Composition and Rhetoric - 1890 Author:William Williams Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LESSON X. STYLE. Style is the manner of expression. Its mechanical elements are words, sentences, and paragraphs. As these may be dealt with in an infin... more »ite variety of ways, style is as diversified as the minds that produce it; indeed, more so, for the same person may vary his style according to the nature of the subject with which he is dealing. Besides, every writer puts his individuality into his composition and thereby gives his style a peculiarity of its own. The excellences of style, so far at least as they may be acquired, depend largely on a judicious and cultured choice of words and on the correct and graceful form of sentences and paragraphs. The first of these will be studied under the head of Diction, and the latter under the heads of Formation of Sentences and Construction of Paragraphs. Importance. To be able to clothe one's thoughts in appropriate words is an accomplishment that every young person should labor to possess. Language is the dress in which the mind shows itself to the outside world; and, as neat and seemly clothing renders the body more graceful, so choice and refined speech adorns and beautifies the mind. Other things being equal, the person who has the largest stock of words to choose from will be able to select the aptest words and to frame the happiest expressions. To every person, therefore, who wishes to become either a speaker or a writer, the possession of a pure and wide vocabulary and an accurate knowledge of the exact signification of words is of the highest importance. Means. In the effort to attain such a knowledge and command of language, the following means will be found helpful: 1. Listening to good speakers. 2. Associating with people of culture. 3. Reading the best authors. 4. Translating with accuracy fr...« less