Questions And Exercises: Chapter XIV. Fullness And Brevity

§ 66. Name the various forms of wordiness; those of the pposite fault.

§ 67. Summarize the section in exactly one hundred words. it may perhaps be better done in ninety-nine or one hundred and one, but do it in just one hundred.

§ 68. A. Have the sentences read aloud to you (when you ire ready) and tell the reader the shorter versions.

B. Rewrite the following in briefer form. Some sentences can spare but one word; others can spare several.

1. This car will maintain a good speed on dirt roads where the mud is o deep that other cars cannot travel there.

2. This binder will admit of the sheets' being straightened. 3. The first letter is such a corker that I don't think I shall need but a few of the second.

4. Burr Osborn went to Kalamazoo today to commence his new duties in he abstract office. His wife will remain here a short time longer.

5. We trust that if you wish to get all the back numbers that you will take advantage of our offer.

6. So the sheeting is therefore very important.

7. Included in this book we give you all that we know about the art, the actual inside secrets of writing letters that win.

8. An unprecedented business has been done from the start, as with but 26,000.00 paid into the Treasury a business of between four and five hundred thousand dollars was done during the first year.

9. In the field of Electric Railway Construction, Operation and Management, practically every man in the business relies upon our paper.

10. Their returns confirm its powerful strength in the small towns and rural districts.

11. We will send you a large, heavy, massive volume.

12. We will agree to send the News to any person for a dollar.

13. We will write you letters for $5 a thousand, all filled in with names, addresses, and salutations complete.

14. The trouble is that the cover stocks are usually made by one maker, and the book papers by another, with no idea of getting them to harmonize, or of making good combinations.

15. We take pleasure in saying that in point of largest proportion of orders from inquiries received, Harper's Bazaar stands at the head of our list.

16. Profit sharing not only holds men but it stimulates them.

17. A Chicago woman was crazed by the sweetness of music. Such things often happen, but not from the result of the music's sweetness.

18. There is no other method of uniting the interests of employer and employee that is capable of wider application than the sale of stock to the men on the pay roll.

19. Send any committee to investigate the lives of Italians and other foreign races in the United States, and you will find that no other foreign communities, Americans not excepted, live such moral and chaste lives as the Italians.

20. Enormous wealth lies hidden in the public lands, though they appear barren wastes of arid desert.

21. Equally as good mixtures can be made.

22. Their responses were equally as frank.

23. You pass other stores, notably among them the Kearsarge and the Wolverine.

24. We shall be glad at any time to speak a good word for you whenever we can.

25. We are pleased to state that there is not a day goes by that we do not get one or more inquiries from our advertisement in your paper.

26. It gives us pleasure to advise you that as an advertising medium for our goods we consider your paper one of the best for our use.

27. There can be little doubt but that you are right.

28. The grocery papers at that time represented a very poor vehicle for advertising. [Change represented.]

29. In a recent lecture by Mr. William Arthur Chase, president of the National association of certified public accountant examiners, he defends the general conduct of the examiners.

30. These funny motion pictures are all bubbling over with humor and amusement.

31. J. B. Rothrock, who has been canvassing in Minnesota, from Crooks-ton to St Paul, reports that in most parts of the state that he passed through, crops look very poor, this condition being, however, not general as in spots here and there, grain is from fair to good, but by far the greater majority of fields are poor.

32. He is a new beginner.

§ 69. A. Master the section in the same manner as the preceding.

B. The following sentences (from letters and trade-journals) suffer from ellipsis. At the points indicated by carets insert words to show what was really the intent of the writers. Report by number the words inserted.

1. For that picture which you want so much and ^ must be taken, use our film.

2. The McFarlan is the best value in America not only because we say so, but ^ it is.

3. The shape of a motor boat has much to do with its strength as well as ^ its appearance.

4. Our business has grown to many times the size ^ when this system was begun.

5. A chance was given to subscribe either to the common or ^ the preferred stock.

6. Carnegie feared only one loss - Amen.

7. His record both as congressman and ^ senator is clean.

8. Miss S. H. Righter was in our employ for several months and ^ found her work satisfactory.

9. Oil has practically become the fuel of the Pacific, coast. It has supplanted coal, because it is cheaper. It creates the power which moves locomotives on the railways, A steamships on the seas, and turns the wheels of mills and factories throughout the Southwest.

10. The amount of the present is based upon the length of service and the amount of salary, so that each year the amount received is a little greater than ^ the preceding year.

11. You can't afford a poor teacher; lessons would be expensive ^ if given away.

12. In the majority of cases it has added both to the income of the employees and ^ the profits of the company.

13. POWER AND THE ENGINEER reaches the superintendent, the chief engineer, the engineer ^ not yet chief, but who some day will be -

14. It is progressive as well as conservative, and each issue contains a vast amount of information of much interest, both of a technical and ^ practical character.

15. I certainly want to buy of those who advertise in SUCCESSFUL FARMING, because I do not have to wait and look them up ^ if they are good.

16. The work of improving reflects great credit on the commissioners from a practical as well as ^ an artistic standpoint

17. If you haven't sold to mines we can tell you in a moment whether you can ^

18. "I buy of guaranteed advertisers in SUCCESSFUL FARMING in preference to ^ those in some other papers."

19. To tell the truth, we cannot take care of the work coming to us through our advertising ^, of which the Engineering News ranks second if not first.

20. We regard the "Engineering News" as a very valuable advertising medium, and take pleasure in saying that we believe we receive better results from advertisement in same than from ^ any other engineering publication.

21. We also find the class of inquiries received from your paper to be much more satisfactory than ^ the average advertising medium.

22. We can report satisfactory results from our advertising in the Engineering News, both as to the number and ^ quality of the inquiries which we have received from this source.

23. It goes without saying that we are well pleased with the Engineering News, and we hope that in the future you will keep it up to the high standard that you have ^ in the past

24. History records no greater personal heroism, no finer magnanimity in victory, no greater fortitude in defeat than ^ exemplified in the army of George Washington.

26. This means economy, both in time and ^ money.

26. Mr. Farmer, who has stuck to the lop-eared mule, the hog-lot and the cornfield, is buying pianos, automobiles, and the land that "jines" his'n, and carries a fat roll ^ a bank book, and his hand doesn't tremble when he signs his checks.

27. We have received more inquiries resulting from our advertisement which is appearing in your magazine than ^ any other Engineering paper that we have advertised in.

28. It ought to have a marked influence for improvement on the Advertising, Selling, and Merchandise Distributing policies - subjects ^ being studied more closely by Investors.

20. Our paper goes the rounds of the whole family, appealing to the men as well as ^ the women.

30. Its editorial matter shows ^ the confidence reposed in it is merited and appreciated.

31. Agreeable to your request of August 2nd, we are very ^ pleased to forward to you a copy of our text book.

32. In many respects the character of service we render is unique - ^ perhaps not clearly understood by many advertisers.

33. You will not have to make the usual compromise between the book and ^ cover stock - you don't need to be told that the

34. We are selling goods through the Engineering News at a smaller per cent of expense than ^ any other Engineering paper.

35. The engineering feats, apparent in the cataracts of the Nile, conclusively indicate their object for irrigation and navigation. [Recast]

36. Actually to find out just how to win the attention of man, woman and child, he consulted 10,000 women, ^ 2,000 business and professional men, and observed 1,000 magazine readers.

37. I am sorry to say there is no cover ^ goes with the boat

38. Here is a clothing concern ^ wants you to buy.

§ 70. We have already had several exercises in abridgment and summary. Unless, however, the instructor excuses you make first an abridgment and then a summary of some business article. Let the scale of reduction be one half for the abridge ment, and one quarter for the summary. In writing the summary, remember the last paragraph in the text of this section