oops up the dirt and loads it
directly into wagons.

Right: Excavating, the first operation in street paving, is
usually done by a steam shovel which loads the dirt directly
into wagons.

Monotonous: The doe is wading along the shore. She is nibbling
the lily pads as she goes. Now she moves slowly around the
point. She has a little spotted fawn with her. The fawn frolics
along at the heels of his mother.

Better: Wading along the shore, the doe nibbles the lily pads
by the way, and moves slowly around the point. A spotted fawn
frolics at her heels.

Primer style: Rooms are marked on the floor. These rooms are
about fourteen feet square.

Better: The floor is marked off into rooms about fourteen feet
square.

Note.--An occasional short sentence is permissible, even desirable.
Successive short sentences may be used to express rapid action, or
emphatic assertion, or deliberate simplicity. Otherwise, avoid them.

Exercise.

1. Decatur has wide streets. The streets are paved with brick,
asphalt, and creosote blocks.

2. Sixteen posts are set in a row. All of these are at equal
intervals.

3. The boat approaches the leeward side of the ship. This side
is the side protected from the wind.

4. The _Scientific American_ reports the progress of science.
It explains new inventions. It makes practical applications of
scientific principles.

5. The beans are usually harvested about the middle of
September. They are cut when the plants turn color at the roots
and the beans turn white. They are cut by a bean-cutter which
takes two rows at a time.

=Excessive Coordination=

In structure a sentence may be

A. Simple: The rain fell.

B. Compound: The rain continued and the stream rose.

C. Complex: When the rain ceased, the flood came.

In B, the clauses are of almost equal importance, and the first is
coordinated with the second. In C, the clauses are not of equal
importance, and the first is subordinated to the second. _And_ is a
coordinating conjunction. _When_ is a subordinating conjunction. For a
list of connectives see 36.

=14. Do not use coordination when subordination will secure a more clear
and emphatic unit of thought. Especially do not coordinate a main idea
with an explanatory detail.= The speech of children connects all ideas,
important