Have you, my amiable male reader, felt secretly annoyed when your friends—­probably your wife and certainly your physician—­have suggested that you cut your daily diet of Havanas in two, feeling that your intimate acquaintance with yourself constituted you a better judge of such matters than they?  Have you felt that your physician’s advice to spend at least three-quarters of an hour at lunch was good advice for somebody else, but that you had neither time nor inclination for it?  Have you felt that you would like to take a month’s vacation, but with so many “irons in the fire” things would go to smash if you did?  Do you know what it is to lie awake at night and plan your campaign for the following day?  Then you are getting ready for an enforced vacation.

    (9)

    (Leslie’s Weekly)

    TAKING THE STARCH OUT OF THE MARCH

    BY GERALD MYGATT

Don’t most of us—­that is, those of us who are unfamiliar with army life and with things military in general—­don’t most of us picture marching troops as swinging down a road in perfect step, left arms moving in unison, rifles held smartly at the right shoulder, head and eyes straight to the front (with never so much as a forehead wrinkled to dislodge a mosquito or a fly), and with the band of the fife-and-drum corps playing gaily at the head of the column?  Of course we do.  Because that’s the way we see them on parade.

A march is a far different thing.  A march is simply the means of getting so many men from one place to another in the quickest time and in the best possible condition.  And it may astonish one to be told that marching is the principal occupation of troops in the field—­that it is one of the hardest things for troops to learn to do properly, and that it is one of the chief causes of loss.

ADDRESSING THE READER DIRECTLY.  A direct personal appeal makes a good opening for an article.  The writer seems to be talking to each reader individually instead of merely writing for thousands.  This form of address may seem to hark back to the days of the “gentle reader,” but its appeal is perennial.  To the pronoun “you” may be added the designation of the particular class of readers addressed, such as “You, mothers,” or “You, Mr. Salaried Man.”  The imperative verb is perhaps the strongest form of direct address.  There is danger of overdoing the “do-this-and-don’t-do-that” style, particularly in articles of practical guidance, but that need not deter a writer from using the imperative beginning occasionally.

    DIRECT ADDRESS BEGINNINGS

    (1)

    (New York Times)

    SMALL CHANCE FOR DRAFT DODGERS IF DOCTORS KNOW THEIR BUSINESS