The Mechanics and Rhetoric of Conversation : Page 55

was, will do many things right naturally, which others have to labor hard to achieve artfully. But no one should take for granted that he is blessed with this powerful personality. He should check to make sure. In general terms, he should make sure that he has more complex sentences than compound ones, and that he has approximately twice as many prepositional phrases as main clauses. More accurately and specifically, according to a Thorndike study, good writing for every seven independent statements should have one apposi-tive, five verbals, six subordinate clauses, and fourteen prepositional phrases.2 This is the estimated rhetorical par, the construction for good rhythm in good writing.