Remnant, trace, token, vestige.
Requite, repay, retaliate, satisfy.
Oral or Written Exercise.—In the following, vary the overworked words as much as possible. Permit repetition only when it is necessary for clearness.
1. I think the committee selected to select theme topics for the class to write upon, should be careful not to select too many topics on one subject, since the nature of one student differs from that of another. I think that the few who are not satisfied with the topics the committee have selected, should be required to select and hand in a list of topics on which they would like to write.
2. There are two distinct stories running through the Merchant of Venice: the story of the pound of flesh and the story of the caskets. These stories run parallel to each other through the play, as far as the third act, where the story of the caskets is ended by the lucky choice of Bassanio. But from here a new story, the story of the rings, commences, and continues through the rest of the play, crossing the story of the pound of flesh and finally taking the place of this story.
Future Revision.—Henceforth one distinct object for which every theme should be revised is variety of words. It soon becomes a keen satisfaction to read one’s own work aloud to detect overworked expressions. In the pursuit of variety, the scholar not merely grows sensitive to the ugly recurrence of the same sound; he grows bold to repeat words if the repetition is demanded for clearness or force. Some things seem to have but one name in English; more’s the pity; but we must make the best of the case.
CHAPTER XI
RIGHT NUMBER AND SKILFUL CHOICE OF WORDS
Let it be supposed that a person has learned to plan a composition logically and to write with grammatical correctness; that further he has acquired a noble unrest which keeps him searching for new words and fine distinctions; what should be his next care?