Words which add nothing either to the meaning or to the color of a sentence should be ruthlessly cut from our oral and written compositions. A sentence cannot be effective if it is cumbered with words which do not have a definite part to perform in the expression of the thought.

Exercise

400. Be prepared to improve the following sentences by omitting useless words, and making other desirable changes:

1. Referring to your letter of March 10th to Mr. Bates, I would say that he has asked me to answer it for him.

2. You can never rely on what you read in their advertisements.

3. The short daily items by Dunbar that appear every morning are always interesting.

4. With regard to the pages containing murders, robberies, etc., I do not pay much attention to them, but I have no doubt they make interesting reading to many persons.

5. If a young man will attend to his studies while in school, he will have a better chance later, after he graduates, to make a mark for himself in the world.

6. I spent last summer on an island in Squam Lake, New Hampshire. This island being completely surrounded by water, we had to reach the mainland in a boat.

7. Each and every one of us worked with a will.

8. Most all of the rocks were so large that they could not be rolled off the field.

9. Hawkeye was a man who was really white, but who prided himself on knowing more than most Indians. '

10. A horse fell down into a drain which was being dug for a water main.

11. When forced to open up a penny shop, Hepzibah felt very bad.

12. It is a poem that I have known for a good many years, and I never tire of it.

13. Two little twin brothers live in the house opposite to mine.

14. The government has established retreats for the homeless old veterans of the Civil War.

15. My cousin lives in a picturesque little hamlet high up among the New Hampshire hills.

16. It seems to me that I have seen you somewhere before.

17. The old widower was a man who had lived alone so long that he hated company.

18. Juvenile courts are as yet new experiments, but rapid progress is being made in establishing them on a firm and solid foundation.

19. James never appreciated at its full value his opportunity on the farm.

20. Will you be kind enough to repeat the lesson again ?