style, like such a person, is so good that it deserves to be made better. To make it better there is no more useful device than constantly to remember that words are meant to be sounded and not merely to be looked at.1 Read your work aloud, therefore, and all the faults mentioned in this chapter will be more likely to reveal themselves for your correction.

The person who wrote that "the fight at its height was a most exciting sight" put down words with regard to their meaning only; he forgot that his readers had ears. With the question of sound in mind, study the following

sentences:

It was an extensive exposition of the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century.

They decided to levy heavy taxes upon America.

The merit of the book is shown in the interesting manner in which these incidents are interpreted.

His laugh jars on one's ear after seven score years.

Usually early reports are received.

It was printed for purely political purposes.

It was a typical topical outline.

Besides avoiding such alliteration, jingle, and harshness as these sentences reveal, we must be on our guard against the opposite fault, a tendency toward studied cadences in which sound appears to have been considered more than sense.

We must also shun the bony style which results when structure becomes obtrusive, as it does if I say, "A good style should have the following qualities: first, clearness;

1 Cf. Stevenson, "On Some Technical Elements of Style." (See the note in College Readings, 626-627.)

second, force; and third, elegance." Too frequent use of such connectives as now, hence, then, or accordingly, as well as of numerical devices for guiding the reader, may make the path clear at the expense of smoothness.

Equally inelegant are such compounds as research work, mind training, student body, viewpoint, sentence unity, and a host of other ugly expressions in which a noun is made to do the work of an adjective. A little care will usually discover a substitute which conveys the same meaning and is more agreeable to the ear.

It need hardly be said that elegance disappears whenever slang1 or vulgarisms 2 are admitted.

No less important is variety in the length and pattern of the sentences, and in the arrangement of words. Many a page which seems unaccountably tiresome will turn out if read aloud critically -to have one adjective paired with every noun, or perhaps two adjectives, or too many sets of three (three phrases, three nouns, three verbs, or three clauses), or too many long sentences beginning with the subject, or too many short sentences, or too many compound sentences. If that is the case, the pattern must be deliberately varied.3

1 Like "diner" for "dining car," "phone" for "telephone," "take stock in" for "believe," "deal" for "transaction," "posted" for "informed," and "proposition" for "task."

2 Like "meaty," "brainy," and "tasty."

3 See §§ 165-170.

66

190. Definition.

CHAPTER IX

IMPROPRIETIES

In rhetoric an impropriety has no reference to that which is, in a moral or social sense, improper "; it means the use of a word in a sense which is not the English sense; that is, the use of a word in a sense which is not its own.1 The study of improprieties, then, is the study of accurate usage, as it is recorded in the best dictionaries and exemplified by the best writers.

Use of the Dictionary. Whoever wishes to write or speak with accuracy and range must learn to make use of the dictionary. He must, furthermore, use it with the idea, not of learning to spell, pronounce, or use the word correctly on the immediate occasion only, but with the idea of fixing something permanently in his mind. It would be difficult to overemphasize the importance of the rule that we must not copy from the dictionary, but must, by the use of the dictionary, get information into our minds and, wherever possible, not only remember that something is so, but learn why it is so, in order that we may group many cases under a few general principles. In using the dictionary one must, first of all, master the signs and abbreviations that are necessary to secure the requisite compactness. Among these are the abbreviations for Latin, Greek, French, and the other languages, 1 From the Latin proprius (one's own).

from which English words come, the symbols or abbreviations which indicate that a word is obsolete, archaic, or colloquial, and the marks which indicate the quantity and quality of the letters as they are pronounced.1 Having learned these abbreviations thoroughly, one should practice getting from the dictionary the spelling, pronunciation, and division into syllables of the word, its derivation, its present meaning (which will often be found entirely different from its earlier meaning), and its syn

onyms.

But the dictionary, in turn, gets its authority from the actual usage of the writers and speakers who are best qualified to serve as the standard of usage for their country and their period. Accordingly, when we read the works of good writers, and when we hear good speakers, we should be alert to notice their choice of words.

Violations of usage, or accepted fashion, as it may be called, in the use of words come from one or more of the following sources:

(1) Many words are confused with other words on account of the similarity in sound: thus, principal and principle, accept and except, lose and loose, are not easy to spell, pronounce, or use in the proper way.

(2) Similar confusion comes from similarity in spelling, and is often mingled with the preceding kind of diffi

1 In this book the authority of the latest edition of Webster is accepted, and pronunciation is indicated by the signs which are used in Webster and which, in both the New International Dictionary and the Secondary School Dictionary, are found at the bottom of each page. These marks for the vowels are as follows: āle, senâte, câre, ăm, ăccount, ärm, ask, sofà; ēve, event, end, recent, maker; ice, ill; ōld, obey, ôrb, ŏdd, sỗft, connect; ūse, ünite, ûrn, ŭp, circus, menü ; foʊd, foʊt; out, oil.

culty, as is the case in the three pairs of words mentioned above.

(3) Many words, though they neither look nor sound alike, indicate very similar objects or ideas. In this case, ignorance of the precise difference between the things signified causes us to misuse the words, as is the case with majority and plurality, or refer and allude.

191. A List of Common Improprieties.

A.D. stands for anno Domini, which means in the year of our Lord. Therefore, do not use A.D. unless the English equivalent would make sense.

Incorrect: The fourth century A.D.

Correct: The fourth century after Christ.

Correct A.D. 46.

Accept should be distinguished from except.

Acceptance means the act of accepting; acceptation indicates the meaning in which a word is accepted or received. Thus, we speak of the acceptance of an invitation, but of a word as used in its general acceptation.

Access should not be confused with accession.

Admire should not be used for like.

Incorrect I should admire to go.

Affect (verb) and effect (noun or verb) should be distinguished. To affect is to produce an effect, or result, upon. To effect is to bring about.

Aggravate means not to anger, but to make more serious.

Incorrect: I was aggravated at his slowness.

Correct: I was annoyed at his slowness.

Correct: His illness was aggravated by carelessness.

Agreeable for willing (I am agreeable if you are) is colloquial

and often ambiguous.

Allude, mention, refer. Look up these words in the dictionary. Allusion, illusion.