Vices of Modern Prose

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R.W. Chapman (1881-1960), The Portrait of a Scholar and Other Essays Written in Macedonia 1916-1918 (London: Oxford University Press, 1922), p. 115:

The most serious vices of modern prose are indifference to the etymology and proper meaning of words; neglect of order and rhythm; impatience of anything that can be called inversion; love of periphrastic prepositions; a tendency to prefer the abstract to the concrete and to use nouns instead of verbs; and an indolent acquiescence in worn-out phrases.