ORAL ENGLISH
Retell a story that you know or one that the instructor has read to you. See if you can tell the whole story in fairly long sentences without using a single and. You will be allowed to use three and's. As soon as you say the third, you must take your seat. Let the class keep count.
The story may be an anecdote, a fable, or any other short incident that can easily be told in one or two minutes. You probably have read many such or have heard your father and your mother tell them. A joke that can be told in two or three sentences will not be long enough.
The excessive use of and spoils the telling of many stories. It is a mistake to think that the gap between the end of one sentence and the beginning of the next appears as great to the listener as it does to us as we are deliberating what to say next. To avoid the gap we bridge the two sentences with and. Its use in this way is hardly ever necessary if we think out a sentence to the end before we begin to speak it. When we have finished the thought, we should finish the sentence without trying to bind it artificially to the next one. The sentences will be bound together if the thought of one grows out of the thought of the preceding one.
If the unfolding of the idea does not seem sufficient to tie the parts, there are better expressions to use than and. There are short expressions like in this way, likewise, moreover, thus, therefore, besides, as might be expected, and too. Another way to avoid and is to change the form of the sentence: (1) better than the form, "I opened the window and saw," is, "Opening the window, I saw;" (2) better than "I am going to the store and buy some sugar," is, "I am going to the store to buy some sugar;" (3) better than "There was a boy and his name was John," is, "There was a boy whose name was John;" (4) better than "I reached home and found that my cousin had arrived," is, "When I reached home, I found that my cousin had arrived." In place of and, therefore, we may use (1) participles, (2) infinitives, (3) relative pronouns, and (4) subordinate conjunctions.
Above all, avoid and everything, as in, "I washed the dishes and swept the floor and everything." To try thus to complete an idea that is already complete shows childishness.
Exercise 136
Very likely in telling the story as suggested above you found yourself frequently using the word so to connect two sentences. Perhaps, too, you used why to begin sentences.
Now tell one of your own experiences, being careful not to use and, so, or why. Introduce as much conversation as possible. What, if any, is the advantage of telling a story in the first person? Why is it good to introduce conversation?