# Which named failure modes of over- and under-emphasis does Sargent give in Chapter XLVII, and what is his 'implied promise' rule for avoiding them?

- id: art_01M5MX8EJ7BK5NKBWXPK3ZBKHC
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T01 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T17:34:38.655Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MX8EJ7BK5NKBWXPK3ZBKHC

1916 practice: Sargent's core rule is that to emphasise an action is to give an implied promise that it will yield a result in proportion to its prominence; if the promise is broken there will be resentment (paras 5-7). His named failures: the key act scarcely noticed (para 3); the prominent fist fight that leads nowhere, and the author who is then judged weak in other respects (para 5); the motiveless action, like firing at nothing (para 7); the 'April fool' incident that loses the spectator's faith (para 7); coaxing the spectator to dislike a villain (para 4); acting too quickly (para 8); a lengthy leader (para 3); and, at the end, false values leaving the play 'a veritable cripple' (para 14).

1916 practice: Sargent's core rule is that to emphasise an action is to give an implied promise that it will yield a result in proportion to its prominence; if the promise is broken there will be resentment (paras 5-7). His named failures: the key act scarcely noticed (para 3); the prominent fist fight that leads nowhere, and the author who is then judged weak in other respects (para 5); the motiveless action, like firing at nothing (para 7); the 'April fool' incident that loses the spectator's faith (para 7); coaxing the spectator to dislike a villain (para 4); acting too quickly (para 8); a lengthy leader (para 3); and, at the end, false values leaving the play 'a veritable cripple' (para 14).

Curator qualifications: Value and emphasis rules are verified as Sargent's text: the implied promise that prominence will pay off, emphasis methods, and character importance by plot connection. The bounded negatives hold on whole-word counts.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://archive.org/stream/techniqueofphoto00sarg/techniqueofphoto00sarg_djvu.txt",
      "note": "sar.flat (a3cff7eb) ch. XLVII offsets per candidate"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] 1916 practice: Sargent's core rule is that to emphasise an action is to give an implied promise that it will yield a result in proportion to its prominence; if the promise is broken there will be resentment (paras 5-7). His named failures: the key act scarcely noticed (para 3); the prominent fist fight that leads nowhere, and the author who is then judged weak in other respects (para 5); the motiveless action, like firing at nothing (para 7); the 'April fool' incident that loses the spectator's faith (para 7); coaxing the spectator to dislike a villain (para 4); acting too quickly (para 8); a lengthy leader (para 3); and, at the end, false values leaving the play 'a veritable cripple' (para 14). · locator: sar.flat (a3cff7eb) ch. XLVII offsets per candidate · source: https://archive.org/stream/techniqueofphoto00sarg/techniqueofphoto00sarg_djvu.txt

Rights:
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