WRITING AND REWRITING
BY
GEORGE CARVER
WILLIAM S. MAULSBY
THOMAS A. KNOTT
THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
TO
THE MEMORY OF
J. SCOTT CLARK
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INDEX TO ADMONITIONS ix
I. WHY LEARN TO WRITE 1
II. HOW TO WRITE 7
III. IDEAS FOR COMPOSITIONS 12
IV. THE WHOLE COMPOSITION 17
V. THE PARAGRAPH 31
VI. GRAMMAR 42
VII. SENTENCE CORRECTNESS 58
VIII. SENTENCE CLEARNESS 88
IX. SENTENCE VIGOR 100
X. WORDS 114
XI. SPELLING 132
XII. PUNCTUATION 139
XIII. MECHANICS 151
TO INSTRUCTORS
_Writing and Rewriting_ is based on the conviction that college freshmen
can be taught to see and to correct their own errors and faults.
Criticism by means of marginal numbers, referring to pieces of advice
in a rhetoric or a manual, has long been utilized to economize the
instructor’s time. It has not been generally realized, however, that
this method, which requires the student to inspect and rewrite a faulty
sentence in the light of an illustration in his book, is successful
also in teaching him to rewrite faulty sentences before he submits his
manuscript to his instructor.
The best device to encourage the student in self-correction is the
preliminary copy or rough draft. This may be written rapidly in pencil on
theme paper or on scratch paper, with lines far apart to leave room for
modifications. After this is written the student should read it with his
eyes open for the appearance of his pet blunders, and should do his own
rewriting. If the rough draft is submitted with the finished copy, the
instructor can discover whether the student is endeavoring to correct his
own faults.
The best way to use _Writing and Rewriting_ in class is to copy the
faulty passages or to clip and paste them on cards. In class the student,
using only the slip, may then be required to write the correct version on
the blackboard, later reciting and specifying the fault, or the principle
of style which is violated.
In colleges where the marginal numbering of errors and faults is
supplemented by personal conferences, the swiftest improvement will
be found to follow the practice of requiring the student, before the
conference, to copy his faulty passages on a new sheet of theme paper, to
copy also the admonition indicated by the marginal number, and to rewrite
each passage in accordance with the admonition. A file of these sheets
will reveal whether the student is improving or standing still.
_Writing and Rewriting_ has several relatively novel features. Chapters
IV and V make it possible to criticize by marginal numbers the most
common violations of the principles of the whole composition and of the
paragraph. Although the admonitions criticize faults, the book contains
few “don’ts.” Instead, the advice given is positive, constructive, and
concrete. Each number refers to only a single fault. Few admonitions
fill more than two lines of type. It has thus been possible to insert a
criticism of every fundamental fault found in freshman themes. Probably
every number ought to be used at least once in every hundred themes. The
division of sentence criticisms into chapters on Correctness, Clearness,
and Vigor is logical and obvious. The numbering of admonitions is not
consecutive, but a new hundred begins with each chapter as a help in
more quickly locating the number desired. Additional copies of the index
to the admonitions will be furnished free on request to instructors who
wish to paste it on a sheet of cardboard to facilitate their work in
criticizing themes. The list of suggestions for subjects is a compilation
of the practices of many successful teachers.
INDEX TO ADMONITIONS
The Whole Composition
100. Opening devices
101. Point of view
102. What to include
103. Distraction
104. Serious tone
105. Light tone
106. Sequence
107. Chronological order
108. Position
109. Abstract to concrete
110. Summary to detail
111. Important to less so
112. Familiar to unfamiliar
113. Climax
114. Welding
115. Connectives
116. Repetition
117. Recapitulation
118. Division
119. Space emphasis
120. Place emphasis
121. Conclusion
122. Title
123. Plan
124. Revision by plan
125. Practice
The Paragraph
200. Indention
201. Partly blank line
202. No indention
203. Conversation
204. Combination
205. Separation
206. Violent break
207. Irrelevant ideas
208. Topic sentence
209. Arrangement
210. Connectives
211. Linking
212. Shift in number
213. Shift in person
214. Shift in tense
215. Shift in voice
216. Shift in mood
217. Place emphasis
218. Space emphasis
219. Practice
Sentence Correctness Case
300. Subject in nominative
301. _Who_ as subject
302. _Who_ as subject after verb
303. Predicate nominative
304. Pronoun in apposition
305. Pronoun after _as_, _than_
306. Possessive with gerund
307. “Neuter” nouns not in possessive
308. Objective case
309. Objective with infinitive
310. Objective after infinitive
Agreement
311. _This kind_
312. Pronoun with antecedent
313. Verb with subject
314. Verb with _each_, _none_
315. Compound subject
316. Nouns with _or_
317. Collective nouns
318. Incorrect attraction
319. _There is_, _there are_
320. _Besides_, _with_
321. Nearer of two nouns
322. _Who_, _which_
323. Not with predicated noun
324. _Don’t_
325. Past and past participle
326. Correct principal parts
327. _Lie-lay_, _sit-set_, _rise-raise_
Shall and Will
328. _Shall_ and _will_
329. _Should_ and _would_
330. Questions
331. Determination
332. Parallel tenses
333. Universal present
334. Subordinate clause
335. Infinitive
336. Adverb of time
337. Contrary to fact subjunctive
338. _Have_, not _of_
339. _Had ought_
Fragments
340. Fragments
341. Phrases
342. Participial phrases
343. Clauses
344. Part of compound subject
345. Part of compound predicate
Incomplete Constructions
346. Unfinished construction
347. Give verb subject
348. Insert word
349. Insert material
350. Elements without construction
351. Insert _that_ after _say_, _feel_
352. Insert _that of_
353. Insert _as_ after positive adjective
354. Insert _much_ after _very_
355. Repeat verb
356. Repeat auxiliary
357. Repeat _is_, _was_
358. Repeat verb after auxiliaries
Inaccurate Constructions
359. Correct conjunction
360. Insert transitional element
361. Shifted construction
362. _One of the most_
363. Exact predication
364. Idiomatic verb
365. Idiomatic preposition
366. Different preposition
367. Idiom
368. Awkwardness
369. _Is where_, _is when_
370. _Is because_
371. _The fact that_
372. _Due to_, _owing to_
373. _Because of_, _on account of_
374. Omit _and_
375. Omit irrelevancy
376. Redundant _that_
377. Change participial phrase
378. _Of_-phrase with verbal noun
379. _Of_-phrase with abstract verbal noun
380. Separate main clauses
381. Join elements with _and_
382. Join clauses with _and_
383. Modifiers together
384. Double negative
385. _Or_, not _nor_
386. _Not hardly_
387. Adverb, not adjective
388. Predicated adjectives
389. _Who_, _which_, _that_
Sentence Clearness
400. Obvious antecedent
401. Position of pronoun
402. Ambiguous antecedent in indirect discourse
403. Antecedent in parentheses
404. Repeat distant noun
405. Unemphatic antecedent
406. Place of _only_, etc.
407. Place of negative
408. Use of correlatives
409. Place of correlatives
410. Place of subordinate clause
411. Place of relative clause
412. Confused verbs
413. Place of modifiers
414. Co-ordinate modifiers
415. Participial phrases
416. Participle with _thus_
417. Participle with conjunction
418. Adjective _due_
419. Gerund prepositional phrase
420. Repeat subordinating conjunction
421. Repeat auxiliary verbs
422. Repeat _to_ with the infinitive
423. Repeat preposition with object
424. Repeat article with noun
425. Repeat possessive with noun
426. Parallel structure
427. Summarizing word
428. Use of _and_
429. Use of _but_
430. Comparative degree
431. Superlative degree
432. Shift in person
433. Shift in number
434. Shift in tense
435. Shift in mood
436. Shift in voice
Sentence Vigor
500. Isolate
501. Separate
502. Condense
503. Combine
504. Vary structure
505. Vary beginning
506. Vary length
507. Loose to periodic
508. Striking ending
509. Climax
510. Emphatic position
511. Group related elements
512. Main ideas
513. Subordinate ideas
514. Simplicity
515. Far-fetched synonyms
516. Concreteness
517. Parallel structure
518. Repeat for emphasis
519. Monotonous repetition
520. Tautology
521. Pleonasm
522. Word in double sense
523. Consistent metaphors
524. Incongruous metaphors
525. Rhythm
526. Balanced sentence
527. Vivid predicate
528. Unemphatic passive voice
529. Awkward absolute phrase
530. Successive subordinations
531. Successive _but_ and _for_ clauses
Words
600. See dictionary
601. Words almost alike
602. Exactness
603. New words
604. Verbs as nouns
605. Slang
606. Harmony
607. Poetical words
608. Hackneyed expressions
609. Pretentious expressions
610. Contractions
611. Editorial _we_
612. Simple pronouns
613. Speaking of husband or wife
614. Illiterate usage
615. Reputable words
616. Present words
617. National words
618. Plural abstract nouns
Spelling
700. Doubling consonants
701. Single consonants
702. Final silent _-e_
703. _-ce_ and _-ge_
704. Single consonant after double vowel
705. CEI
706. EI as _ī_ and as _ā_
707. IE
708. Plurals in vowel and _-y_
709. Verbs in vowel and _-y_
710. Plurals in consonants and _-y_
711. Plurals in _-ves_
712. Foreign plurals
713. _Don’t_, _won’t_, _can’t_
714. _It’s_
715. _Its_, _yours_, _hers_
716. Spelling list
Punctuation
Use period after:
800. Declarative and imperative sentences
801. Abbreviations
No period after:
802. Incomplete sentence elements
Use question mark after:
803. Direct questions
804. Doubtful expressions
No question mark after:
805. Indirect questions
Use exclamation point after:
806. Exclamatory expressions
Use commas with:
807. Co-ordinate clauses with _and_ or _but_
808. Conjunction _for_
809. Parallel clauses
810. Dependent clause preceding
811. Descriptive clauses
812. Interchangeable adjectives
813. Words, phrases, clauses in series
814. _And_ in a series
815. Confused elements
816. Names in direct address
817. Appositives
818. Geographical names
819. Dates
820. Absolute phrases
821. Interjections and parenthetical expressions
822. Direct quotations
Never use a comma:
823. Between noun and its adjective
824. Around limiting clauses or phrases
825. With series of non-interchangeable adjectives
826. To indicate a pause
827. Before _that_ in indirect discourse
828. Between unjoined main clauses
Use a semicolon between:
829. Unjoined main clauses
830. Clauses joined by _however_, etc.
831. Long or complicated clauses
Never use a semicolon:
832. Between clauses not co-ordinate
833. After salutation in a letter
Use a colon to introduce:
834. Formal list of words, etc.
Use a hyphen with:
835. Fractions or numbers less than 100
836. Titles of two or more words
837. Divided words
838. Compound adjectives
839. Prefixes like _co-_ etc.
Use a dash with:
840. Broken thought
841. Informal parenthetical material
842. Summarizing expressions
Never use a dash:
843. Instead of a period
844. Instead of a comma
Use quotation marks with:
845. Direct discourse
846. Borrowed material
847. Quotation of more than one paragraph
848. Quotation within quotation
849. Quotation within second quotation
850. Quotation ending with comma or period
Never use quotation marks with:
851. Names of books, etc.
Use an apostrophe:
852. In contractions
853. With singular possessives
854. With plural possessives
Never use an apostrophe:
855. With possessive pronouns
Use parentheses to inclose:
856. Material foreign to unit of composition
857. Confirmatory figures
Never use parentheses to inclose:
858. Cancelled words
Use brackets to inclose:
859. Explanatory material in quotation
860. Practice
Mechanics
900. One side of paper
901. Place of title
902. Blank second line
903. Write legibly
904. Number pages
905. Spacing
906. Divided words
907. Place of hyphen
908. Margins
909. Indention
910. Below last line
911. Underscoring
912. Underscoring for emphasis
913. To indicate footnote
914. Place of footnote
915. No abbreviation
Capitalization
916. Proper nouns and pronouns
917. First word in sentence
918. First word in line of verse
919. Direct quotation
920. Names of social bodies, etc.
921. Reference to Deity
922. _I_ and _O_
923. Titles of books, etc.
924. Titles with names
925. Names of months, etc.
Figures
926. Word double numbers
927. Word sums in double numbers
928. Number sums in dollars and cents
929. Word sums less than one dollar
930. Word numbers as names
931. Beginning with figures
932. Sums as adjectives
Letters
933. Letter heading
934. Business letter salutation
935. Personal letter salutation
936. Close of business letter
937. Close of personal letter
938. Envelope address
939. Punctuation of address
940. Formal note
941. Signature
WRITING AND REWRITING
CHAPTER I
WHY LEARN TO WRITE
The four main reasons for learning to write are:
1. Writing is one of the best ways to make other persons think or feel as
you do.
2. Every educated person is judged frequently and severely by the
correctness and skill displayed in his writing.
3. The more you learn about writing the more you will enjoy reading.
4. Good writing gives pleasure, not only to the reader but also to the
writer.
* * * * *
1. The ability to write clearly and convincingly will be of great help
to you after you leave college. Whatever your field of activity, your
ultimate success will depend in some degree on your ability to make other
persons think or feel as you do. Writing is one of the best ways to
attain this end.
Many professional men and women find that success depends not only on
their knowledge, but even more on the skill and clearness with which
they can present their knowledge. Lawyers write briefs and arguments.
Judges write opinions. Clergymen write sermons. Teachers, doctors, and
engineers get their new ideas before members of their professions by
writing papers for publications of various kinds. The results of their
experiments and researches are almost invariably presented to their
colleagues in writing.
To attain eminence in one of the learned professions it is necessary for
a man’s colleagues to think highly of his professional knowledge and
attainments. It is not always possible for the leaders in your profession
to know you personally, but if you can write they soon know what manner
of man you are. The scholarly articles that a young professional man gets
printed correspond to the home runs that are knocked by a bush league
baseball player, but there is this difference. The sand lot baseball
player may have made his impressive looking records against sand lot
pitching and may fail dismally when he faces better opposition, but if a
young professional man has the mental ability and the skill to produce
contributions to knowledge in his field it makes no difference where
he lives or under what conditions he has done his work. As he moves up
to his big league he finds conditions more and more favorable for his
continued growth and development.
College graduates everywhere are being expected more and more to assume
positions of leadership in all matters that pertain to community
betterment. Sometimes they are candidates for office; more often they
are directors of the chamber of commerce of their city, or of some
similar civic enterprise. Written statements, annual reports, appeals
for public support for a worthy cause, letters to newspapers, circulars,
and bulletins are almost the only way a public spirited citizen can get
his ideas before the other members of the community. If he can write
clearly and convincingly he gets things done that would not be done if
he expressed himself haltingly and incoherently when he took pen in hand.
Up-to-date farmers and business men use printed and typewritten matter
to get new business, to hold and increase old business, to adjust
complaints, and to collect money. Every salesman has to write reports to
his firm. Formal bids for all kinds of business are submitted in writing.
Most busy executives prefer to receive the ideas of their subordinates
in writing, and the subordinate who submits the largest number of good
ideas in this way is the one who is likely to be promoted most rapidly.
Many executives have to depend on letters and bulletins in directing
large numbers of subordinates or in directing subordinates who cannot
frequently be brought together. If you want to be paid for what you know
rather than for what you do, learn to write.
Other things being anywhere nearly equal the man who can write gets ahead
fastest in the business, political, or professional world. The man with
a new idea—whether it is a new type of automobile engine or a plan for
insuring hogs—can make a success of it far more quickly if he can write
clearly and convincingly. The next time you see a copy of _Who’s Who
in America_ note the list of publications that follows the name of the
successful man. The ability to write has dollar and cents value whether
or not you ever wish to sell any of your manuscripts. You must be able to
write to get to the top.
* * * * *
2. Why do you suppose that almost every help wanted advertisement that
offers a salary of more than $1200 or $1500 a year contains the phrase,
“Apply by letter only”? The answer is that from one hundred letters it is
easy to select the half dozen or so that come from persons qualified for
a position rather than for a job. Applicants who write poor letters are
never considered for good positions.
The activities of the social world continually call for letters—letters
of invitation, of acceptance or declination, letters to a hostess
thanking her for her hospitality, letters of congratulation and of
condolence. Any new person to whom you write will judge what sort of man
or woman you are from your first letter. Uneducated persons may have well
furnished houses in the exclusive residential districts of the city,
and they may wear thousand-dollar fur coats, but their written words
betray the fact that they are not accustomed to associating with educated
persons.
Students who can write get better grades in college courses than do
students who cannot express themselves with pen, pencil, or typewriter.
Written reports, term papers, and examinations all call for ability to
write. It is essential not only to have the information that should
be included in such compositions but also to be able to express your
knowledge so that the instructor involved will know that you know.
* * * * *
3. The better you write the more you will enjoy reading. You can actually
know personally only a few persons, and they will for the most part be
your neighbors and business associates. A love for good reading is the
best friend you can have. Reading will make you intimate with all the
great men and women who are now alive or who have ever lived. These great
ones of earth—the clever, the entertaining, the thoughtful, the lovable,
the brilliant, the courageous—have set down in books a permanent record
of what they observed, thought, and dreamed. To get the fullest flavor
and greatest benefit from the words they have put on paper you need to
be something of a writer yourself. The writer best appreciates the good
writing of others, just as the amateur musician gets more pleasure from
a symphony concert than does the average person in the audience. The
football player sees fine points in a football game that are lost on
the spectator who never tried to box a tackle or elude an end. The girl
who makes her own clothes can see distinctions in gowns that all look
alike to her brother. It takes the craftsman in any field of endeavor to
appreciate the work of a master.
* * * * *
4. Your mother has, at the bottom of a trunk or bureau drawer, a bundle
of letters that your father wrote to her when they were young. Every
little while she reads them all again. She also keeps the letters he
writes her now when he is away from home. Your letters to your mother
will not be destroyed either. The better you write, the more pleasure
you will give to the persons you love. Letters of commendation,
congratulation, or condolence when done well are treasured for years, and
are a never failing source of pleasure to those who receive them. It is
worth something to give pleasure of this sort.
* * * * *
But the greatest pleasure of all in writing is the pleasure that comes
to you yourself. To get real enjoyment from writing you should write on
a subject you know thoroughly or on one that interests you—preferably
both. Write without reserve; call things by their right names. Use care
in selecting the exact word to express your meaning. Write clearly,
concisely, and vividly. Be definite and particular rather than indefinite
and general. Use incidents freely to illustrate your points. Be forceful
and picturesque. Write so that anyone who knows you could pick your
written creation out of a thousand written by others on the same subject.
Write something you are proud of and you will get more pleasure from it
than from almost anything else you ever did. Even though you may not
yet have realized it, writing is a great deal more fun than going to
the theater, dancing, or watching a football game. The greatest thrill
in life comes from seeing one whom you love create something. The next
greatest comes from creating something yourself. Create something in
writing that truly represents you and you too will experience this joy.