The battalion halted for the night. It ate supper. Then the battalion relieved the outpost.
Here the reader has been stopped when he should have been kept going, for there is in reality but one thought in the three separate sentences. They should be combined into some such form as this,—
After the battalion had halted for the night and had eaten supper, it relieved the outpost.
The proper relation of ideas is here expressed for the reader. He knows that the relief of the outpost is the main consideration, depending in point of time upon the halt and supper. And the whole thought is not too big for him to take in as he reads.
The first error, illustrated by the sentence concerning German organization, is a fault common to older writers. They have allowed themselves to grow into the habit of adding qualifying phrases and clauses to sentences already completed until their additions come to swamp the originals. The second error, illustrated by the sentence concerning the battalion relieving the outpost, is a fault common to young writers. They have not yet formed the habit of relating in their own minds the separate ideas of a complete thought.
The happy mean between these two indefinite extremes is the one we wish to find—the sentence that gives speedy and accurate intelligence.
2. Do not use compound sentences containing and, save where they cannot be avoided. Here is a common piece of slovenliness found in such a construction.—
The wagon trains pulled out and the troops ate breakfast.
Any one of the following is more definite.
After the wagon trains pulled out the troops ate breakfast.