* * * * *

The sin of using trite expressions is equally common among men and women.
There are others which chiefly beset women:--

Undue insistence. I have touched upon this in Chapter II. The remedy is to
use superlatives only under compulsion, and to eschew italics and such
adverbs as "absolutely," "utterly," "positively."

Wordiness. When you have written a paragraph, examine it carefully with
the object of eliminating every word which is not necessary to the
expression of the meaning. Be sure that you have not said the same thing
twice in different words. Keep watch especially against pleonasms. Let
this be your motto: Brevity without baldness.

Undue use of metaphor, simile, and figure. This is a sin to which women
are wofully prone. They commit it with glee, and I have often found it a
most difficult matter to make them realise the absurdities which result
from the practice of it. As an illustration of the ludicrous consequences
of unbridled indulgence in metaphor and simile, I quote the following
extract (not, however, the work of a woman) from a serious and justly
respected newspaper.

"I have gasped in wonder to witness one of Her Majesty's judges forsake--
on very insufficient provocation--the gossamer of recreative conversation,
to upraise a few monumental, I may say memorable, judgments on the subject
of lithography. Now, there are many red rags in the various arts with
which to encompass the discomfiture of the Philistine's bull, and the
raven will always appropriate the feathers of the peacock and look