The Art of Writing English
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PROFESSOR : '•' a». ,. .iB>>* THE ART OF WRITING INGUSH CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY a Cornell University 'SI Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924026634232 THE ART OF WRITING ENGLISH A Manual for Students : with Chapters on Paraphrasing, Essay-Writing, Precis- Writing, Punctuation, and other Matters By J. M. D. MEIKLEJOHN, M.A. PROFESSOR OF THE THEORY, HISTORY, AND PRACTICE OF EDUCATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS The noblest literary study of an Englishman is the study of the English language. The noblest literary gain of the educated man is the power of wielding that language well.—THRING. Omnia praeclara difficilia. Things of the greatest, so of meanest worth, Conceived with care are, and with tears brought forth. HERRICK. &• LONDON: A M. HOLDEN ii Paternoster Square 1899 qui i /.kv ):: DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO SIR GEORGE W. KEKEWICH K.C.B. SECRETARY TO THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT PREFACE This book has been written for the purpose of guiding the young student into the right path, and of saving him from wasting his time in exercises that are not only of no use to him, but are positive hindrances in the way of his learning to write good, clear, and firm English. The use of Analysis as a guide to Composition—as it is sometimes called—proves to be the veriest Slough of Despond, in which the student can neither swim nor walk. The writer has not worried his pupils with a large number of rules and meticulous directions, but has tried to set their feet in a plain path, has tried td show them the road to freedom and power—and perhaps even to delight in adequate and rhythmic expression. Whatever utility may exist in this book is to be found chiefly in its exercises. These may seem to be too numerous. But it takes several years to master—or even to come near mastering—the violin or the piano: how many more years ought it to take to enable any writer to come within sight of the goal of mastering the com- plexities, the intricacies, the beauties, and the subtleties of the English tongue ? Again, when a young student is learning to write, he is also learning to think. In his unceasing quest for the right word, for the adequate and perfectly truthful vi THE ART OF WRITING ENGLISH expression, he comes to many avenues in the wanderings of careful thought, and learns to choose between right and wrong. He is likewise on the way to possessing himself of some of the countless treasures of his mother- tongue ; and, in both these respects, he is not unlike a great historical personage—Saul, the son of Kish, who went out to seek his father's asses, and found a kingdom. All the exercises are very short ; and the Teacher is earnestly advised to discourage and even to forbid long dissertations and lengthy essays, which absorb too much of the Teacher's time, and promote in the Pupil habits of verbosity and loose writing. A short exercise of ten lines, carefully and thoroughly polished, will do more for the pupil than a wordy 'essay' of as many pages. Once he has been shown the way, it is the Pupil who ought to do the polishing, and not the Teacher. Some of the exercises and material of this book have been recovered from some other books of mine, which are now out of print. I am also indebted to Professors Nichol and Minto; to Matzner, Lanson, Dr. Probst, Professor Straub ; and other French and German writers. W It is not at all necessary that the young student should work through all the exercises ; he should select those that seem to be most useful for his own stage of development. W Correcting exercises is the bane of the Teacher's profession. It paralyses his mental powers, and granulates the fibre of his brain. It is recommended that all exercises be short ; that they read be aloud in Class ; that, as a rule, they should be corrected there ; that questions be put on them and answers demanded that ; questions and criticisms from the class be invited and that the j correction of exercises be made an occasion for lively social discussion. CONTENTS PROLOGUE 3 INTRODUCTION . 15 WHAT A GOOD SENTENCE IS 31 PUNCTUATION . 45 VARIATION AND EXPANSION 55 VI. IDIOMATIC PHRASES 7i VIL IDIOMATIC USE OF PREPOSITIONS 83 vni. PRECISION IN THE USE OF SYNONYMS . 9i IX. THE TWO LANGUAGES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IZI x. PARAPHRASING 135 XI. PITH 155 HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY 159 PRECIS-WRITING 175 EMPHASIS AND INVERSION 187 THE USE OF DETAIL . 197 XVI. FIGURES OF SPEECH 203 XVII. LETTER-WRITING 223 XVIII. CAUTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 233 viii THE ART OF WRITING ENGLISH PAGE, XIX. THE DICTION OP PROSE AND THE DICTION OP POETRY 257 XX. THE DIVISIONS OP PROSE STYLE 271 XXI. COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH AND IN GRAMMAR 277 XXII. GENERAL RULES .... 309 XXIII. SHORT ESSAYS WITH MOTTOES . 315 XXIV. VOCABULARY OP TERMS 327 Prologue CHAPTER I PROLOGUE A FAMILIAR TALK ABO0T THE WRITING OF ENGLISH (with some Suggestions and a little Advice) A young student wishes to be able to write good English, to express his thoughts in clear and fitting language, in neat and well-turned sentences. How is he to set about it ? He naturally goes to his Teacher and consults with him. His Teacher tells him that he cherishes a most praise- worthy desire, that it is of great importance to be able to use one's mother-tongue rightly, and that his mother- tongue—English—is probably the richest language in Europe, that is, that it contains the largest choice of words and phrases from which to select for the true and adequate expression of thought. 'Shall I read books " ? '— about the " Art of Composition ' Not at all,' replies the Teacher; *at least, not in the meantime. These books will fill your mind with theories and principles. But you don't want any theory of writing ; and you do not require what are called "principles of style." All you want for the present is practice in writing down your own sense in plain and clear English ; and this practice you can have any day or every day. ' There is a well-known story about a French lady, who ' ;!; 4 THE ART OF WRITING ENGLISH was governess to the young sons of Louis xiv. One day she asked one of them—the Due de Maine—to write a letter to his father. " Oh, I can't write letters," he replied "I haven't the slightest idea how to write a letter!" —" Well," said the lady, " but you sometimes think about ! " your father, I suppose."—" Oh yes " said the boy ; I am very sorry that he has gone away."—" Very good, very good; then just write that down. But is that all " you think about him ? Have you nothing else to say ? —" Well, I should be very glad if he would come back." —" There 's your letter all ready made," replied the lady "just put down these two thoughts of yours, —give it a beginning and an ending ; and the letter is done." " Oh I didn't know it was so very easy to write a letter ; I thought one had to put down all sorts of big words and phrases, and to show that— you know a lot of things that you really don't know." " Nothing of the sort : all you have to do is to put into clear and simple words what you think or feel." All this is quite plain. But the young student will ask, ' How about the rules of Grammar ? Am I not obliged to take these with me, to keep them in mind, and ? to think about them while I am writing ' To this the ' teacher replies : Certainly not. Rules of grammar will only get in your way. You will be like a gentleman going for the first time to the Queen's Drawing-room : he puts on a sword for the first time, and he thinks so much about it that it gets between his legs and perhaps trips him up. In writing, your whole mind must be full of the subject you are writing about; and there must be no room for rules about this —or that turn of language, this or that form of expression.' ' But then I shall go wrong, and write bad grammar.'—'That is possible; but you will of course read over what you have written, after you ; PROLOGUE 5 have written it, and see that it contains no bad grammar or bad English. If it does, then of course you will correct it. But, while you are writing, keep your mind entirely fixed on the subject you are writing about.' ' Well, then, there is Analysis : surely that is useful in composition—surely I shall get some guidance from that.'—'Worse and worse, my young friend, analysis will simply paralyse the movements of your mind and make any writing you produce as stiff as a poker.'—' But analysis tells us all about the build of sentences (about the anatomy of them), about co-ordinate and subordinate clauses, about complex and compound sentences, and so on. Now, as composition is merely the making of sen- tences, and every paragraph and every book is made up of large numbers of sentences, surely the part of grammar which tells you all about the nature of sentences must be ? ' — extremely useful to you ' So it would seem ; but so indeed it is not.