The Project Gutenberg EBook of How to Write Clearly, by Edwin A. Abbott

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Title: How to Write Clearly
Rules and Exercises on English Composition

Author: Edwin A. Abbott

Release Date: September 14, 2007 [EBook #22600]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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HOW TO WRITE CLEARLY.

_RULES AND EXERCISES_

ON

ENGLISH COMPOSITION.

BY THE

REV. EDWIN A. ABBOTT, M.A.,

HEAD MASTER OF THE CITY OF LONDON SCHOOL.

[Illustration: QUI LEGIT REGIT]

THE AUTHOR'S COPYRIGHT EDITION.

BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS.
1883.

UNIVERSITY PRESS: JOHN WILSON & SON.
CAMBRIDGE.

PREFACE.

Almost every English boy can be taught to write clearly, so far at
least as clearness depends upon the arrangement of words. Force,
elegance, and variety of style are more difficult to teach, and far
more difficult to learn; but clear writing can be reduced to rules. To
teach the art of writing clearly is the main object of these Rules and
Exercises.

Ambiguity may arise, not only from bad arrangement, but also from
other causes--from the misuse of single words, and from confused
thought. These causes are not removable by definite rules, and
therefore, though not neglected, are not prominently considered in
this book. My object rather is to point out some few continually
recurring causes of ambiguity, and to suggest definite remedies in
each case. Speeches in Parliament, newspaper narratives and articles,
and, above all, resolutions at public meetings, furnish abundant
instances of obscurity arising from the monotonous neglect of some
dozen simple rules.

The art of writing for