Boil it down

Boil it Down 509

be ultimately forced out, until they close outside of the lower teeth; an apparatussuch as described, modified to suit the peculiarities of the case, might be used toadvantage."

"Of the many practices suggested for the correction of irregularity, thatrecommended by Mr. Bell, of filing the teeth to obtain space, is the most to bedepreciated. Ligatures are also obj ectionable, as the silk or thread used is liableto force its way upon the neck of the tooth and under the gum, producing in­flammation and injury to the parts."

(To be continued.)

Boil It Down

I N too many articles printed in dental journals, the effort seems to be to padwith verbiage. One of the great sins of writers, if not the cardinal sin it­

self, is to employ more words than are necessary to tell the story. This is anage of concentration and condensation, and the man who wants his articles tobe read must learn to eliminate the superfluous. It is the short, crisp, trimmed­to-the-minute article that appeals to the modern reader; the article that goesstraight to the core of the subject and digs out the essential facts, leaving theintroduction and peroration to the imagination. Some articles have so muchintroduction, and such a never-ending conclusion that if the reader wadesthrough all of it he has lost sight of the real essence for which the article wassupposed to be written.

And strangely enough in many instances the verbal excursions in whichwriters indulge have little relation to the subj ect being discussed. There is atendency to ramble, to go off into the by-ways of the subject rather than stickto the main thoroughfare. All of this tends to obscure the meaning which theauthor wishes to convey, and thereby to weaken the force of his argument. Itis safe to say that most articles published in our journals would be greatlystrengthened by being "boiled down." 'vVe once heard a man who is himselfa very prolific writer make the statement that no paper written for a dentalsociety should be longer than 3,500 words. We think that there are exceptionsto this, and that some topics under certain conditions will require a longertreatment than this for their proper elucidation, and yet in the main we be­lieve he was right. The very best paper will become tiresome if it is too long,and what is tiresome to listen to will likely be tiresome to read.

A good plan for a writer is to think intensely on his subject before com­mitting anything to paper. Let him make headings of the various points whichhe wishes to bring out, and then when all is formulated let him put it onpaper. After it is written let him lay it aside for at least a week-better amonth. Then he should deliberately revise the paper and see how much use­less writing he can eliminate from it. It will usually be found that after thefirst flush of composition is over many irrelevant passages can be taken out tothe great improvement of the paper. A writer owes it to his readers that whathe presents for their consideration shall be in the very best form, and whilemany men who have excellent ideas do not find it easy to express them onpaper, yet most of those who write for dental journals can greatly improvetheir produ-ct by a general process of "boiling down."-The Dental Review.