Of course the strictly critical style may be united with
almost any other. We are presenting pure types; but very
seldom does it happen that any composition ordinarily produced
belongs to any one pure type. Criticism would be dull without
the enlivening effects of some appeal to the emotions. We shall
Illustrate this point in a quotation from Ruskin.
The critical style has just one secret: It depends on a very close
definition of work in ordinary use, words do not have a sufficiently
definite meaning for scientific purposes. Therefore in scientific
writing it is necessary to define them exactly, and so change common
words into technical terms. To these may be added the great body of
words used in no other way than as technical terms.
Of course our first preparation for criticism is to master the technical
terms and technical uses of words peculiar to the subject we are treating.
Then we must make it clear to the reader that we are using words in their
technical senses so that he will know how to interpret them.
But beyond that we must make technical terms as we go along, by defining
common words very strictly.
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