Hoe te schrijven?
| 1. | Write as you speak; say exactly what you feel; and in the same way as you would speak if your correspondent were beside you.
(Cowper, writing to Lady Hesketh, said that he liked talking letters, such as hers; and her rule was to write what comes uppermost.) |
| 2. | Use the simplest words you can find; avoid fine-sounding, dictionary words. For example ‘He went home’, is much better than ‘He proceeded to his residence’, ‘He read the book’ is preferable to ‘He perused the volume’.
(If several words expressing the same idea occur to you, prefer, as a rule, the shortest and commonest in the first instance.) |
| 3. | Use the right words to express the ideas in your mind. For example ‘England and Scotland were joined in 1707’ is incorrect. These two countries have always been joined.
(But it is correct to say: E.a. Sc. were united in 1707. Because etc.) |
| 4. | Put the words and members in the right places. |
| 5. | Let your sentences be short. In a long sentence a number of points are presented to the mind in combination at one time. In short sentences each point is presented separately. |
| 6. | Never use two words, when your meaning may be fully expressed by one. |
| 7. | Say all you wish to say on one subject before passing to another. |
Uit No. V van The Royal Readers, Engelsch Schoolboek, Londen 1896, pag. 141.
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