Rules Relating to Style
| GOOD STYLE | POOR STYLE | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purity prescribes the use of | - | Correct forms and concords. | - | Wrong forms. Solecisms. | ||
| Classic or good English words. | - | Barbarisms. | ||||
| Proper words, i.e., words fit for the occasion. | - | Improprieties. | ||||
| Perspicuity prescribes | - | Simplicity. | - | Roundabout, inflated or pedantic words or phrases. | ||
| Brevity. | - | Tautology. | ||||
| Pleonasm. | ||||||
| Verbosity. | ||||||
| Precision. | - | Ambiguity or Obscurity. | ||||
| a. In words. | ||||||
| b. In sentences from bad arrangement. | ||||||
Choice and Use of Words.—Good usage—the usage of the best writers and speakers—sanctions only words that are in reputable, national, and present usage.
The term Barbarism is applied to unauthorized language. Some offenses against good usage are the following:
1. Obsolete words, words gone out of use.
2. Provincialisms, words peculiar to some locality.
3. Colloquialisms, words peculiar to familiar conversation.
4. Solecisms, ungrammatical expressions.
5. Archaisms, expressions which would be obsolete except for their occasional use in poetry.
The term Impropriety is used to designate reputable words misapplied.
Slang is a general name for current, vulgar, unauthorized language. It may take the form of barbarism or impropriety.
Use the fewest and simplest words that the subject will bear.
Specific words are usually more forcible than general terms.
Foreign and technical terms should be used with care.
Use idioms wherever it is possible.
Coherence demands that the parts shall be so connected that the thought will be clear and compact.
The length of sentences is governed by the effect to be produced. Short sentences give vigor, emphasis, and rapidity. Long sentences give weight and rhythm.
A well-constructed sentence keeps the same subject as long as possible.
All modifying elements should be placed as near as possible to the words they modify.
A Dangling Element—one that modifies nothing—must be avoided. Example: Looking into the water, a fish was seen.
A “Squinting Construction” is one that is so poorly placed in the sentence as to modify equally well the part preceding and the part following. Example: Will you say to Mr. Brown, when he comes, I will be ready.
Redundancy—A weak repetition of an idea—must be avoided.
Pleonasm consists in the addition of words which can be omitted without affecting the construction or the meaning of the sentence.
Tautology, or repeating a thought that has just been stated.
Verbosity or Prolixity is the fault in sentence-making caused by using needless words.
Don’t begin a sentence with—and, but, also, so, then, next, however, after this, of course, in consequence, as a matter of fact.
The Paragraph.—A Paragraph is a division in composition treating only one part of the subject. A paragraph must conform to the same rules that should govern the whole composition; that is, it must show unity, massing, and coherence.
Unity demands that all the thoughts in a sentence, in a paragraph, or in the whole theme shall cluster about one main idea.
Massing demands that the important thoughts shall be placed in prominent places.
Coherence demands that thoughts shall be closely connected.
The length of paragraphs is not to be regulated absolutely: the subject-matter to be treated, the appearance of the page, and the comfort of the reader must all be considered. In a dialogue a new paragraph is begun with each change of speaker.
The Sentence.—Rhetorically, sentences may be classified as periodic, loose, and balanced.
A Periodic sentence is one that holds the thought in suspense until the end. Example: In all his long life, from the time when, as a twelve-year-old boy, he was roaming in the fields and fishing the streams, to the days of his manhood, when he was upholding the honor of his state in the Senate, he showed the same simple, democratic nature.
A Loose sentence is one in which there is no attempt to show suspense; the different parts may come in where natural ease of expression suggests.
A Balanced sentence is one in which contrasting thoughts are stated in similar forms. Example: God made the country and man made the town.
The periodic and the balanced sentence are likely to result in artificiality of expression unless used with care. The loose sentence gives ease and naturalness, but these desirable qualities may easily change to slovenliness of expression in the hands of a careless writer.
Sentences, like paragraphs, should show unity, massing, and coherence.
Unity demands that the sentence shall have one main idea. The unity of a sentence is destroyed by putting together ideas that should be separated, by making the wrong idea subordinate, or by making ideas coördinate that are not of equal importance.
Examples of lack of unity:—
1. The words are very simple and I think it very strange that a tinker could write such a good book.
2. We went up the main road about half a mile, when we came to a pasture.
Massing in the sentence demands that the main thought shall be placed where it will “readily catch the eye.”