English Language

EVERYDAY WRITING: A COMBINED TEXTBOOK AND HANDBOOK

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I began work on this book as a revision of College
Composition, 1926. In a way the present book is a
revision, for I have retained in Everyday Writing
whatever tested material seemed germane to my
newer purpose. But the new title is warranted by
many differences between the two books and by the
fact that other writers have adopted the title of the
earlier volume.
In Everyday Writing I have tried to include those
things that a non-profes§ional writer needs to know
about composition—and nothing else. Not once in
;hese pages, as far as I am aware, have I assumed
or implied that the students who read them are to
be authors; there is no grooming of freshmen or
sophomores for careers as short story writers, novelists,
or playwrights. The average intelligent and
purposeful young man or woman is not made to feel
under a cloud for lack of ability to "stab" a reader's
consciousness or to display a "brilliantly humorous
and whimsical personality" in an essay. I have
taken my title quite literally.
The ideal constantly set forth is that of plain
prose, the useful tool which all business and professional
men or women should know how to handle
competently.There is in Everyday Writing no attempt to combine
the practical and the cultural aspects of composition.
Such a combination may be of real service
to students who like the cultural point of view and
are fitted for it. I still think that the purpose of
my earlier book is entirely legitimate. But is it
likely that the more literary aspects of composition
will have any lively appeal for a majority of the
students now entering many of our colleges and universities?
If applied to all students instead of to a
selected group, the older idea may have a slight
taint of pretense. There is no occasion, at any rate,
for casting stones at those who want the subject of
everyday writing separated from the subject of the
art of literature, who are conscious that their aims
are practical, and who believe those aims worth
while because they are practical. More and more
teachers are realizing the value in presenting composition
stripped of everything not immediately useful
to students who are headed for manufacturing,
selling, banking, teaching, law, or medicine.
This book is in two parts. Part One contains the
doctrine of plain prose writing, and is intended for
reading and study by an entire class. Part Two
contains rules and details of practice, and is intended
for use in correcting themes and for reference
or study when needed. Definite assignments of
material in Part Two may, of course, be given to
those students who would profit by them.
The arrangement of the handbook material is
PREFACE V
alphabetical—a departure from the usual method.
As a result of the alphabetical arrangement a student
can find the item he is looking for as easily and
quickly as he can find a word in the dictionary.
Ease of reference is further aided by treating important
items separately instead of in groups. If
one is looking up Tense, for example, one turns
directly to that item in its alphabetical place instead
of first finding Parts of Speech, then the subheading
Verb, and finally Tense.
I have myself taken advantage of the availability
of the handbook material and have greatly reduced
the number of definitions given in Part One. Thus
the text is not cluttered up with definitions which
are needed by only a part, often a very small part,
of the class; and yet the 'definitions can quickly be
found by students who need them.
It gives me pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness
for many helpful criticisms and suggestions to
my good friend and former teacher, Professor Lindsay
Todd Damon.
I give my sincere thanks to the Atlantic Monthly
Company for the use of a quotation from Seymour
Deming; to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company
for a quotation from its Annual Report ; to the
Eastman Kodak Company for a quotation from a
catalogue; to Harper and Brothers for a quotation
from Mark Twain ; to the New York Herald Tribune
for a news story; to the Houghton Mifflin Company
for quotation from John Hay and Henry Thoreau;to the Macmillan Company for quotations from
Writers at Work; to Scott, Foresman and Company
for a quotation from Literature and Life and several
quotations from the Lake EngHsh Classics; to the
New York Times for a news story; to the United
States Steel Corporation for a quotation from a
folder; and to Mr. A. W. Robertson and the Westinghouse
Electric and Manufacturing Company for
a quotation from a leaflet.
Providence, Rhode Island
June 1, 1932

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