Handbook of Rhetorical Analysis e-bog

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The selections that make up this Handbook, while fairly representative, so far as they go, of the authors from whose works they are taken, are not to be regarded as introductions to the authors as such, still less as studies in the history and development of English prose literature. They are simply, as the title indicates, extracts to be analyzed, in style and structure, for the purpose of forming, from actual examples, some intelligent conception of what the making of good literature involves: taken from, the best writers, because it is safer to study models of excellence than examples of error; taken from several writers, because it is not wise to make an exclusive model of any one author's work, however excellent; and taken for the most part from recent writers, not because these are better than writers of earlier time, but because they are more likely to illustrate the usages practically needed in this century.<br><br>I think, as far as my observation has gone, says Mr. John Morley, that men will do better for reaching precision by studying carefully and with an open mind and a vigilant eye the great models of writing, than by excessive practice of writing on their own account. In a general way such testimony as this to the value of the study of literary models is universal. Biographies of authors are full of it; reports, gleaned from every available source, of books which have influenced me, and accounts of the great literary works which have been at eminent writers' elbows, constant companions and inspirers, are eagerly read and treasured for their helpfulness to workers' who aspire to like eminence. But while the question of the what is so copiously answered, the question of the how remains for the most part unapproached.