If you indulge in a long sentence, be sure that you keep it well in hand. The longer you allow a sentence to run, the greater is the danger that it will run away with you. A short sentence is easier to manage, and is more likely to be a unit.

Occasionally short sentences need to be combined. A glance shows that for the following material one sentence is better than three:

369. (1) Copy from your writing five of the longest sentences you can find, and rewrite any into which you have crowded ideas which have no close connection.

(2) Turn this runaway compound sentence into two complex sentences:

When school began we made new acquaintances, but "our friend in need" became a chum to me, but he was rather old for my brother who made friends for himself among the members of his class.

370. See whether, in the last piece of writing you have done, there are any such scrappy sentences as these. What suggestions might improve them?

The lady Rowena was tall and had a fair complexion. Her eyes were blue. She loved to wear rich clothes. She was well built and of a noble family. She had a fine set of teeth. She had no parents and was under the care of Cedric.

371. Rewrite the paragraphs given below, combining them in order to avoid the scrappy effect and omitting useless words (see sect. 123).

1. Last summer I was invited to join a motor boat party. This party consisted of seven boys and our motor chauffeur.

2. The captain is quarterback. He is a strong, muscular fellow, but not very tall. His name is Marsh.

3. One day I brought a steel rod to school with me, which was about . one quarter of an inch in diameter. I intended to make a chisel gauge such as carpenters use out of it.

4. Some days I like to play marbles with the boys. We would begin by "popping" a marble. Getting tired of that we would play "bunny." After a while we would play "blum," or "piggy," as some call it. This is my favorite game with marbles.

5. Last summer a friend and I often went to the Franklin Park golf links. We walked over the links with the players, having a great deal of fun hunting for golf balls. After going over the links several times or more, we began to know or understand how to play the game. One hot day we went over the links with an old man. He let the boy who was with me try his luck at hitting the ball. He did pretty well for the first time. Then he let me try it. I got everything ready, took good aim and whacked at it, but I missed. I did this three or four times. But every one was laughing at me, so I made up my mind I would hit it and I did. But in taking good aim I did not put all the strength I could into it. The result was that the golf ball went only a few yards. But the next time I did a little better, although it was not much to talk about.

6. Uncas was the son of Chingachgook. He was the deadly enemy of Magua and loved Cora. He was quick of foot and could see everything. On his breast was tattooed the sign of a turtle. He and Chingachgook were the last of the Mohicans. Magua killed him after Cora had been slain.

118. Ways Of Securing Unity

It will be helpful to keep in mind these ways of securing unity:

1. A sentence is likely to be a unit if it is simple or complex rather than compound.

2. We need to give special attention to a compound sentence in order to keep out ideas which are not closely connected.

3. We should keep the construction of the sentence uniform.

4. A short sentence is more likely to be a unit than a long sentence.