1. Study Appendix I (The Drift of Our Rural Population Cityward).
Do you regard it as written simply, with force and natural feeling? Or
does it show lack of spontaneity?--suffer from an unnatural and self-
conscious manner of writing? Is the style one you would like to cultivate
for your own use?
2. Express, if you can, in more vigorous language of your own, the thought
of the editorial.
3. Think of some one you have known who has the gift of racy colloquial
utterance. Make a list of offhand, homely, or picturesque expressions you
have heard him employ, and ask yourself what it is in these expressions
that has made them linger in your memory. With them in mind, and with your
knowledge of the man's methods of imparting his ideas vividly, try to make
your version of the editorial more forceful still.
4. Study Appendix 2 (Causes for the American Spirit of Liberty) as an
example of stately and elaborate, yet energetic, discourse. The speech
from which this extract is taken was delivered in Parliament in a vain
effort to stay England from driving her colonies to revolt. Some of
Burke's turns of phrase are extremely bold and original, as "The religion
most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle
of resistance; it is the dissidence of dissent and the Protestantism of
the Protestant religion." Moreover, with all his fulness of diction, Burke
could cleave to the heart of an idea in a few words, as "Freedom is to
them [the southern slave-holders] not only an enjoyment, but a kind of
rank and privilege." Find other examples of bold or concise and
illuminating utterance.
5. Read Appendix 3 (Parable of the Sower). It has no special audacities of
phrase, but escapes tameness in various ways--largely through its simple
earnestness.
6. Make a list of the descriptive phrases in Appendix 4 (The Seven Ages of
Man) through which Shakespeare gives life and distinctness to his
pictures.
7. Study Appendix 5 (The Castaway) as a piece of homely, effective
narrative. (Defoe wrote for the man in the street. He was a literary
jack-of-all-trades whom dignified authors of his day would not
countenance, but who possessed genius.) It relies upon directness and
plausibility of substance and style rather than temerity of phrase. Yet it
never sags into tameness. Notice how everyday expressions ("My business
was to hold my breath," "I took to my heels") add subtly to our belief
that what Defoe is telling us is true. Notice also that such expressions
("the least capful of wind," "half dead with the water I took in," "ready
to burst with holding my breath") without being pretentious may yet be
forceful. Notice finally the naturalness and lift of the sinewy idioms ("I
fetched another run," "I had no clothes to shift me," "I had like to have
suffered a second shipwreck," "It wanted but a little that all my cargo
had slipped off").
8. Once or twice at least, make a mental note of halting or listless
expressions in a sermon, a public address, or a conversation. Find more
emphatic wording for the ideas thus marred.
9. To train yourself in readiness and daring of utterance, practice
impromptu discussion of any of the topics in Activity 1 for EXERCISE -
Discourse.
<Slovenliness>
Though we are to recognize the advantage of working in the undress of
speech rather than in stiffly-laundered literary linens, though we are not
to despise the accessions of strength and of charm which we may obtain
from the homely and familiar, we must never be careless. The man whose
speech is slovenly is like the man who chews gum--unblushingly
commonplace.
We must struggle to maintain our individuality. We must not be a mere copy
of everybody else. We must put into our words the cordiality we put into
our daily demeanor. If we greeted friend or stranger carelessly,
conventionally, we should soon be regarded as persons of no force or
distinction. So of our speech and our writing. Nothing, to be sure, is
more difficult than to give them freshness without robbing them of
naturalness and ease. Yet that is what we must learn to do. We shall not
acquire the power in a day. We shall acquire it as a chess or a baseball
player acquires his skill--by long effort, hard practice.
One thing to avoid is the use of words in loose, or fast-and-loose,
senses. Do not say that owning a watch is a fine proposition if you mean
that it is advantageous. Do not say that you trembled on the brink of
disaster if you were threatened with no more than inconvenience or
comparatively slight injury. Do not say you were literally scared to death
if you are yet alive to tell the story.