EXERCISE - Wordiness II
1. Condense the editorial (Appendix 1) by eliminating unnecessary words and finding briefer equivalents for roundabout expressions.
2. Try to condense similarly the Parable of the Sower (Appendix 3) and the Seven Ages of Man (Appendix 4). (The task will largely or altogether baffle you, but will involve minute study of tersely written passages.)
3. Condense the following:
A man whose success in life was due solely to his own efforts rose in his place and addressed the man who presided over the meeting.
A girl who sat in the seat behind me giggled in an irritating manner.
We heard the wild shriek of the locomotive. Any sound in that savage region seemed more terrible than it would in civilized surroundings. So as we listened to the shriek of the locomotive, it sounded terrible too.
I heard what kind of chauffeur he was. A former employer of his told me. He was a chauffeur who speeded in reckless fashion because he was fond of having all the excitement possible.
4. Condense the following into telegrams of ten words or less:
Arrived here in Toledo yesterday morning talked with the directors found them not hostile to us but friendly.