This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
The next point which we have to consider is
the correction of our work, which is by far the most
useful portion of our study: for there is good reason
for the view that erasure is quite as important a
[p. 111]
function of the pen as actual writing. Correction
takes the form of addition, excision and alteration.
But it is a comparatively simple and easy task to
decide what is to be added or excised. On the
other hand, to prune what is turgid, to elevate
what is mean, to repress exuberance, arrange what
is disorderly, introduce rhythm where it is lacking,
and modify it where it is too emphatic, involves a
twofold labour. For we have to condemn what had
previously satisfied us and discover what had escaped
our notice.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.