ank to its
nocturnal repose behind the western horizon." Great writers--the true
masters--have often held "fine writing" and pretentious speaking up to
ridicule. Thus Shakespeare has Kent, who has been rebuked for his
bluntness, indulge in a grandiloquent outburst:

"Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity,
Under the allowance of your grand aspect,
Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire
On flickering Phoebus' front,--"

No wonder Kent is interrupted with a "What meanest by this?" Sometimes
great writers use ornate utterance for humorous effects. Thus Dickens
again and again has Mr. Micawber express a commonplace idea in sounding
terms which at length fail him, so that he must interject an "in short"
and summarize his meaning in a phrase amusing through its homely contrast.
But humor based on ponderous diction is too often wearisome. Better say
simply "He died," or colloquially "He kicked the bucket," than "He
propelled his pedal extremities with violence against the wooden pail
which is customarily employed in the transportation of the aquatic fluid."

EXERCISE - Wordiness I

Express these ideas in simpler language:

The temperature was excessive.
The most youthful of his offspring was not remarkable for personal
pulchritude.
Henry Clay expressed a preference for being on the right side of public
questions to occupying the position of President of the United States of
America.
He who passes at an accelerated pace may nevertheless be capable of
perusing.
A masculine member of the human race was mounted on an equine quadruped.

But the number of the terms we employ, as well as their ostentatiousness,
must be considered. Most of us blunder around in the neighborhood of our
meaning instead of expressing it briefly and clearly. We throw a handful
of words at an idea when one word would suffice; we try to bring the idea
down with a shotgun instead of a rifle. Of course one means of correction
is that we should acquire accuracy, a quality already discussed. Another
is that we should practice condensation.

First, let us learn to omit the words which add nothing to the meaning.
Thus in the sentence "An important essential in cashing a check is that
you should indorse it on the back," several words or groups of words
needlessly repeat ideas which are expressed elsewhere. The sentence is as
complete in substance, and far terser in form, when it reads "An essential
in cashing a check is that you should