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On the Art of Writing - Lectures delivered in the University of Cambridge 1913-1914 by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
page 85 of 236 (36%)
_Degree._ A singular degree of rarity prevails in the earlier
editions of this romance.

That is Jargon. In prose it runs simply 'The earlier editions of this
romance are rare'--or 'are very rare'--or even (if you believe what I take
leave to doubt), 'are singularly rare'; which should mean that they are
rarer than the editions of any other work in the world.

Now what I ask you to consider about these quotations is that in each the
writer was using Jargon to shirk prose, palming off periphrases upon us
when with a little trouble he could have gone straight to the point. 'A
singular degree of rarity prevails,' 'the accident was caused through the
dangerous nature of the spot,' 'but such is by no means the case.' We may
not be capable of much; but we can all write better than that, if we take
a little trouble. In place of, 'the Aintree course is of a trying nature'
we can surely say 'Aintree is a trying course' or 'the Aintree course is
a trying one'--just that and nothing more.

Next, having trained yourself to keep a look-out for these worst
offenders (and you will be surprised to find how quickly you get into the
way of it), proceed to push your suspicions out among the whole cloudy
host of abstract terms. 'How excellent a thing is sleep,' sighed Sancho
Panza; 'it wraps a man round like a cloak'--an excellent example, by the
way, of how to say a thing concretely: a Jargoneer would have said that
'among the beneficent qualities of sleep its capacity for withdrawing the
human consciousness from the contemplation of immediate circumstances may
perhaps be accounted not the least remarkable.' How vile a thing--shall
we say?--is the abstract noun! It wraps a man's thoughts round like
cotton wool.

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