THE CANNERY
Reading edition
Dean Alford says: "Be simple, be unaffected, be honest in your speaking and writing. Call a spade a spade, not a well known oblong instrument of manual husbandry. Elegance of language may not be in the power of all of us, but simplicity and straightforwardness are."
Many pages would be required to list all the so-called bromides that have been worn threadbare by constant use and abuse in newspapers. Often these phrases are used to avoid what the writer believes to be annoying repetition. It is better to use the word fire many times in a paragraph than to use the word conflagration once.
So many phrases have become hackneyed in newspapers that the comic magazines make jokes about them. This is from Puck:
A NEWSPAPER DICTIONARY
Appropriate Exercises.—What the celebration opened with.
Good-Natured Crowd.—People out on election night.
Firm, Clear Tones.—What the bride uttered the responses in.
Heart of the Business Section.—District threatened by fire. (See under control.)
Land Office Business.—What the charity bazaar did. (See pretty girls.)
Luscious Bivalve.—What the pearl was found in. (See poor shoemaker.)
Musical Circles.—What the hostess is prominent in. (See artistic interpretation.)
Pool of Blood.—What the body was lying in.
Sensational Failure.—A Wall street bankruptcy.
Trojans.—What the men were working like.
Undercurrent of Excitement.—Something that ran through the audience. (See tense moment.)
Well-Known Southern Family.—What the bridegroom is a member of.
Avoid such phrases as:
burly Negro
smoking revolver
cheered to the echo
in durance vile
herculean efforts
it goes without saying
limps into port
daring robber
denizens of the deep
finny tribe
knights of the grip
like rats in a trap
speculation is rife
for 10 long years
severed his connection (say he quit)
solon
probe
city father
leave no stone unturned
whipped out a gun
old Sol
fair Luna
Dan Cupid
Dame Fashion
milady
Jupiter Pluvius
affixed his signature
vast concourse
edifice was consumed
infuriated animal
summoned a physician
busy marts of trade
breakneck speed
high dudgeon
fragrant Havana
divine passion
city bastile
bolt from a clear sky
facile pen
breathless silence
crisp bill
grim reaper
dusky damsel
tonsorial parlor
vale of tears
immaculate linen
minions of the law
rash act
never in the history of
sad rites
tidy sum
light collation
pale as death
totally destroyed
news leaked out
rooted to the spot
war to the knife
fair sex
white as a sheet
to the bitter end
well-known clubman
pillar of the church
large and enthusiastic audience
natty suit
giant pachyderm
swathed in bandages
tiny tots
checkered career
angry mob
dull, sickening thud
foeman worthy of his steel
great beyond
downy couch
toothsome viands
Study of a thesaurus—there is one in the library—will enlarge the vocabulary and help the writer to rid himself of these trite phrases. How fresh words may give life to a piece of writing is shown in the chapter in this book on the use of adjectives.
CLARITY, FORCE, GRACE
"Of the three generally recognized qualities of good style—clarity, force and grace—it is the last and the last alone in which critics of newspaper English find their material," reads an editorial in the New York Evening Post. "Beauty, grace, suggestion of that final touch which confers on its object the immortality of perfect art, are nearly always conspicuously absent."