The Century Handbook of Writing

This handbook treats essential matters of grammar, diction, spelling, mechanics; and develops with thoroughness the principles of sentence structure. Larger units of composition...

Loose thinking: Shakespeare's _Hamlet_ occurs in Denmark [The scene is laid?]. Many passages are powerful, especially the grave-digging [Is grave-digging a passage?]. The charac...

Note.--Rule 17 is sometimes briefly stated: "Do not use _and which_ unless you have already used _which_ in the sentence." This statement is generally true, but an exception mus...

Note.--Two other kinds of dangling modifier, treated elsewhere in this book, may be briefly mentioned here. A phrase beginning with the adjective _due_ should refer to a noun; o...

=35. Avoid phrases which may call up conflicting mental images. When using metaphor, simile, etc., carry one figure of speech through, instead of shifting to another, or droppin...

12. I like to cross the harbor on the ferry, to dodge in and out among the ships, see the gulls dart among the waves, smell the sharp tang of salty air, and to feel the rocking...

5. If a piece of steel is kept hot for several seconds, it will lose some of its hardness. If kept hot longer, it will lose more of its hardness. Along with losing its hardness...

5. The Masons never invite men to join their lodge, but if a person expresses a desire to join, his friends would probably be able to secure membership for him.

I lie I lay I have lain I lay I laid I have laid I sit I sat I have sat I set I set I have set I rise I rose I have risen I raise I raised I have raised

=_Affect_ and _effect_.= _Affect_ is not used as a noun; _effect_ as a noun means _result_. As verbs, _affect_ means _to influence in part_; _effect_ means _to accomplish totall...

5. There are invariably people in the world who always want to get something for nothing. I saw some today crowding round a soap man who was giving away free samples gratis.

Note 2.--After _c_ or _g_ and before a suffix beginning with _a_ or _o_ the _e_ is retained. The purpose of this retention is to preserve the soft sound of the _c_ or _g_. (Obse...

Right: The farm comprised 3260 acres. The population of Kansas City, Missouri, was 248,381 in 1910. He earned $437 while attending school. The cost of the improvement was $1,940...

Omissions from a dialogue (as when only one side of a telephone conversation is reported), long pauses, and the unfinished part of interrupted statements, may be represented by...

Right: When you have carried in the wood and the water, and milked the cows, and fed all the stock and the poultry, and mended the harness--when you have done these things, you...

14. A college education is supposed to be general and thorough by training a man not only into something definite, but give him a wider scope from which to choose from.