Chapter CLXXIII: Section III: Of Precision

Precision consists in avoiding all superfluous words, and adapting the expression exactly to the thought, so as to say, with no deficiency or surplus of terms, whatever is intended by the author. Its opposites are noticed in the following precepts.

PRECEPT I.--Avoid a useless tautology, either of expression or of sentiment; as, "When will you return _again_?"--"We returned _back_ home _again_."--"On entering _into_ the room, I saw _and discovered_ he had fallen _down_ on the floor and could not _rise_ up."--"They have a _mutual_ dislike to each other."--"Whenever I go, he _always_ meets me there."--"Where is he _at? In_ there."--"His faithfulness _and fidelity_ should be rewarded."

PRECEPT II.--Repeat words as often as an exact exhibition of your meaning requires them; for repetition may be elegant, if it be not useless. The following example does not appear faulty: "Moral _precepts_ are _precepts_ the reasons of which we see; positive _precepts_ are _precepts_ the reasons of which we do not see."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 165.

PRECEPT III.--Observe the exact meaning of words accounted synonymous, and employ those which are the most suitable; as, "A diligent scholar may _acquire_ knowledge, _gain_ celebrity, _obtain_ rewards, _win_ prizes, and _get_ high honour, though he _earn_ no money." These six verbs have nearly the same meaning, and yet no two of them can here be correctly interchanged.

PRECEPT IV.--Observe the proper form of each word, and do not confound such as resemble each other. "Professor J. W. Gibbs, of Yale College," in treating of the "Peculiarities of the Cockney Dialect," says, "The Londoner sometimes confounds two different forms; as _contagious_ for _contiguous; eminent_ for _imminent; humorous_ for _humorsome; ingeniously_ for _ingenuously; luxurious_ for _luxuriant; scrupulosity_ for _scruple; successfully_ for _successively_."--See _Fowler's E. Gram._, p. 87; and Pref., p. vi.

PRECEPT V.--Think clearly, and avoid absurd or incompatible expressions. Example of error: "To pursue _those_ remarks, would, _probably_, be of no further _service_ to the learner than _that of burdening his memory_ with a catalogue of dry and _uninteresting_ peculiarities; _which may gratify curiosity_, without affording information adequate to the trouble of the perusal."--_Wright's Gram._, p. 122.

PRECEPT VI.--Avoid words that are useless; and, especially, a multiplication of them into sentences, members, or clauses, that may well be spared. Example: "If one could _really_ be a spectator of what is passing in the world _around us_ without taking part in the events, _or sharing in the passions and actual performance on the stage; if we could set ourselves down, as it were, in a private box of the world's great theatre, and quietly look on at the piece that is playing, no more moved than is absolutely implied by sympathy with our fellow-creatures, what a curious, what an amusing_, what an interesting spectacle would life present."--G. P. R. JAMES: "_The Forger_," commencement of Chap. xxxi. This sentence contains _eighty-seven_ words, "of which _sixty-one_ are entirely unnecessary to the expression of the author's idea, if idea it can be called."--_Holden's Review_.

OBSERVATION.

Verbosity, as well as tautology, is not so directly opposite to precision, as to conciseness, or brevity. From the manner in which lawyers usually multiply terms in order to express their facts _precisely_, it would seem that, with them, precision consists rather in the use of _many_ words than of _few_. But the ordinary style of legal instruments no popular writer can imitate without becoming ridiculous. A terse or concise style is very apt to be elliptical: and, in some particular instances, must be so; but, at the same time, the full expression, perhaps, may have more _precision_, though it be less agreeable. For example: "A word of one syllable, is called a monosyllable; a word of two syllables, _is called_ a dissyllable: a word of three syllables, _is called_ a trisyllable: a word of four or more syllables, _is called_ a polysyllable."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 19. Better, perhaps, thus: "A word of one syllable is called a _monosyllable_; a word of two syllables, a _dissyllable_; a word of three syllables, a _trissyllable_; and a word of four or more syllables, a _polysyllable_."--_Brown's Institutes_, p. 17.