The Mechanics and Rhetoric of Conversation : Page 56

It is true that in good conversation the par, the number of subordinate elements to main clauses, would not be so high. Nevertheless, the tabulation for good writing emphasizes the importance of proper subordination and gives the self-improving conversationalist some standard toward which to move. To put all this more simply and practically, however, if you find that when you have three ideas on your mind, you generally push them all into three main or independent clauses, then you lack proper prose rhythm. If you say, "I was tired, but I did not want to go to bed, so I read a short story," you are pushing each of the three ideas into a main clause. According to the Thorndike study, one of them should probably have been a phrase, and another a subordinate clause. Many constructions like that make any speaker appear garrulous or dull. If the three ideas had been weighed for relative importance and then ranked grammatically as follows, "Being tired, but not yet willing to go to bed, I read a short story," the effect would have been tonic, it would have exhibited an edge of liveliness. Hearers would