LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 172. THE WRITER'S BLUE BOOK A USEFUL MANUAL FOR ALL WHO WRITE, PARTICULARLY FOR EDITORS, REPORTERS, PROOF-READERS, TYPE- WRITERS, CLERKS, BUSINESS HOUSES, SECRE- TARIES OF COMPANIES, CLUBS, AND LIKE BODIES. RULES FOR THE USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS RULES OF PUNCTUATION, ERRORS OF SPEECH CORRECTED, A DICTION- ARY OF READY REFERENCE, AND A COMPLETE INDEX. BY AN EDITOR FRANCISCO CROWN PUBLISHING^ CO. GENERAL COPYRIGHT, 1OO2 BY CROWN PUBLISHING COMPANY TABLE OF CONTENTS. To all who write 7 I. How to write clearly 10 II. Use of words and phrases 17 III. Punctuation 32 IV. Concerning style-codes 45 V. The Maritime World code 49 VI. How rules are often violated 61 VII. Dictionary of capitals 63 VIII. Forms of address 77 Alphabetical index _____ 80 105884 The Writer's Blue Book PREFACE. THIS HANDBOOK is for all who write the English language. It has been prepared, however, with special reference to the needs of editors, typewriters, clerks, and persons in charge of correspondence for busi- ness houses. Country editors, it is believed, will find the work of great value. Language and printing have undergone many changes during the last twenty years. This manual gives the usage of such high-class magazines as the Century, and offers helpful suggestions concerning that which few schools teach the art of preparing copy for printers. It so chances that this information is exactly what type- writers and others who write ought to master. With such a guide the reader will have the satisfaction of the highest authority the Century, Theodore L. De Vinne, Teall, Moon, and others for the style of his compositions. October, 1902. THE EDITOR. The Writer's Blue Book TO ALL WHO WRITE. CALL THE RULES and principles announced in this little book original would be as misleading as if the compiler of a treatise on arithmetic should pretend to be the author of the multiplication table. In a wider sense, however, every person who exhibits old things in a new light may be said to be original. Under these terms this volume is the author's production. After more than twenty years' experi- ence as editor, author, proof-reader, and corrector of the manuscript of others, I am compelled to say that few people, even among professional newspaper writers and authors, follow any definite or consistent style or system in the preparation of man- uscripts. The columns of newspapers abound in gross errors of grammar, the (7) ' The Writer's Blue Book writings of public men often are crude, and the letters of many representative business houses exhibit such shocking ignorance of the English language that one wonders whether the knack of correct writing is not becoming a lost art. In a highly critical sense no writing is free from errors. Great scholars that have hired corps of critical proof-readers to perfect their works often have been made to blush for their printed pages; but the accuracy required in the business of every day should be far greater than it is now. A careful study of elementary prin- ciples would add to the correctness of the world's work. It is believed that many of the grosser errors abounding in the work of editors, stenographers, correspondence clerks, and others may be avoided by observing the principles set forth in this little com- pendium. A study of these pages will put the reader in touch with the style prevalent among the most careful and cul- tured authors and publishers of the day. Modern methods have wrought some changes in the rules of grammar and rhetoric; but there are many reasons for most of them, and the person who desires to be abreast of the times must work by system. By keeping the BLUE BOOK within reach it will be easy to solve many puzzling problems of grammar and usage. (8) The Writer's Blue Book A complete cross-index at the end of the volume adds to its value, quick reference saving time. Typewriters and others whose business is the writing of letters and legal docu- ments should master everything in this volume so thoroughly that they can readily paraphrase its rules in concise English of their own. A thorough understanding of the system of capitalizing here explained means the mastery of a correct and consistent method in one's work. To be able to solve ques- tions without hesitation will certainly add to the value of every writer's and every typewriter's services. It is not pretended that this volume will take the place of treatises on grammar and rhetoric, but it is believed that it is a more practical desk-book than any manual now extant. Its character is fully indicated by the name manual, a book small enough for handy reference. It is hoped that famili- arity with its contents will add to the efficiency of every writer's manuscripts, be they editorials or sermons, letters or law- yers' briefs. It is hoped that thousands of desk-toilers will discover that this modest little com- pendium will prove a clear-voiced and wel- come companion, lightening their burdens, improving their work, and adding to the value of their services. (9) The Writer's Blue Book I. HOW TO WRITE CLEARLY. I. The Blue Pencil, Since grammar and rhetoric are to language what harmony and symphony are to music, every writer should see that his sentences are in tune. Whatever is written should be written well, be it an advertisement or a book, a letter or a trade circular. He who writes carelessly is treading on dangerous ground, if he desires to convey his exact meaning. It is an excellent rule to revise everything you write. But perfection is out of the question, as a writer in 'Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech" has aptly said in the following words: V If any one supposes that he shall ever be able to write perfectly correct English let him disabuse his mind of V* (10) The Writer's Blue Book the idea. The shallow critic is the only person who is sure that he can reach perfection in the art. * * * Many able and great writers are not correct writers; many correct writers are neither able nor great. The blue pencil has saved countless authors their laurels, many business men their money, and millions of written things from the waste-basket. It insures greater clarity and brevity, often grace and finish. Every well-edited newspaper, magazine, book, and printed speech (if printed cor- rectly) would be spotted with blue marks if one could but see the original. The blue pencil is the writer's chief guaranty of reasonable accuracy, his only insurance policy. Do you use it in your work? 2. Tlie Blue Pencil Popular, It was the im- mortal Macaulay who said that easy writ- ing makes hard reading. It was his in- variable custom to revise his own work from three to ten times. Do you know that the best writers in the world have always relied upon the blue pencil? If the publishers of newspapers, magazines, and books consider blue-penciling essential to success, can anybody else hope to write or publish readable circulars, pamphlets, etc., without careful revision? Can a young woman who earns her liv- ing by typewriting hope to become efficient without giving attention to the principles of correct composition ?^ Can _ a private The Writer's Blue Book secretary increase his skill more effectively than by mastering those principles that will enable him to burnish his work and prevent his employer from making blunders? Can an editor make his paper typographically clean and accurate, con- cise and consistent, unless he follows the style-card? But it is a lamentable fact that many educated men and women, even professional writers, are often singularly earless in their work. Even the immortal Charles Dickens said, in a speech delivered in London, in 1837: 1 I have never gone through the sheets of any book that I have writen without having had presented to me by the corrector of the press something that I have over- looked, some inconsistency into which I have fallen, some lapse I have made. If the correctors of others' work can teach the Dickenses of the world, there is certainly reason to suppose that a bright stenographer's touch may prove valuable in correcting the written work sent forth from busy offices by busy people. Even in the many classes of dictated correspond- ence that often must be typed verbatim, the operator's judgment is absolute in the wide field of punctuation, capitalizing, and the compounding of words. The type- writer's or the printer's jurisdiction in punctuation alone frequently determines the life or death of sentences, gives sense (12) The Writer's Blue Book and meaning to language, and makes a record for the operator. Many sentences would be meaningless without punctuation. Try to read the following, and you will see just what is meant; That that is is that that is not is not. But every word is clothed with meaning when the sentence is punctuated for sense, thus: That that is, is; that that is not, is not. The example just cited is an extreme one, selected for emphatic illustration. It is to written speech what "the wind ceaseth and the wave dismisseth us all" is to vocal utterance. These examples illustrate the prime rule that great care should be taken to make sentences convey a clear meaning. 3. Superfluous Words, It is a prevalent error to overload sentences by making them carry unnecessary adjectives, ifs, buts, howevers, exceptions, parenthetical clauses, and time-worn phrases that weaken the composition and tire the reader. It is a good rule to keep subject, predicate, and object in as logical a re- lationship as possible. In ordinary busi- ness letters and other plain statements there is little reason for digression. Make your sentences direct and clear. Write to (13) The Writer's Blue Book the point, and stop when you reach it, designating that stop by a period, a ques- tion mark, or an exclamation point. The story of that sentence is then ended, the job complete. Though this method some- times gives the appearance of abruptness, it is better so than if ' 'ambiguity and long- windedness should cumber the earth. ' High forms of literary effort are often ex- pressed in the direct and simple way here advocated for ordinary letters and compo- sition. Here are two examples that show the advantage of telling a story by a few clear sentences, without interrupting the main current of the narrative: (a) From the opening of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped": I will begin the story of my adventures with a certain morning in the month of June, the year of grace 1751 , when I took the key for the last time out of the door of my father's house. The sun began to shine upon the summit of the hills as I went down the road; and by the time I had come as far as the manse the blackbirds were whistling in the garden lilacs, and the mist that hung around the valley in the time of the dawn was be- ginning to arise and die away. (b) From the opening of Leigh H. Irvine's "An Affair in the South Seas": When I saw Atollia first, I neither knew nor guessed how great a part it was to play in my life. The air was tropical, the sun bright, the sky ripe with the colors of afternoon. I had been for years in the fogs of San Francisco, struggling hard to succeed at the bar, but the outlook was discouraging. Here was a promising field of life; the prospect was wild and pleasing and the sight of a new world after many weeks at sea set my pulses leaping. (14) The Writer's Blue Book It is an excellent practice to clip an arti- cle from a newspaper, paste it on a sheet of legal cap, then note errors on the mar- gins. Cut out useless and improper words, and substitute concise and effective words and clauses for those rejected. It is an error to use commonplace ex- pressions. People fall into this habit readily, and it is hard to avoid the fault. Expressions that have had no rest since Noah went into the Ark should have a long holiday. Two examples of gross carelessness are noted in passing, the first from an evening newspaper of San Francisco, the second from its competitor: 1. Attorney Heggerty, who with Attorney Knight WERE the ATTORNEYS of the late Charles L. Fair, searched for the will. 2. The money is contributed mainly by grafters who have designs on THE SPRECKELS' leg. There is a shameful confusion of the subject of the sentence in the first ex- ample. In the haste and carelessness of composition, proof-reading, etc., the fact that Heggerty was, is wholly overlooked. In the second example the author evi- dently thought he was using the word Spreckels' in the possessive case (but it should have been written Spreckels's, if that was the idea) ; he did not know that (15) The Writer's Blue Book the noun Spreckels qualifies the noun leg. It should be remembered that when the definite article the precedes a noun used in the sense written in the foregoing it is an error to use the possessive sign. In such sentences the noun is used as an adjective (16) The Writer's Blue Book II. USE OF WORDS AND PHRASES. 4. The Articles and Clarity, A, an, and the are known as articles. They are used to define the application of nouns, and great care should be exercised to repeat them in sentences where repetition is necessary. Examples: "A black and red cow" means one cow of two colors. If two cows are meant, * 'a black and a red cow" should be written. In other sentences of general meaning, as, "I am persecuted to the death," it is not proper to use the article, because death generally is meant. By the day is better than per day; ten cents a bushel is better than per bushel. Skip per whenever it is possible to do so. (17) The Writer's Blue Book It is well to avoid foreign words or ab- breviations. The definite article a can not be put be- fore a plural noun, even if a singular noun should intervene; for which reason the ex- pression, "I saw a house and gardens" is incorrect. A gardens? Never! In this connection it should be said that a and an are merely other forms of one. 5. Singular and Plural Nouns, Much confu- sion arises at times because some nouns of plural form are really singular in meaning. Instances of these are: Mathematics, acoustics, metaphysics, politics (though this is also plural), physics, news, head- quarters (in some senses), whereabouts, means (also plural at times) , and molasses. Thus it is proper to say: Mathematics is a science; metaphysics is ennobling; politics is warming; physics is abstruse; news has come; his whereabouts is known; light is a means of seeing; means were taken to restore the patient; and molasses is injurious. 6, Words Always Plural, The following words have no singular: Annals, aborigines, amends, assets, antipodes, bellows, bil- liards, dregs, gallows, tongs, pincers, scales, trousers, whiskers, matins, nuptials, obsequies, spectacles, premises, pains, and scissors. Alms, eaves, and riches are now (18) The Writer's Blue Book regularly construed as plural. When in doubt concerning the number of a noun, it is well to consult the best dictionary at hand and it should be a good one, say the Century, the Standard, or Webster's Inter- national. 7, Varying Plurals, Some nouns have two plurals, and they differ in meaning. Care should be observed in the use of such words. Examples are: Brothers (by blood) , brethern (of a church or society) ; cloths (kinds of cloth) , clothes (garments) ; dies (stamps for coins) , dice (for gaming) ; fish (collectively), fishes (individuals or kinds) ; geniuses (men of genius) , genii (spirits); indexes (to books), indices (signs in algebra) ; peas (separately) , pease (col- lectively); pennies (separately), pence (collectively) ; shot (collective balls) , shots (number of times fired) . 8, Titles, Figures, etc, There is good au- thority for two ways of designating the plural of names with titles. One may say the three Miss Browns, or the three Misses Brown. The latter is the more prevalent expression. It is better to make the plural of letters and figures by adding s than by '5. Thus, 6s and 7s are preferred to 6 f s and 7's. (19) The Writer's Blue Book 9, Some Bad Forms, Disremember for do not remember, is bad; gotten is never a proper word; use proved, never proven; ill, never illly; say over, never overly; un- beknown is not a word; and you have a contemptuous (not contemptible) opinion of a man whose conduct is contemptible. When you use either remember that or goes with it as a correlative, but when you use neither, its companion must be nor. Not is also a correlative of nor, as: "He is not drunk, nor half drunk. " The rule is stated by Mr. G. Washington Moon, in his celebrated ' 'Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech/' thus: "Or is the correlative of either', and nor is the correlative of neither and not." The following sentences from the writ- ings of President Jordan, of Stanford, illustrate the correct use: These addresses are designed, not especially for the theologian, nor for the layman; not for the churched nor for the unchurched; not for the Christian, nor for the Jew; but for all who are earnestly interested in these inquiries. Avoid the use of commonplace and slovenly legal phrases in ordinary writing. Such expressions as "the said/' "the af ore- said, " "the same/' "the above," "the un- dersigned," and countless phrases equally old, should not be used in correspond- ence or ordinary writing, whatever their (20) The Writer's Blue Book place (questionable) in legal documents. Writers addicted to these vices fre- quently leave out words and phrases, even the subjects of sentences, as in this: Dear Friend: Went to theatre last night. Saw Harry and mother. All enjoyed play, and hope to see it again. Such carelessness often leads to grave confusion. The writer is the only person who could know whose mother was meant, or who* 'hope to see it again/ It would have been far better if the writer had said that he met Harry and fits mother, and that we or 7 hope to see the play again. 10, Discard Abbreviations, It is a neat and approved style to spell out titles. Doctor and prof esssor should always be spelled in full, and so should general, captain, colonel, major, reverend, and most other titles ex- cept Mr* and Mrs. DeVinne well says that no form of carelessness in writing not even the misuse of capitals so plainly indicates the undisciplined writer as the abuse of abbreviations. The use of the ampersand (&) in the following sense is very frequent, but very bad: "I went home weak & tired." Inst., prox., and ult. are proper in correspondence and other forms of commercial work, but they are out of place in more dignified manuscripts. It is better to spell in full Jas., Jos., (21) The Writer's Blue Book Chas. , Wm. , Geo. , Thos. , and like names, than to print them as here given, or in any other abbreviated form. It is proper to print a. m. and p. m. this way rather than A. M. and P. M. , because the capital letters give the abbreviation too much prominence. II. Who and That, Some nice distinctions in aid of clarity have arisen in the use of "toho and that. Mr. Alfred Ayres, author of 'The Orthoepist, " etc., holds that 'who and which are co-ordinating relative pro- nouns, and that that is the restrictive rela- tive pronoun. He would say that the sen- tence, "I met the watchman that^ showed me the way" is better than "