Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-05-06
Getting On In
Life
NO. 4-WRlTINe ENGLISH.
By THOMAS TAPER.

The popular custom of keeping a d.
airy is a useful one, even If the book
when filed is never to be printed. It's
usefulness consists in this: That the
habit of writing something every day.
even if it is not more than a report
about the weather. leads to exactness.
And if the writer has any pride, 1t will
lead not only to exactness, but to neat
ness. and certainly to regularity of ac-
ton.
Practice writing is not foolish, par
ticularly if your aim is to improve your
use of English. Few people know how
hard it is for well known authors to
produce a page of writing that reads
easily Charles Dickens went over every
sentence he wrote time and time again,
and his manuscript was full of erasures
and additions. Button, the French
naturalist wrote one of his books If
teen times not by means of typewrit-
ing machine, but with his own hand.
Some authors have made 1t a custom to
carry note book and jot down any
thought they care to consider again.
From the note book they found matter
for their writing.
The fact is, few great writers have
written easily. They have had to grasp
the thought whenever it came, to jot 1t
down in the rough and then to polish
and perfect it afterward. They work
exactly a 5 a man does who is carving a
figure from piece of marble He sue
ceeds because he keeps on chipping the
marble with his hands and watching
the model in his mind all the while
You may never be obliged to do much
writing. but if you want to be a clear
thinker, you can at least do this: Write
out from memory what you remember
about chapter you have been reading.
Or, take a newspaper article you like,
read it two or three times, put it aside,
and then try to write it out in the
shortest form you can
Benjamin Franklin, born in February,
1905, was master hand at this kind of
writing. He tells us in his autobiogra-
| ply exactly how he did it,
I met with an odd volume Of the
SPECTATOR. It was the third I had
never before seen any of them. I
bought it, read it over and over, and
was much delighted with it. I thought
the writing excellent. and wished, if
possible, to initiate it. With this view
took some of the papers. and making
short hints of the sentiment in each
| sentence laid them by a few days. and
then without looking at the book. tried
to complete the papers again. by ex-
| pressing edCl nlnJeQ sentiment at
! length, and as fully as il had been ex-
pressed before, in any suitable words
that should come to hand Then 1 COM
pared my SPECTATOR with the origi-
nal discovered some of my faults. and
corrected them But I found I wanted
a stock of words, or a readiness in rec
ollecting and using them, which
| thought | should have acquired before
that time if I had gone on marking
verses since the continual occasion for
words of the same import, but of diff
ferent length, to suit the measure or if
different sound for tne rhyme would
| have laid me under constant necessity
Of searching for variety. and also have
tended to fix that variety in my mind.
and make me master of it, Therefore.
I took some of the tales and turned
them into verse; and, after a time.
when l had pretty well forgotten the
prose turned them back again I also
sometimes jumbled my collection of
hints into confusion, and after some
weeks endeavored to reduce them into
the best order, before l began to form
| the full sentences and complete the pa
per This was to teach me method in
| the arrangement of thoughts.