I have a question on colon usage. I would like to introduce a question in an email by saying "My question for you is this..." Do i put a colon after '"this" and then immediately ask the question--starting with a lowercase letter?
@Harry Up to you, really; you can if you'd like to. You can also use a comma. You can also use a capital letter. These things are not writ on stone tablets.
@Abcd I instinctively avoid such writing, so I can't point you to any from memory. This website may give you some clues. I can't give you an opinion about Ruskin Bond, since I have never read him and quotes don't give you a feel for a writer. If you can point to a reasonable amount of text, I may be able to tell you.
> “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”
Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
That is a very well-known example of "purple prose".
Whats the correct way to say : He was regarded as a thief and called a villain by the peasants or He was regarded as a thief and was called a villain by the peasants.
@Mick You can read THe Tiger in THe Tunnel - a short story by him
and let me know if it's purple prose
I personally feel that the term is too subjective. What x finds purple prose may be like by y
Looking at the second paragraph: > There was no moon that night, and the deathly stillness of the surrounding jungle was broken only occasionally by the shrill cry of a cicada. Sometimes from far off came the hollow hammering of a woodpecker, carried along on the faint breeze. Or the grunt of a wild boar could be heard as he dug up a favourite root. But these sounds were rare, and the silence of the forest always returned to swallow them up.
In the mean time @AndrewLeach can you tell me what's the correct way to say the statement : He was regarded as a thief and called a villain by the peasants or He was regarded as a thief and was called a villain by the peasants.
I can see some adjectives that could be discarded to tighten up the prose: deathly stillness, shrill cry, hollow hammering, and faint breeze. It could be argued that all of the adjectives could be omitted without spoiling the text, and perhaps might improve it by making it tighter.
If the author had carried on in this vein, then yes, it would indeed make for "purple" (or flowery) prose, but he then stops. The rest of his text is quite serviceable and eminently readable.
@Abcd I wouldn't repeat was. In fact I'd probably say "He was regarded as a thief and villain by the peasants." But I'm quite economical. It's a matter of style. Both are correct.
@Abcd You have to ask yourself why he doesn't carry on in the same way? He certainly doesn't, and if he doesn't carry on like that, why do it in the first place. Maybe he is teasing any alert literary critics.
It's easy to over-analyse. To answer your question, Ruskin Bond does not write flowery prose (if that example is anything to go by), but he makes it quite clear that he knows how to in his opening paragraphs. Full marks to him.
@Abcd of course these things are subjective. The general rule is, basically, don't say "he actuated the opening mechanism and gained entry to the chamber" when you could instead write "he opened the door and stepped into the room".
There are times when flowery prose is appropriate and when it can make what you're writing better, but there are (very often) times when it just makes it worse.
And it is easy to fall into the trap of attempting to make your prose sound sophisticated and elegant when, in fact, managing only to make it sound stilted, unnatural and pompous.
Alright . Lets take the same example. What if I say the gold sun was shimmering in the azure sky thereby spreading its beams that provided warmth like the flames of fire on a winter night.
@terdon I hope you remember the earlier one that we discussed about.
@terdon Are you referring to this one : The gold sun was shimmering in the azure sky thereby spreading its beams that provided warmth like the flames of fire on a winter night
The sun doesn't really shimmer. The sky is rarely azure instead of blue, thereby doesn't fit there, beams don't really spread and the whole thing reads like you're trying to show off.
You are trying to take a perfectly good sentence and complexify it to death.
@Abcd No, not at all. It will almost certainly make it worse. That's what I'm trying to explain. Making your sentences more complicated will most often make them harder to read and reduce the quality of your prose.
Yes, great writers can write great sentences. Sometimes because they use fancy words. Other times because they use the most simple.
@Abcd "The sky is soft as it has fluffy clouds." Yes, it is. The problem is that everyone knows that, so you are not telling your reader anything new, unless you are writing for children.
Writing is incredibly hard work, and it takes years of practice to get it right. I think it was Hemingway who said that if he detected some words or a turn of phrase that he particularly liked in his writing, he would force himself to get rid of it because he knew that it would be no good.
For sure, you need to read, but mostly you need to write.
I was all at sea when asked to write essays at school. I didn't have an idea in my head. Why ask someone who knows next to nothing to write about what he thinks?
Do you write precises (summaries - not sure of the plural)? These are easier, in my opinion. Pick a Wikipedia article and summarise it in 100, 200, 300 words. This should help you to be economical with words.
It sounds like you need to read some essayists (but probably modern ones). The problem is, I've spent most of my life with my head stuck in science fiction books, not literature.
Why should they be? It's your own ideas that matter. Only quote other people if it helps you to develop your argument. However, you can't write in a vacuum.
@Abcd They can make a good springboard: "All men are created equal", wrote Thomas Jefferson in the American Constitution. "Quite so. Now. What's your point?", thinks the reader. However,... (the rest is up to you.)
For the essayist, the only thing worth writing about is the human condition, I think. No matter what your subject, if you don't reflect upon that, you've failed. Love, hatred, war, peace, hope, disappointment, faithfulness, betrayal, honesty, deceit, childhood, parenthood, marriage, divorce, death and taxes.
I you want to write about spring, flowers and rabbits, all you'll end up doing is chasing pretty adjectives. Essays must be more than descriptive.
@Mick What about the example I just mentioned. For instance, I have to write an essay on the importance of burying the dead past and I begin by quoting A. Tennyson's poem "Ring Out Wild Bells" 's one stanza
If you read the columnists in British newspapers (and they are really just essayists), a lot a of what they write about is their own frustration (which is a perfectly valid topic).
All those prodigies present in this chat room. I sincerely request you to state your favourite poem. (Pablo Neruda/Wordsworth/Shakespeare.. broaden your horizons as wide as you can).
@Abcd Well, if you are going to write about loss and want to quote Tennyson, then you'd better read up on his relationship with Arthur Hallam and consider whether it might have been homosexual. The jury seems to be out on that one, btw.
I think that "Ring out wild bells" is far too hackneyed, full of Blighty and almost jingoistic. "Break, break, break" is, imo, a much better piece, and the ending sublime. "But the tender grace of a day that is dead will never come back to me."
I am sorry if I happen to break any guidelines of LiterateSE. I will stay in my defined limits and not irritate the individuals of this chat. Apologies are in order. Sorry for being curious.
@Mick No! Please, don't say that! Don't join the ignorant and judgmental masses. Science fiction is literature. It's just not straight fiction. And yes, it is a genre sadly overflowing with bad and "meh" authors, but there are also some gems in there.
When even the people who like it draw a line between scifi and "literature", the battle is already lost!
@Mick Actually I was trying to explore some amazing poems. There couldnt be a better way to ask the literature prodigies around the globe themselves than searching google. I found some masterpieces that the world considers such as 'A thing of beauty' and I'd be more than happy to know your views regarding it. :)
The problem with "Among other things..." is that you leave your reader wondering "what other things" without saying what they are. Don't do that. "In a pile of rubbish near the ruins, they found an old sword."
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…