Clarity and Grace in English Prose

Robert Graves and Alan Hodge  

THE READER OVER YOUR SHOULDER:
A Handbook for Writers of English Prose.

LONDON: Jonathan Cape, 1943 

CLARITY OF STATEMENT

25 Principles 

  1. WHO?  It should always be made clear who 
          is addressing whom, and on the subject of whom.  
  2. WHICH? It should always be made clear 
          which of two or more things already mentioned is 
          being discussed.  
  3. WHAT? Every unfamiliar subject or concept should
          be clearly defined; and neither discussed as if
          the reader knew all about it already nor
          stylistically disguised.  
  4. WHERE? There should never be any doubt left
          as to where something happened or is 
          expected to happen.  
  5. WHEN? There should never be any doubt left 
          as to when.  
  6. HOW MUCH? There should never be any doubt left as to
          how much or how long.  
  7. HOW MANY? There should never be any doubt left as to 
          how many.  
  8. INAPPROPRIATE WORD OR PHRASE. Every word or phrase
          should be appropriate to its context.  
  9. AMBIGUOUS WORD OR PHRASE. No word or phrase should be
          ambiguous.  
 10. MISPLACED WORD OR PHRASE. Every word or phrase should
          be in its right place in the sentence.  
 11. UNINTENTIONAL CONTRAST. No unintentional contrast
          between two ideas should be allowed to 
          suggest itself.  
 12. DUPLICATION. Unless for rhetorical emphasis, or
          necessary recapitulation, no idea should be
          presented more than once in the same prose
          passage.  
 13. SELF-EVIDENT STATEMENT. No statement should be 
          self-evident.  
 14. MATERIAL OMISSION. No important detail should be
          omitted from any phrase, sentence or paragraph.  
 15. UNFULFILLED PROMISE. No phrase should be allowed to
          raise expectations that are not fulfilled.  
 16. UNDEVELOPED THEME. No theme should be suddenly
          abandoned.  
 17. FAULTY CONNEXION. Sentences and paragraphs should be
          linked together logically and intelligibly.  
 18. MISPUNCTUATION. Punctuation should be consistent and
          should denote quality of connexion, rather than
          length of pause, between sentences or parts of
          sentences.  
 19. CONFUSED SEQUENCE OF IDEAS. The order of ideas in a 
          sentence or paragraph should be such that the
          reader need not rearrange them in his mind.  
 20. IRRELEVANCY. No unnecessary idea, phrase or word
          should be included in the sentence.  
 21. FALSE CONTRAST. All antitheses should be true ones.  
 22. OVER-EMPHASIS. Over-emphasis of the illogical sort
          tolerated in conversation should be avoided in
          prose.  
 23. LOGICAL WEAKNESS. Ideas should not contradict one
          another, or violate logic.  
 24. CHANGE OF STANDPOINT. The writer should not, without
          clear warning, change his stand point in the
          course of a sentence or paragragh.  
 25. MIXED CATEGORY. In each list of people or things all
          the words used should belong to the same category
          of ideas.  

GRACE OF EXPRESSION

16 Principles 

 A. MISMATING OF METAPHORS. Metaphors should not be mated
          in such a way as to confuse or distract the
          reader.  
 B. TOO MANY METAPHORS. Metaphors should not be piled on
          top of one another.  
 C. METAPHOR CONFUSED WITH REALITY. Metaphors should not be
          in such close association with unmetaphorical
          language as to produce absurdity or confusion.  
 D. POETICALITY. Characteristically poetical expressions
          should not be used in prose.  
 E. MISMATING OF STYLES. Except where the writer is being
          deliberately facetious, all phrases in a 
          sentence, or sentences in a paragraph, should 
          belong to the same vocabulary or level of
          language.  
 F. OBSCURE REFERENCE. No reference should be unnecessarily
          obscure.  
 G. CIRCUMLOCUTION. All ideas should be expressed
          concisely, but without discourteous abruptness.  
 H. ELEGANT VARIATION. The decriptive title of a person or
          thing should not be varied merely for the sake
          of elegance.  
 I. OVERLONG SENTENCE. Sentences should not be so long that
          the reader loses his way in them.  
 J. MEMORY STRAIN. No unnecessary strain should be put on
          the reader's memory.  
 K. TOO MUCH OF THE SAME WORD. The same word should not be
          so often used in the same sentence or paragraph
          that it becomes tedious.  
 L. JINGLE. Words which rhyme or form a jingle should not
          be allowed to come too close together.  
 M. TOO MUCH ALLITERATION. Alliteration should be 
          sparingly used.  
 N. SAME WORD IN DIFFERENT SENSES. The same word should not
          be used in different senses in the same passage,
          unless attention is called to the difference.  
 O. SECOND THOUGHTS. The rhetorical device of pretending
          to hesitate in a choice between two words or
          phrases is inappropriate to modern prose.  
 P. AWKWARD INVERSION. Even when the natural order of its
          words is modified for the sake of emphasis, a
          sentence must not read unnaturally.