How to Write Clearly | Page 8

savours of pedantry:
disregard is inelegant. Write, not, "unparalleled complications," but
"unprecedented complications;" and "he threw light on obscurities,"
instead of "he unravelled obscurities."
*14 a. Do not introduce literal statement immediately after Metaphor.*
"He was the father of Chemistry, and brother to the Earl of Cork."
"He was a very thunderbolt of war, And was lieutenant to the Earl of
Mar."
*14 b. Do not use poetic metaphor to illustrate a prosaic subject.* Thus,
we may say "a poet soars," or even, though rarely, "a nation soars to
greatness," but you could not say "Consols soared to 94-1/2." Even
commonplace subjects may be illustrated by metaphor: for it is a
metaphor, and quite unobjectionable, to say "Consols mounted, or
jumped to 94-1/2." But commonplace subjects must be illustrated by
metaphor that is commonplace.
ORDER OF WORDS IN A SENTENCE.
*15. Emphatic words must stand in emphatic positions; i.e. for the most
part, at the beginning or at the end of the sentence.* This rule
occasionally supersedes the common rules about position. Thus, the
place for an adverb, as a rule, should be between the subject and verb:
"He quickly left the room;" but if quickly is to be emphatic, it must
come at the beginning or end, as in "I told him to leave the room slowly,
but he left quickly."
Adjectives, in clauses beginning with "if" and "though," often come at
the beginning for emphasis: "Insolent though he was, he was silenced at
last."
*15 a. Unemphatic words must, as a rule, be kept from the end of the
sentence.* It is a common fault to break this rule by placing a short and

unemphatic predicate at the end of a long sentence.
"To know some Latin, even if it be nothing but a few Latin roots, is
useful." Write, "It is useful, &c."
So "the evidence proves how kind to his inferiors he is."
Often, where an adjective or auxiliary verb comes at the end, the
addition of an emphatic adverb justifies the position, e.g. above, "is
very useful," "he has invariably been."
A short "chippy" ending, even though emphatic, is to be avoided. It is
abrupt and unrhythmical, e.g. "The soldier, transfixed with the spear,
writhed." We want a longer ending, "fell writhing to the ground," or,
"writhed in the agonies of death." A "chippy" ending is common in bad
construing from Virgil.
*Exceptions.*--Prepositions and pronouns attached to emphatic words
need not be moved from the end; e.g. "He does no harm that I hear of."
"Bear witness how I loved him."
*N.B. In all styles, especially in letter-writing, a final emphasis must
not be so frequent as to become obtrusive and monotonous.*
*15 b. An interrogation sometimes gives emphasis.* "No one can doubt
that the prisoner, had he been really guilty, would have shown some
signs of remorse," is not so emphatic as "Who can doubt, Is it possible
to doubt, &c.?"
Contrast "No one ever names Wentworth without thinking of &c." with
"But Wentworth,--who ever names him without thinking of those harsh
dark features, ennobled by their expression into more than the majesty
of an antique Jupiter?"
*16. The subject, if unusually emphatic, should often be removed from
the beginning of the sentence.* The beginning of the sentence is an
emphatic position, though mostly not so emphatic as the end. Therefore
the principal subject of a sentence, being emphatic, and being wanted

early in the sentence to tell us what the sentence is about, comes as a
rule, at or near the beginning: "Thomas built this house."
Hence, since the beginning is the usual place for the subject, if we want
to emphasize "Thomas" unusually, we must remove "Thomas" from the
beginning: "This house was built by Thomas," or "It was Thomas that
built this house."
Thus, the emphasis on "conqueror" is not quite so strong in "A mere
conqueror ought not to obtain from us the reverence that is due to the
great benefactors of mankind," as in "We ought not to bestow the
reverence that is due to the great benefactors of mankind, upon a mere
conqueror." Considerable, but less emphasis and greater smoothness
(19) will be obtained by writing the sentence thus: "We ought not to
bestow upon a mere conqueror &c."
Where the same subject stands first in several consecutive sentences, it
rises in emphasis, and need not be removed from the beginning, even
though unusual emphasis be required:
"The captain was the life and soul of the expedition. He first pointed
out the possibility of advancing; he warned them of the approaching
scarcity of provisions; he showed how they might replenish their
exhausted stock &c."
*17. The object is sometimes placed before the verb for emphasis.*
This is most common in antithesis. "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but
who