Don’t Trail Off

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“No syllable ought to end in a large number of unaccented syllables, as ‘comparable,’ ‘exquisitely,’ ‘agreeableness.’ It is best to end with a word which accents the last syllable, or any any rate to have the accent only one syllable from the end. In like matter, we must not close the sentence with a large number of unemphatic words. Thus: ‘I will give my own attention to the matter,’ is much feebler than ‘I will give the matter my own attention'” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 367).

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Jill Smith
Jill Smith
10 years ago

Better, but impossibly prolix nonetheless. What about “I will deal with this myself” or “I will handle this”?

DrewJ
10 years ago

I don’t see how that example fits with his proposed rule

Bernard
Bernard
10 years ago

Perhaps the quote should start, “No sentence…” Or at least some word other than syllable, for a syllable ending in syllables confuses me.

Rob Steele
Rob Steele
10 years ago

It’s a transcription error: “No sentence ought to end …”.