Slips of Speech : a Helpful Book for Everyone Who Aspires to Correct the Everyday Errors of Speaking by Bechtel, John Hendricks, 1841-

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JOHN H. BECHTEL

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE INTRODUCTION, . . . . . . . . . . . 3 I. TASTE, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 II. CHOICE OF WORDS, . . . . . . . . . . 15 III. CONTRACTIONS, . . . . . . . . . . . 118 IV. POSSESSIVE CASE, . . . . . . . . . . 124 V. PRONOUNS, . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 VI. NUMBER, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 VII. ADVERBS, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 VIII. CONJUNCTIONS, . . . . . . . . . . . 156 IX. CORRELATIVES, . . . . . . . . . . . 162 X. THE INFINITIVE, . . . . . . . . . . 166 XI. PARTICIPLES, . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 XII. PREPOSITIONS, . . . . . . . . . . . 174 XIII. THE ARTICLE, . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 XIV. REDUNDANCY, . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 XV. TWO NEGATIVES, . . . . . . . . . . . 194 XVI. ACCORDANCE OF VERB WITH SUBJECT, . . 198 _________________________________________________________________

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Homer, in all probability, knew no rules of rhetoric, and was not tortured with the consideration of grammatical construction, and yet his verse will endure through time. If everybody possessed the genius of Homer, rules and cautions in writing would be unnecessary.

To-day all men speak, and most men write, but it is observed that those who most closely follow Homer's method of writing without rules are most unlike Homer in the results. The ancient bard was a law unto himself; we need rules for our guidance.

Rules of writing are the outgrowth of the study of the characteristics and qualities of style which distinguish the best writers from those of inferior skill and ability. Grammarians and rhetoricians, according to their several lines of investigation, set forth the laws and principles governing speech, and formulate rules whereby we may follow the true, and avoid the false.

Grammar and rhetoric, as too often presented in the schools, are such uninviting studies that when _________________________________________________________________

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school-days are ended, the books are laid aside, and are rarely consulted afterward. The custom of formally burning the text-books after the final examinations-- a custom that prevails in some institutions-- is but an emphatic method of showing how the students regard the subjects treated in the books.