The Art of Writing Speaking the English Language

The Art Of Writing & Speaking
The English
by Sherwin Cody

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Art Of Writing & Speaking The
English
Language, by Sherwin Cody This eBook is for the use of anyone
anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You
may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project
Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Art Of Writing & Speaking The English Language
Word-Study and Composition & Rhetoric
Author: Sherwin Cody
Release Date: November 5, 2006 [EBook #19719]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ART
OF WRITING ***

Produced by Andrew Hodson

Transcriber's note: Letters with an extra space before them show those
that should be removed & letters with { } around them show those
added as there are some mistakes in the book & because plain text is
used. (I changed mathematical & meter but it maybe that they are
correct and the others are wrong). I did not change Shak{e}spe{a}re,
mortgag eor & some words in lists. (The N word should have a
capital!)
I've used superscript a for broad a (instead of 2 dots under it). &
superscripted a & o (Spanish ordinals) before o for ligatures. A long
vowel should have a straight line over it but I've shown them by using a
colon : after them. Short vowels are shown by a grave accent mark after
instead of a curved line over the letter. An equals sign = after a word
shows that the next 1 should start the next column. "Special SYSTEM
Edition" brought from frontispiece.

THE ART of WRITING & SPEAKING The ENGLISH LANGUAGE
SHERWIN CODY
Special S Y S T E M Edition
WORD-STUDY
The Old Greek Press Chicago New{ }York Boston
Revised Edition.
Copyright,1903,
BY SHERWIN CODY.
Note. The thanks of the author are due to Dr. Edwin H. Lewis, of the
Lewis Institute, Chicago, and to Prof. John F. Genung, Ph. D., of
Amherst College, for suggestions made after reading the proof of this
series.

CONTENTS.
THE ART OF WRITING AND SPEAKING THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 7
WORD-STUDY
INTRODUCTION---THE STUDY OF SPELLING
CHAPTER I.
LETTERS AND SOUNDS {VOWELS CONSONANTS EXERCISES
THE DICTIONARY}
CHAPTER II.
WORD-BUILDING {PREFIXES}
CHAPTER III.
WORD-BUILDING---Rules and Applications {EXCEPTIONS}
CHAPTER IV.
PRONUNCIATION
CHAPTER V.
A SPELLING DRILL
APPENDIX

The Art of Writing and Speaking the English Language

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
If there is a subject of really universal interest and utility, it is the art of
writing and speaking one's own language effectively. It is the basis of
culture, as we all know; but it is infinitely more than that: it is the basis
of business. No salesman can sell anything unless he can explain the
merits of his goods in effective English (among our people), or can
write an advertisement equally effective, or present his ideas, and the
facts, in a letter. Indeed, the way we talk, and write letters, largely
determines our success in life.
Now it is well for us to face at once the counter-statement that the most
ignorant and uncultivated men often succeed best in business, and that
misspelled, ungrammatical advertisements have brought in millions of
dollars. It is an acknowledged fact that our business circulars and letters
are far inferior in correctness to those of Great Britain; yet they are
more effective in getting business. As far as spelling is concerned, we
know that some of the masters of literature have been atrocious spellers
and many suppose that when one can sin in such company, sinning is,
as we might say, a "beauty spot", a defect in which we can even take
pride.
Let us examine the facts in the case more closely. First of all, language
is no more than a medium; it is like air to the creatures of the land or
water to fishes. If it is perfectly clear and pure, we do not notice it any
more than we notice pure air when the sun is shining in a clear sky, or
the taste of pure cool water when we drink a glass on a hot day. Unless
the sun is shining, there is no brightness; unless the water is cool, there
is no refreshment. The source of all our joy in the landscape, of the
luxuriance of fertile nature, is the sun and not the air. Nature would be
more prodigal in Mexico than in Greenland, even if the air in Mexico
were as full of soot and smoke as the air of Pittsburg{h}, or loaded with
the acid from a chemical factory. So it is with language. Language is
merely a medium for thoughts, emotions, the intelligence of a finely
wrought brain, and a good mind will