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pleasure by producing a sense of form and right proportion, a sense of words that fit the ideas that they embody — with not a line of \phrase to clog the free flow of ideas, one following swiftly and clearly upon another.

5 Another basic quality of good writing is simplicity. Here again this does not require that you make all your sentences primerlike or that you reduce complexities to bare bone, but rather that you avoid embellishment or embroidery. The natural, unpretentious style is best. But, paradoxically, simplicity or naturalness does not come naturally. By the time we are old enough to write, most of us have grown so self-conscious that we stiffen, sometimes to the point of rigidity, when we are called upon to make a statement in speech or in writing. It is easy to offer the kindly advice \or sit down at a typewriter. Thus during the early days of the Second World War, when air raids were feared in New York City and blackouts were instituted, an anonymous writer — probably a young civil service worker at City Hall — produced and distributed to stores throughout the city the following poster:

Illumination is Required to be Extinguished on These Premises After Nightfall

6 What this meant, of course, was simply \imperative — clear and to the point — did not sound \long Latinate words and involved syntax (note the awkward passives \Required\and \be Extinguished\the words of the translators of the King James Version of the Bible, who felt no need for flourish, flamboyance, or grandiloquence. The Lord did not loftily or bombastically proclaim that universal illumination was required to be instantaneously installed. Simply but majestically \there be light: and there was light. ... And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.\7 Most memorable declarations have been spare and direct. Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy seemed to \ Maurois, for both men embodied noble themes in eloquently simple terms. Said Lincoln in his second Inaugural Address: \right as God gives us the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in ...\later President Kennedy made his Inaugural dedication: \a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love....\

8 A third fundamental element of good writing is clarity. Some people question whether it is always possible to be clear; after all, certain ideas are inherently complicated and inescapably difficult. True enough. But the responsible writer recognizes that writing should not add to the complications nor increase the difficulty; it should not set up an additional roadblock to understanding. Indeed, the German philosopher Wittgenstein went so far as to say that \can be said can be said clearly.\you are obliged to render it in clear, orderly, readable, understandable prose — else why bother writing in the first place? Actually, obscure writers are usually confused, uncertain of what they

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want to say or what they mean; they have not yet completed that process of thinking through and reasoning into the heart of the subject.

9 Suffice it to say here that whatever the topic, whatever the occasion, expository writing should be readable, informative, and, wherever possible, engaging. At its best it may even be poetic, as Nikos Kazantzakis suggests in Sorba the Greek, where he draws an analogy between good prose and a beautiful landscape:

To my mind the Cretan countryside resembled good prose, carefully ordered, sober, free from superfluous ornament, powerful and restrained. It expressed all that was necessary with the greatest economy. It had no flippancy nor artifice about it. It said what it had to say with a manly austerity. But between the severe lines one could discern an unexpected sensitiveness and tenderness; in the sheltered hollows the lemon and orange trees perfumed the air, and from the vastness of the sea emanated an inexhaustible poetry.

10 Even in technical writing, where the range of styles is necessarily limited (and poetry is neither possible nor appropriate), you must always be aware of \Take such topics as how to follow postal regulations for overseas mail, how to change oil in an engine, how to produce aspirin from salicylic acid. Here are technical expository descriptions that defy a memorable turn of phrase; here is writing that is of necessity cut and dried, dispassionate, and bloodless. But it need not be difficult, tedious, confusing, or dull to those who want to find out about mailing letters, changing oil, or making aspirin. Those who seek such information should have reasonably easy access to it, which means that written instructions should be clear, simple, spare, direct, and most of all, human: for no matter how technical a subject, all writing is done for human beings by human beings. Writing, in other words, like language itself, is a strictly human enterprise. Machines may stamp letters, measure oil, and convert acids, but only human beings talk and write about these procedures so that other human beings may better understand them. It is always appropriate, therefore, to be human in one's statement.

11 Part of this humanity must stem from your sense of who your readers are. You must assume a \stance.\Indeed this is a fundamental principle of rhetoric: nothing should ever be written in a vacuum. You should identify your audience, hypothetical or real, so that you may speak to them in an appropriate voice. A student, for example, should never \visualizing a definite group of readers — fellow students, perhaps, or the educated community at large (intelligent nonspecialists). Without such definite readers in mind, you cannot assume a suitable and appropriate relationship to your material, your purpose, and your audience. A proper rhetorical stance, in other words, requires that you have an active sense of the following:

1. Who you are as a writer. 2. Who your readers are.

3. Why you are addressing them and on what occasion. 4. Your relationship to your subject matter.

5. How you want your readers to relate to the subject matter.

Words and Phrases

1. instinct n. a natural ability or tendency to act in a certain way, without having to learn or think

about it

e.g. Instinct makes swallows go to the north in summer and to the south in winter.

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2. intuition n. the power of understanding or knowing something without reasoning or learned

skill

e.g. Intuition tells me that a feasible plan can be mapped out soon if everyone contributes to it.

3. at large: as a whole; in general

4. high-flown: extravagant and high-sounding

5. pungent: producing a sharp direct effect

6. engaging adj. attractive and delightful

7. cut and dried: clear and obvious, without any possibility of doubt

Notes

1. Patrick Henry (1736–1799): U.S. patriot, orator, and statesman. Before the American

Revolutionary War began in 1775, Henry rose to be a leading American opponent of British rule.

2. predilections of the public: the inclination of the public; what the public prefer

3. action commensurate with the present provocation: action equal to the present

crisis/disturbance, referring to the British rule in the colonies

4. existential commitment: existing or present responsibility

5. mortal existence: human existence; this life

6. William Strunk, Jr. (1869–1946): U.S. educator, editor, and author, taught English at Cornell

University for forty-six years. He wrote the writing treatise, The Elements of Style (1918), which was acclaimed for its brevity and wit. The book was originally written for use in Strunk's classes, and was revised and updated three times by one of his former students, author E.B. White.

7. E.B. White: Elwyn Brooks White (1899–1985), U.S. writer. His crisp, graceful, and highly

individual style, as well as his independence of thought, made him one of America's leading essayists. His revised edition of W. Strunk's The Elements of Style was issued in 1959.

8. that the writer make all his sentences short or that he avoid all detail ... but that every

word tell: Note the use of the verbs without an -s added at the end for the third person singular pronoun and nouns. This is because the sentence is in the subjunctive mood, expressing necessity.

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9. \: unnecessary words. Deadwood literally means \

also refers to \

10. City Hall: the administration building of New York City

11. resorted to long Latinate words and involved syntax: made use of words of Latin origin

and complicated rules of grammar. Illumination, require, extinguish, and premises are all words of Latin origin.

12. the King James Version of the Bible: an English version of the Bible prepared in England

under King James I (1603–1625) and published in 1611. It is also called the Authorized Version.

13. flourish, flamboyance, or grandiloquence: elaborate, showy, or pompous expression

14. \said, let there be light: ... darkness he called Night.\: This is from Chapter I of

Genesis, Old Testament.

15. Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865): the sixteenth president of the U.S.A. (1861–1865). His

second Inaugural Address was made on March 4, 1865.

16. John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963): the thirty-fifth president of the U.S.A. (1961–1963).

His Inaugural Address was made on January 20, 1961.

17. speak to each other across the span of a century: speak alike in spite of the long stretch of

one hundred years between the two presidents

18. Ludwig (Josef Johann) Wittgenstein (1889–1951): one of the leading figures in

twentieth-century philosophy

19. Suffice it to say ... that ...: It is enough to say that ...

This phrase is used to indicate that one is saying enough to make one's meaning clear while withholding something for reasons of brevity.

20. Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957): Greek poet and novelist. Sorba the Greek is one of his

works.

21. Cretan: of the island of Crete, a Greek island in the Mediterranean, to the southeast of

mainland Greece

22. a manly austerity: a gentlemanly simplicity

23. between the severe lines: between the plain and simple lines (of trees)

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