should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness:
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.
GEORGE HERBERT.

CHAPTER XX

ADVERTISEMENTS (_concluded_)

"Honesty is the best policy."
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

I. Assignment I

Pick out in a large advertisement for a breakfast food the number of
words of one syllable other than prepositions or articles; the words of
two syllables; of three syllables; of more than three syllables. Reduce
your results to percentages.

Make a similar study of advertisements for a set of books, of chewing
gum, of an automobile, and of a piece of machinery in some technical
publication. Compare results with a similar count in a newspaper
paragraph, an encyclopedia paragraph, and paragraphs from Macaulay,
Dickens, Carlyle, and Kipling.

II. Clearness

Clear, simple language, language that will be readily understood by the
least intelligent of your possible customers, is an essential of good
advertising. Every word that is above the lowest reasonable level of
understanding limits the number of possible customers. The railroad
attorney who was asked to write a notice that would warn people to be
careful at railroad crossings did not dig into his law books for a
polysyllabic sentence like this: "Whereas this is the intersection of a
public highway with the right-of-way of the ---- Railroad Corporation,
each and every individual is hereby advised to exercise extreme
caution." He wrote a sentence which is a classic in its way "Stop! Look!
Listen! Railroad Crossing."

III. Assignment II

In the advertisements selected for Assignment I, count the number of
words in each sentence and strike an average for each. Make a comparison
with sentence length in other writings as suggested.

IV. Adaptation to Audience

The degree to which the simplification of language in an advertisement
should be carried depends upon the audience addressed. It is evident
that a larger and less educated portion of the public is included in the
possible customers for breakfast food and chewing gum than there are in
the portion who would be likely to purchase a set of books. An even
smaller portion of the public would be interested in an automobile or a
piece of automatic machinery. A good advertisement should be framed in
language that will be understood b