By dividing, subordinating, or logically combining the following statements, secure unity of thought.

  1. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 30, 1902, where she has lived ever since and is now well known.
  2. Franklin was kindly, shrewd, and capable, and was the representative of the United States in France.
  3. She said that Mrs. Brown was ill and that she was just caring for the baby, she loved babies anyway, she said.
  4. One Sunday afternoon there was an excursion to Beaver and several of us decided to go and take our lunches and return on the eight o'clock car.
  5. He gave me the dimensions of the room. The dimensions were ten by twelve feet.
  6. Good grades may be obtained in two ways: by honest work, and by cheating; however any one who cheats is doing himself more harm than good.
  7. The wall studding is made of two-by-fours. These two-by-fours are placed sixteen inches apart.
  8. The returning Crusaders brought with them oriental learning, and found the peasantry impoverished.
  9. The articles in this magazine are of high quality. The articles are well written and attractively illustrated.
  10. A Japanese woman going abroad at night must carry a lighted lamp and must not speak to any one, women do not have much freedom in Japan.
  11. The sugar beets are irrigated by river water. They are irrigated by means of furrows. The furrows run between the rows of beets. The beets are irrigated once a week.
  12. The referee asked each captain if his men were ready, after which he blew the whistle, and the game was on, and within five minutes our team scored a touchdown.
  13. The ground should be harrowed as soon as possible after it is plowed. It is a good plan to harrow the ground on the same day that it is plowed, or on the day following.
  14. Choose the middle of the prepared ground, which is about eighty-five by fifty feet, as your starting point, measure twenty-four feet east and west and set the net posts; then, after marking off the different courts with tape, you are ready for a good game of tennis.
  15. There are two places on the island suitable for plays: one in the bungalow and the other down on the sandy point; the latter lends itself to the purpose readily, there are two trees which make a splendid support for wires on which to hang the curtain, and just east of these the ground slopes enough to make a natural amphitheater.
[C. Excessive Coördination]

The ideas in the following sentences are loosely strung together with coördinating conjunctions. Place the important idea in the main clause. Subordinate other ideas by reducing each to a dependent clause, or a phrase, or a word.

  1. Chris has a new coat and it is double-breasted.
  2. I had a dog, and his name was Scratcher.
  3. He gave a laugh but it was forced.
  4. The woodcock is so foolish and deliberately walks into a trap.
  5. The engineers fastened rafts to the piles, and which were pulled up when the tide rose.
  6. Students often sit all doubled up, and raising their feet high on the table.
  7. Dunlap is carrying a palette, but without any paint on it.
  8. The government has been successful in its suit, and the tobacco trust was dissolved.
  9. The British troops had no protection against poisonous gas and the use of gas by the enemy was unexpected.
  10. I make it a rule to study one thing at least an hour and no long rest between.
  11. The concrete is spread in a layer, and this is about nine inches thick, and the width being ten feet.
  12. Rockwell is our postmaster, and is accommodating, but he has a disposition to be curious.
  13. At the Gatun Dam there are concrete locks, and the purpose of these is to lift vessels into the lake.
  14. They say to tourists that objects are historic but which are not historic at all.
  15. I was lying quietly in the hammock, and I happened to look up in the tree, and there was a green bird and eating a cherry.
  16. They disputed for a time, and afterward the officer became angry, and whipped out his sword.
  17. A mirage is an illusion and the traveler thinks he sees water when there really is none.
[D. Upside-down Subordination]

In the following sentences the important idea is buried in a subordinate clause or phrase. Rescue this main idea, express it in the main clause, and if possible subordinate the rest of the sentence to it.

  1. I spoke to her on the street, when she did not answer.
  2. She thanked me for my assistance, also asking me to come and visit her the following Sunday.
  3. The water froze in the buckets, although they did not burst.
  4. The crows cawed angrily and circling around in one place.
  5. He is threatened with tuberculosis, although he will not sleep in the open air.
  6. We had hacked the bark, the tree dying after a few months.
  7. One of the contestants was from Wendover College, who received the prize.
  8. You ask a person what a spiral staircase is, when he will go to showing you by motions of his hand.
  9. It was about three o'clock, and we decided to return home, which we did.
  10. The plumber came, stopping the leak as soon as he arrived.
  11. Benton sold stamps, in which business he grew rich.
  12. The sun's heat beats down upon the brick tenements, which is terrible.
  13. The chemist tested the purity of the water, but which he found unfit to drink.
  14. Montaigne wrote an essay on "Solitude," where he pointed out the disadvantages of travel.
  15. The house is set close to the edge of the bluff, overlooking a wide bend of the Alleghany River.
  16. Things had been going from bad to worse among the Indians, and some Sioux were entertaining a few Chippewas, and murdered them, when the government took a hand in the affair.
  17. The slight knowledge of metals and wide-awake observation of an inexperienced miner discovered gold in Arizona.

[CLEARNESS OF THOUGHT]

Clearness is fundamental. The writer should be content, not when his meaning may be understood, but only when his meaning cannot be misunderstood. He may attain this entire clearness by giving attention to five matters: