n desirable for the sake of brevity, but one must be
sure never to omit a word or phrase unless precisely that word or phrase
may be readily supplied from the context.

=157. Clearness in the Sentence.=--After correct grammar, the next
points to seek in writing the sentence are clearness and force, which
together give a sentence its interest. Of the two, clearness is the more
important. A reporter should never write a sentence that must be read
twice to be understood. As has been said once or twice already, but may
be repeated for emphasis, news stories to-day are read rapidly, and
rapid reading is possible only when sentences yield their ideas with
small effort on the part of the reader. Consider the following:

|The Assembly on Thursday refused to pass the Grell |
|Bill, permitting the sale of intoxicating liquors, |
|after the close of the polls on election days, over |
|the governor's veto. |

This sentence is clear if one will stop to read it twice; but there is
the trouble: one must read it twice--a task few will perform.

=158. Grammatically Connected Phrases.=--The lack of entire clearness in
the sentence just quoted is due to a difficulty over which the best
writers often stumble,--failure to keep grammatically connected words,
phrases, and clauses as close together as possible. In the sentence
quoted, for instance, if the phrase _over the governor's veto_ were
placed immediately after _pass_, the whole sentence would be clear at
once to the reader. The same fault exists in the following:

|The witness said she had a furnished bedroom for a |
|gentleman 22 feet long by 11 feet wide. |

=159. Correlative Conjunctions.=--The correlative conjunctions, _either
... or_, _neither ... nor_, _whether ... or_, and _not only ... but
also_, are also particularly liable to trip a writer. Each should come
immediately before the word or phrase it modifies. For example:

|Either the prisoner will be hanged or sentenced to |
|life imprisonment. |

This sentence obviously is wrong. _Either_ here should come immediately
before _hanged_, making the sentence read:

|The prisoner will be either hanged or sentenced to |
|life imprisonment. |

=160. "Only" and "Alone."=--_Only_ and _alone_ belong in the same class
of modifiers that demand close watching. _Only_ comes immed