaks to the same effect: [4] "For an English exercise, the matter should in some

way or other be supplied, and the pupil disciplined in giving it expression. I know of no better method than to

prescribe passages containing good matter, but in some respects imperfectly worded, to be amended 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 friends whose help has been already acknowledged in "English Lessons for English People," I

am indebted for further help in revising these pages. I desire to express especial obligations to the Rev. J. H.

Lupton, late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Second Master of St. Paul's School, for copious and

valuable suggestions; also to several of my colleagues at the City of London School, among whom I must

mention in particular the Rev. A. R. Vardy, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Before electrotyping the Fourth and Revised Edition, I wish to say one word as to the manner in which this book

has been used by my highest class, as a collection of Rules for reference in their construing lessons. In

construing, from Thucydides especially, I have found Rules 5, 30, 34, 36, 37, and 40 a , of great use. The rules

about Metaphor and Climax have also been useful in correcting faults of taste in their Latin and Greek

compositions. I have hopes that, used in this way, this little book may be of service to the highest as well as to

the middle classes of our schools.

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