drive it in straight. Go critically over what you write and strike out
every word, phrase and clause the omission of which impairs neither the
clearness nor force of the sentence and so avoid redundancy, tautology
and circumlocution. Give the most important words the most prominent
places, which, as has been pointed out elsewhere, are the beginning and
end of the sentence.


HARMONY

_Harmony_ is that property of style which gives a smoothness to the
sentence, so that when the words are sounded their connection becomes
pleasing to the ear. It adapts sound to sense. Most people construct
their sentences without giving thought to the way they will sound and as
a consequence we have many jarring and discordant combinations such as
"Thou strengthenedst thy position and actedst arbitrarily and
derogatorily to my interests."

Harsh, disagreeable verbs are liable to occur with the Quaker form _Thou_
of the personal pronoun. This form is now nearly obsolete, the plural
_you_ being almost universally used. To obtain harmony in the sentence
long words that are hard to pronounce and combinations of letters of one
kind should be avoided.


EXPRESSIVE OF WRITER

Style is expressive of the writer, as to who he is and what he is. As a
matter of structure in composition it is the indication of what a man can
do; as a matter of quality it is an indication of what he is.