1. Paraphrase the editorial in Appendix 1. You should improve upon the
original. Keep trying until you do.
2. Paraphrase the second paragraph in Burke's speech (Appendix 2). Burke
lacked the cheap tricks of the ordinary orator, but his discussions were
based upon a comprehensive knowledge of facts, a sympathetic understanding
of human nature, a vast depth and range of thought, and a well-meditated
political philosophy. In short, he is a model for _elaborated_
discussions. Set forth the leading thought of this paragraph; you can give
it in fewer words than he employs. But try setting it forth with his full
accompaniments of reflection and information; you will be bewildered at
his crowding so much into such small compass.
3. Try to rival the pregnant conciseness of the Parable of the Sower
(Appendix 3).
4. Paraphrase in prose the Seven Ages of Man (Appendix 4). Catch if
possible the mood, the "atmosphere," of each of the pictures painted by
Shakespeare. Condense your paraphrase as much as you can.
5. In each of the preceding exercises compare your vocabulary with that of
the original as to size, precision, and the grace and ease with which
words are put together. Does the original employ terms unfamiliar to you?
If so, look up their meaning and make them yours; then observe, when you
next paraphrase the passage, whether your mastery of these terms has
improved your expression.
<3. Mastery through Discourse at First Hand>
Models have their use, but you can also work without models. It is
imperative that you should. You must learn to discuss, explain, analyze,
argue, narrate, and describe for yourself. Here again you should diversify
your materials to the utmost, not only that you may become well-rounded
and versatile in your ability to set forth ideas and feelings in words,
but also that your knowledge and your sensibility may receive stimulation.
It is feasible to begin by discussing or explaining. Most of the
intercourse conducted through language consists in either discussion or
explanation. Analysis, ordinarily, is almost ignored. Argument is indulged
in, and so is description (though less freely), but they are of the
bluntest and broadest. Narration--the recounting of incidents of everyday
existence--is, however, widely employed.
In your work of discussion or explanation you may seize upon any current
topic--industrial, social, political, or what not--that comes into your
mind. Or you may make a list of such topics, writing each on a separate
piece of paper; may jumble the slips in a hat; and may thus have always at
your elbow a collection of satisfactory themes from which you may take one
at random. Or you may invest in language of your own selection the
substance of an address or sermon you have heard, or give the burden of
some important conversation in which you have participated, or explain the
tenor of an article you have read. You should of course try to interest
your hearers, and above all, you should impart to what you say complete
clarity.
In analyzing you should select as your topic a process fairly obscure, the
implications of a certain statement or argument, the results to be
expected from some action or policy that has been advocated, or the exact
matter at issue between two disputants. Any topic for discussion,
explanation, or argument may be treated analytically. Your analysis in its
final form should be so carefully considered that its soundness cannot be
impeached.
In arguing you may take any subject under the sun, from baseball to
Bolshevism, for all of them are debated with vehemence. Any topic for
discussion or explanation becomes, when approached from some particular
angle, material for argument. Thus the initial topic in the exercise that
follows is "The aeroplane's future as a carrier of mail." You may convert
it into a question for debate by making it read: "The aeroplane is
destined to supplant the railroad as a carrier of mail," or "The aeroplane
is destined to be used increasingly as a carrier of transcontinental
mail." In arguing you may propose for yourself either of two objectives:
(1) to silence your opponent, (2) to refute, persuade, and win him over
fairly. The achievement of the first end calls for bluster and perhaps a
grim, barbaric strength; you must do as Johnson did according to
Goldsmith's famous dictum--if your pistol misses fire, you must knock your
adversary down with the butt end of it. This procedure, though inartistic
to be sure, is in some contingencies the only kind that will serve. But
you should cultivate procedure of a type more urbane. Let your very
reasonableness be the most potent weapon you wield. To this end you should
form the habit of looking for good points on both sides of a question. As
a still further precaution against contentiousness you should uphold the
two sides successively.
In narrating you should, as a rule, stick to simple occurrences, though
you may occasionally vary your work by summarizing the plot of a novel or
giving the gist and drift of big historical events. You should confine
yourself, in large part, to incidents in which you have been personally
involved, or which you yourself have witnessed, as mishaps, unexpected
encounters, bickerings, even rescues or riots. You should omit
non-essentials and make the happening itself live for your hearer; if you
can so interest him in it that he will not notice your manner of telling
it, your success is but the greater.
Finally, in describing you should deal for the most part with beings,
objects, and appearances familiar to you. Description is usually hard to
make vivid. This is because the objects and scenes are likely to be
immobile and (at least when told about) to lack distinctiveness. Try,
therefore, to lay hold of the peculiar quality of the thing described, and
use words suggestive of color and motion. Moreover be brief. Long
descriptions are sure to be wearisome.