3. Add the confirmation of further proofs, including demonstration of the unreasonableness of the contrary.
4. Illustrate the truth of the proposition by comparison or analogy from nature or art.
5. Give direct examples or instances to corroborate the truth.
6. Quote the testimony of standard authors.
7. Conclude by summing up, with pertinent observations.
Remember that all this working to a formula is only a training in the habit of clear thinking—a mental discipline.
When you can do without the formula, and not till then, you will begin to be a writer.
Editorials are, in point of fact, simply little essays, usually following closely the news or issues of the day. Their function is to elucidate, summarize, inform, persuade, or merely comment. In their highest form they are to prose writing what the sonnet is to verse; but it must be confessed that numerous editorials are so completely dominated by the so-called “editorial policy” of newspaper owners, or colored by one of the various hues of partisanship, that their otherwise beneficent influence and power are largely neutralized.
Description.—We mean by a description the delineation of some object or scene. Narration deals with successive facts; description with objects that exist at the same time. We rarely find any literary production of great length which is entirely descriptive; but descriptions are often introduced into narratives with happy effect.
Sometimes they serve the purpose of making the narration impressive, by moving the passions of the reader. At other times they are intended to make the events more intelligible. Thus we have seen that some narratives of battles are hard to follow because the writer has neglected to give us a clear description of the battle-field.