) Use of false or unauthorized words, as =burglarize= or
=supremest=.

(19) Errors of taste, including vulgarisms, pompousness, repetition,
vagueness, ambiguousness, colloquialism, bathos, bombast, pleonasm,
tautology, harshness, mixed metaphor, and every sort of rhetorical
awkwardness.

(20) Errors of spelling and punctuation, and confusion of forms such
as that which leads many to place an apostrophe in the possessive
pronoun =its=.

Of all blunders, there is hardly one which might not be avoided through
diligent study of simple textbooks on grammar and rhetoric, intelligent
perusal of the best authors, and care and forethought in composition.
Almost no excuse exists for their persistent occurrence, since the
sources of correction are so numerous and so available. Many of the
popular manuals of good English are extremely useful, especially to
persons whose reading is not as yet extensive; but such works sometimes
err in being too pedantically precise and formal. For correct writing,
the cultivation of patience and mental accuracy is essential. Throughout
the young author's period of apprenticeship, he must keep reliable
dictionaries and textbooks at his elbow; eschewing as far as possible
that hasty extemporaneous manner of writing which is the privilege of
more advanced students. He must take no popular usage for granted, nor
must he ever hesitate, in case of doubt, to fall back on the authority
of his books.

Reading

No aspiring author should content himself with a mere acquisition of
technical rules. As Mrs. Renshaw remarked in the preceding article,
"Impression should ever precede and be stronger than expression." All
attempts at gaining literary polish must begin with judicious =reading=,
and the learner must never cease to hold this phase uppermost. In many
cases, the usage of good authors will be found a more effective guide
than any amount of precept. A page of Addison or of Irving will teach
more of style than a whole manual of rules, whilst a story of Poe's will
impress upon the mind a more vivid notion of powerful and correct
description and narration than will ten dry chapters of a bulky
textbook. Let every student read unceasingly the best writers, guided by
the admirable Reading Table which has adorned the UNITED AMATEUR during
the past two years.

It is also important that cheaper types of reading, if hitherto
followed, be dropped. Popular magazines inculcate a