Handbook of Composition, a Compendium of Rules Regarding Good English, Grammar, Sentence Structure, Paragraphing, Manuscript Arrangement, Punctuation, ... Writing and Letter Writing (Classic Reprint)

This manual is designed for two uses. It may be used, first, by students of composition for reference, at the direction of the instructor, in case of errors in themes. Second, it may be used for independent reference by persons who have writing of any kind to do and who want occasional information on matters of good usage, grammar, spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, manuscript-arrangement, or letter-writing. The aim of the book is not scientific, but practical. The purpose is to make clear the rules in regard to which many people make mistakes. No material has been put into the book for the sake of formal completeness. Many statements that would be essential to a treatise designed to exhaust the subjects here discussed (a treatise, for instance, on grammar, or composition-structure, or punctuation) have been omitted because they concern matters about which the persons who may use the book do not need to be told. In the knowledge and the observance of the rules fixed by good usage and suggested by common sense for the expression of thoughts in English and the representation of them on paper, there are many widely prevalent deficiencies, some natural enough, some very odd, but all shared by many people. The purpose of this manual is simply to help correct some of these deficiencies. Some of the rules in this book, making no mention of exceptions, modifications, or allowable alternatives, may perhaps be charged with being dogmatic. They are dogmatic purposely so. Suppose a youth, astray and confused in a maze of city streets, asks the way to a certain place. If one enumerates to him the several possible routes, with comments and admonitions and cautions about each, he will probably continue astray and confused.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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