2. +The Unity of the Sentence.+—Many thoughts, or thoughts having no natural and close connection with each other, should not be crowded into one sentence.
3. +The Use of the Right Words.+—Use such words as convey your thought—each word expressing exactly your idea, no more, no less, no other. Use words in the senses recognized by the best authority. Do not omit words when they are needed, and do not use a superfluity of them. Be cautious in the use of he, she, it, and they. Use simple words—words which those who are addressed can readily understand. Avoid what are called bookish, inkhorn, terms; shun words that have passed out of use, and those that have no footing in the language—foreign words, words newly coined, and slang.
4. +A Happy Arrangement.+—The relations of single words to each other, of phrases to the words they modify, and of clauses to one another should be obvious at a glance. The sentence should not need rearrangement in order to disclose the meaning. Sentences should stand in the paragraph so that the beginning of each shall tally exactly in thought with the sentence that precedes; and the ending of each, with the sentence that follows. Every paragraph should be a unit in thought, distinct from other paragraphs, holding to them the relation that its own sentences hold to one another, the relation that the several parts of each sentence hold to one another.
II. +Energy+.—By energy we mean force, vigor, of expression. In ordinary discourse, it is not often sought, and in no discourse is it constantly sought. We use energy when we wish to convince the intellect, arouse the feelings, and capture the will—lead one to do something. When energetic, we select words and images for strength and not for beauty; choose specific, and not general, terms; prefer the concrete to the abstract; use few words and crowd these with meaning; place subordinate clauses before the independent; and put the strongest word in the clause, the strongest clause in the sentence, the strongest sentence in the paragraph, and the strongest paragraph in the discourse, last. Energetic thought seeks variety of expression, is usually charged with intense feeling, and requires impassioned delivery.
III. +Imagery—Figures of Speech+.—Things stand in many relations to each other. Some +things are (1) like each other+ in some particular; other +things are (2) unlike each other+ in some particular; and still other +things stand to each other (3)+ in some +other+ noteworthy +relation than+ that of +likeness+ or +unlikeness+. Things long seen and associated by us in any of these relations come at last readily to suggest each other. +Figures of Speech+ are those expressions in which, departing from our ordinary manner in speaking of things, we assert or assume any of these notable relations. The first and great service of imagery is to the thought—it makes the thought clearer and stronger. Imagery adds beauty to style—a diamond brooch may adorn as well as do duty to the dress.
A +Simile+, or +Comparison+, is a figure of speech in which we point out or assert a likeness between things otherwise unlike; as, The gloom of despondency hung like a cloud over the land.
A +Metaphor+ is a figure of speech in which, assuming the likeness between two things, we bring over and apply to one of them the term that denotes the other; as, A stately squadron of snowy geese were riding in an adjoining pond.
A +Personification+ is a figure of speech in which things are raised to a plane of being above their own—to or toward that of persons. It +raises+ (1) +mere things to+ the plane of +animals+; as, The sea licks your feet, its huge flanks purr pleasantly for you. It raises (2) +mere animals to+ the plane of +persons+; as, So talked the spirited, sly Snake. It +raises+ (3) +mere things to+ the plane of +persons+; as, Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own.
An +Antithesis+ is a figure of speech in which things mutually opposed in some particular are set over against each other; as, The mountains give their lost children berries and water; the sea mocks their thirst and lets them die.
A +Metonymy+ is a figure of speech in which the name of one thing connected to another by a relation other than likeness or unlikeness is brought over and applied to that other. The most important of these relations are (1) that of the +sign+ to the +thing signified+; (2) that of +cause+ to +effect+; (3) that of +instrument+ to the +user+ of it; (4) that of +container+ to the +thing contained+; (5) that of +material+ to the +thing made out of it+; (6) that of +contiguity+; (7) that of the +abstract+ to the +concrete+; and (8) that of +part+ to the +whole+ or of +whole+ to the +part+.