How To Speak And Write Correctly
How to Speak and Write Correctly
"To use a big word or a foreign word when a small one and a familiar one will answer the same purpose, is a sign of ignorance. Great scholars and writers and polite speakers use simple words".
How To Speak and Write Correctly teaches people simple English that achieves great results.
It shows people how to express themselves to achieve various effects in various situations. No complex grammar or syntax - just common words and the rules governing good and standard usage.
A must for the student who needs to improve his academic essays and the manager who needs to communicate well with his staff.
Contents
CHAPTER I
REQUIREMENTS OF SPEECH
Vocabulary. Parts of speech. Requisites.
CHAPTER II
ESSENTIALS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Divisions of grammar. Definitions. Etymology.
CHAPTER III
THE SENTENCE
Different kinds. Arrangement of words Paragraph.
CHAPTER IV
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Figures of speech. Definitions and examples. Use of figures.
CHAPTER V
PUNCTUATION
Principal points. Illustrations. Capital letters.
CHAPTER VI
LETTER WRITING
Principles of letter writing. Forms. Notes.
CHAPTER VII
ERRORS
Mistakes. Slips of authors. Examples and corrections. Errors of redundancy.
CHAPTER VIII
PITFALLS TO AVOID
Common stumbling blocks. Peculiar constructions. Misused forms.
CHAPTER IX
STYLE
Diction. Purity. Propriety. Precision.
CHAPTER X
SUGGESTIONS
How to write. What to write. Correct speaking and speakers.
CHAPTER XI
SLANG
Origin. American slang. Foreign slang.
CHAPTER XII
WRITING FOR NEWSPAPERS
Qualification. Appropriate subjects. Directions.
CHAPTER XIII
CHOICE OF WORDS
Small words. Their importance. The Anglo-Saxon element.
CHAPTER XIV
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Beginning. Different Sources. The present.
CHAPTER XV
MASTERS AND MASTERPIECES OF LITERATURE
Great authors. Classification. The world's best books.
Book Excerpts:
CHAPTER I
REQUIREMENTS OF SPEECH
Vocabulary--Parts of Speech--Requisites
It is very easy to learn how to speak and write correctly, as for all purposes of ordinary conversation and communication, only about 2,000 different words are required. The mastery of just twenty hundred words, the knowing where to place them, will make us not masters of the English language, but masters of correct speaking and writing.
Small number, you will say, compared with what is in the dictionary! But nobody ever uses all the words in the dictionary or could use them did he live to be the age of Methuselah, and there is no necessity for using them.
There are upwards of 200,000 words in the recent editions of the large
dictionaries, but the one-hundredth part of this number will suffice for all your wants. Of course you may think not, and you may not be content to call things by their common names; you may be ambitious to show superiority over others and display your learning or, rather, your pedantry and lack of learning. For instance, you may not want to call a spade a spade.
You may prefer to call it a spatulous device for abrading the surface of the soil. Better, however, to stick to the old familiar, simple name that your grandfather called it. It has stood the test of time, and old friends are always good friends.
To use a big word or a foreign word when a small one and a familiar one will answer the same purpose, is a sign of ignorance. Great scholars and writers and polite speakers use simple words.
To go back to the number necessary for all purposes of conversation correspondence and writing, 2,000, we find that a great many people who
pass in society as being polished, refined and educated use less, for they know less.
The greatest scholar alive hasn't more than four thousand different words at his command, and he never has occasion to use half the number.