^B 5Sfi bDS i GIFT OF ^^^s^x^iw^ M(!A^ ~f 7 ^ - O . /oA/ COMPOSITION PLANNING BY JOHN BAKER OPDYCKE HIGH SCHOOL OF COMMERCE, NEW YORK CITY Well he^un is half done D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK CHICAGO S,o Copyright, 191 3, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY TO MY SISTER 258577 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/compositionplannOOopdyrich PREFACE The author of this manual is strongly of the belief that it is the business of text-books only to suggest ; of teachers, to direct and guide; and of pupils, to work. No attempt has been made in the following pages to "say it all". The most that has been attempted is to be wisely suggestive, more work being left for the teacher to do than has been done by the author, and much more being left for the pupil than has been delegated to the teacher. The illustrative material has, therefore, been kept at a minimum, it being much better for the pupil to seek and find his own illustra- tions for principles he has studied than to have them served up for him. Particularly has it been the intention to throw him on his own responsibility in the last four or five chapters of the book. Here the knowledge gleaned from the earlier chapters should stand him in such stead, if he has done the work faithfully, as to enable him to proceed in planning the various types of composition with but little suggestion and guidance. His progress always, everywhere, means the mastery of elementary details to such a degree that he can proceed with fewer and fewer of such details as he pursues any subject. However, consecutiveness of development along any hard and fixed line is impossible in so fluid a subject as English composition. It may be necessary, it may indeed be very wise, to ignore the order in which the various sub- jects are treated, and to take them up for study most irregu- larly. This depends, of course, upon the individual needs of pupils. It is quite conceivable, for instance, that Chapter X should precede Chapter II; that Chapter V should per- VI PREFACE haps follow Chapter IX ; and so on. These are matters that every teacher must settle for each and every individual class. It too frequently happens that teachers make the mistake of allowing consecutive numbering of chapters and pages to determine the order which a student's career of learning must follow. This, it need not be said, is very often a most serious blunder. The first aim must always be to get at the teaching point with the pupil, wherever in the book (or out of it) that may mean to begin. The object' in the present book is not to teach how to write, but to teach how to go about writing, how to pre- pare to write, how to begin to write. For this reason it is advised that a good grammar or rhetoric be used along with the Composition Planning, as a supplement. At any rate spelling, punctuation, and their many kindred subjects must always be taught, whether their teaching be provided from books or, what is better, from the teacher's own ingenuity. Composition work in our schools has come into more or less bad repute, not because the market has not been sup- plied with composition books, but largely because pupils have been allowed, and therefore have been taught, to write and say things before properly meditating or consid- ering them. We complain of our youth, especially in our cities, for being "rattle-brained", confused, unsettled in their thinking. This is but the natural outcome of the many- sided interests that modern life with all its complexities is charged with. Add to this condition the indefiniteness, the fluidity of a subject such as English, and there arises a situ- ation of the greatest possible bewilderment. But instead of being a detriment, all of this may be turned to a most wholesome opportunity indeed, if properly controlled and managed. The mental range and activity of our modern youth, applied under able guidance and direction to the PREFACE Vll problem of oral and written expression, can be made pro- ductive of results unequaled by those in any other field of study. No one is justified in denying that the harvest will be fully worthy of the most careful planting and nurturing. It is this problem to which the present work devotes itself. It aims to give the pupil control and mastery of his knowl- edge and through this mastery to organize that knowledge in such a way as best to present it to others. Among the many faults of the book the author antici- pates that it will be criticised most severely because it makes composition building too mechanical and artificial. He sees that this may possibly be a justifiable criticism. But he has already said that much has been left for the teacher to do, and he wishes to point out at once that, among the many things he looks to the teacher to accomplish, none is more important than the rescue of the pupil from any harmful mechanical or artificial tendencies which may be super- induced by the following chapters. He has aimed to make a very indefinite and uncertain subject a little more defi- nite, a little more mechanical, if you please. In trying to do this he may have erred on the other side. If so, he has but paid the teacher the compliment of presenting oppor- tunity to prove efficiency. He believes, however, that the average pupil will sooner or later seek and find his own fluent medium of expression the better for having been almost mathematical in his fundamental work in English composition. The author wishes to thank the following publishers for their courtesy in permitting him to quote from copy- righted works : Messrs. D. Appleton and Company, Messrs. Longmans, Green and Company, The Macmillan Company, and Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons. J. B. O. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PLANNING. PAGE Its Origin — Its General Use — Its Value i CHAPTER II. THE RUNNING PLAN. Sequence — Proportion — Subordination — The Graphic or Pic- ture Plan — Adherence — Exercise CHAPTER III. THE INFORMAL PLAN. Selection and Rejection of Material — Generic and Specific Words — Arrangement — Uniformity — Exercise . i8 CHAPTER IV. THE FORMAL PLAN. Extensive Subordination or Subdivision — Scope — Tabula- tion — The Running-graphic Plan — Exercise . . 35 X CONTENTS CHAPTER V. THE PARAGRAPH PLAN. PAGE Conversation — Topic and Summary Sentences — Key-words — Echo-words — The Paragraph-Composition Plan — Topic, Summary, and Subordinate Paragraphs — Methods of Paragraph Development — The Composite Paragraph — Exercise . . . 56 CHAPTER VI. OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE. The Topical Plan— The Phrasal Plan— The Clausal Plan— The Sentence Plan — Various Plans Combined and Inter- changed — The Deductive or Study Plan — The Bracket Plan — The Parallel Plan — The Headline Plan — Exercise 85 CHAPTER VII. POINT OF VIEW AND PURPOSE. Explanation of Point of View — Kinds of Point of View — Purpose — Its Uses and Abuses — Exercise . ,. . 120 CHAPTER VIII. THE letter plan. Kinds of Letters — Value of Planning — Parts of Letter — Form of Letter — Punctuation of Parts — Brief Illustra- tive Plans for Different Kinds of Letters — Exercise . 137 CONTENTS xi CHAPTER IX. THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION. PAGE Titles and Subjects — Form of Written Work — Sentences, Paragraphs, Words — Sequence — Coherence — Unity — Em- phasis — Variety — Exercise 174 CHAPTER X. '•* the oral composition. Form — Position — Voice — Breathing — Gestures — Concentra- tion — Pronunciation — Grammar — Usage — Conversation — Extemporaneous Speaking — Prepared Speeches — Ex- ercise 196 CHAPTER XI. THE KINDS OF COMPOSITION. Definitions — Relations — Plans — Exercise .... 219 CHAPTER XIL THE EXPOSITORY PLAN. Definition — Relation to Description — Plain Exposition — In- verted Exposition — Narrative Exposition — Enumerative Exposition — The Character Sketch — Exercise . . 225 xii CONTENTS CHAPTER XIII. THE NARRATIVE PLAN. PAGE Definition — Parts of Narration — Slow Narration — Rapid Narration — Forms of Outline — Introduction and Conclu- sion in Narration — Biography and Autobiography — Ex- ercise . . . ' . . . . . . . 246 CHAPTER XIV. the descriptive plan. Definition — General Descriptive Plan — Point of View — Irreg- ular Forms of Plan — Simple Description — Description by Comparison — Description by Effects — Illustrative Plans — Exercise . . 265 CHAPTER XV. THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN. Definition — Terms of Argument — Arrangement of Material — Order of Discussion — Single Debate — Team Debate — Partition of Argument — Rebuttal or Refutation — Exer- cise 290 CHAPTER XVI. THE DRAMATIC PLAN. Methods of Discourse — Indirect — Direct — Dramatic — Punc- tuation — The Dramatic Plan (Scenario) — The Character Cast — Specimen Plans — The Stage Setting — Stage Di- rections — Exercise 314 COMPOSITION PLANNING CHAPTER I PLANNING Order is Nature's first law. We have often heard that statement without understanding fully perhaps its true sig- nificance. Probably it is impossible for us ever to under- stand it fully. But so far as we are able to see with our limited vision we can discern without much difficulty that the phenomena about us, — the rising and the setting of the sun, the alternation of the seasons, the ebb and flood of the tides, the growth and development of animal and plant life, the regular recurrence of night and day, the rhythmic beat- ing of our own hearts, — all observe laws of order and har- mony which are necessary to their well-being and to that of our little world. If this order be interfered with to the slightest degree, confusion results. And from this we are led to believe that there has been a plan which we call the Divine Plan; that there has been an organization promul- gated by a greater Organizer. If this were not so, we should justifiably expect the stars to tumble down upon us higgledy-piggledy; we should likewise expect to have win- ter put in an appearance when summer is due; to have trees grow root upward; to have our hearts beat rapidly one day and then take a rest for a day or two. In short, we should have an unendurable chaos, were the great natu- ral order or plan of things to be disturbed for an instant. I 2 ,. ; : ♦: ;• .CQMPaSITlON PLANNING Now, man is aware that he owes his very being to this inevitable order and he accordingly plans or organizes his work after his Teacher. He has learned very well indeed, by much bitter experience, that he can hope for no success- ful outcome of his efforts unless he spends some time medi- tating upon the method best calculated to bring about their realization. He plans, he organizes, he outlines roughly at first, he tries and tries and tries again to frame a workable scheme or order; then, having hit upon the one, he goes to work and produces the long-dreamed-of thing with ease. Does he long for a house in which to live ? Very well ; he has often been caught by storm and been obliged to find shelter beneath the friendly old tree in his path. Now he looks upward and studies the tree. He sees that its shape is conical, that the water runs off from leaf to leaf, keeping him quite dry, and he notices also that the whole^ is sup- ported by a pole called the trunk running straight from the ground to the apex. Therefore, he goes to the spot where he thinks he would like to live and builds for himself a hut or tent. Does he want to build a bridge over the large stream which runs before his new home? Naturally. He has noticed that Nature bridges that stream every winter and that the bridge is strong enough to bear his own weight and that of his burden also. He watches the process. He sees that she begins to build not in the mid- dle, but at either shore, and that she braces the shore con- struction by dovetailing ledges of ice down the banks. Moreover, he notices that the bridge, when it is finally done, and the middle portion is secure, is arched. He does not know just why as yet, but he goes to work and builds his bridge in accordance with Nature's ploM, and behold! one day the huge spans across the East River are the result of his observation and his planning. So carefully has he PLANNING 3 learned to plan that before a single particle of dirt is turned for the most wonderful bridge in the world, every bolt, every wire, every item, however minute it may be, of that immense structure is accounted for in the plan he has drawn up on paper. If this were not done the bridge would of course refuse to serve his purpose. Structures that are put together haphazardly endure but for a very short time indeed, and they are always unsatisfactory and inefficient while they do endure. Thus, architects and engineers are made necessary. They are Nature's great children. They construct on paper so that others, or they themselves, may construct enduringly in stone and iron. When we take up a book we very naturally turn to that part of it called "Table of Contents". Why? Because from the outline or plan of the book we find there, we shall be able to tell what the book is about. When we go to the theater we are eager for a program, because it outlines or "skeletonizes" the play for us, and makes us better able to understand what is going to be presented. Are we going to take a journey? Well, then, we must "plan it out". The time of departure, the place, the change of cars, and all the rest of it must be planned, or we shall have no end of trouble before we reach our desired destination. Have we but a few minutes to glance through the newspaper this morning? We should not have overslept, but the editor has been very kind to us, — he has outlined or "head- lined" every article of importance. By glancing at this condensation of each important world happening we can get a fair idea of its main content. Such examples as these, as we very well know, might be multiplied ad inHni- turn. If we will stop to think for a moment we will recall many other things that bear evidence of careful planning in our routine of this very day. 4 COMPOSITION PLANNING Perhaps we have all at some time seen a desk in the of- fice of a man who had no sense of order, and who made no efifort to cultivate it. If so, we have doubtless wondered how he managed to find anything at the time he happened to want it. We have in mind such a one. The pigeon-holes are all stuffed full of papers; the top of the desk is piled a foot high in some places with letters, diagrams, envelopes, pens, pencils, paper-weights (holding down books while manuscript is blown to the floor), etc., in a luxury of con- fusion. The owner of this dissipated desk is a lawyer, somewhat notable perhaps for his legal ability, but certainly notorious because of his display of temper whenever a client comes in and asks to be shown the papers bearing upon his case. Then there is a general shuffle in which all the clerks of the office are obliged to take part until the special docu- ment is found. But the order of the desk is worse if possi- ble than it was before the search began. Such a spectacle as this was a common one in the time of our grandfathers, and even to-day there are numberless men who seemingly do not know the alphabet, for their letters are not ar- ranged in alphabetical or any other order. But the majority of offices in our time are well ordered. We see letter files and filing cabinets on every hand. If we go into a broker's office and make inquiry about some par- ticular bonds or stocks, the manager opens a drawer, places his finger on a section of cards under a certain letter of the alphabet, and at once takes out a smaller card with the information upon it. Or if we go into the library to borrow a certain book we are referred to the card catalogue and there we find the whole library in a nutshell, as it were. We find a section of cards labeled 'Tiction'' (if we happen to be looking for a novel ) ; we find under this general card an alphabetical arrangement of books of fiction; we run PLANNING 5 them over until we find the book we want. It has a shelf number and a volume number, both of which we note. Then we are able to put our hands upon the book. It is not necessary to insist upon the immense importance of this library plan or arrangement. We understand at once how valuable a thing it is, the more so if the library is a large one containing half a million books or more. Again, and nearer home to us, a boy's mother may come to school some day at eleven o'clock to take him somewhere. When she makes inquiry for him at the office, do they tell her that he cannot be found? Does the principal of our school of, say, two thousand pupils make a canvass of all the class- rooms asking for him ? Not at all ! We know what hap- pens. The school is all outlined, planned, ordered, or- ganized in those little drawers in the office cabinet, and any pupil in this big school can be found at a moment's notice. The key to the whole situation, to any situation, however big it may be, is in the arrangement or plan of that situa- tion. It matters not what we call it — plan, outline, order, arrangement, skeleton, synopsis, catalogue, or what not — the thing is indispensable in whatever kind of work one has to do. We cannot urge too strongly therefore the importance of carefully planning any piece of work with which one may be confronted at any given time. Most of all would we insist upon the value of it in composition work. This is more important to-day, perhaps, than it ever has been before, for the reason that we are living in such a complex age. There is infinite complexity in our world and there must therefore be infinite organization in order to master affairs, to prevent affairs from mastering us with their confusion. It is sometimes hard for the young mind to understand the system in all things around it, and the 6 COMPOSITION PLANNING mind is accordingly allowed to run wild. "Rattle-brained- ness'' is the common accusation made against our youth because he thinks that everything about him is *'rattle- brained'' and topsy-turvy. But this is a huge mistake. He is failing to see that everything is operating in an orderly fashion and that he himself is one of the most systematic creatures on earth when he gives Nature a chance to have her way with him. It is the purpose of this book to help to form habits of ordering oral and written work, to help to avoid ^'hap-hazardness", to tell how to prepare to deliver speeches and write compositions, to teach how to think systematically and connectedly. Of course, when our teacher assigns us a composition for the next recitation, we would much rather sit down and "dash it off". But we must bear in mind that, if we would some day "dash things off" with our pens, we must now be willing to go through the drilling without which we can never hope to write with any fluency. We can argue eloquently (we have done so many times) that Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson and their great literary compeers never made outlines or plans be- fore writing their immortal stories. Perhaps not; but we may rest assured that they went through endless toil by way of organizing material for composition in their youth. We must not think for a moment that any one of them sat down to write a story without having it under perfect mastery in his mind before doing so. We must not imag- ine that these men had not formed the habit of systematiz- ing their knowledge before they were ever able to write their masterpieces. We have, of course, heard a great pianist play the piano with such consummate skill and ease that we forgot all about the fact that years ago this same great person who now enraptures our souls had to sweat blood to PLANNING 7 master the finger exercises which we so easily give up. Every great artist must go through this mill at an awful cost of work and worry. But once a finished artist he can throw ofif the shackles of rule and rote and do the rudi- mentary things in his own way, because he has been so trained at the beginning that his own way will be a good way. A noted organist once said that when he was a boy he fingered according to the directions on a piece of music, but later he fingered to suit himself. He is now writing music and inserting directions about fingering which learn- ers must observe if they would accomplish anything. It is trite to say in this connection that genius is nothing more or less than the ability to work very hard. We hear a great deal, to be sure, about the ^'fliash of genius'', but we shall stand upon much safer ground if we take Mr. Thomas A. Edison's definition, "Genius is 98 per cent, perspiration and 2 per cent, inspiration", and abide by it. And, lest we misunderstand, let it be added that we are not expecting that we are going to be such artists or geniuses as those mentioned above ; we are just insisting that we aim at noth- ing short of perfection in our composition work and that we employ methods most likely to help us realize our aim, at least in part. CHAPTER II THE RUNNING PLAN Let us investigate what "our habits are when we are asked to explain or narrate any of the simple things per- taining to our daily experience. Most of us have taken or planned trips of one sort, or another, however short they may have been. By way of example, then, we will imagine that we are going to travel from Boston to San Francisco. Our route might be planned as follows : — • Boston — Chicago — Denver — San Francisco. This would be a regular and consistent arrangement of the trip. It would be absurd of course to plan our journey between these two points in this manner : — Chicago — Boston — Denver — San Francisco. and none of us would think of making such a plan. In- deed, the ticket purchased at the railroad office would settle the matter for us by outlining the route in the most orderly way. And if we were asked to tell about our trip after our return, it would be the most natural thing in the world for us to give our account of it in accordance with this plan. What should please us more, it would be the easiest possible method of telling or writing about it. It seems so obvious to us, that it appears almost foolish even to suggest the wisdom of following the order of travel; yet 8 THE RUNNING PLAN 9 we have known people who, in reviewing a trip they have taken, constantly jumped about from place to place without the slightest regard for their listeners. How much easier it would have been to follow them and how much easier it would have been for them, if they had adjusted their account to the orderly progress of their journeying. Now, suppose that we had made certain stops between Boston and San Francisco other than those mentioned above, and suppose we were desirous of making mention of these in our subsequent account of the trip. We might very properly designate them in this way : — Boston — Albany-Buffalo — Chicago — St. Louis-Kansas City — Denver — Salt Lake City — San Francisco. Here we have not only the regular and natural order of the route, but we have also signified the relative importance of the places by the use of smaller type for those that are minor as compared with the four great landmarks of our course. Again, if we were asked to give an account of the food we ate yesterday, we would naturally be guided in the first place by the order of our meals : — Breakfast — Dinner — Supper. and, with this orderly division of our subject before us, we would proceed to tell what we ate. Or if, as is often the case, we had eaten ''between meals'', we would prob- ably indicate the ''extras" as follows: — Breakfast — 10 o'clock Lunch — Dinner — 4 o'clock Tea — Sup- per. This, being the order in time in which these interesting events occurred, would be the natural order for us to ob- 10 COMPOSITION PLANNING serve in telling about them. We call this orderly time- arrangement of subject-matter the chronological order, or SEQUENCE. If we had placed our lo o'clock luncheon be- fore breakfast, our plan would not have been chronological and sequential. Moreover, it is quite likely that we should have considerably more to say about dinner than about the other meals mentioned, if yesterday was a normally healthful day with us. This fact should of course be made evident in our table of contents or in our plan. For the present we can best indicate this by leaving spaces after the topics proportionate to their importance ; thus : — Breakfast lo o'clock Lunch — Dinner 4 o'clock Tea — Supper . We have shown by this, then, our second principle in plan- ning: namely, proportion. Dinner leads in importance and therefore has the largest space left after it; breakfast and supper follow; and our luncheon and tea follow these. The relations may be better seen in the diagram, — IB I \L i ID [ IT \ \S I These two principles — sequence and proportion — are two of the most important in our work of composition building, and we shall have frequent occasion to refer to them hereafter. Let us now complete our plan by placing after each topic already named the specific things that we ate. In order to indicate that these are minor or subordinate to the five main or major topics, we will write them in smaller type, as we did the smaller cities in our first plan : — Breakfast — Cereal-Eggs-Bacon — Luncheon — Sandwiches — Dinner — Soup-Meat-Potatoes-Corn-Beans-Pudding — Tea — Bread-Jam — Supper — Salad-Milk-Cake. THE RUNNING PLAN ii We have here been careful to observe the law of sequence and the law of proportion. We have also illustrated fully in this little plan a third law or principle, namely, subordi- nation; that is, the writing of the less important topics in an outline in such a way as to leave no doubt that they are lesser than those to which they properly belong. In this as in our former plan we have indicated these simply by the use of smaller type. Later we shall see that they can be further set apart by placing them in a different position from the major topics. If we are unable to designate this subordination by means of a changed handwriting, we may do so by means of capitalizing the major topics and writing the minor topics without capitals. The second point in the outline below, taken from Washington Irving's Life of Oliver Goldsmith, illustrates this method, as do also points two and three under Prelude II of James Russell Lowell's The Vision of Sir Laimfal, on page 12. Such a plan as we have thus far been discussing is called a running plan or outline, because the topics of which it is composed run one directly after the other. We have frequently seen such a plan in the tables of contents at the beginning of books, or at the openings of chapters. It sums up in a general way all that the chapter contains. It gives the substance of the chapter in a nutshell. Many authors find this kind of plan a most helpful one, both for themselves and for their readers. Every chapter in Wash- ington Irving's Life of Oliver Goldsmith (to give but a single instance) is prefaced with such a plan. The run- ning plan for Chapter X of that book reads as follows : — Oriental appointment — and disappointment — Examination at the College of Surgeons — How to procure a suit of clothes — Fresh dis- appointment — A tale of distress — The suit of clothes in pawn — 12 COMPOSITION PLANNING Punishment for doing an act of. charity — Gaieties of Green Arbor Court — Letter to his brother — Life of Voltaire — Scroggins, an at- tempt at mock-heroic poetry. The RUNNING PLAN is in addition an excellent vehicle for summarizing and fixing our reading and study. It is the simplest and most adaptable plan we know. It accom- modates itself with equal readiness to a whole work or to a small portion of that work. Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum, for instance, may be condensed to the follow- ing plan, and though it is a condensation it is none the less complete: — The Camp on the Oxus — Sohrab and Peran-Wisa — The Truce — Rustum's Perversity and Pride — The Fight — Sohrab's Defeat — Ruksh — The Revelation — Rustum's Grief — The Oxus. Or take again James Russell Lowell's The Vision of Sir Launfal: — Prelude I — The Organist — Infancy — Manhood — "World Val- ues'' — June — Part I — The Sleep — The Young Knight's Start — The Leper — Prelude II — Winter — outside-inside — Return of the Knight — Part II — The Desolation — Sir Launfal and the Leper — The Transformation — The Awakening. Now expanding Part I of The Vision of Sir Launfal into an independent running plan^ we get : — Sir Launfal's Command — The Sleep — The Castle — The Start — The Contrast — The Leper — The Coin — The Sermon. In like manner we can expand any one of these topics into a separate running plan^ just as we can reduce a whole novel to a few cardinal points or main events. So elastic is our plan that it fails us never, no matter how huge the THE RUNNING PLAN 13 work we wish to plan. And it need not be added that the acquisition of the abihty to do these things and the forma- tion of habits to such an end are an invaluable aid in all our reading, writing, and study. But instead of arranging our topics end to end or hori- zontally, as we have been doing, we may arrange them* one above the other, perpendicularly, and thus show exactly the same sequence and proportion and subordination in our material as we have been able to show in our run- ning PLANS. We will call this new arrangement the GRAPHIC or PICTURE PLAN or OUTLINE, and we will notice very carefully how the three principles just named are clearly brought out by the numbering, the spacing, and the position of topics : — THE FOOD I ATE YESTERDAY I. — Breakfast 1. Cereal 2. Eggs 3. Bacon II. — 10 o'clock Luncheon I. Sandwiches III. — Dinner 1. Soup 2. Meat 3. Potatoes 4. Corn 5. Beans 6. Pudding IV. — 4 o'clock Tea 1. Bread 2. Jam V. — Supper 1. Salad 2. Milk 3. Cake 14 COMPOSITION PLANNING This form of outline has a distinct advantage over the RUNNING PLAN in that its various parts and inter-relations can be understood at a moment's glance. The propor- tion^ the subordination, the sequence all stand out clearly. It forms a more distinct picture than the other type of outline. Here again wt may indicate the propor- tion by means of lines, as we did in the other case,— B L D The major topics, v^e see, are indicated by Roman nu- merals, — I, II, III, IV, V, etc. The minor or subordinate topics are placed under and slightly to the right of the major topics to which they respectively belong, and are indicated by Arabic numerals. We are thereby enabled to make easy reference to any point, in the following brief manner : — IV-i — Bread; III-4 — Corn; etc. The plans arranged in this chapter, then, are suffi- ciently complete for our present purposes. Our next prob- lem is to write the composition or deliver the speech, keep- THE RUNNING PLAN ' 15 ing the plan always before us so that we shall not wander from the sequential and proportionate development. These two principles — sequence and proportion — must be kept constantly in mind in our writing or speaking, as well as in our planning, for the tendency to wander into the by- ways of the subject will be insistently present with us unless we are on our guard. There will be no danger, however, if we follow closely, point by point, the arrange- ment of the subject here drawn up; for it is plainly notice- able that care has been taken to avoid including anything in the plan that does not properly belong to the matter under discussion. Not a topic has been set down that does not pertain directly to the subject. We call this strict observance of the close relationship between title and topic adherence; that is, we adhere to our subject in our com- position, be it oral or written. For the present we will divide our composition into as many paragraphs as we have main topics in our plan, and we will devote a sentence or two to each subordinate topic. Of course this is a very general direction and we shall have to exercise our judg- ment in taking liberties with it. It is quite likely that we can combine two or three subordinate topics into one sen- tence, or two main topics into one paragraph. But for the present writing or speaking, let us follow as closely as we can the sentence and paragraph arrangement here sug- gested. We are all perfectly aware that such plans as those we have been discussing are the salvation of many a public speaker in the course of his speech-making. Preachers often take into the pulpit with them nothing but a "skele- ton" of their sermons, very similar to, though of course more elaborate and intricate than, the ones we have used for our illustrations. Political speakers, lawyers, men in i6 COMPOSITION PLANNING any walk of life when called upon to deliver an address, invariably have in their hands or in their minds a plan of the things they want to say which holds them strictly to a well-ordered expression of their thoughts; that is, of course, unless they read their addresses verbatim, in which case they have followed their plans while writing. If therefore we form the habit of doing this preliminary work well now, we shall save ourselves much time and many failures in connection with our future work, no matter in what direction that work happens to fall. Opportunity is here given to apply the knowledge we have gained in this chapter in solving the following prob- lems. We must keep constantly in mind the meaning of such terms as sequence, proportion, subordination, ADHERENCE, RUNNING PLAN, GRAPHIC PLAN, ROMAN and ARABIC NUMERALS. EXERCISE I. In a running plan name the half dozen different foods you have eaten to-day, subordinating the names of the places from which they came. II. In a running plan name the different members of your family, giving subordinately the main characteristics of each. III. By means of a running plan indicate your daily journey to or from school. IV. Name in a running plan all the subjects you study, placing subordinate to each the name of the teacher. V. State in a running outline the important points to be remembered in this chapter. Briefly define each sub- ordinately. VI. Convert any three of the above plans (called for under I, II, III, IV, V) into graphic plans. THE RUNNING PLAN 17 VII. By means of a graphic plan give the names of four or five authors with whose works you are famiHar, and give under each the names of the works you have read. VIII. Write either a running or a graphic outline of some short poem you have read. IX. Outline either by graphic or by running plan the chief happenings of the past week as you have learned them from the newspapers. Explain each topic briefly by means of subordinate topics. X. Convert the running plans of The Vision of Sir Launfal and Sohrab and Rushtm given in this chapter into graphic plans. Make them more detailed, if possible. XL Develop further the following plans and then convert them into the graphic form : — Spring — Summer — Autumn — Winter. Ball— Bases— Bat— Field. City School — Country School. Tramp — Laborer — Middleman — Aristocrat. Books — Papers — Magazines. XII. Study the following outline and rearrange it so that it will observe the principles laid down in this chap- ter :— air, sea, climbing, benefit, bathing, coaching, sand, people, snakes, grass, strolls, pastimes, mountains, trout, falls, fish- ing, trees, salt, health, height. CHAPTER III THE INFORMAL PLAN In the previous chapter we have of course dealt with the simplest possible kinds of subjects. But these homely illustrations have, we hope, been of some benefit. We ought to have learned that, instead of thinking about our menu of yesterday in a jumbled, disconnected fashion, it is vastly better to order and systematize our thinking, par- ticularly if we want to give expression of it to some one else. Instead of replying in this fashion to a question about our food : — Bread, tea, breakfast, fire, corn pudding, beans, lo o'clock, salad, meat, jam, cake, dinner, cereal, flowers, supper, 4 o'clock, eggs, lunch, bacon, soup, potatoes, milk, sandwiches, we bethought ourselves and, for the information of others, organized our knowledge of what we ate. On consider- ing the many things that came into our minds when the question was asked, we found that some of them (break- fast, luncheon, dinner, tea, supper) stood out prominently and fell into a natural order; we found that under each one of these could be grouped certain foods belonging to each; and we also found that, though there were flowers on the table and a fire in the dining-room grate while we were eating, the flowers and the fire were really not eaten by us, and that consequently they did not adhere to our title. We therefore discarded them altogether from our 18 THE vINFORMAL PLAN 19 outline. In fine, the process of building up our plan was something like this : — 1. We summoned our knowledge of the subject. 2. We selected important or major points. 3. We arranged them in order. 4. We selected and arranged material under these. 5. We rejected points that had no bearing on the title. Let us now see how we should proceed under slightly more difficult circumstances. Suppose our parents wish us to tell them by way of a composition all about the literary club of which we are members. We are anxious to do our best as usual and accordingly outline our work carefully before beginning to write the composition. But before be- ginning even the plan we must consider the subject fully in our minds, thinking over each and every phase of our club work, in order that nothing of importance be omitted, in order that nothing that has no direct bearing on the club be included. Our problem in such a circumstance as we are supposing is always this, — How can we render this matter so clear as to make questions for further informa-* tion unnecessary when we are done? How can we obvi- ate the inclusion of material that is not necessary to a proper and full understanding of the constitution and work- ings of our club? These are serious questions and they must be seriously considered by every one who would write a worthy composition on whatever subject he has in hand. It is the effective and consummate solution of such ques- tions as these that makes the writing of a composition an art as well as a science. We will imagine that all the conceivable points to be made about our club are written on separate slips of paper, and that these are thrown into some receptacle, a basket let us say, without any attempt whatsoever at arrange- 20 COMPOSITION PLANNING ment. Then let us imagine ourselves taking them out of the basket, one at a time, just as they occur, and placing them on our study table in the order in which we pick them out. Something like this would probably result : — minutes business purposes extemporaneous president critic officers adjournment debate tricky Jim laughable journal special oration membership speeches number training age benefits social a typical meeting recitation fooHsh prizes expenses director cat secretary- athletics aims attention disorder intellectual roll-call picture initiation Dictures order meets in school name light noise building valuable play visitors once a week upset dark vice-president excited public meetings Here we have about fifty slips df paper, some having upon them single words; some, phrases; some, adjectives; some, whole sentences; and they are placed totally without any order or system whatever. Our problem is to- bring order out of this chaos. We have tried to be exhaustive in our list, omitting nothing that has a bearing upon our club and its workings. So eager have we been about this that we have included points that can have no bearing at all upon a general account of our club, such as we are asked to write, but that refer evidently to special meetings or unusual circumstances. These terms, with all that they suggest, if retained, would probably confuse our parents, no matter how interesting or how humorous might be the accounts of the incidents with which they are connected. ^Tricky Jim", for instance, and ''laughable'', together with "foolish", "cat", "excited", "noise", "disorder", "dark", "upset", are certainly not regularly associated with our meetings. They refer to certain abnormal occurrences or conditions which came into our minds when we were con- THE INFORMAL PLAN 21 templating past meetings with some of their uproarious or exasperating happenings. However interesting these refer- ences may be to us, we may be pretty sure that our parents would find more to condemn than to commend in hearing about them. They have presumably never had the oppor- tunity of seeing the club at work, and we must therefore re- member that they want an explicit account of its workings under usual conditions. Our list of topics includes also the word ^'athletic'', but this can have no place in our composi- tion for our club is a literary club. Similarly, "picture'' and '*light'' surely form no part of our club, though they may be important accessories in our club room. Our club ROOM^ however, is not our subject at the present time, so we must reject the two topics, "picture" and "light'', along with the others. Having rejected these irrelevant topics, we have thereby selected (for one of these words always implies the other) those topics which we must retain for our outline. Let us turn our attention now to arranging these in some sort of rational way. We are first of all impressed with the fact that some of the topics in the list are more important than others. To point out but a few of these, we can see at a glance that the word "officers" includes the words "president", "secretary", and the various other names of specific officers given in the list. We call such a word a GENERIC word because it is general in its scope and mean- ing and is inclusive in its application. The words which it includes are called specific words because they refer to special, definite things. If we look through the list again we shall see that there are other specific words ; whereas "pur- poses", "membership", "benefits", are all words that seem to stand out as having a larger meaning than their lesser asso- ciates. Now, in arranging our material for composition we 22 COMPOSITION PLANNING should make it a point to select the generic terms from our stock of information, and then to select the appropriate specific topics for each of these. Of course this may some- times involve us in small difficulties. We may be unable always to find a way to do this. Some words may be spe- cific in one sense and generic in another ; for instance, the word "house'' may be generic, in which case we can group under it such words as ''cottage'', ''mansion", "bungalow", "castle", etc.; but it may also become a specific word if used in connection with the word "building". In like manner if the word "officers" be used with "army" it be- comes a specific word, instead of being generic, as in our list. There is still something else that becomes apparent to us if we study these topics a little further; namely, that some of the words by their very nature settle the matter of sequence for us. We know well enough that "roll-call" should precede "adjournment"; that "president" should precede "treasurer" ; that it is a little more natural per- haps to talk about the organization of our club — its pur- poses, its membership, and its officers — before we give an account of a typical meeting. Such considerations as these must therefore be borne in mind by us when we come to drawing up our plan. We have subjected the list to rather a close scrutiny by this time. Let us summarize our discoveries briefly : — 1. We have discovered a number of irrelevant or un- necessary points and discarded them. 2. Among those remaining we have found certain ones that stand out more prominently than the rest, — certain generic terms, that is. 3. We have found that there are certain smaller or THE INFORMAL PLAN 23 specific terms which are dependent upon these larger ones. 4. We have found a suggestion of sequence or order among the words that tells us in a general way which topics should be placed here and which should be placed there. We have learned all these things through the process known as selection of material for a composition. And now, remembering all that we learned in Chapter II about sequence and proportion and subordination, we will attempt to draw up our informal plan by means of the process known in composition as arrangement of ma- terial : — OUR LITERARY CLUB I. Name — The Emerson. II. Place of meeting — School building. Room 35. III. Time of meetings — Fridays at 8 p. m. IV. Purposes: 1. Social aims. 2. Intellectual aims. V. Membership : 1. Age. 2. Number. 3. Initiation. 4. Expenses. VI. Officers : 1. Director. 2. President. 3. Vice-president. 4. Secretary. 5. Treasurer. 0. Critic. 24 COMPOSITION PLANNING VII. Meetings : 1. A Typical Meetiilg. a. Call to order. b. Roll-call. c. Minutes of last meeting. d. Old business. e. New business. f. Recitation. g. Oration, h. Debate. i. Extemporaneous speeches. j. Journal. k. Adjournment. 2. Special Public Meeting. a. Play. b. Visitors. VIII. Benefits: 1. Valuable training. 2. Attention. 3. Order. 4. Prizes. Let US study this plan very closely and satisfy our- selves that it observes the rules thus far set down; in addition we may learn a few new things about building a composition plan. We are impressed with the sequence and the proportion of the various points; we notice too the selection and arrangement of material; we observe the strict adherence of* topic to title ; and we see that Roman and Arabic numerals have been used as before, with the addition of small letters. It has been necessary to use these letters because there are evidently two distinct kinds of meetings suggested by our unarranged topics, regular and special or public. The generic topic "meetings'' is therefore subdivided into two specific parts and each of these two parts is again subdi- THE INFORMAL PLAN 25 vided into specific details belonging to it. This triple divi- sion must be noted in our outline; otherwise the enumera- tion of our points under ''meetings" will be confused. As we give a play and admit visitors only on certain stated occasions, it would be misleading to mention these things along with those belonging to our account of regular meet- ings. It would be as if, on making a list of the things in a certain room, we should do it in this wise : — I. Contents of a Room 1. Apples 2. Chairs 3. Table 4. Sofa 5. Peaches 6. Dog 7. Pears 8. Cat 9. Book-shelf 10. Pictures instead of as follows : — I. Contents of a Room I. Furniture a. Chairs b. Table c. Sofa d. Book-shelf e. Pictures 2. Fruit a. Apples b. Peaches c. Pears 3- Animals a. Dog b. Cat 2^ COMPOSITION PLANNING But, just as we could not make a major division of *'Fruit'', or of ''Animals" in this illustration, for they are both contents of a room we have in mind, so we cannot make a major topic of ''Special Public Meeting''. It is but another kind of meeting, not an independent phase of our club. The only logical thing for us to do therefore is to divide and subdivide major topic VII, making two grand divisions under '^meetings" and lettering them with Arabic numerals i and 2. Such subordination as this necessi- tates — VII- 1 -a — is called subordination to the second de- gree, — I being the first degree of subordination and a, the second. Further degrees of subordination will be consid- ered in Chapter IV. But there is a further new element to which our atten- tion must be called ; i. e., the uniformity of expression used throughout the plan. We have used nothing but nouns and nouns with simple modifiers for our topics, just as we did in the plans studied in Chapter I. It is important to observe the matter of uniformity of topical expression for the simple reason that we shall find ourselves inclined to give undue stress in the written composition to those points that are the more elaborately stated or the more firmly accented. Moreover, it is not conducive to logical and systematic thinking to mix the form of one's expressions unnecessarily. Topic V for instance might have been written thus : — V. Membership , 1. Age 2. How many 3. Initiation 4. Expensive in which case we should have had two adjectives and two nouns, and in writing the composition we would probably THE INFORMAL PLAN 27 accent the noun topic at the expense of the others, perhaps all unconsciously, but nevertheless pretty certainly. A noun inevitably calls for a more prominent place in any consideration than do other parts of speech. But it is just as easy to use nouns for all the topics in this particular case, and the mixing of the form indicates nothing but a slip-shod, slovenly v^ay of expressing ourselves. We have seen the characteristics of a person enumerated in this manner : — L Characteristics of John 1. Determined 2. He is generous 3. A great student 4. Activity Of course this is very bad and none of us v^ould think of being quite so inconsistent, i. is an adjective; 2., a sen- tence; 3., a noun phrase; 4., a noun. Hov^ much better it would be to write the little plan as follows : — L Characteristics of John 1. Determination 2. Generosity ^ All nouns 3. Studiousness 4. Activity or 1. Determined 2. Generous 3. Studious 4. Active All adjectives We shall learn more of this hereafter (Chapter VI). For the present let us be careful to keep the form of our topics as nearly similar in expression as possible, to make them 28 COMPOSITION PLANNING conformable one to another. If we commence with adjec- tives, let us retain them consistently throughout the plan; if we commence with nouns, let us keep to the noun form throughout. The same advice applies to the matter of capitaliza- tion. Our major topics should always be capitalized, just as we capitalize our titles. Or, if we do not want to capitalize all the important words in these topics, we may confine our capitalization to the first word alone. Our subordinate topics may be capitalized or not, as we wish, but we must here, as everywhere, be perfectly consistent in the matter. We must not capitalize sometimes and at other times fail to capitalize. It is perhaps a little better to capitalize all important words in the major topics and only the first word in the minor or subordinate topics. The same caution is necessary perhaps regarding punc- tuation. An outline is a table, very much like 2X2 = 4 2X3 = 6 and as a rule, therefore, it is perfectly clear without the aid of punctuation. For this reason punctuation marks have seldom been used in the plans of this book, though the topics in almost any plan might have been followed throughout with commas or periods. In cases however where distinct values can be shown by means of punctua- tion (as on page 215) it should be used. Or again, in a long, involved plan, such as is often required for argu- ment (see page 302), where the interrelation of the topics is close and important, that punctuation should be used which would be correct were the topics written out end to end in a solid mass. Of course if we do punctuate in our THE INFORMAL PLAN 29 plans, we must in this, as in the other technical matters just discussed, be consistent, and not place periods after some points, commas after others, and allow still others to go unpunctuated. We must never write anything like the fol- lowing, — 1. Determined. 2. Generous 3. Studious, ' 4. Active — The plan here drawn up for the title, our literary CLUB, is, like the plan for the food i ate yesterday, in Chapter I, a graphic plan. But all plans arranged perpen- dicularly, with topics under one another, are graphic or picture plans. There are two kinds of graphic plan, — ist, THE INFORMAL PLAN; 2nd, THE FORMAL PLAN. All of the graphic plans thus far presented are Informal Plans. This name is used for them because there may be as many major topics as the knowledge of the composer seems to justify within the limits of his title; that is, there is a great deal of leeway in the matter of main divisions in his outline and composition, as many being permitted him as his knowl- edge and reason can show to be consistent. We saw how elastic the plans in Chapter I are. Some people may eat six meals a day; some, only two. The former would therefore probably divide their plan into six main divisions ; the latter, into only two. We shall see in the next chapter that this is not true of the Formal Plan. It is hard and fast in its main divisions of subject-matter, though it allows much oppor- tunity for subdivision within these parts. If now our parents could look at the plan we have made for the composition they asked us to write for them, we think that they could get a fairly good idea of what our 30 COMPOSITION PLANNING club is like. Indeed, it is sufficiently detailed to enable us to stand up before an audience and talk freely and con- nectedly under its guidance. But since our parents wanted us to write a composition, we should go to work and de- velop this skeleton into a piece of consecutive writing, be- ing careful to vary the length of our sentences (see Chap- ter IX). Perhaps it will be most convenient for us to divide our composition into five paragraphs, — elaborating the first four topics in the first, and giving each of the fol- lowing main divisions of our plan a paragraph to itself. It is quite possible however that topic VII will require two paragraphs for its development, since it is the most impor- tant and has the most subordinate topics to be explained. We are not obliged to commence a new paragraph every time we take up a new major point of our outline for dis- cussion. This may be proper, but it does not necessarily follow at all, though it is at first easier for us to do so; hence, our direction in Chapter I. Such a procedure in the case we are considering would make some of the para- graphs absurdly small and detached, many of them con- sisting of only one sentence. While there might be nothing positively wrong about this, it would make our finished work look and sound extremely childish and primer-like. EXERCISE I. Under each one of the following topics write, (i) the definition of the topic, and (2) illustrations of it: Generic Terms Subdivision Specific Terms Uniformity of Expression Selection of Material Capitalization Arrangement of Material Informal Plan THE INFORMAL PLAN 31 IL Select from the following list all the generic words; then properly subordinate the remaining specific words. Add more specific words if you can. building stable mud sand earth rose lilac oak tree diamond tulip palace maple rock house plant dust ruby- sapphire flower cottage clay bam grass in. By means of an informal plan, name the charac- teristics of the various members of your family. IV. Enumerate by means of outline the various faults in the following plan. Re-write it correctly (words may be added for its improvement, but none taken away) and give reasons for your corrections and additions, if any. OUR CITY I. Buildings. 1. kinds 2. High 3. Made of iron. 4. modern improvements 5. Numerous 6. houses 7. comfortable, ♦ 8. offices 9. Stores II. Streets — 1. they are wide 2. Length • 3. Beautiful 4. Paving; 5. Tracks III. we have many parks. 1. where 2. names 3. Animals 3^ COMPOSITION PLANNING IV. Much Traffic, 1. cars: 2. All kinds of wagons 3. underground, 4. Elevated Roads 5. noise 6. automobiles 7. horses V. a few Monuments: 1. Longacre square 2. Union Square 3. Farragut 4. Verdi 5. Lincoln VL piers 1. Harbor good — 2. deep channel 3. Ships from everywhere. v. Plan and write a composition on each of the fol- lowing subjects: — My Fishing Trip Our Base-Ball Team Our Party My Room Playing Wild West Our Class-Room An Hour in the Woods Queer Fellows I Have Known •VI. Produce in class the process you followed in making the plans in V; the process, namely, of first jotting things down as they occurred to you, then the rejecting such as were not important to your subject in each case, and then your meethod or principle of arrangement. VIL From each of the following groups of words make a plan from which you can write a composition. THE INFORMAL PLAN 33 .Words may be added if you wish, but none may be omit- ted:— I. 2. 3. 4. hammock water examination bird occupant deep teacher eggs dog swim cheating stone faU danger expulsion boys book cramp discovery destruction anger rescue lesson grief VIII. Select from the following list of words those from which you can write a composition; then arrange them into a good plan, placing an appropriate title at the beginning of the plan : — relations father occupations weeks cousins house amusement mother delightful games fireside my sisters brother eyes visit home dear happy fortune our conver- aunts ancestors uncles heroic sation history scolding funny portraits wild death grief ] prospects stranger respect marriage hopeless future company characteris- tics surprise IX. From the topics given below draw up two plans for compositions which they suggest to you. Give appro- priate titles to both plans, and write the compositions: — sparkling lady diamond gift husbanc valuable present chain beautiful burglar small search ewel dress lost stones birthday lopeless large never imported weeping ball absolutely deserve brilliant gaiety occur succeed desired X. Make an outline of your day's work, subordinat- ing to the second degree as often as possible. XL Show by outline the arrangement of rooms, floor by floor, in your school building. Then take any one ma- 34 COMPOSITION PLANNING jor point and develop it into a detailed outline, subordi- nating to the second degree wherever possible. XII. Make running and informal plans of the chap- ter on page i. Explain the different steps of the process in each case, — selecting and subordinating material, ar- rangement, etc. ■Jr CHAPTER IV THE FORMAL PLAN The Greeks used to compare the parts of a composition with those of an animal. They said that as an animal has a head, a body, and a tail, so a composition must have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it must as a rule have them in the same proportions. These divisions have come to be called : — INTRODUCTION DISCUSSION CONCLUSION and the arrangement is still used to a large extent for special forms of composition. It may be applied to almost any form of v^riting that any of us in the ordinary walks of life may be called upon to do. It is the kind of scheme the speaker frequently takes upon the platform with him to glance at from time to time during the course of his speech. It is of course a very natural order of develop- ment. In the ordinary course of daily affairs we intro- duce, then discuss, and then conclude, though we do not stop to consider our method. And the three words them- selves connote the proportion; the discussion or develop- ment of a subject very naturally requires greater space and more time than does either its introduction or its con- clusion. The type of plan which these three words give us is called the formal plan^ — a good title, given it be- 35 36 COMPOSITION PLANNING cause, no matter how broad the subject of our discourse may be, it must be confined within these formal limits, though the complexities of it can be intricately divided and subdivided within these three boundaries. Let us consult the plan on *'Our Literary Club" and see whether we can adapt it to this more formal type of outline. There can be no doubt that the first six major topics (Chapter III — Page 2^ are introductory; that point number VII belongs to the development ; and that the bene- fits derived from the club should form the conclusion to our composition. We can always discern a certain pre- liminary atmosphere about an introductory topic, when we hear or see it, that is not present in the other topics. So also can we tell the discussion and the conclusion. It would be foolish to speak of the benefits of our club be- fore we have given a full account of it, for those who had followed us would want us to show by our composi- tion that there are real benefits, before we deduce them. Moreover, every one knows that the salient features of a club are its meetings and the work that it accomplishes in them. Therefore, the bulk or *'meat'' of our composition must deal with this phase of the club work. Perhaps, then, bearing these things in mind, we should make a Formal Plan of our subject somewhat as follows: — OUR LITPRARY CLUB I. INTRODUCTION 1. Name 2. Meetings 3. Purposes 4. Membership 5. Officers THE FORMAL PLAN 37 IL DISCUSSION 1. A Typical Meeting a. Call to order b. Roll-call c. Minutes d. Old business e. New business f. Recitation g. Oration h. Debate i. Extempore speeches j. Journal k. Criticism 1. Adjournment 2. A Special Meeting a. Play b. Visitors III. CONCLUSION I. Benefits With but very minor changes and a few omissions we have included here all the chief points of our former out- line, but we have molded them into a different form or arrangement. To some of us this may seem a very much more convenient method of planning than the Informal Plan. It saves us the trouble of selecting the large major topics ourselves, but it in no way relieves us from the busi- ness of organizing and subdividing our material minutely. It may be that we have not been careful enough by way of minute division in transposing our material on ''Our Liter- ary Club'' from the Informal to the Formal Plan. We have omitted certain details, but they can be easily under- stood or even inserted if it is thought necessary. More- over, there may be possibilities of further subordination which would help to elucidate the subject. Indeed, points 38 COMPOSITION PLANNING a-b-c-d-e under Discussion seem to us to have a somewhat different quality from points f-g-h-i-j-k-1. Let us see then how we can further subordinate some of these topics and thus give our parents a fuller, more detailed table of con- tents of our composition: — OUR LITERARY CLUB L INTRODUCTION A. General Organization 1. Name 2. Meetings 3. Purposes B. Particular Organization 1. Membership 2. Officers 11. DISCUSSION A. Meetings 1. A typical meeting a. Routine (i) Call to order (2) Roll-call (3) Minutes (4) Old business (5) New business b. Program (i) Recitation (2) Oration (3) Debate (4) Extempore speeches ^ (5) Journal (6) Criticism (7) Adjournment 2. A special meeting a. Play b. Visitors THE FORMAL PLAN 39 IIL CONCLUSION A. Benefits 1. Valuable training 2. Attention 3. Order 4. Prizes This, we think, presents a much clearer, more graphic view of our subject than our former plan. Of course we could make it still more detailed, if there were good reason for doing so. We could enumerate under the subordinate topics of the second degree in the Introduction those points which belong to each ; for instance, under *'name'' we could place ''Emerson" ; under ''meetings" we could write "time" and "place" and so on. So, also, in the Discussion we could subordinate still further almost every point pre- sented. Though subordination to such an extent may not be necessary, yet it may have its advantages; for the more elaborate and detailed our outline is, the less will there be left for us to do when we come to write the composition. Let us once again therefore reproduce our plan, this time as fully as would ever be necessary for all practical pur- poses : — OUR LITERARY CLUB L INTRODUCTION A. Organization I. General a. Name (i) Emerson b. Meetings (i) Place (2) Time c. Purpose (i) Social aims (2) Intellectual aims 40 COMPOSITION PLANNING 2. Particular a. Membership (i) Age (2) Number (3) Initiation (4) Expenses b. Officers (i) Director (2) President (3) Vice-president (4) Secretary (5) Treasurer (6) Critic II. DISCUSSION A. Meetings I. A typical meeting a. Routine (i) Call to order (a) Obedience (2) Roll-call (a) Response (b) Absentees (3) Minutes (a) Corrections (b) Adoption (4) Old business (a) Re-discussion (b) Decision (5) New business (a) Inter-club correspondence (b) Bills and dues (c) Advance program b. Program (i) Recitation (a) Character (b) Applause THE FORMAL PLAN 41 (2) Oration (a) Subject (b) Eloquence (c) Applause (3) Debate (a) Question (b) Arguments (c) Judges' decision (4) Extempore speeches (a) Variety (b) Cleverness (5) Journal (a) Humorous review (b) Appreciation '(6) Criticism (a) Benefits (7) Adjournment 2. A special meeting a. Play (i) Modern drama (2) Theater (3) Great event b. Visitors (i) Friends (2) Relatives (3) Dramatic critics in. CONCLUSION A. Benefits 1. Valuable training a. Speaking b. Argument c. Information 2. Attention a. Self-control 42 COMPOSITION PLANNING 3. Order a. Parliamentary proceeding 4. Prizes a. Books b. Medals It is not often of course that we shall be called upon to elaborate our plans quite as fully as this one has been elaborated. Everything depends upon the scope which we wish our composition to cover. If we are to explain our club to a friend who is a member of a club similar to ours in another city, why, to be sure we shall not be obliged to go into minute details about those things that are com- mon to all clubs; such as qfificers, business routine, bene- fits, etc. These matters would be understood by him for they are commonplaces of his own club work. In such a case, then, the scope of our work should wisely be narrowed to those points in which we feel our club to be unique or different from other clubs. But being asked by our parents, or by some one else, who had never seen or heard about such a club, our problem would be vastly changed. The scope of our composition would immediately become widened and we should be obliged to go into detail in dealing with the most obvious considerations about the club, as we have done above. We shall learn more about this adaptation of our compositions to our read- ers when we come to study Point of View and Purpose in Chapter VII. We have seen from our illustrative plan that though the Formal Plan confines us to the three major divisions, — Introduction, Discussion and Conclusion, — it in no way limits our extensive subdivision of subordinate topics. It gives us almost as much freedom as does the Informal THE FORMAL PLAN 43 Plan. In fact, we might justifiably prefer always to draw up an Informal Plan for our composition, and then divide it into these three cardinal portions. Take, for instance, our first plan on "What I Ate Yesterday'': — s ) INTRODUCTION It Breakfast Breakfast c ^ DISCUSSION Luncheon Luncheon :3 - (J Dinner or Dinner CO Q Afternoon Tea Afternoon Tea c ) CONCLUSION cS 1 Supper Supper We may permit it to stand just exactly as it was drawn informally, and place the names of our three great formal divisions above or around the parts to which they respec- tively belong. The good Informal Plan can nearly always be fitted into these formal divisions, and, conversely, the good Formal Plan can as a rule permit, without any detri- ment whatever, these three terms to be removed, and thus be resolved into the Informal Plan. We shall see in a little while that they are not always interchangeable — writing would become a very sorry and a very mechanical business if they were, — but for most ordinary purposes the one may be used instead of the other, the one will very often be found to be the other. At best, they only repre- sent two ways of doing the same thing. We have noticed by this time that, as the subdivision of parts in our outline becomes more and more detailed, so our system of marking those parts in order to keep them distinct from one another becomes more and more compli- cated. Just a word may be necessary here about this con- sistent TABULATION^ or this numbering and lettering of the 44 COMPOSITION PLANNING various degrees of subordination. In simple plans of but one or two degrees of subordination we may use large Roman numerals for the topics of first importance and Arabic numerals for those next in importance. If the plan be carried one degree further we may use small letters. Thus, we may have I. I. 1. I. 2. or 2. 3- a. n. b. 1. c. 2. 3. n. a. b. as the case may be. In more complex plans, however, such as OUR LITERARY CLUB has growu to be, the large Roman numerals are used to denote points of the highest impor- tance and capital letters are used for those points next in importance. The Arabic numerals are used to designate the next degree of subordination, and small letters for the next ; thus L I. A. A. B. but not B. 1. I. 2. 2. 3- 3- a. a— b. b— n. n— We must be careful not only to have a separate notation or tabulation for each grade of subordination, but we must THE FORMAL PLAN 45 be equally careful to place each one of these grades on a margin of its own, inserting it slightly to the right under the major topic to which it properly belongs. There must in other words be as many margins as there are grades of subordination. The large Roman numerals establish one; the capital letters, another ; and so on, as above. In subor- dinating our topics beyond the third degree we simply re- peat the last number and letter, but we place them in paren- theses : — I— A— I — a — (I)- (a)- If still further subdivision be required, we may use the parenthetical tabulations with the prime mark ' : — I. A. I. a. (a). (I)'. (a)'. This gives us unlimited range of extension, for we can now consistently continue by means of the double prime ' ', the triple prime ' ' ', and so forth. We shall find many disagreements among authorities as to this matter of tabu- lation, and there are many methods quite as good as the one here presented. Indeed, we may find many that will suit our individual tastes better; but the important thing is, to have one consistent method of tabulation and to hold to that. It is not likely that we shall often be called upon 46 COMPOSITION PLANNING to subordinate further than six places, and the system which we have used in our outHne and illustrated just above will be found quite convenient and practicable. It will be noticed that after the figures and letters used in tabulating our topics we have sometimes used a period, and sometimes a dash. One or the other should always be placed after the figure or the letter used. This separates the writing from the tabulation and prevents confusion. Here, as elsewhere, however, we must be systematic. We should not use the period sometimes and the dash at other times in the same plan. It is always well to be simple in whatever we do, and this applies no less to our work in composition than in other things. It is possible that we ourselves may *'get lost" in the involutions and entanglements of our plans if we are over-insistent upon a too severe subdivision of sub- ject matter. Of course all depends upon our audience and our knowledge of the matter in hand. We may avoid this danger sometimes by combining the running plan with the graphic plan. This will not only relieve us from a too- puzzling tabulation, but, what is quite as important, it will save space for us as well. The degrees of subordination may be shown in the running portion of the plan by means of large and small writing, and also by systematic capitali- zation and spacing. The main points (I and A) only are kept in the graphic form, all others being condensed to the more solidly written running arrangement. Thus, the introduction of our last plan might be written as follows : — I. I-N-T-R-0-D-U-C-T-I-O-N A. ORGANIZATION, General :— Name— Emerson. Meet- ings — place, time. Pur- poses — social aims, intel- lectual aims. THE FORMAL PLAN 47 B. ORGANIZATION, Particular .- — Membership — age, number, initiation, expenses. Officers — di- rector, president, vice- president, secretary, treasurer, critic. II. D-I-S-C-U-S-S-I-O-N If we study this carefully we shall see that we have here kept our grades of subordination quite distinct by means of spacing and capitalization, and by the running-graphic arrangement have used hardly half as much space as was used in our Formal Plan. We have, moreover, omitted none of the points there included. It is probable that such a plan as this, carried to great detail, is never quite as clear to one who is a stranger to the subject we happen to be developing. It presents lucidly only the salient features, leaving the others somewhat obscure to the unacquainted or undisciplined mind. On the other hand it is one of the very best plans when minute development is required for the benefit of those of our readers who are in the habit of mental organizing; our parents, for instance, might have considerable difficulty in deciphering the meaning from our plan under certain headings, whereas our young club friend from another city would see at once what the rela- tions and meanings of our topics are. The name we have given this type of plan — running- graphic — defines it at the same time that it gives us a clear title for distinguishing it. It is well, however, to remember that nomenclature is only a means to an end. We must never enslave ourselves to it. We must never over-accent names at the sacrifice of getting what they stand for. It matters little what a thing is called so long as we understand the thing itself. It matters not very much how 48 COMPOSITION PLANNING we tabulate our plan or what method we follow in drawing it up, so long as, when done, it presents a sequential, con- sistent, understandable development of our subject. In fact, we need not bother with numbers and letters at all, provided we are careful to show the inter-relation of topics by straight margins. It might be quite as well to outline in this way : — without any tabulation whatever; only we should not be able to refer so easily and so quickly to any one point (see Chapter II, Page 14). Even these three terms: Introduc- tion, Discussion, Conclusion, are variously called Beginning Heading Introduction "Start" and very often we will find that we can dispense with any or all of these names and apportion the parts they stand for by means of lines to show the proportion : — I. 2. Middle End Body Closing Development Conclusion "Struggle" "Finish" THE FORMAL PLAN 49 And if we can keep our subject-matter clear by this means and can make ourselves understood, we are perfectly justi- fied always in reducing technicalities to a minimum. We must know the meanings of some technical terms, but the terms themselves we must always assign to a subordinate place in our minds. So far in our study of plan building we have dealt only with the regular, most obvious, most 'common types of de- velopment ; the development, that is, that starts with the be- ginnings of things, traces their growth and maturity, and then concludes. This we have called the natural method, because we observe that Nature in all her processes follows this arrangement. She first germinates the seed; then she develops the luxuriant tree; and then there follow the dis- integration and decay. We see the same thing in youth, middle life, and old age; in morning, noon, and night; in the source, course, and mouth of a river; and in the many other manifestations of natural phenomena. And we are all aware that the number three, in addition to its being a natural number, is also a sacred number, sometimes called "the figure of the gods". But, as we have already probably surmised, it does not always follow that, in planning a composition, this natural order should be observed. For the most part it should be, particularly in certain types of composition, as we shall see hereafter. But in certain other types we shall see that very often it should not be followed. The thing that w;e have been trying to learn so far is that we must attain to the high habit of ordered, consistent thinking, and make our composition work reflect this habit. To this end we have found the study of the chronological, natural-order plan a good deal more valuable than the study of any other 50 COMPOSITION PLANNING could possibly have been. When we come to study Narra- tion and Description, we shall find that there are many vari- ations from this type, all of which may be as systematic and orderly as those we have studied. It is perhaps too much to say that there are as many good ways of telling a story as there are people to tell it. But there can be no doubt that in our reading, if we have been observant, we have discovered more than one method of story telling. Coleridge, for instance, in The Ancient Mariner, starts the story at once and even concludes it be- fore he gives any introduction to it. We recall that at the very outset an ancient mariner stopped a wedding guest on his way to a wedding, and, from that incident on, the story never slackens until the mariner is safely delivered into the hands of the hermit. Then the poet tells us how and why and where and when it all came about. The mariner it seems was obliged to tell his story at certain stated inter- vals because of a ''spell" which came upon him, and in- tuitively he knew the man who' must hear him when he saw him. We see then that Coleridge arranged his poem in this wise : — DISCUSSION CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION and we understand of course the advantages of this arrange- ment in this particular case. The "spell" comes suddenly and the instant it comes the mariner must tell his story. It is particularly urgent that he tell it this time for it just happens that the right man appears at the psychological moment. The poet would therefore not be true to the nat- ural circumstances of the case were he to tarry at the outset with a long introduction. In other words Coleridge starts THE FORMAL PLAN 51 his story of the mariner's story as the mariner himself was obliged for physical, mental, spiritual reasons to begin. Thus his handling of the tale has been in keeping and very natural in the light of the unnatural and weird circum- stances. Again, in many of Poe's 'Tales'' we find that the author not only omits a conclusion altogether but, like Coleridge, begins his story at once, the introductory elements being brought out incidentally as we proceed with the unfolding of the interesting events. On the other hand we recall that in Scott's Ivanhoe, in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, in Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield, and in the many other classics we have read, a more or less strict adherence to the arrangement observed in our literary club has been the rule. The important thing for us to remember is that Cole- ridge and Poe and their host of fellow-writers have some definite plan which they definitely follow. There is nothing haphazard about their arrangement of material, as we can easily understand if we examine a few specimens of their work. We shall find that they have simply adapted their method of telling their stories to the conditions which the story demands in each case. They have only been care- ful to adjust method to matter. To be sure an author may, in order to produce an effect, make his story seem to lack plan. Lowell, for instance, in his The Vision of Sir Launfal, purposely gives something of dreamlike ir- regularity and spirit to his poem because it is the vision of Sir Launfal, but he always does so consistently and sys- tematically. If we cared to we might very easily omit the introduc- tion to our elaborate plan a few pages back, bringing out the points contained therein incidentally under the discussion : — 52 COMPOSITION PLANNING II. DISCUSSION A. Meetings I. A typical meeting a. Routine (i) Call to order by president (a) Obedience (2) Roll-call by secretary (a) Response (b) Absentees (3) Minutes (a) Time and place of meeting and name of club revealed in opening sentence — "The Emerson Literary Club as- sembled in school building last Thursday evening at 8 o'clock'* (b) Corrections (c) Adoption (4) Old business (a) Re-discussion (i) of things pertaining to purposes of club, perhaps, or to membership (b) Decision (5) New business (a) Matters may have come up per- taining to the treasurer or vice-president etc. We shall find by comparison that most of the points in the Introduction are now mentioned in one place or another under the Discussion. At least a method for omitting the Introduction has been found. This is not of course a wise arrangement in our particular case. We need to dwell at some little length on the preliminary matter contained in our Introduction because our parents, for whom we are writ- THE FORMAL PLAN 53 ing the composition and whom we must ever keep in mind therefore, presumably know nothing whatever about our club. But if we were writing for one who is versed in club organization, and who wants more especially to know how we conduct our meetings, such details as officers, expenses, purposes, etc., if mentioned at all, might very properly be assigned an incidental place in our plan. The same process could also be followed in the Conclusion. Such an arrange- ment would of course make the plan Informal. We shall learn a little later (Chapter VII) more exactly how to be guided in attacking and developing a subject un- der various circumstances. It is enough for the present to fix in our minds immovably the few principles we have already learned about planning a composition, and to be able to apply these principles to the work asked for in the following exercise. EXERCISE I. Show by means of outline what you understand by each of the following: — The Formal Plan Degrees of Subordination Scope of Subject Formal vs. Informal Plans Tabulation The Running-Graphic Plan Caution Regarding Names II. Make an outline of the material contained in the last eight paragraphs of this chapter. III. Make an Informal Plan for each of the follow- ing topics and then convert it into a Formal Plan : — At the Rink Our Debate 54 COMPOSITION PLANNING An Afternoon in the Park Games I Can Play Baseball — The Diamond Baseball — The Game Football — The Gridiron Football — The Game A Great Address That I Heard Happenings at Noon Recess IV. From the following suggestions write a sketch of Tabby, making first a careful Formal Plan: — Tabby was an exceptional cat. In appearance she was beautiful; in disposition, lovable; in behavior, exemplary. Everybody was kind to Tabby because Tabby was kind to everybody. V. Draw up three plans — Formal, Informal, and Running-graphic — of the whole series of events summar- ized below. Write the composition from one of them. On the way to school this morning Tom fell before a car and was seriously hurt. The ambulance was called; a crowd gathered; and the motor-man was arrested. It fell to your lot to return to Tom's home and tell his mother of the catastrophe, and then accompany her to the hospital. VI. Make a Formal Plan for a composition you would write on '7™'s Arrest". Deal with the cause of arrest, the actual arrest, and the liberation. VII. Suppose that in one of your classes to-day the following incidents took place, — failure, disobedience, acci- dent, visit. Plan and write a composition entitled "An Exciting Recitation". VIII. Enumerate in two different kinds of plans all the events you have read of in the newspapers the past THE FORMAL PLAN 55 week. Make your first plan Informal, enumerating these items chronologically ; make your second, Formal, enumera- ting the most important notices under Discussion. Explain why you have or have not a conclusion. IX. Make a Formal Plan of a trip you have some time taken or one that you contemplate taking, or would like to take. X. Make a Formal Plan of everything you noticed on your way to school this morning. Indicate subordi- nately " means of travel and the route taken. XL Draw up a plan for a composition to be written on : ''My Reading for the Past Year", indicating authors, titles, kinds of reading, and reasons for your liking or dis- liking the various books. XII. Review mentally the different short stories or poems you have read recently, in or out of school, and show by plan how they have been developed. Have they followed chronological order? Have they been developed formally? Have they omitted Introduction or Conclusion? If either or both, why? CHAPTER V THE PARAGRAPH PLAN A paragraph is a coherently arranged group of sen- tences all dealing with a single idea. This idea may be but a portion of a larger idea, but, if so, it is a portion that stands out distinctly as a justifiable and natural section of the larger one. If we were to write a composition on such a subject as ''Street Paving", naturally we would not tell all we know about street paving in one long, undivided theme, but we would very properly consider the various kinds of street paving we are familiar with, and then devote a section of our composition to each kind. These sections would be our paragraphs. We might, to be sure, preface or conclude our sketch with a paragraph, speaking of street paving in a general way, but only as an introduction to or summary of our more detailed account. Thus, while our principal theme would be ''Street Paving", that idea or theme would be divided into several subordinate ones, each a complete idea in itself, yet each belonging to the generic title. Let us briefly indicate this paragraph division by plan :— 1. Street Paving 1. Cobblestones 2. Belgian blocks 3. Asphalt 4. Macadam 5. Wooden blocks 56 THE PARAGRAPH PLAN 57 Let us suppose this to represent one person's knowledge of the subject under consideration. Roughly speaking we might therefore have six paragraphs, all related closely to one another, yet all belonging to the general subject ''Street Paving". We would designate the transition in our com- position from one of these divisions to another by means of establishing a new or paragraph margin ; that is, by insert- ing the first line of every paragraph about a half inch far- ther to the right than the beginnings of the ordinary lines. We can get a good idea of the relation between these two' margins — the line margin and the paragraph margin — by glancing at almost any page in this book. As to the length of paragraphs there can be no rule laid down, for the subject-matter must always decide this issue for us. Most of us no doubt could write more about some one type of paving than we could about any one of the other kinds mentioned ; if we had a large knowledge of asphalt paving, for instance, or if our fathers were experts in macadamizing we might write considerably more about one of these particular types. It might become necessary indeed for us to allot to any one or all of these topics more than one paragraph, according as our knowledge varied. We should guard against writing excessively long para- graphs just as strongly as we should against writing para- graphs of only one or two sentences. The excessively long ones, used habitually, tend to make our work heavy and difficult to understand ; the very short ones make our work choppy, detached and confused. If we study our plans carefully before starting to write our compositions, we can usually find excellent possibilities for adjusting the matter to be contained in the composition into paragraphs of rea- sonable and varied lengths. There may be occasions of course when we shall have to go to extremes, one way or 58 COMPOSITION PLANNING the other, in the division of our paragraphs. A case in point is in the writing of conversation. If it be continued for some length we may with perfect correctness have some very short paragraphs. Let us examine the following : — "Hello, John," said Bill. "Hello, old fellow! Where are you going?" "O, just down the street for mother." "May I come along?" asked John. "Yes, if you'll carry some of my packages coming back", re- plied Bill, with an eye for business. "It's a go !" exclaimed John. The two trudged off together as if their quarrel of yesterday had never happened, John taking Bill's hand before they were out of sight. Here we have some paragraphs of but a few words, and they might have been even briefer than they are. It may be equally necessary for us at times tO' write a very long paragraph, especially if we are dealing with- a subject that does not lend itself easily to subdivision. Where this is the case, we should frequently mention our subject in the course of the paragraph so that the reader will not be obliged to refer back. Further directions will be given about the long paragraph when we come to the study of topic sentences a little later. Let us now examine this conversation a bit more closely. Our title for the passage might very appropriately be 'The Conversation of John and Bill". Each paragraph deals with a separate idea under this heading, yet all the ideas are related or unified under it. When therefore conversa- tion is carried to some length, through several responses, each response, however short, should constitute a separate paragraph. This may mean, as just stated, that we shall sometimes have paragraphs containing but a single word. THE PARAGRAPH PLAN . 59 When however the conversation is very brief, consisting, it may be, of but a single question and answer, the conversa- tional matter may very properly be placed within a single paragraph. Authors vary widely in this and unfortunately individual authors are not always consistent. Sometimes the same author will paragraph every whit of conversation, and at others will include conversation of three or four re- sponses in a solid paragraph. We shall be well advised to follow the rule laid down above and here illustrated further : — The two boys trudged off together as if their quarrel of yes- terday had never happened, John taking Bill's hand before they were out of sight. They walked in silence for some time. Then Bill said, 'T thought you were angry." There was another long si- lence before any reply was made. Finally John said, sheepishly, *T was, but I'm all right now." Here we have a brief conversation included in a single paragraph, instead of in four, the number that would be required were we to paragraph the conversation. We have moreover simplified the subject-matter and saved much space. On the other hand we have lost the picture or graphic efifect that the paragraphed conversation always gives us. In conclusion then let us remember that where the conversation is very slight we should not paragraph it; where it is more or less extended we should paragraph every single contribution to it. In all cases of writing conversa- tion we must be careful of course to punctuate accurately (see Chapter XVI). But we are studying planning, and in this chapter it is our business therefore to deal with the average paragraph, not with the short question and answer paragraph. Wher- ever in conversation we have a long passage to record, all 6o COMPOSITION PLANNING spoken by one person, we must observe the same rules for paragraphing as we would observe in any other style of writing. So much has been said about the writing of con- versation only because it is a subject upon which there is much confusion in the minds of pupils and because so many errors in such writing are constantly made. In the ordinary paragraph — in the paragraph, that is, other than the conversational — we have something of a miniature formal plan : that is to say, we have something very like Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion. We call the introduction of a paragraph the topic sentence. Usually it is the first sentence in the paragraph and con- tains a general statement of what the paragraph is to con- tain. Sometimes it is the second or even the third sentence in the paragraph, and in paragraphs of a certain type it may stand in the very middle. Only a certain part of such a sentence may form the actual topic portion of the para- graph. This is most often the case when the topic sen- tence is a long, highly modified sentence. It is perfectly easy to discern the general nature of the following sen- tences : — (a) Jim's badness exhibited itself in many ways. (b) It was a perfect morning in the hills. (c) Mary was very different from her sister Anne. (d) Reaching the summit of the Alpine peak after a whole day's struggle, we were amazed at the majestic panorama of nature that stretched inimitably on all sides of us. (e) On entering the room I felt a strange iniluence. Every one of these sentences suggests more to follow. Every one of them, though complete and declarative in it- self, shows an insufficiency of information. Every one of them is a subject or title or topic sentence in and of itself. To prove this we can easily convert each one into a title : — THE PARAGRAPH PLAN ' 6i (a) Jim's Badness (b) A Perfect Morning in the Hills (c) The Difference between Mary and Anne (d) The View from the Mountain Top (e) The Strange Influence of a Room and thus get at the very essence of the contents of our para- graph. The words culled out of the topic sentences above in order to get a definite title for each one are called key- words. These are the words with which we must concern ourselves immediately when we come to develop our para- graph from the topic sentence. It is well to underline them in our sentences in order better to concentrate upon them, and in order to prevent our wandering from the subject. Particularly is this true in a long topic sentence, such as (d), only a small part of which is topic in its nature. The actual topic portion of (d) commences with the word ''we" and concludes with the word ''nature'', the other parts of the sentence being merely modifiers of this central idea. The conclusion of a paragraph we call the summary SENTENCE of the paragraph. Like the topic sentence it has an atmosphere of its own, something within it that sug- gests its summarizing nature ; so that, as a rule, we can tell by reading it that it is a concluding element. Frequently we shall find it beginning with such words or phrases as, "in short", "therefore", "as a result", "consequently", etc., all of which suggest endings or conclusions to us. The fol- lowing are good illustrations of summary sentences : — (a) I think you will agree then that Mr. B. should be elected. (b) In short we were all as eager for the return as we had been for the start. (c) The whole picture indeed was calculated to give one the impression of horror. 62 ' COMPOSITION PLANNING (d) Whether it was one of these things, or whether it was all of them combined that produced such ill effects upon me, I cannot say. (e) John therefore decided that he had better remain at home. We will notice that in these summary sentences we also have KEY-WORDS, — words, that is, that seem to infer that some explanation has gone before. We could have seen these words at once had our attention not been called to them by the italics. We must notice also in passing that, were these suggestive words omitted, we should have left sentences that might almost as well be used for topic sen- tences as for summaries. Indeed, (c) as it stands above is really either topic or summary. Let us see how the sentences will read when the words that suggest the sum- mary characteristic are omitted : — (a) I think you will agree that Mr. B. should be elected. (b) We were all as eager for the return as we had been for the start. (c) The whole picture was calculated to give one the impres- sion of horror. (d) Whether it was one thing or all the things combined that produced ill effects upon me, I cannot say. (e) John decided that he had better remain at home. Here, by means of very slight changes, by way of omis- sions, we have converted the summary sentences into topic sentences. By the insertion of a single word or a short phrase we may likewise convert most of our topic sentences into summary sentences. This interchangeableness of topic and summary sentences confronts us with the fact that it may be useless repetition to have both kinds in a single paragraph. In most cases one such general sentence is quite sufficient for the average THE PARAGRAPH PLAN 63 paragraph. If we work consistently from a good topic sentence, or toward a good summary sentence, our para- graph will probably be clear, concise, and adherent. By having both topic and summary sentences in our paragraph we may procure for it emphasis and finish, and these are two important elements. We shall be far more emphatic if we accent our subject both at the beginning and at the end; and we shall perhaps give a certain rounded finish or completion or "frame'' to our paragraph by referring to our subject both at the beginning and at the end. If we examine closely we shall find that the best writers always have one or the other of these sentences clearly stated, and oftentimes we shall find both in their paragraphs. It is evident of course that, in long paragraphs, where the thought is more or less involved, and where the open- ing of the paragraph may be forgotten before the end is reached, the use of both types of sentence is a distinct ad- vantage for the sake of clearness alone. Let us now study the paragraph plan, keeping con- stantly in mind what was said in chapter one about plan- ning in general. We must not presume for a moment that successful writers go about their work paragraph by para- graph in this mechanical way. On the contrary they can write or dictate paragraphs fluently, knowing that they will be coherent, because they have acquired the habit of clear, orderly, consecutive thinking. If we are going to develop our paragraph from a topic sentence, we should first write the sentence, initialing it T. S., and then briefly and uniformly write down the points we mean to make in the paragraph. If we develop our paragraph toward a summary sentence, we should make the plan first and write the summary sentence at the end, initialing it S. S. To illustrate : — 64 COMPOSITION PLANNING T. S. The city was in gala array for the great celebration. 1. Flags 2. Flowers 3. Stands 4. Arches 5. Pillars 6. Illumination or 1. Flags 2. Flowers 3. Stands 4. Arches 5. Pillars 6. Illumination S. S. There could be no doubt whatever but that the city was in gala array for the great celebration. Now we have the whole plan clearly and definitely be- fore us and we cannot possibly go wrong in writing our paragraph unless our plan be wrong. There is not a single major topic in our plan but refers to the key-words of our topic or summary sentence. The words of these topics we call ECHO-WORDS. They echo or repeat the idea contained in the key-words. They are specific; the key-words are generic. The key-word is equivalent to the total number of echo words, if we are careful to get the proper adjust- ment between them. Yet there should be no tiresome repe- tition. We must not repeat the key-word, but, rather, give additional detailed information about it. '*Gala Array''= Flags + Flowers + Stands + etc. This is our paragraph equation. We will now solve the problem : The city was in gala array for the great celebration. All the principal streets were decorated with multitudinous flags. Gi- gantic ''Stars and Stripes" were suspended between opposite build- ings, and hoisted on the flag-staffs of the great offices and of the THE PARAGRAPH PLAN 65 houses of the rich. Even the smallest window showed its symbol of our national greatness in the public rejoicing. The "Union Jack'' of England, the Tricolor of our great sister Republic of France, the emblems of Germany, Russia, and Italy, and the ''Rising Sun" of Japan, all helped in the dazzling splendor. Wreaths and decorative symbols of real flowers were displayed on many houses. Garlands of paper flowers hung from balconies and porticoes, and were wound around the door-posts of the dwellings of the more enthusiastic. At the corners of the streets and other points of vantage, stands were erected, where people might sit and watch the procession. Here and there triumphal arches were constructed, some of them in new and fantastic designs, decorated with corn, flowers, and the branches of trees. Along the side- walks, leading in either direction from these arches, were placed many huge pillars, connected by festoons and eloquent with the streamers of many colored ribbons that floated in the breeze from their lofty pinnacles. At night the whole was brilliantly illu- minated. Red and blue and yellow electric bulbs formed an arena of glory in the main street; and many buildings were gracefully outlined with these magic lights or surmounted by some attract- ive and appropriate electric symbol. Or again, let us examine the following : — I. The Fair I. A great event n. The Club 1. Ten fellows 2. All-day attendance in. John's School Report I. Failures IV. The Whipping I. John's father V. John's Debate with Himself S. S. After much meditation however John bravely decided that it would be better for him not to accompany the fellows on their day's outing to the fair. It was the great day of the great fair ! There were races, "flip- flap", "whoop-la", electric horses, "witching-waves", a water 66 COMPOSITION PLANNING chute, and a "Wild West show''. The whole country-side would doubtless attend, to make the occasion memorable for enjoyment. The club to which John belonged had arranged an excursion there for the whole day, and they clamored for all their members to go. John was in a dilemma ! His last school report had been a record of failure and disgrace. His work had been poor, and his conduct lazy and disorderly, his form-master said. This had displeased his father, and John had felt the weight of this pa- ternal displeasure through the agency of a stout cane. He smarted at the memory, as he debated with himself the rival claims of the excursion and his work at school. After much meditation how- ever he decided it would be better for him not to accompany the fellows on their day's outing to the fair. If now we study these paragraphs carefully we shall see that each sentence contains an echo-word or words referring directly back to the key-word or words in the topic sentence, or directly forward, as the case may be, to the key-word in the summary sentence. In some sentences we find many echo words and our account has been enriched as a conse- quence. This has kept the one idea of the paragraph ever foremost and has therefore given unity to it. Again, while the paragraphs have sequence and proportion and adherence, the idea of each sentence fits closely, is accurately related, to what goes before and to what follows. We call this perfect dovetailing of ideas coherence. We shall see later (Chapter IX) that unity and coherence apply to the whole composition quite as much as to the paragraph, which is a composition in miniature. Had it not been for our plans, however, these qualities might not have been so clearly evi- denced. We might have wandered far away from our sub- ject in each case. Our plan has held us to our original idea, and has helped us to attain those elements of writing that must always be acquired before we can become effective writers. THE PARAGRAPH PLAN dy We shall be inclined to believe perhaps that we should have a topic in our paragraph plan for every sentence in our paragraph, just as we thought we should have a para- graph in our composition for every major topic in our composition plan. This may be a good method to follow, but it is not a necessary one. Some points in our plan, par- ticularly those that are followed by subordinate topics, may require two or three sentences for their development. In other cases it may be possible to combine twO' points in a single sentence. So much depends upon the individual problem that no hard and fast direction can be given. We may say, however, that, as a rule, each point should be a sort of lesser key-word, an echo-word, if possible, and that at least one whole sentence should be given to its develop- ment, or the idea for which it stands should be repeated in other words within the same sentence. The illustrations in this chapter should be tested in this connection. If now we can determine beforehand exactly how many paragraphs it will be well for us to include in our composi- tion, we can make our work far less difficult by outlining these paragraphs consecutively into a Paragraph-composi- tion outline. We have seen that the paragraph plan con- sists of either topic or summary sentence (or both) with the points to be contained in it jotted down in order. In- stead of doing this for an isolated paragraph (as in the illustrations above) we will now do it for a number of para- graphs which have a logical connection with each other. Suppose we are to write a composition on *'Our City Con- veyances". Instead of planning it thus : — I. The Various Kinds 1. Cars 2. Omnibuses 3. Carriages 68 COMPOSITION PLANNING II. Cars 1. Surface 2. Elevated 3. Underground III. Omnibuses 1. Horse 2. Electric IV. Carriages 1. Hansoms 2. Four-wheelers 3. Taxi-cabs we might arrange it as follows : — I. T. S. — Travelers in and about the city have their choice among various kinds of conveyances. 1. Cars 2. Omnibuses 3. Carriages II. T. S. — Perhaps the most popular of these means of tran- sit is the railway car. 1. Surface 2. Elevated 3. Underground III. T. S. — There are in addition several "bus" lines in the city which facilitate travel for those who desire to go in irregular routes. 1. Horse 2. Electric IV. T. S. — Many carriages ply here and there all day and all night, and, though the most expensive means of travel, they are the quickest and most comfortable. 1. Hansoms 2. Four-wheelers 3. Taxi-cabs Or, instead of writing regularly our topic sentences with their points, we might sometimes vary the plan by leading THE PARAGRAPH PLAN 69 into the summary sentence. Particularly would this be a good idea for our last paragraph because there in all proba- bility we wish to close our composition with an emphatic and ^'finished'' conclusion. We see of course that this paragraph-composition out- line has what we may call a topic paragraph. The first paragraph is obviously intended to be an introductory sec- tion, which will contain an enumeration of the different kinds of conveyances with slight descriptions, perhaps, of each one. Then, in succession, each one will be taken up and discussed more fully. This arrangement, like the inter- change of topic and summary sentence, might very easily be reversed; that is, we might just as properly commence our composition immediately with a paragraph about cars and close with a concluding or summary paragraph, review- ing all that has preceded and commenting generally upon the number of conveyances, their comparative merits, uses, etc. Of course, as has been previously intimated, it may happen that we shall need neither topic nor summary para- graph, neither introduction nor conclusion; on the other hand we may need to have both for purposes of emphasis and clearness. The question of paragraph subordination may also arise in our consideration of the paragraph-composition plan;" that is, it may be necessary to write paragraphs subordinate to other paragraphs. In our plan, for instance, it is con- ceivable that topic II might be divided into three para- graphs, — one treating of surface cars ; one of elevated, and one of underground. If this plan be followed, we should subordinate in the regular way, writing our topic or sum- mary sentence for each minor paragraph. The major topic sentence will then have the value of a general sentence for all three paragraphs, but in writing the composition we 70 COMPOSITION PLANNING should place it at the beginning of the first minor paragraph, forcing the topic sentence for the first minor paragraph into second place. Point number II might according to this arrangement be elaborated as follows : — II. Major T. S. — Perhaps the most popular of these means of ^ transit is the railway car, — surface, elevated or under- ground. 1. Minor T. S. — Of these, the surface cars are the most convenient, though the least rapid. 1. Cars 2. Fares 3. Lines 4. Delays 2. Minor T. S. — The elevated service, being above the street, is more rapid though less generally used. 1. Cars 2. Fares 3. Entrance and Exit 4. Service 5. Accident 6. Lines 3. Minor T. S. — The most recently completed and perhaps the most satisfactory railway service is the under- ground. 1. Cars 2. Fares 3. Entrance and exit 4. Service 5. Accident 6. Lines 1 There are various methods of developing the topic and summary sentences of a paragraph, and a knowledge of these methods is necessary for us in the planning of our paragraphs. If for instance we are eager to teach something thoroughly, to "drive home'' an idea with more than usual force in a paragraph, we will accent that idea throughout. THE PARAGRAPH PLAN 71 We may do this by way of repetition, by way of reproof, by means of restatement, or by any other means of securing emphasis. Whatever be our method of accentuation, our object is ever to be thorough in the message we make our paragraph convey, and we therefore call this type of devel- opment paragraphing by thoroughness. Let us take for an illustration of this style of paragraph the following: — T. S. You deserved to be whipped for going there. 1. You should have knov^n better 2. You had the benefit of seeing others 3. You had work to do 4. You were told not to go or 1. A cruel President 2. An extravagant administration ^ 3. A dissatisfied people 4. A low standard of morality 5. Little money 6. Much unhappiness S. S. In short the crisis in the bad times of the country seemed to be at hand. or What nobler work? How could the Church of God be more gloriously propagated? How could higher merit be obtained by faithful Catholics? It must succeed. Spain was invincible in val- or, inexhaustible in wealth. Heaven itself offered them an oppor- tunity. They had nothing now to fear from the Turk, for they had concluded a truce with him; nothing from the French, for they were embroiled in civil war. The heavens themselves had called upon Spain to fulfil her heavenly mission, and restore to the Church's crown this brightest and richest of her lost jewels. The heavens themselves called to a new crusade. The saints, whose altars the English had rifled and profaned, called them to a new crusade. The Virgin Queen of Heaven, whose boundless ^2 COMPOSITION PLANNING stores of grace the English spurned, called them to a new crusade. Justly incensed at her own wrongs and indignities, that "ever- gracious Virgin, refuge of sinners, and mother of fair love, and holy hope," adjured by their knightly honor all valiant cavaliers to do battle in her cause against the impious harlot who assumed her titles, received from her idolatrous flatterers the homage due to Mary alone, and even (for Father Parsons had asserted it, therefore it must be true) had caused her name to be substituted for that of Mary in the Litanies of the Church. Let all who wore within a manly heart, without a manly sword, look on the woes of "Mary" — her shame, her tears, her blushes, her heart pierced through with daily wounds, from heretic tongues, and choose between her and Elizabeth. — From Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho! In all of these examples we have the matter under dis- cussion clearly brought to . light by means of a thorough surrounding of the subject. It is restated and repeated in every possible way. Paragraphs developed by thorough- ness are usually expository or argumentative in their nature. Sometimes it may be necessary to enumerate in a para- graph a series of occurrences in order to satisfy the demands of the topic or the summary sentence. When this is so we proceed to paragraph by occurrences. We set forth in suc- cessive sentences the particular happenings or instances or actions or occurrences which elucidate the subject. It is well in our topic to include some sort of action word de- noting, as it will, an occurrence. Such paragraphs are usually narrative, in method at least, though in purpose they may be descriptive or expository. To develop such a topic sentence for instance as, Jim is a very bad fellow, we may give occurrences in Jim's life that illustrate his badness, and yet our purpose may be to sketch Jim's char- THE PARAGRAPH PLAN 73 acter. Let us develop this and examine two other ex- amples : — T. S. — ^Jim is a very bad fellow. 1. He teases the cat 2. He forges marks on his report* 3. He plays hookey 4. He is very tricky or 1. Chasing the pack 2. Taking the fences 3. Sighting the deer 4. Bringing down the game. S. S. — Indeed, the Colonel pictured to us every phase of his interesting hunt. or The light was declining: already the candles shone through many windows of the Manor. Already the foremost part of the crowd had burst into the offices, and adroit men were busy in the right places to find plate, after setting others to force the butler into unlocking the cellars; and Felix had only just been able to force his way on to the front terrace, with the hope of getting to the rooms where he would find the ladies of the household and comfort them with the assurance that rescue must soon come, when the sound of horses' feet convinced him that the rescue was nearer than he had expected. Just as he heard the horses, he had approached the large window of a room, where a brilliant Hght suspended from the ceiling showed him a group of women cling- ing together in terror. Others of the crowd were pushing their way up the terrace-steps and gravel-slopes at various points. Hear- ing the horses, he kept his post in front of the window, and, mo- tioning with his saber, cried out to the on-comers, ''Keep back ! I hear the soldiers coming.'' Some scrambled back, some paused automatically. — From George Eliot's Felix Holt, If we say, "It is a beautiful morning' V we imply that there are many particulars about the morning v^hich make 74 COMPOSITION PLANNING . it beautiful. At any rate "beautiful'' is our key-word and we need to particularize in order to prove that the morning is beautiful. Thus, we shall be paragraphing by particu- lars. Usually such paragraphs are descriptive or expository in nature and the word or the phrasal plan is used in out- lining them. The following illustrates this type of para- graph development : T. S. — It is a beautiful morning. 1. Sunshine 2. Clear atmosphere 3. Moderate warmth 4. Rich verdure 5. Singing birds or 1. Low ceilings 2. Many steps 3. Damp walls 4. Small windows 5. Dark rooms S. S. — Considering all these shortcomings, we decided that we could never like the old mansion. or When, issuing from the gorge of a pass which terminated upon the lake, the travellers came in sight of the ancient Castle of Avenel, the old man paused, and, resting upon his pilgrim staff, looked with earnest attention upon the scene before him. The castle was, as we have said, in many places ruinous, as was evi- dent, even at this distance, by the broken, rugged, and irregular outline of the walls and of the towers. In others it seemed more entire, and a pillar of dark smoke, which ascended from the chim- neys of the donjon, and spread its long dusky pennon through the clear ether, indicated that it was inhabited. But no corn- fields or enclosed pasture-grounds on the side of the lake showed that provident attention to comfort and subsistence which usually appeared near the houses of the greater, and even of the lesser barons. There were no cottages with their patches of infield, and THE PARAGRAPH PLAN 75 their crofts and gardens, surrounded by rows of massive syca- mores; no church with its simple tower in the valley; no herds of sheep among the hills; no cattle on the lower ground; nothing which intimated the occasional prosecution of the arts of peace and of industry. It was plain that the inhabitants, whether few or nu- merous, must be considered as the garrison of the castle, living within its defended precincts, and subsisting by means which were other than peaceful. — From Sir Walter Scott's The Monastery. Again, our paragraphs may be developed by means of giving in them the impressions we received from the sub- ject with which we are dealing. We may tell how a person, a place, a thing impressed or influenced us. Our topic or our summary sentence will here as elsewhere be our guide. Paragraphs developed by impressions are as a rule descrip- tive and expository. We may illustrate this type as fol- lows : — T. S. — On entering the room I was conscious of a strange and peculiar influence. 1. New 2. Oppressive 3. Stifling 4. Unusual 5. Alarming or 1. Anxiety 2. Fear 3. Nervousness 4. Anger S. S. — I decided never to have such a dog in my house again. or Beauty, of course, is for the hero. Nevertheless, it is not al- ways he on whom beauty works its most conquering influence. It is the dull commonplace man into whose slow brain she drops like T^ COMPOSITION PLANNING a celestial light, and burns lastingly. The poet, for instance, is a connoisseur of beauty: to the artist she is a model. These gen- tlemen by much contemplation of her charms wax critical. The days when they had hearts being gone, they are haply divided be- tween the blonde and the brunette ; the aquiline nose and the Pros- erpine ; this shaped eye and that. But go about among simple un- professional fellows, boors, dunderheads, and here and there you shall find some barbarous intelligence which has had just strength enough to conceive, and has taken Beauty as its Goddess, and knows but one form to worship, in its poor stupid fashion, and would perish for her. Nay, more: the man would devote all his days to her though he is dumb as a dog. And, indeed, he is Beauty's Dog. Almost every Beauty has her Dog. The hero pos- sesses her; the poet proclaims her; the painter puts her upon can- vas ; and the faithful Old Dog follows her : and the end of it all is that the faithful Old Dog is her single attendant. Sir Hero is reveling in the wars, or in Armida's bowers ; Mr. Poet has spied a wrinkle ; the brush is for the rose in its season. She turns to her Old Dog then. She hugs him ; and he, who has subsisted on a bone and a pat till there he squats decrepit, he turns his grateful old eyes up to her, and has not a notion that she is hugging sad memories in him : Hero, Poet, Painter, in one scrubby one ! Then is she buried, and the village heafs languid howls, and there is a paragraph in the newspapers concerning the extraordinary fidelity of an Old Dog. — From George Meredith's The Ordeal of Richard FevereL Lastly, we must examine a little the paragraph of con- trast, — a paragraph in which two or more persons, scenes, or objects are compared or contrasted. In such paragraphs, particularly where only two things are contrasted, the topic sentence may stand in the very middle of the paragraph, the first part being devoted to a discussion of the one; the second part, to a discussion of the other. Thus, if we were writing a paragraph contrast of Rebecca and Rowena, the two heroines in Scott's Ivanhoe, we might plan it as fol- lows : — THE PARAGRAPH PLAN tj I. Rebecca 1. Dark 2. Courageous 3. Uncompromising T. S. — Whereas, her sister-character in the great story is quite the opposite. II. Rowena 1. Light 2. Passive 3. Yielding The topic sentence may also here, as in the other types of paragraph, stand at the beginning. The development may then be made by alternating sentences, the first deal- ing with the first member of the contrast ; the second, with the other, and so forth. T. S. — Rebecca and Rowena differed widely in appearance and character. I. Appearance 1. Rebecca, dark 2. Rowena, light 3. Rebecca, Jewish type 4. Rowena, Saxon type II. Character 1. Rebecca, courageous 2. Rowena, resigned 3. Rebecca, uncompromising 4. Rowena, yielding Or here, as in our former examples, the development may lead into a summary sentence. The following paragraph further illustrates this type : — Somerset mounted at once to the first story, and opened the door of the drawing-room, which was brilliantly lit by several lamps. It was a great apartment ; looking on the square with three 78 COMPOSITION PLANNING tall windows, and joined by a pair of ample folding-doors to the next room ; elegant in proportion, papered in sea-green, furnished in velvet of a delicate blue, and adorned with a majestic mantel- piece of variously tinted marbles. Such was the room that Som- erset remembered; that which he now beheld was changed in al- most every feature: the furniture covered with a figured chintz; the walls hung with a rhubarb-colored paper, and diversified by the curtained recesses for no less than seven windows. It seemed to himself that he must have entered, without observing the transi- tion, into the adjoining house. Presently from these more specious changes, his eye condescended to the many curious objects with which the floor was littered. Here were the locks of dismounted pistols; clocks and clockwork in every stage of demolition, some still busily ticking, some reduced to their dainty elements ; a great company of carboys, jars and bottles; a carpenter's bench and a laboratory-table. — From Robert Louis Stevenson's The Dyna- miter. These five methods of paragraph development can very easily be "clinched" in our memory by enumerating them under one another in the order in which they have been discussed and noting- the acrostic v^ord, — Thoroughness Occurrences Particulars Impressions Contrasts We observe that the initial letters spell 'TOPIC', remind- ing us very properly of the fact that all our paragraphs, whatever their nature, are bred of a topic sentence, or its equivalent. Now it must not be understood that these types of para- graph development stand separately and distinctly alone. Many of the examples quoted above prove to us quite the contrary. We name a paragraph development from the THE PARAGRAPH PLAN 79 predominant quality of the material used in its development. A paragraph that is developed by means of particulars v^ill consist mostly of particulars about its subject or key-word, but it may also contain occurrences and impressions and the other elements in a subordinate place. The same is true of a paragraph developed by thoroughness or contrast or any of the other methods. It may have other, — many other — elements in it, but they must be kept subordinate to the type that is being followed. And this major type will always be decided for us of course by the topic sentence. It will tell us what kind of development it ''wants''. If, however, cases arise where we think that either of two methods may be used with equally good results, then we should select the one that we think we can handle the better; or we may combine two or three methods in equal proportions in order to secure a more perfect development of our subject. When this combination is made, we have what is known as the composite paragraph. In the first paragraph of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, which is quoted below, we can see an excellent example of this composite type of paragraph. He has most skillfully and therefore most readably employed at least three methods of paragraph development — particulars, impressions, and contrasts — in giving us a picture of the period : • It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way, — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. 8o COMPOSITION PLANNING EXERCISE I. Write out the paragraphs for the illustrative paragraph plans that are presented in this chapter. Follow the plan closely in each case, and confine yourself to the method of development v^hich the plan illustrates. II. Plan and write paragraphs from the following topic sentences : 1. I like skating better than sledding. 2. Jim is a most peculiar chap. 3. They had a good time at the party. 4. It was the most wonderful trick I ever saw. 5. John was scared when he came into the room. 6. There are three or four different kinds of sleds. 7. He made us all feel rather queer. 8. Tricks should always be tempered with common sense. 9. The room was filled with all sorts of curios. 10. When it comes to choosing I'll take Bill instead of John every time. III. Convert the above sentences into summary sen- tences and plan paragraphs for them. Explain in a well- planned, well-written paragraph a. — how you made the change from topic to summary, b. — how the change affects the planning and the wri- ting of the paragraph. IV. Reduce each of the sentences in Exercise II to a single title. V. Compose topic sentences illustrative of the five (T-O-P-I-C) methods of development. Underline the key- word of each and make a list of the following echo-words you would use in writing the paragraph. THE PARAGRAPH PLAN 8i VI. Select from some good novel or history (or other good accessible reading) models of the five different types of paragraphs, and deduct outlines from them. VII. Select the topic or summary sentence of every illustrative paragraph used in this chapter and make a plan from vv^hich the paragraph might have been constructed. VIII. Plan and write a composite paragraph for each of the following sentences : — 1. Mary is too impatient to get on with Elizabeth. 2. I was very much alarmed when the accident occurred. 3. He deserved his reproof for he had deliberately dis- obeyed. 4. It was little wonder that a person of such peculiar habits amused her. 5. Whatever happens, he always controls himself. IX. Read the following sentence carefully; then 1. Plan and write the conversation that probably took place between the parties. 2. Plan and write a paragraph giving an account of the incident, using little or no con- versation. The driver of a street sprinkler drove so close to an open street car without turning off the water, that the motorman, the conductor, and the passengers were all considerably dampened. X. Make a paragraph-composition plan for each of the following topics. Have an introductory or a conclud- ing paragraph, or both. a. Our Park b. Hopewell's Career c. The Play d. Certain Fellows I Know e. Hockey 82 COMPOSITION PLANNING XL Make a paragraph-composition plan of each of the following. Indicate by the plan that certain paragraphs are to be subordinate to others. Indicate also, on the mar- gin, just what method is to be employed in developing each paragraph. a. The Officers of Our Club b. Our School Teams c. The Noon Hour d. "Reddy's" Peculiar Manners e. A Hopeless Situation XII. Select the topic sentence in each of the follow- ing paragraphs and deduce a paragraph plan in each case : She was well matched by her brother, nearly about her own age. He was tall, vigorous, and well-formed, with a clear olive complexion, a dark beaming eye, and curling chestnut whiskers that met under his chin. He was gallantly dressed in a short green velvet jacket, fitted to his shape, profusely decorated with silver buttons, with a white handkerchief in each pocket. He had breeches of the same, with rows of buttons from the hips to the knees; a pink silk handkerchief round his neck, gathered through a ring, on the bosom of a neatly plaited shirt ; a sash round the waist to match ; high gaiters of the finest russet-leather, elegantly worked, and open at the calf to show his stocking; and russet shoes, setting off a well-shaped foot. — From Washington Irving's The Alhamhra, It has always been my endeavor to distinguish between reali- ties and appearances, and to separate true merit from the pre- tence to it. As it shall ever be my study to make discoveries of this nature in human life, and to settle the proper distinctions be- tween the virtues and perfections of mankind, and those false col- ors and resemblances of them that shine alike in the eyes of the vulgar ; so I shall be more particularly careful to search into the , various merits and pretences of the learned world. This is the more necessary, because there seems to be a general combina- THE PARAGRAPH PLAN 83 tion among the Pedants to extol one another's labors, and cry up one another's parts; while men of sense, either through that modesty which is natural to them, or the scorn they have for such trifling commendations, enjoy their stock of knowledge, like a hid- den treasure, with satisfaction and silence. Pedantry indeed in learning is like hypocrisy in religion, a form of knowledge with- out the power of it; that attracts the eyes of the common people; breaks out in noise and show; and finds its reward not from any inward pleasure that attends it, but from the praises and ap- probations which it receives from men. — From Joseph Addison^s The Tatter, First of all, and principally, I believe, the strangeness and sin- gularity of its tones; then there was something mysterious and uncommon associated with its use. It was not a school language, to acquire which was considered an imperative duty; no, no; nor was it a drawing-room language, drawled out occasionally, in shreds and patches, by the ladies of generals and other great dig- nitaries, to the ineffable dismay of poor officers' wives. Nothing of the kind ; but a speech spoken in out-of-the-way desolate places, and in cut-throat kens, where thirty ruffians, at the sight of the king's minions, would spring up with brandished sticks and an "ubbubboo, like the blowing up of a powder magazine." Such were the points connected with the Irish, which first awakened in my mind the desire of acquiring it; and by acquiring it I became, as I have already said, enamored of languages. Having learnt one by chance, I speedily, as the reader will perceive, learnt others, some of which were widely different from Irish. — From George Borrow's Lavengro. A few small houses scattered on either side of the road be- token the entrance to some town or village. The lively notes of the guard's key-bugle vibrate in the clear cold air, and wake up the old gentleman inside, who, carefully letting down the window- sash half way, and standing sentry over the air, takes a short peep out, and then, carefully pulling it up again, informs the other inside that they're going to change directly; on which the other inside wakes himself up and determines to postpone his next nap until after the stoppage. Again the bugle sounds lustily forth, and rouses the cottager's wife and children, who peep out at the house- 84 COMPOSITION PLANNING door, and watch the coach till it turns the corner, when they once more crouch round the blazing fire, and throw on another log of wood against father's coming home, while father himself, a full mile off, has just exchanged a friendly nod with the coachman, and turned round, to take a good long stare at the vehicle as it whirls away. — From Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers. CHAPTER VI OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE Thus far in our study we have considered four more or less common types of plan, — The Running Plan, The Infor- mal Plan, The Formal Plan, and The Paragraph Plan, each with its separate modifications. We have found these dis- tinct types, at the same time that we found many of them interchangeable one with another, and all capable of combi- nation to some extent. We have in each case seen that the name selected to designate the plan is based upon some rea- sonable and inherent principle upon which the method of planning depends. We come now to study other types of plans, but they are other types only from the point of view of the form of expression used in their topics. Usually the name will be taken from the form of the major topics alone. This therefore is a different way of naming our plans from the one adopted heretofore. We have been naming our outlines in accordance with some arrangement of subject matter. Now we are going to name them according to the various kinds of enumeration we may use. Any one of those that follow therefore may belong to any one of those we have studied. The Informal Outline, for instance, may have its various topics written in various ways; they may be words, phrases, clauses, and even sentences. So also may the Formal, the Running, and the Paragraph Plan. It is our purpose now to classify plans therefore on this basis of topic expression. 8s 86 COMPOSITION PLANNING THE TOPICAL PLAN Up to this time we have been using the word "topic" in a somewhat general sense. We have done this chiefly because it is convenient, in referring to the different parts of a plan, to say ''topic no. i", ''topic no. 2'', etc. It is perfectly allowable so to use the word provided that we at the same time know that it has a more specific meaning of its own. Though we shall continue to use it in this general sense with the meaning of "point'', we shall now define its more restricted usage. As a matter of fact a topical out- line or plan is one that has for its various points single words of uniform parts of speech, or single words with very short and uniform modifiers. Thus in writing a para- graph plan comparing John with Bill we might proceed in this way: — T. S. — Though John and Bill were brothers they were for the most part very different. I. John L Kind 2. Honest 3. Genial 4. Clever II. Bill 1. Cruel 2. Honest , 3. Brusque 4. Stupid Here the characteristics of each character are stated in the briefest possible manner. The major points are nouns ; the minor points are consistently adjectives; all are expressed by single words. The plan is therefore strictly and simply topical. Our plan will however still be topical, though not OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE' 87 so strictly so, if we add simple modifying words or phrases to each of the various topics; thus : — T. S. — Though John and Bill were brothers they were for the most part very different. I. John a good friend 1. Very kind 2. Strictly honest 3. Always genial 4. Extremely clever 11. Bill a bad enemy 1. Very cruel 2. Perfectly honest 3. Usually brusque 4. Extremely stupid THE PHRASAL PLAN So much then for the Topical Plan. If now we have occasion to extend these modifying terms into prepositional or participial phrases, our plan ceases to be topical in the limited sense of the word and becomes a Phrasal Plan. One type of such a plan might be as follows : T. S. — Though John and Bill were brothers they were for the most part very different in character. I. John, the boy for friendship 1. Kind to everybody 2. Honest in every way 3. Genial at all times 4. Clever at everything II. Bill, the boy for enmity 1. Cruel to everybody and to everything 2. Honest in every way 3. Brusque all the time 4. Stupid at everything 88 COMPOSITION PLANNING One of the most common types of Phrasal Plan, however, is the one whose points end with prepositions. This style of outline is used very largely in computations, in mechani- cal description and exposition, and in argument. Such a phrasal plan for a short composition on "The Blue-Jay", for instance, might be arranged in this way : — THE BLUE-JAY I. Introduction I. Habitat of II. Discussion 1. Size of 2. Colors of 3. Voice of 4. Habits of III. Conclusion I. Place of, among other birds This plan may seem incomplete because of the position of the prepositions, but its meaning is clear. We should be careful not to permit the use of this style of phrasal plan to beget in us the habit of using prepositions as the concluding words in our sentences. There is nothing wrong in "using a preposition to end a sentence with", but it is not wise to do so very often. It is perfectly clear of course what the object of the preposition is in each case where it is used in the above plan. When the phrasal form of expression is followed in the Formal Plan, the title is usually under- stood after the preposition, as in the case of *'The Blue-Jay". When however it is used in the Informal Plan, the object of the concluding preposition should properly be the noun in the last major topic, or, indeed, the whole major topic. It is perhaps better therefore to make use of the Phrasal form in the Informal Plan than in the Formal, for the prepo- sition will then not be so far removed from its object. Let OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 89 us fancy, for instance, a carpenter indicating the various proportions and sizes of the parts of a house : — I. Rooms 1. Length of 2. Breadth of 3. Height of IL Windows 1. Frames of a. Kind of wood of b. Shape of c. Size of 2. Glass of a. Kind of b. Various shapes and sizes of etc. Here the reference is simpler because not so far removed. If this "rough and ready plan'', as it is sometimes called, were completed the carpenter could insert the details in actual feet and inches as he learned them, immediately after the topics to which such details properly belong. There are different ways of placing the prepositions in this type of outline. In the above illustrations we have added the prepositions to the subordinate topics and when the Formal Plan is used this is of course necessary. Often it is necessary also in the Informal Phrasal Plan. But there are many cases where we may save ourselves the need- less repetition of the preposition by adding it simply to the major topics and to no others : — THE SPEAKER'S BROAD KNOWLEDGE I. He quoted from 1. Tennyson 2. Goldsmith 3. Shakspere 90 COMPOSITION PLANNING II. He described life in 1. India 2. Africa 3. Europe 4. South America III. He narrated stories of 1. adventure 2. exploration 3. hunting expeditions 4. conquest IV. He talked fluently on 1. business 2. politics 3. religion 4. art Still another variation of phrasal outline is the particip- ial or infinitive plan ; that is, participial or infinitive phrases are consistently used instead of the prepositional phrases. Here again we must be careful to be systematic, — we must see to it that our topics are all one thing or the other; we must not have some participial and others infinitive in the same outline. To illustrate, let us examine the following : — THE SISTERS' DUTIES I. Visiting the sick 1. Providing medicine 2. Furnishing comforts 3. Cheering them II. Helping the needy I. 2. 3. etc. OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 91 III. Pacifying the troubled I. 2. 3- etc. IV. Teaching the children I. 2. 3- etc. V. Asking alms I. 2. 3- etc. or I. To visit the sick 1. To provide medicine 2. To furnish comforts 3. To cheer II. To pacify the troubled I. 2. 3. etc. etc. Either one of these plans is a good example of the phrasal type; one participial, the other infinitive. THE CLAUSAL PLAN Again, our points may take the form of clauses, in which case we call our plan a Clausal Plan. The same warning is necessary here as has been given so many times previously in the book; namely, that we must keep our 92 COMPOSITION PLANNING clausal plan consistently clausal. There is probably no bet- ter exercise for any of us than this keeping of our topics uniform in expression, or of converting one style of expres- sion consistently into another. If practiced patiently it will beget in us the habit of concise and correct and systematic formulation of our thoughts into language, — to mention but one benefit. To illustrate our clausal plan, let us take the following : — THE MOODS OF MY DOG PRINCE I. When he is sportive 1. he jumps 2. he bites in play 3. he upsets things 4. he makes many enemies II. When he is hungry 1. he is impatient 2. he is voracious 3. he is jealous HI. When he is working 1. he is very serious 2. he is very loyal 3. he is very keen IV. When he is angry 1. he barks fiercely 2. he shoves his white teeth 3. his long hair bristles V. When he is sleepy and dull 1. he growls if disturbed 2. he stretches elaborately 3. he finds a warm spot and lies down 4. he snores heavily In this little character sketch of Prince we have enumer- ated his chief characteristics in clauses. In the subordi- OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 93 nate topics we have extended the analysis of each of these characteristics, and we have done so by means of sentences. The minor topics therefore when read consecutively with the major topics give us complete complex sentences. All of the topics, however, could have been kept in the clausal form had we cared so to express them. Or we could have retained the word *'he'' at the end of each major topic, thus : — III. When he is on duty, he 1. is very serious 2. is very loyal 3. is very keen On the other hand we may reverse the dependent and in- dependent clauses if we so desire. Outlining a short com- position on *'My Reasons for Liking Bookkeeping'', we might very properly proceed as follows : — I. It is interesting 1. because of up-to-date problems 2. because it gives one a sense of responsibility II. It is helpful 1. because it cultivates accuracy 2. because it trains the reason 3. because it explains business transactions 4. because it makes one neat and careful III. It is practical 1. because it is required in all firms however small 2. because it applies to every day affairs as well as to all others If now we look back for a few pages we will find that, among those outlines where the major topic makes continu- ous reading with the minor topic, we do not capitalize the minor topic. The reason for this is clear. It would be 94 COMPOSITION PLANNING absurd to capitalize the middle word in a sentence, and the first word of the minor topic is just that, though it is written on the line below. It forms consecutive and un- broken reading with what has gone before. THE SENTENCE PLAN Still another type of outline, considered from the stand- point of the form of expression in the various headings, is the Sentence Outline. We must not confuse this with the paragraph-composition outline. There we planned for each paragraph of our composition, and wrote down the topic or the summary sentence of each. In the sentence outline proper we select the leading points in our collected material and express them in sentence form. Under these we write the topics or phrases or clauses or shorter sentences which subordinately belong to each. This may mean that two or three or more paragraphs will have to be written to develop each major topic with its minor points. We shall find later that the sentence outline is particularly applicable to stories, but it may of course be used for other kinds of writing as well. It has the advantage of being more ex- plicit than the other forms of outline we have studied, in that it gives the reader a complete statement of the divi- sions and subdivisions of the subject-matter rather than a mere suggestion. We may illustrate it as follows : — OUR AUTOMOBILE I. It is beautiful to look at I. 2. 3. 4. etc. OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 95 II. It is comfortable to ride in I. 2. 3. 4. etc. III. It holds the whole family I. 2. 3. 4. etc. IV. It makes distances shorter I. 2. 3. 4. etc. Here every major topic is expressed by means of a com- plete sentence. The plan may now easily be completed by inserting the subordinate topics under each main heading. These, as said before, may take the form of short sentences, of clauses, of phrases, or of topics; only, again, we must not forget to make all points of the same grade of subordi- nation uniform in expression. Usually, as we shall see later, the sentence plan is used almost exclusively in con- structing narration. COMBINATION AND INTERCHANGEABLE PLANS We should explain, before we go any further, some- thing that has been incidentally mentioned in two or three other places in this chapter; the fact, namely, that it is 96 COMPOSITION PLANNING usually the major topic in our plans that decides for us what kind of outline we have, by what name it shall be called. Or, if not this, as when we use the Formal type or divide our plan into the Informal type at the outset, then the style of the uniform subordinate topics must decide the name of the plan used. As a rule however the major topics of a phrasal plan must be phrases; of a clausal plan, clauses; and so on. The minor topics should in all cases be uniform with one another, though they need not necessarily be the same in expression as the major topics. In the Formal plan it is of course the minor point of the first degree of subordination that decides whether our plan is to be topical, phrasal, clausal, or sentence; for we know that the three main divisions — introduction, discussion, and conclusion — are uniformly topical in their nature, and are in a way out- side our consideration of the form of expression. But if we want to divide our subject into four or five informal major topics, as we did in the plan on page 92, we shall there again have to look to the points of the first degree of subordination to ascertain the kind of plan we are using. But after all, as we have seen before, the mere name of a plan matters little. The thing that does matter is the ability to organize our thought and to register that thought on paper systematically and consistently. The regulating of our forms of expression in writing and speaking will be the means of rescuing our writing and our conversation from much, if not from all, of the slovenliness that con- stantly mars both forms of our expression. Now, if we have been at all observant we have seen by this time that the various types of plan here studied are in- terchangeable. We can take a sentence outline and convert it into a phrasal outline ; we can convert a clausal outline into a topical outline ; and so on. All these different forms are OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 97 easily interchangeable. To illustrate but a few of these possibilities : — OUR AUTOMOBILE (see page 94) (formerly sentence, now topical) I. Its beauty II. Its comfort III. Its capacity IV. Its speed or THE SISTERS' DUTIES (see page 90) (formerly phrasal, now topical) I. The sick II. The needy III. The troubled etc. THE BLUE-JAY (see page 88) (formerly phrasal, now sentence) I. Introduction I. Where it lives II. Discussion 1. How large it is 2. What its colors are 3. What kind of voice it has 4. What its habits are III. Conclusion I. What its place is among other birds We cannot say positively here that any one form of these minor plans must be applied to any one type or style of composition. Speaking broadly in the last four chapters of the book, we shall see that outlines for Narration should as a rule be sentence or participial; that outlines for Dq-* 98 COMPOSITION PLANNING scription should be topical or phrasal ; those for Exposition, clausal, phrasal, or topical; and those for argument, any or all combined. It is enough for us to remember now that, as our plan should always express clearly the contents of the composition, we should select the form of expression which we feel best meets the situation. It may be that some of us will find one type more suitable to our needs and conditions than another at different times. We must dis- cover this adjustment for ourselves and apply it accordingly. Our intention in this chapter is to learn chiefly that we must not mix our forms of expression unduly. A mixture of expressional forms leads in most cases, as we know only too well, to a muddled and irregular habit of thinking, or indicates a habit of untrained, undisciplined thinking. There will be many times of course when we shall be justi- fied in making a combination plan : a plan, that is, in which we shall combine two or more of these forms of expression in the enumeration of our points. We might have done this in our sketch of Prince. We might there very properly have indicated a brief introduction telling about Prince's breed, size, color, etc., instead of introducing these points incidentally as we did. And we might have added a brief conclusion making general comment upon Prince as a model dog, as indeed a very doggish dog. If these changes were made we might furthermore fit the whole outline into the Formal mold ; thus : — i PRINCE I. Introduction 1. His breed 2. His color 3. His siae 4. His face 5. His hair OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 99 II. Discussion 1. When he is sportive a. he jumps b. he biles in play c. he upsets things d. he makes many enemies 2. When he is hungry a. he is impatient b. he is voracious c. he is jealous 3. When he is working a. he is very serious b. he is very loyal c. he is very keen 4. When he is angry a. he barks fiercely b. he shows his white teeth c. his long hair bristles 5. When he is sleepy and dull a. he growls if disturbed b. he stretches elaborately c. he finds a warm spot and lies down d. he snores heavily III. Conclusion 1. Prince compared with other dogs 2. Why we love Prince Or v^^e might omit the word ^'Discussion" altogether from our plan and between the Introduction and the Conclusion insert the development of the subject without naming it; thus : — PRINCE I. Introduction 1. His breed 2. His color 3. His size 4. His face 5. His hair 100 COMPOSITION PLANNING II. When he is sportive 1. he jumps 2. he bites in play 3. he upsets things 4. he makes many enemies III. When he is hungry 1. he is impatient 2. he is voracious 3. he is jealous IV. When he is working 1. he is very serious 2. he is very loyal 3. he is very keen V. When he is angry 1. he barks fiercely 2. he shows his white teeth 3. his long hair bristles VI. When he is sleepy and dull 1. he growls if disturbed 2. he stretches elaborately 3. he finds a warm spot and lies down 4. he snores heavily VII. Conclusion 1. Prince compared with other dogs 2. Why we love Prince It will often happen that we shall feel that our subject should have an introduction and a conclusion as independent ele- ments in our composition. There may be things that will have to be explained before we can hope to interest our readers in our sketch or story; and there may likewise be things that will have to be unraveled or explained at the end. In all these cases we may do as we have done above, or we may add a point at the beginning and one at the end of the composition, each showing by its nature that it is introductory or concluding ; for example : — OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE ioi PRINCE I. Prince, — breed — size — color — hair — face II. When he is sportive 1. he jumps 2. he bites in play 3. he upsets things 4. he makes many enemies III. When he is hungry 1. he is impatient 2. he is voracious 3. he is jealous IV. When he is working 1. he is very serious 2. he is very loyal 3. he is very keen V. When he is angry 1. he barks fiercely 2. he shows his white teeth 3. his long hair bristles VI. When he is sleepy and dull 1. he growls if disturbed 2. he stretches elaborately 3. he finds a warm spot and lies down 4. he snores heavily VII. Our reasons for loving Prince more than other dogs Such arrangements as these then would be made up of two different types and would therefore be combination plans. We must bear in mind in this connection that the Formal, the Informal, and the Running types of plan are generic types, and that those studied in this chapter are specific. But in combining one type with another we may intermingle all, both generic and specific. We must re- member too that these generic types receive their names I02 COMPOSITION PLANNING according to the arrangement of material ; that the specific types are named according to the form of expression used in writing down our points. Therefore, just as we learned that we can unite the Run- ning with the Formal and Informal plans, so long as we do it systematically; so also we see here that topical, phrasal, clausal, and sentence plans may be combined. But it is safe to say that never should more than two of these be combined in dealing with one subject, and the combination should of course be made with much care. Such an ar- rangement as this we know would be extremely bad : — I. Introduction I. Size of 2. Color 3. What breed II. Hungry III. On duty IV. When angry This would be extremely slip-shod and slovenly, and we have surely been sufficiently warned against this kind of thing never to make such a blunder. THE DEDUCTIVE PLAN We come now to the Deductive Outline, sometimes called the Study Plan or the Analytic Plan. We have studied this to a small degree in the chapter dealing with the Paragraph Plan and in the exercises at the end of other chapters. But for the most part we have so far dealt only with plans made in preparation of written work that was to follow. We have led from a mass of unorganized material into a regular and consistent arrangement and presentation of that OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 103 material. But sometimes we have found it helpful to make notes on a difficult passage in History, perhaps, or in Eng- lish, Economics, Science, or in any subject with which we may at the time have been engaged. We have ^'jotted down the main points'', as we have said, so that, when we were called upon for recitation, we have had the informa- tion gleaned from the text-book in a thoroughly organized form. This is a most valuable exercise and, as a rule, if done seriously, will gain for us a much better knowledge of the subject studied than we could otherwise get. To lead from the composition back to the original plan, or to a plan equivalent to the original, may seem very much like placing the cart before the horse, and it is indeed a very bad thing for us to do in connection with our own compositions. We have known pupils of course who disliked making plans and who, in consequence, wrote their compositions first and then made the plans. But they disliked making plans and resorted to this method only because they did not understand how to go about making a plan. Probably they had never had opportunities of studying the subject. But to make a de- ductive or study or analytic plan of text which we are con- cerned in mastering, is a most valuable exercise. Of course the plan should be systematically made ; the contents of the passage should be sensibly '^jotted down". The major points of the subject should be major points in the plan and the minor points should of course be subordinated. Long and difficult points should perhaps be written in sen- tence form; shorter and easier points, in topic, phrasal, or clausal form. The kind of expression used in the plan should vary with the importance of the information regis- tered. If the subject-matter be uniform in its value and difficulty, we can confine ourselves to one particular type of outline, a vastly more convenient thing to do. The best 104 COMPOSITION PLANNING results from our study are oftentimes gained by making our deductive or study plan a paragraph plan. This is par- ticularly the case when the text itself is divided into dis- tinctly marked sections or paragraphs. Moreover, the para- graph plan, as we have seen, is likely to be much more detailed and complete than any other type. We make use of this analytic outline not only when we study from a book, but when we watch an experiment, and make notes; when we listen to a lecture and write out the salient features of it; and when we listen to a talk in one of our societies to which we wish to reply. This last in- stance is particularly common in the refutation of debates, where the speaker has to observe and note carefully what his opponent is saying. Unless he is on the alert to or- ganize his reply, he will probably not make a successful rebuttal. We can see therefore how important it is for us to cultivate this habit of outlining and analyzing what others have said in order that what we may haVe to say about, or in reply to, it may be consistently presented. Many of our greatest men in every field of activity have kept notebooks in which they have deduced plans from their reading, or from things which they have heard or seen. And it was oftentimes these very notes that in later life helped them to accomplish a work that made their names immortal. Haw- thorne, Dickens, Stevenson, Thackeray, Bacon, Emerson, and scores of others were all ^'notebook men". On the other hand, we have known the zest and appre- ciation of a good story to be entirely dulled by the fact that a student read it with the ever-conscious knowledge that his teacher was going to require an outline of it afterward. It is of course foolish to form the habit of outlining every- thing, most of all such reading as we do for pleasure. This would be like inquiring minutely about the fingering of a OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 105 piece of music after we had been thrilled with its ecstatic strains. But when we are confronted with a particularly difficult text which is going to be necessary to us in later work or which we desire to master for personal ends we may have in view, then the making of a study plan cannot be too highly recommended. Let us take for example the following passage from Epochs of English History, edited by Rt. Rev. M. Creighton, and deduce an outline from it. THE CRIMEAN WAR 1. In November, 1853, the Emperor of Russia declared war against Turkey. To the surprise of Europe, the Turks at first held their own against the invader. The Russians were repulsed from every point of attack along the Danube, and the Emperor became more exasperated at the failure of his arms. The em- peror of the French attempted in vain to mediate. At last a mes- sage was sent by England that unless the Russian troops were withdrawn across the Pruth before the end of April, 1854, it would be considered that war had been declared. To this the Czar made no reply, and the war began its course. 2. The plan of operations was very simple. Russia could only be attacked in her extremities, and England could only act on a sea base. A fleet was sent into the Baltic with high ex- pectations of success, which were not realized, and a large force of English and French troops was despatched into the Black Sea with the object of taking Sebastopol, a powerful fortress which the Russians had recently constructed at great expense. In September the allies landed at Eupatoria, in the Crimea, and six days later completely defeated the Russians at the Battle of Alma. It might have been possible to attack Sebastopol with success from the northern side, but it was thought more prudent to be- siege it from the south, and the batteries opened fire in October. The Battle of Balaklava fought on October 25 was signalized by a charge of six hundred light cavalry, in which nearly half were killed or wounded. In November was fought the Battle of Inker- man, in which an attempt to surprise the British army was de- io6 COMPOSITION PLANNING feated by the steadiness of the guards. The winter tried the army severely, and the want of suppHes and hospitals roused in- dignation at home. — Excerpt from Chapter XXI. DEDUCTIVE, ANALYTIC OR STUDY PLAN OF THE FOREGOING EXCERPT I. Declaration of war by Russia against Turkey (Nov. 1853) 1. Resistance of Turkey 2. Repulsion of Russians 3. Attempt at mediation by French 4. Message from England 5. The Czar's silence XL The War in the Crimea (1854) 1. Russia versus England a. Methods of each 2. Maneuvers a. In the Baltic b. In the Black Sea 3. Arrival of English and French in Crimea a. Battle of Alma b. Battle of Balaklava c. Battle of Inkerman 4. The severe winter THE BRACKET PLAN A more general method of planning than any that has yet come to our notice is that in which we subordinate hori- zontally rather than perpendicularly as we have been doing. This is sometimes called the Bracket Plan and it applies only to the way in which we write down the material on the paper. Any plan that we have heretofore drawn up may be arranged in the bracket form. It is a mold into which we can fit any kind of knowledge that we may have about anything. It is valuable chiefly because it presents a OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 107 very concise, a very condensed, and, if made with care, a very easily understood picture of the contents of our com- position. We shall find if we consult various textbooks that such an arrangement of material is often made in sum- marizing work at the ends of chapters, or, particularly in a subject like History, in presenting family genealogies and royal successions. The matter of subordination is indi- cated, as we can see below, by means of smaller and smaller bracketing. The Introduction to Our Literary Club as outlined on page 39 may be ''bracketed'' as follows : — A. Organization I. General 2. Particular a. Name ■{ (i) Emerson b. Meetings c. Purposes a. Membership b. Officers i(i) Place 1(2) -■ (2) Time id) 1(2) Social aims Intellectual aims (1) Age I (2) Number I (3) Initiation [(4) Expense (i) Director (2) President (3) Vice-president (4) Secretary (5) Treasurer 1(6) Critic In such plans tabulation is usually omitted, the picture being clear enough to leave no doubt as to the relations of topics. We have, however, included it here in order that rapid comparison can be made between this and the original from which it is transposed. (See also outline of kinds of letters, Chap. VIII, and outline of aids to variety, Chap. IX.) io8 COMPOSITION PLANNING THE PARALLEL PLAN It is sometimes desirable to present to the eye the rela- tions that certain different kinds of contemporary events bear to one another. The events of an author's life, for instance, the publication of his works, the events in the lives of other authors who lived at about the same time, and the contemporary historical events, are sometimes all written in parallel columns, so that one can see them comparatively, at a glance. This is a most valuable kind of plan for con- densation and comparison; for learning, perhaps, what in- fluence certain historical periods had on certain lives or works, and for studying the relations between men and events. We have frequently seen such parallel plans drawn up for our benefit in text-books and they have been of great help to us, for we are often inclined to believe that, because an account of a happening occurs in a book after the account of a man's life, the man lived long before the happening. In other words, we are likely from time to time to deduce a false chronology because an author cannot write about two events at the same time though they may have occurred simultaneously. The parallel plan will prevent our gather- ing these false impressions. Such plans may be used also to excellent advantage for purposes of summarizing periods of history or the happenings in novels and poems. The following excerpt illustrates the type of parallel planning that is often met with in introductions to texts in various subjects. It will be understood, of course, that the number of columns in such a plan or diagram must vary according to the number and importance of the main heading to be considered. There may be only two, or a dozen or more. And care must be taken to keep events of even date or value on the same line : — OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 109 A.D. ENGLISH HISTORY ENGLISH LITERATURE Milton's life (James I. on the throne). Persecution of the Puritans. December 9th, Milton born. John "Mayflower" sails for America. James I. died. First Parliament. Plague in London. Second Parliament. Third Parliament. Pe tition of Right. Oliver Cromwell in Par liament. Protest and dissolution. Charles IL born. Publication of Shake- speare's Sonnets. Authorized version of the Bible. Shakespeare died, April 23d. Publica- tion of Jonson's Un- derwoods. Bacon's Novum Or- ganum published. First foHo of Shake- speare's plays. Fletcher (dramatist) died. Enlarged edition of Bacon's Essays. Bacon died. John Bunyan born. Education carried on at home by Puritan tutor. Sent to School. Laud and Wentworth. The period of Thor- ough. Charles crowned in Ed- inburgh. Laud, Arch- bishop of Canter- bury. Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick pilloried. League and Covenant. Episcopacy abolished in Scotland. John Dryden born. John Locke born. George Herbert died. Ben Jonson died. St. Paul's and Psalms CXIV CXXXVI. To Christ's College, Cambridge. On a Fair Infant. Vacation Exercise. B. A. degree. Nativity. On the Circumcision; On the Passion; On Shakespeare. Epitaphs on Hohson and Marchioness oj Winchester. M. A. degree, Cam- bridge. Retired to Horton for five years. While there wrote Time, Solemn Music, May Morning, Son- net II, U Allegro, II Penseroso , A r cades , Comus, and Lycidas. Travels on Continent. Italian Sonnets. From Frederick Day Nichols' Milton's Shorter Poems and Sonnets. no COMPOSITION PLANNING We may also make a parallel plan of a different but equally helpful sort, such as in the illustration from James Russell Lowell's The Vision of Sir Launfal, following: — Contrasts in The Vision of Sir Launfal Prelude I Prelude II Summer Winter Flowers Ice Music Silence Life Death Inspiration Desolation Youth Age etc. etc. We may fill in the spaces in the following diagram with the material for which the various columns call and we will have, when done, not only the chief events of the author's life, but also all of the great world-happenings that were contemporary with him : — Sir Walter Scott and His Period Dates Events Works 1 Contemporary Writers Contemporary- Statesmen and Leaders Contemporary Events OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE lit Such parallel plans are of great value to us in most lines of our study. Sometimes they are called 'Tables", but here again the mere name makes no difference. We will illus- trate but a few subjects only in which the plan may prove useful. First, in language study we may be able to "clinch" difficult verbs by summarizing them thus : — Irregular Verbs in — Verb Meaning Parts Difficulties or in History, The War Battles Dates Leaders Brief Account 112 COMPOSITION PLANNING or in Science, Organism Brief Description Characteristics Relation to Other Forms or in English, Word Where Found Meaning PecuHar Use Figure Where Found Paraphrase Line Scansion Explanation of Meter OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 113 and so forth. With the exercise of a little ingenuity on our part we shall be able to construct original and. valuable parallel plans for almost any phase of any of our work, and thus aid our memory and facilitate our study. The above illustrations are but a very few indications of what can be done along this line. Every one of these, as well as many others of our own invention, should be elaborated and filled in with proper material. THE HEADLINE PLAN The Headline Plan is a brief summary or analysis of a news item placed at the top of a column of news for the benefit of the reader of the paper. It aims to give in a few words the chief content of the article which follows it. Oftentimes a busy person who has time to read only these headlines in his morning paper, can get a very good idea of the happenings in the world, provided of course the headlines are carefully and thoughtfully stated. By being well stated, we mean that it has been the object of the writer to give a truthful, well-selected, and well-phrased conden- sation of the news contained. This the writers of our best newspapers can always be depended upon to do. But in some of those papers which we sometimes designate as "yellow", the aim of the "headliner" seems to be to flaunt the striking or even the terrible before the eyes of the pur- chaser and reader of the paper, rather than the truthful. This is one of the distinct marks of difference between the ''yellow'' journal and the dignified news sheet, often called the ''gentleman's journal". Another very characteristic mark, however, is the size and prominence given to such headlines. The cheaper paper will oftentimes sprawl the 114 COMPOSITION PLANNING large words of the plan entirely across one sheet ; the more dignified paper will confine the headline plan to the limits of the column in which the news item is to appear. We will examine a few of these headline plans, confining our- selves to those of the better class. But, before doing so, let us recall what the purpose should be, — it should always be to impart truthful, general information about the matter reported, to give the salient features of that matter in con- cise, easily understood terms; it should never be simply to attract attention or to arouse . feeling. The cultivation of the habit of writing true and genuinely informing headlines is very important for us. They are the same kind of thing that we write whenever we condense the words of another to a short, rememberable form; when we deduce brief out- lines ; when we take notes. The few words of explanation that we oftentimes affix to papers that we hand to our teach- ers in various subjects are nothing more or less than head- line plans. Such a plan is of course always a deductive plan, but deduced sometimes from the event itself rather than from the written account of the event. A newspaper writer witnesses an accident, we will say. He notes the chief features of the affair. With a little revision perhaps when he gets to his office, he allows these to stand for head- lines and then ^'writes up'' the accident. This is a natural and safe way to proceed. The *'yellow" method is different. It aims to place a minimum of work on the '*write-up", and a maximum of frenzy (and ink!) on the headline plan. Usually however the headline plan is deduced in the natural way, the article being written first and then the writer re- viewing it to see how best he can condense it to a few words in order to convey its full meaning to the newspaper ''glancer". OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 115 STREET CAR COLLISION. Crosstown Car Runs Into Broadway Car at 59th Street. THREE PEOPLE INJURED. ONE SERIOUSLY. CARELESS MOTORMAN KILLS THREE PEOPLE! Big Trolley "Bump'' at 59th Street and Broadway ANGRY CROWD MOBS MOTORMAN Here we have represented the two different styles. Of course it is the former that we want to take for our guide. It tells with dignity and truth what the actual happening was, and its result. Other good examples are : ii6 COMPOSITION PLANNING IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT. LORD LANSDOWNE'S INVITATION. GOVERNMENT REPLY. PARLIAMENT BILL INTRODUCED BY LORD CREWE. NO AMENDMENT TO BE ACCEPTED. HOUSE OF LORDS.— WEDNESDAY. (From The London Times) NEW YORK LITERARY NOTES Mr. Frohman's Reminiscences — Much Fic- tion and Many Religious Works About to Appear (From The New York Times) OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 117 DEATH OF COUNT TOLSTOY. THE GREAT WRITER'S CAREER. (From The London Times) AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT. COUNT AEHRENTHAL'S DIFFICULTIES. RUMOURS OF POSSIBLE RESIGNATION. (From The London Post) GOVERNOR BARS INAUGURAL BALL California's New Executive Wants None of It, So Far as He's Concerned. FAVORS CHILL SIMPLICITY (From The New York Globe) ii8 COMPOSITION PLANNING EXERCISE I. Make a study plan of this chapter. 11. Make an outline showing the different kinds of plans you studied before reaching the present chapter; plans, that is, dealing with the arrangement of subject-matter. III. Make an outline showing the different kinds of plans you have studied in this chapter : plans, that is, deal- ing with the form of expression of subject-matter. (Do not confuse with no. I above.) IV. Combine nos. II and III into some one con- sistent plan. V. Make topical plans for each of the following titles :— Skating at the Rink The Maples A Good Old Horse Various News-stands That I Pass Street Noises The Parade The Train on Which I Rode On the Merry-Go-Round The Crow Our National Coins VI. Illustrate how each of the above may be made a phrasal, a clausal, or a sentence plan. VII. Draw up a combination plan for the following title: "My Home Study Period''. Tell why you think the subject should be outlined in the combination form. VIII. Make a study plan of the account of some battle you have studied in History ; of the settlement of some col- ony; of the life of some author or some other public man. IX. Enlarge and complete those illustrative plans used in this chapter that are left incomplete. X. Convert any two plans previously made into highly subordinated bracket plans. OTHER FORMS OF OUTLINE 119 XL Make a parallel plan of the past year or two of your life with contemporary events and with the lives of two or three other people. Complete the illustrative parallel plans in this chapter. XII. Draw up a series of newspaper headings for school happenings of the past month. CHAPTER VII POINT OF VIEW AND PURPOSE POINT OF VIEW We have said something (Chapter IV) about the scope of our composition. We are now going to study about this a Httle more in order to understand how we may Hmit our titles somewhat and focus them more intensely upon one particular point. It is very important that we consider every title we may be given, no matter how narrow and con- fined it may be, from some one definite point of view. If we are not careful to do this, we shall find ourselves con- stantly attempting to write on subjects that are too big for a successful handling in an ordinary composition. More- over, we shall find that we are tempted to wander and to become confused in our development of a subject unless we are first more careful to limit it to a certain phase of its character. By way of illustration of this fact let us exam- ine somewhat closely ''Horses", as a title for a composition. Now, whole volumes have been written about this interest- ing animal, and for us to attempt to exhaust the subject within the limits of a single school composition would be little short of absurd. We could give nothing but the most general sketch of horses if we attempted to write about them without limiting ourselves in any way. Futhermore, we would not be qualified to write with equal facility about all kinds of horses. Probably none of us could write intel- 120 POINT OF VIEW AND PURPOSE 121 ligently of more than one or two classes of them. It would be vastly better then for us, in dealing with such a subject, to limit it to one particular point of view. Let us name some of the many points of view from which the horse may be considered : — We may consider this animal from 1. the farmer's point of view, 2. the merchant's point of view, 3. the driver's point of view, 4. the huntsman's point of view, 5. the gambler's point of view, 6. the equestrian's point of view, 7. the artist's point of view, 8. the blacksmith's point of view, 9. the physiologist's point of view, 10. the horse-breeder's point of view. Here we have named ten different points of view off- hand, and we have not yet named them all. "The Horse" discussed from the point of view of any one of these would be a subject of ample breadth for a composition of at least four or five pages of the ordinary school composi- tion paper. But it may be complained that we have selected the very easiest possible kind of subject for our illustration. This is perfectly true. A class name, a generic word, such as ''Horses" or ''The Horse", lends itself to a much wider 1 division than does a more specific title, and therefore is a more dangerous kind of subject for us to handle. How- ever, no subject is so narrow that we cannot limit it to some extent by revolving it in our minds and endeavoring to discover points of view from which it may be considered. Is our subject "What I Ate Yesterday"? Well, we can discuss it from the point of view of a hungry boy; from 122 COMPOSITION PLANNING that of a dyspeptic ; from that of a vegetarian ; from that of a healthy, vigorous exerciser. We may discuss our club from the point of view of a visitor, or from that of an or- dinary member, from an officer's point of view, or from that of a critic or suggester. We may discuss our dog Prince from the point of view of companion, hunter, or trainer. In other words, we can always limit our subjects to some particular sphere and thereby avoid the danger of writing at random. Of course there may be times when it is required of us to make our treatment of a subject extensive rather than intensive. The method of our telling a story or giving an account of anything depends chiefly upon two things, — the kind of thing we have to tell and the kind of audience we have to tell it to. Our first purpose must always be to make what we have to say interesting. How best to do this will depend upon these two conditions. If we are going to give an account of our club to a very young and very rest- less audience of children, we had better begin with an account of our most interesting meeting and introduce such details as location, membership, purposes, etc. (if introduced at all), as briefly as possible at the end. If on the other hand we are telling an audience of adults about our club, the arrangement we have already employed is good. If again we are speaking to an audience composed of intelli- gent foreigners who know nothing about club work as it is conducted in our city, then of course we must begin with a lucid definition of our subject. If we are telling a group of sportsmen about a hunt in which we participated, we may proceed at once to the excitement of the chase and the bringing of the prey to bay, but we could not do this with an audience unacquainted with the phraseology of the hunt. Such expressions as "taking a hedge'', "holding the pack", POINT OF VIEW AND PURPOSE 123 "staking a horse'', would have little meaning and, before being used, would have to be explained. In talking to a lay audience about an airship an aeronaut would in all proba- bility deal only with the most general terms in connection with the machine; he would cover the whole subject in a most general way; he would in other words give the au- dience a telescopic view of the airship. But if he were talk- ing to an audience of air navigators on the subject, he would find it as impossible as it would be unnecessary to cover the whole subject in the period of time usually al- lotted to speakers. He would rather take a single part of the airship and discuss it minutely. He would probably spend much more than an hour with such an audience dis- cussing only the motor of the machine; he could indulge to his heart's content in technical terms which would be Greek to us; he would, in short, be intensive and microscopic. When we wrote about the club we kept constantly in view the kind of audience we had to deal with, — we were ex- plaining the club to people who knew nothing about it. This constant consideration of the sort of audience we are dealing with is one of the very important factors in Point of View. To discuss the plumage of a bird in conversation with a sportsman might be very interesting to him, but he would be at a loss to understand our enthusiasm and our technical terms, if we were so unwise as to use them. But let a milliner listen to us for a moment and there will be an immediate interest in what we have to say and an intense enthusiasm in response to our own. Let us examine this a little more closely even at the risk of becoming tedious. Suppose it is our purpose to outline the life of a great man. We must at once consider whether this man was noted for his great deeds, for his breadth of travel, for the number and greatness of the books he pub- L24 COMPOSITION PLANNING lished, for his superb character, or for any one of the many other things that go to make the study of a man's life worth while. Having decided then what our subject was best known for in his life, we have likewise decided what the major topics in our outline must be, and what the lead- ing theme of our composition. When we think of Na- poleon, we immediately recall his great military career; when we think of Longfellow, our minds are filled with his literary achievements; when we think of Livingstone, we get a picture, correct or confused, of the African jungle, and exploration looms large in our minds; and so on. These considerations give us at once in each case the major motive in the man's career, and tell us likewise what must be the keynote of our plan of composition. Of course the other details of the life will not be omitted, but they will quite properly be given a minor place. The plan, in the case of a military genius, for instance, might be arranged in a general way as follows : — I. First Great Military Promise 1. At training school 2. Age 3. Record 4. Physical equipment II. First Military Assignment I. Success III. Battle of 1. His skill 2. His leadership 3. His success IV. Battles of and 1. Superhuman exertions 2. Outcome POINT OF VIEW AND PURPOSE 125 V. Last Battles 1. Victory always 2. His men 3. His age and condition VL Death I. Public obsequies Again, we may make a general plan of any man's life ac- cording to time, place, or events. If our subject be one who made places famous in his career, then we will give places the prominent position ; if the events of his life were especially noteworthy, then these must stand out; and so with dates or time. And by subordinating the minor mat- ter we will at the same time have all the details of his life. We may illustrate again in a general way as follows : — Events. Places. Time. I. Birth I. Cambridge, Mass. I. 1809 I. 1809 I. 1809 I. Birth 2. Cambridge, 2. Birth 2. Cambridge, Mass. Mass. I. Education II. Harvard Univer- II. 1825 etc. sity 1. 1825 2. Education etc. 1. Education 2. Harvard University etc. Now we do not mean to say that all subjects must al- ways be limited to and discussed from any one single point of view. It may often be the case that we shall have to use two or three points of view in one composition. The breeder of horses may be a gambler in horse-racing, or he may be an expert equestrian. In either case we should have to combine two points of view at least in writing on the sub- ject. Again, our point of view may be so general as almost to lose the significance of being a point of view at all. We may tell a story simply from the point of view of a listener 126 COMPOSITION PLANNING or a narrator. We may write about the horse simply from the point of view of a general informant to one who knows little or nothing about horses. But it will always be best for us to Hmit our subject to one point of view, if possible, however general or however narrow it may have to be. This will keep our work much more unified and sequential. After we have had long practice in thus concentrating upon small fields, we may launch out into more ambitious ones. Enough has now been said about point of view to enable us to understand how to ''split'' or divide almost any title we may be given into the various divisions to which it will lend itself. When we come to the jtudy of Description we shall see that point of view has a further meaning; namely, the place or places from which a thing is viewed. If for instance we were writing a description of the house in which we live, our point of view might be in the street before the house; or we might go about from place to place, both in- side and out, viewing the house from all sides. This mean- ing of point of view will be fully discussed later (Chapter XIV). For the present we must simply fix in our minds how the one meaning differs from the other. We have been studying in this chapter point of view as the way or manner in which we consider a subject; we are going to study it under Description as the place from which a thing is viewed. The two, as we shall see, are not at all contradictory. It is necessary for an artist, when painting a horse, to view him from a certain place after the manner of an artist. The aerial navigator will see the aeroplane from a certain place and he will also see it with the eye or in the manner of the trained expert. When therefore we are attempting to write a composition about some person or scene or object, we may have occasion to keep in mind two different points of view. Here, however, and in the exercises that follow POINT OF VIEW AND PURPOSE 127 the present chapter we shall deal most largely with point of view as the manner in which we consider a subject. This is sometimes called Personal Point of View as differentiated from the point of view of place, which is known as Im- personal or Physical Point of View. PURPOSE Our composition subject should be further limited by our having a definite purpose in its development. Of course we should have a purpose in all that w^e do. If we have been at all observant we have seen clearly enough that purposeless actions and purposeless lives are usually valueless and insignificant. Unless we have a clearly de- fined purpose in everything that we do, our ''doing" will never amount to very much. Moreover, we will be a hin- drance not only to ourselves but, what is worse, we shall be a cause of delay and exasperation to others, if we go through life in an aimless, purposeless fashion. Probably all of us at one time or another have been hurrying to get somewhere in the crowded street, when we were delayed by some slow, ''going-nowhere" person immediately in front of us whom it was almost impossible for us to pass and who refused to go a whit faster. That aimless, sauntering, time- wasting individual was not only not going anywhere him- self but he was hindering others from going where they wished. We have a purpose in the things of life which per- haps we think of least, — we have a purpose in eating our food ; in wearing our clothes ; in going to school ; in reading a book. Even in our play, where supposedly we throw seriousness to the winds, we have a purpose; the purpose, namely, of having a good time, of getting exercise, of win- ning a certain game. Our parents, our friends, our teach- 128 COMPOSITION PLANNING ers, all those about us in our daily routine, set us excellent examples in purposeful, definitely aimed lives and actions. They are not, to be sure, constantly telling us about their purposes. We should not like them so well if they did do so. But we see in their manner of work, and better in their accomplishments, that they are definitely and with determi- nation centered on one single idea and purpose. Now it is most of all necessary for us to have in mind a purpose when we write a composition; for nowhere else in all our work is there greater necessity for concentration and definiteness. The average pen in the hand of the aver- age student is very much like a wild colt. The animal runs all about the field, getting nowhere at all, yet using the whole sward for its exercise. So we, when we sit down to writ^ a composition, without having a definite object in view, are apt to run all over the paper, to say a great deal that we ought not to say and to leave unsaid many things that we ought to say. If, however, we bridle the colt and put a determined rider on its back, we shall witness a regu- lar and purposeful course being taken around the field. The purpose of a composition then acts as a sort of bridle or restraint to us in handling our subject. If, for instance, we are going to write about coal-mining from the point of view of a miner, we shall find that even yet we have a subject that is too- big for all practical composition uses. But if we limit it still further by announcing that our purpose is to show how difficult it is to mine the coal, we have a more workable problem. If we were writing on the same subject from the point of view of the mine-owner, we should still find our subject too broad and we should have to limit it further by stating some such purpose, as to show the sources of expenditure in coal-mining. And again, writing on **Coal-Mining" POINT OF VIEW AND PURPOSE 129 from the point of view of a visitor to the mines, our pur- pose might very naturally be to show in what a dreary and dangerous place the miners have to spend most of their lives. Suppose still further that we were going to write a composition on '*Our Schoolroom'' from the point of view of the pupil. Some possible purposes might be : — To show that the schoolroom is cheerful, To show that the schoolroom is comfortable. To show that the schoolroom is well equiped for its uses, etc. But developing this subject from the point of view of a lecturer, we might use none of these, selecting rather more appropriate ones in keeping with our new point of view; i. e., To show that the acoustics are good, To show that the seating plan or arrangement of the room is good. To show that the lighting is poor, etc. And if we were writing on "Our Schoolroom" from the point of view of the school physician, we should be obliged to readjust our purpose again, perhaps tO' some such form as this : To show that the ventilation is defective. To show that the desks are too small, etc. We see then that, given a single title, we may have many compositions, as many indeed as we may have pur- poses in writing about the subject suggested. Our purpose in writing about a certain subject is to show or to prove some particular thing about that subject, to limit or divide 130 COMPOSITION PLANNING it, and thus to force closer concentration upon one line of thought. Let us now examine a few partial plans made for the same subject, but with different points of view and purposes : SINGING Point of View — Student of singing Purpose — To show the difficulties to be overcome I. The early exercises 1. Numerous 2. Unmusical 3. Monotonous 4. II. The constant practice *" I. Enslaving 2. Exhausting 3- 4- III. The wide field of study 1. Language a. Italian b. German c. French d. English 2. Music a. Opera b. Lyric c. Concert d. Old and new masters e. f. IV. The expense 1. Instruction 2. Dress or POINT OF VIEW AND PURPOSE 131 3. Music and instruments 4. Travel 5. 6. The rewards 1. Pleasant to please 2. Refining and cultural 3. Financial 4. s. SINGING Point of View — Listener Purpose — To show the many good effects of singing I. It soothes our nerves I. 2. 3. II. It comforts in sorrow I. • 2. III. It purifies our natures I. 2. IV. It lifts us above the world I. 2. 3- 4. V. It leads us to better things I. 2. or 132 COMPOSITION PLANNING SINGING Point of View — The famous singer Purpose — To show the delights of singing I. Giving pleasure to others I. 2. 3- II. Giving help to others I. 2. III. Interpreting great characters I. 2. IV. Thrilling o-reat audiences I. 2. 3. V. Studying different effects of singing I. 2. VI. Receiving approval I. 2. 3. Some very serious warnings are necessary in connection with determining upon a purpose in composition writing : ( I ) We must be careful not to take a too general pur- pose ; one, that is, that is too much like the subject, or that does not sufficiently limit it ; for example : — Title — John's Escape. Point of view — That of an on-looker. Purpose — To show how John escaped. POINT OF VIEW AND PURPOSE 133 The purpose here is practically the same as the title. Ob- viously, if we are going to write about John's escape, we shall tell hozif he escaped. No sooner did our reader see the title than he surmised that he would be told how John escaped. It will bore him therefore to read that our pur- pose is to show how John escaped, and we should not blame him very much if he refused to read any further. But perhaps he would be interested if we were to show John's bravery, or to prove John's thoughtfulness, or to point out how cleverly John avoided a mean trick that had been planned for him. These would be much better purposes and much more interesting, not only to read about, but to write about, as well. Let us avoid therefore making a re- statement of our title in our purpose. (2) When a title contains a proper name we shall often find ourselves inclined to refer our purpose to some definite aim that the subject has in mind, rather than to something that we have in mind about the subject. In ''John's Escape", for instance, our purpose is the thing to be borne in mind by us. We must show something — bravery, thoughtfulness, cleverness — about John. We must not state John's purpose. We must not write anything like the following as a purpose : — To get out of the burning building, To save his life, To escape a ducking. Any one of these may have been John's purpose, but John is not writing this composition. We, who are writing it, must set up some definite characteristic displayed by John when he got out of the burning building, or when he saved his life, or when he escaped a ducking. We must never forget that this matter of purpose is personal to us; it 134 COMPOSITION PLANNING represents our aim to show some particular thing about the subject. (3) None of us would ever seriously state that our purpose is to write a composition. We may have heard of this being done for humorous reasons, and we know well enough that our primary purpose is tO' write a composition. Let us not waste our time, however, even for the sake of such a commendable thing as humor, by saying that our purpose is : To write a composition, or To make somebody miserable, or To get a good mark, etc. And we should also remember in this connection that, when we are writing compositions, titles for which are based upon reading that we have been doing, we are justified in hold- ing ourselves to the purpose of the original if we have been careful to study that out. In making a deductive outline, for instance, we should state the point of view and the pur- pose of the author of the original. This is a part of our work and we may depend upon it, that the author whom we are studying had a very clear and definite purpose to follow. EXERCISE I. State as many points of view and purposes as you can for each of the following. Then make an outline for one title, point of view and purpose : Our Streets Jim's Adventure Our School Building The Automobile Rowing POINT OF VIEW AND PURPOSE 135 II. Criticise the following purposes, substitute bet- ter ones, and plan a composition for each : — a. Tom's Anger To show how angry Tom can get b. My Trip to School To show how I go to school c. Prince's Faithfulness To show how faithful Prince is d. The Alarm To warn people of robbery e. The Great Bridge To enable people to cross the river III. Take all the illustrative plans in the chapters previous to this one and state point of view and purpose for each. IV. Make four plans for the following title, using the different points of view and purposes given in suc- cessive plans : — OUR CITY PARK a. Point of view of ordinary citizen Purpose — To show the pleasures it affords b. Point of view of visitor Purpose — To show its beauties c. Point of view of physician Purpose — To show its benefits d. Point of view of caretakers Purpose — To show the carelessness of the people V. John arrived at school late this morning after an absence of a week. Not having a note to excuse his ab- sence and tardiness, he was sent home for it, returning to school at noon. 136 COMPOSITION PLANNING Make outlines of compositions you would write : a. from John's point of view, b. from the teacher's point of view, c. from John's mother's point of view. VI. Draw up plans explaining your daily program to a classmate; to your father; to a friend in another city. State purpose and point of view of each. Explain the dif- ferences among your three plans and tell why they are necessary. VII. State both personal and impersonal points of view and purpose for each of the following: — The House in Which I Live The Sunset The Pay-as-you-enter Car Our Largest Hotel The Lake in Early Morning VIII. Make plans for the lives of three widely differ- ent men of whom you have read. Explain how these plans differ from one another and why that difference is neces- sary. IX. Outline the life of a great author in three ways. X. Make a deductive plan of some passage in His- tory or Biology, or other subject (except English) that you have recently studied. Be sure to state point of view and purpose. XL Make a detailed study plan of this chapter, stat- ing point of view and purpose. XII. Complete the partial plans presented under "Purpose" by inserting as many subordinate topics as you can think of. CHAPTER VIII THE LETTER PLAN It may seem little short of absurd for us to consider planning in connection with letter-writing. We are so ac- customed to sitting down and writing our letters spon- taneously and rapidly, that we are inclined to think that a planned letter would be artificial and mechanical, that it would not ring quite true. Yet, there is probably no type of composition that suffers more as a result of failure to plan than letter-writing. We do not mean of course that an elaborate plan should be made for the average letter. Considered proportionately the plan for a letter need not be nearly so detailed as that for a composition, unless it be a long advertising or circular letter we are writing. But all of our business and social letters should be well thought out in advance of writing; the points we desire to make should be set down consecutively on a piece of paper, or should be strictly so kept in mind while writing. How often have we read letters (if not written them ourselves) in which two or more sentences bearing on the same gen- eral subject were separated by sentences bearing upon to- tally different points! And how often have we read and written letters to which a postscript was added, — that con- fession in black and white to a haphazard and confused habit of thinking. If we consult some business men of our ac- quaintance and ask them how much time is wasted, how much money is lost, as a result of unorganized and thus misunderstood letters, we shall be appalled at their reply. The least, then, that we can do when writing a letter, out of 137 138 COMPOSITION PLANNING courtesy to the reader, is to have some good plan in mind, however general it may be, and to follow it unwaveringly. If we think that we do not owe this to ourselves, we must consider that we have an obligation to the person by whom the letter is to be read. Letters, as we have probably studied before, may be classified as follows : — I Invitations Formal J Acceptances I Regrets Announcements Letters Informal Social Commercial Acquaintances Friends Relatives f Business \ Newspaper [ Circular Of the first group — Formal Letters — we shall say but little and observe much. On the pages immediately following are illustrations of all kinds of formal notes. If we ob- serve them closely, under the direction of our instructor, we shall see that : 1. they are very short, 2. they are written in the third person, 3. they vary in order of contents, 4. they omit any such beginning as "My dear Sir", 5. they omit any such closing as "Yours truly", 6. they frequently have dates and street numbers written out, 7. they are sometimes undated, except in so far as dates occur within the note, 8. they vary in style of writing, in marginal arrange- ment, etc., 9. they may omit place of residence of sender, 10. they may omit place of residence of recipient, THE LETTER PLAN 139 11. they are capitalized irregularly, 12. they frequently contain the letters, R. S. V. P. (please reply, in French), in the lower right hand corner. The following indicate the style to be used for formal notes, announcements and invitations : Mrs. James Everett requests the pleasure of Miss Hepburn^ s company at dinner on Tuesday, May the third, at seven o^clock. 20 Carlton Place, April the twenty-sixth. Miss Hepburn regrets that a previous engagement prevents her accepting Mrs. Everett^ s kind invita- tion to dinner on Tuesday, May the third, at seven o^clock. 4 Trent Avenue, April thirtieth. 140 COMPOSITION PLANNING Miss Hepburn accepts with pleasure Mrs, Ever- eWs kind invitation to dinner on Tuesday, May the third, at seven o'clock. 4 Trent Avenue, April thirtieth. Mr. and Mrs. John H. Kehoe announce the marriage of their daughter May Estelle to Mr. Carl St. John Fourton on Monday the twenty-third of December nineteen hundred and eight New York THE LETTER PLAN 141 Mr. 6* Mrs. Joseph Benson Foraker request the honor of company at the wedding breakfast of their daughter Julia and Mr. Francis King Wainwright on Wednesday the eighth of January at half after twelve 0^ clock Fifteen hundred Sixteenth Street Washington Mr. Clarence Aaron Britton Miss Mary Blanche Ferris Married Saturday, the ninth of November one thousand nine hundred and eight New York City 142 COMPOSITION PLANNING At Home Tuesday the twenty-first of November 5J Quincy Place, N. £. requests the pleasure of company o^clock R. S. V. P. Mr, and Mrs. Charles William Clinton request the pleasure of company at.. on — at^. 0^ clock jg East ^yth Street THE LETTER PLAN 143 As a rule these notes, in our modern times, are en- graved by the stationers. Blank spaces are left in them for the insertion by hand of such details as dates, events, places, etc. (see illustrations on previous pages). This simplifies matters considerably. We are saved from social blunders in this line by the ingenuity of our stationer. Leaving the stationer out of the question, however, it is rarely that we are called upon to write such formal notes as those here reproduced. Usually our invitations are from some one with whom we are sufficiently well acquainted to permit us to write our replies informally. In case we do write formal notes we should be careful to keep the person consistently third. It would be very bad form indeed to write a closing, such as ''Yours truly'', to a formal note. If we observe these examples most closely we shall have guidance for good form always in writing such formal notes as we are called upon to write. We should not neg- lect the study of them even though we may have occasion but rarely to write such things. We can never tell when we shall have to meet an emergency in this very line of writing. With Informal Letters it is another story. We are called upon almost daily to write informal letters of one kind or another; and there is no form of composition in which we should take so much pride and care as in these. They represent us. We are what our letters indicate that we are. If we read a man's letter we can in most cases get a considerable insight into his character. We must therefore dwell at some length upon informal letters of the various types, studying their form, their phraseology, and their arrangement. The parts of a letter — the divisions into which it falls — and the sequence of these parts are as follows : — 144 COMPOSITION PLANNING I. The heading 1. Address of writer 2. Date 11. The address of person to whom letter is written (often placed below VII. to the left) 1. His name 2. His address HI. The salutation 1. ''My dear Sir" 2. "Dear John" etc. IV. The body of the letter (The letter proper) V. The participial closing (optional) 1. The subject 2. The punctuation VI. The complimentary closing 1. ''Yours sincerely" 2. "Faithfully yours" etc. VII. The signature I. Full name of the writer This is the general plan or outline of all the informal letters we shall have to write. There are minor modifica- tions which we shall note in due course, but, generally speaking, all letters should follow this plan. We may learn here that Point II may stand last in our letter if we prefer; that is, the name and address of the recipient of the letter may be placed at the end of the letter on the left-hand side, beginning on the line just below the signature. Of course the bulk of any informal letter — the largest proportion of it — will be given to Point IV. It is here that we state our purpose in writing the letter and negotiate our business, if we happen to be writing a business letter. THE LETTER PLAN 145 The form in which these parts should be placed on the paper can best be shown by producing a sample letter and drawing lines through it to indicate margins, etc. We should study this illustration with the explanation that fol- lows very minutely indeed. It is the model on which we shall have much subsequent work to do : — (B) (D) (F) (A) (E) Mr. James Ferguson, 30 Broadway, New York City- Dear Mr. Ferguson:— Dec. 26, we beg to thank assure you that it will be forwarded by the United and should reach you tom- any errors made in filling shipment, we shall estee immediately, so that we your further patronage, (G) In r you fille Sta orro the m it may Tha we a Sine Lenox Avenue, New York City, N. Y., Dec. 31, 1910. ]" zim eply to your communication of for your generous order and to d at once. The goods will be tes Express Company to-day w morning. If there has been order, or any damage done in a courtesy if you will notify us have the matter rectified, nking you again, and soliciting re _ IV V erely yours, D VI J. C. Evans and Company. I] VII On the right-hand side of this specimen letter we have bracketed and numbered the parts corresponding to the num- bers used in the outline of the parts of a letter. Line A indicates the left-hand margin which we know should never be omitted from any piece of writing that we do. Line B is the middle margin; the margin on which are begun the heading, the paragraphs of the letter, and the complimentary dosing. It may not always be possible to 146 COMPOSITION PLANNING make the paragraph margin one and the same with the mar- gin for the heading and the complimentary closing. It is better to do so whenever possible, for it simplifies our letter construction. Too many margins, or too many places where lines begin independently of each other, spoil the appearance of a letter and confuse the eye at once on our looking at the letter page. The first paragraph should begin immediately after (as frequently in business letters), or immediately after and under, the salutation. In case the salutation is short it will not be possible to do this and at the same time keep the middle margin common to paragraphs, head- ing, and closing. We are then justified in establishing two middle margins, — one for paragraphs and another for the heading and the closing ; thus : — (F) (C) (D) (E) (A) Mr. James F 30 Broa New Dear Sir: (B) erguson, dway, York City. In reply to your, e Thanking you, etc. (G) Lenox Avenue, New York City, Dec. 31, 1910. tc. Sine erely yours, J. C, Evans and Company. THE LETTER PLAN 147 Here as a result of the brief salutation, it has been neces- sary to establish a separate paragraph margin at which not only the first paragraph but all that follow should begin. We have in other words moved margin B slightly to the left and inserted margin C. Line D represents the margin supplementary to the heading and complimentary closing margin. Lines E, F, and G are drawn to show that these reced- ing margins should be regularly receding; that is, each line should begin at a uniform distance to the right of the preceding one. Sometimes we read or hear it said that in addresses the right-hand side should be even at whatever expense of irregularity on the left side, but this is a mistake. Not 200 Lenox Avenue, New York City, Dec. 31, 1910. but 200 Lenox Avenue, New York City, Dec. 31, 1910. is a better arrangement in headings, addresses and closings. This direction holds quite as well for the address on the envelope as for that within the letter. Of course if we can so arrange it as to have a regularly diagonal margin on the left and a regularly perpendicular one on the right, it will be the best arrangement of all. But this will probably not often be possible for us. John J. James, Esq., 125 Hilary St., Chicago, III. Now let us take up separately each part of our illustra- tive letter and examine the punctuation and whatever other 148 COMPOSITION PLANNING details it may be necessary to examine. It is becoming more and more the fashion to omit punctuation from headings and addresses in letters, all, that is, but the period after abbreviations. This is quite right provided we are con- sistent in the matter and omit it in all places if v^e omit it in one. The trouble is, we shall find ourselves punctuating sometimes and not at others, if we are not exceedingly watchful, and this of course will result in bad form. We are assuming in this chapter that the long-established cus- tom of punctuating is still to be used. First, let us look again at the heading of our letter, — 200 Lenox Ave., New York City, N. Y., Dec. 31, 1910. We understand that all abbreviations must be followed by a period. We are not always careful however to separate the different phrases of our headings by means of commas. We may have learned that the comma is used to denote the omission of a word or a phrase. This is true in many cases of its use. It is true also in the heading and in the address of a letter. Properly expanded this heading would read as follows : — Written at 200 Lenox Avenue in New York City on Dec. 31 during 19 10. Our commas therefore stand for certain omitted words, and perhaps we shall be less likely to forget them if we understand exactly what they stand for. It sometimes hap- pens that we see a heading arranged in this way : — 200 Lenox Ave., (I) Dec. 31, 1910, (2) New York City. (3) THE LETTER PLAN 149 This IS bad because we have confused our sequence. Lines (i) and (3) both indicate places that are related to one another. Line (2) represents time. It will occur to us at once that it is a good deal better to keep the lines referring to places immediately sequential, and following (or pre- ceding them, if we choose) with reference to time. If we are using business stationery for our correspondence, this point, as we well enough know, is settled for us. Here the only thing we have to do is to insert the date. The whole heading occupies many printed lines or sometimes but a single line, as 200 Lenox Ave., New York City, N. Y., .191 . Oftentimes also the following heading is used, having an equal diagonal margin on both sides : — 200 Lenox Avenue, New York City, May 12, 1912. The punctuation and the sequence however remain the same. It is allowable and preferable for us of course to reduce the number of lines in the heading whenever possible. Here in the business letter we have it reduced to its sim- plest form. We can rarely have fewer than two lines, how- ever, in headings of our own writing. Frequently we may need four : — 200 Lenox Ave., New York, Dec. 31, 1910. or "The Continental", 200 Lenox Ave., New York City, Dec. 31, 1910. 150 COMPOSITION PLANNING The address which follows next, but which we said might be placed at the lower left-hand corner of the letter commencing on the line immediately following the signa- ture, is punctuated in the same way as the heading, a comma being placed at the end of each line or part. Here again a word may always be substituted for it : — Mr. James Ferguson at 30 Broadway in New York City. And here also, if we can reduce the address to two lines, we may do so. The following salutations are all used in commercial cor- respondence. They are arranged from the more to the less dignified. We should notice carefully the capitalization and the punctuation in each example : — (i) Sir: (or Sirs:) Madam: (or Ladies:) (2) Honorable Sir: (3) Gentlemen: — Mesdames: — (or Ladies: — ) (4) Dear Sir — Dear Madam — (or Dear Sirs — ) (5) My dear Sir: — My Dear Madam: — (or My Dear Sirs: — ) (6) My dear Mr. Oliver, My dear Mrs. Oliver, (or My Dear Mr. Oliver,) No. (2) is a salutation to be used in writing to the Mayor of a city or to some man in high public position. In (5) and (6) the adjective may or may not be capitalized. It used to be considered improper to capitalize it, but usage has rapidly justified its capitalization. In social letters the following salutations may be used, according to the relations existing between the parties con- cerned in the letter. These are also arranged from the more to the less dignified : — THE LETTER PLAN 151 (i) My dear Mr. French: — (or i^ear) (2) Dear John, — (3) Dear Uncle Ned, (4) My dear Sister — (or i^ear) (5) Dear Mother, (6) Dear Miss Evans: (i) is used in writing to a friend or an acquaintance; (2) to a friend; (3), (4), and (5), to relatives. We see that there is a very wide variety of choice in the matter of punc- tuation at the end of the salutation. We may use any of the following: — (Comma) (comma and dash) (colon) (colon and dash) (dash) , , . . 5 4123 and it makes very little difference which one of these we use. Any one may be used under any circumstances with any form of salutation, in spite of the tradition that they rank from formal to informal as they are numbered above. The curious fact is that, having such a wide range of choice, we SO' frequently discard them all and use the semicolon or the period, — ( ;) or (.) — the only ones of our common marks that we should not use. To use either the semicolon or the period after the salutation stamps one as illiterate. The body of the letter will be discussed fully a page or two further on when we come to study the letter plan proper. Suffice it now to say that we should here, as in a regular composition, paragraph our material; that, while it is not at all improper to start a letter with the pronoun "I" and to use it within the letter, yet we should avoid its use wherever possible, just as we do with a becoming modesty in all of our writing and conversation ; and that, when we conclude the body of our letter with a participial phrase 152 COMPOSITION PLANNING (the participial complimentary closing), we should be care- ful to have a word for that phrase to modify : — "Hoping to hear from you soon, I am Sincerely yours," Here we have a complete sentence, the subject being "I" ; the predicate, ''am'' ; the attribute, ''yours''. "I" is modi- fied by the participle "hoping". "Am" is not followed by a comma because it has an attribute complement belonging to it on the line below. "John is good" is a sentence having the same kind of construction as "I am yours", only it is written entirely on one line instead of on two. We would not think of placing a comma after "is", but we frequently make the mistake of placing one after "am" in such cases as the above. If we are sure to understand this grammati- cal structure we will readily see how illiterate the following appears : — "Hoping to hear from you soon, Sincerely yours," In connection with the participial complimentary closing it should be borne in mind that the somewhat popular "Thanking you in advance for the courtesy, I remain Sincerely yours," is no longer considered good form, if it ever was. It is lit- tle short of presumption to write a letter asking for a favor and then to conclude it with thanks in advance. "Thanking in advance" smacks something too much of the spirit of forcing, of epistolary bribery, of an attempt to force the reader by a studied courtesy into granting our request. Of course we should always be polite in our letters, but never at the risk of being thought presumptuous. "I remain" is THE LETTER PLAN 153 good form only when we have had previous communication with the person to whom we are writing. We cannot re- main sincere to a person with whom we have as yet had no relations. Such a closing might very properly be used in a letter to our brothers or sisters or friends ; but to compara- tive strangers ''I am" is a much more fitting conclusion. So much for the participial phrase which so often pref- aces the complimentary closing of our letters. Let us now look at the complimentary closing itself. This should always be followed with a comma, because, grammatically, it is in apposition with the signature which immediately fol- lows. Even where the complimentary close consists of but a single adverb, as in no. 5 below, the comma should be used, for "yours'' is understood after it, though not ex- pressed. If we are sure to understand the grammatical construction of this part, as in the participial closing, we shall probably not go very far wrong in our punctuation. The first word only in the complimentary closing should be capitalized : — (i) Sincerely your friend, (2) Ever faithfully yours, (3) Truly yours, (4) Yours truly, (5) Cordially, (6) Your sister, (7) Respectfully yours. In every case the complimentary closing should be fol- lowed by the full signature of the writer. As a rule this is not done in social letters. We feel that we are on terms of such intimate standing with the one to whom we are writing that we can properly sign our first names only, or some pet name perhaps. The chief reason for writing the full signature is that, in case the letter gets lost or severed 154 COMPOSITION PLANNING from the envelope, it can be returned to the writer. If however we have been careful to inclose the address of the one to whom we are writing, we may think this precaution unnecessary. But we are usually careless also about writing the addresses of our friends in our letters to them. In any event, we should be careful to have some guidance within the letter for those whose duty it is to forward or return strayed or missent letters. In addressing the envelopes for our letters, we should adopt the diagonal margin with care, though more and more the vertical margin is being adopted by business houses largely as a matter of typing convenience. We should punctuate at the end of every line, or we should omit punc- tuation everywhere; we should precede the name with Mr. or Mrs. or Miss, etc., as the case may be. If writing to professional or public people we should prefix the proper title to their names; such as. Dr. or Rev. or Hon. or Prof., etc. Englishmen use Esq. after the name instead of Mr. before it. Never however should we use both a title before and a title after the name in an address. The examples that follow, if studied closely, will probably be found suffi- cient to meet all our needs : — John Blank, Esq., Mrs. Everett P. Walsh, 20 Strand, 2001 Michigan Ave., London, Chicago, 111. England. Dr. A. J. Vaughan, Messrs. Block Bros., 91 Halsey Street, 28 State Street, Brooklyn, Chicago, III. New York. The Rev. A. C. Ely, Mr. J. S. Crawford, "The Maples", 125 Broadway, Forest Grove, New York. Penna. THE LETTER PLAN 155 So much then for the mere form in letter-writing. After all, our best instruction in all of this must come by closely observing actual letters as sent out by people who are en- gaged in writing letters a great deal, and by our own practice. We have studied here one good form to follow in all our correspondence. There are perhaps many others quite as good, but let us heed the advice here given until we are sure that we are masters of it. There is no depart- ment of writing so subject to the whims of style or fashion as that of letter-writing. There is no end of fads in con- nection with the addressing of envelopes, the writing of headings, the style of stationery, etc. It is better never to become ^'faddists'' in anything until we have first become masters in it. Unfortunately the two words are not syno- nyms. If, after reading a letter from a friend we can truthfully say of it, 'Tt's just like him to write such a let- ter", we have paid the writer a high compliment. The good letter is the one that savors most sincerely of our own per- sonality. If our letters are ''like us" they are good letters. But in order to make them most like us when we are at our best, we should meditate upon them briefly and outline them either mentally or on paper before writing them. A few examples of brief letter plans will now be given in order that we may grasp the idea fully before proceeding to plan our own letters. Suppose some young man is going away from home for a sojourn of a few weeks. His parents expect him to write them immediately upon his arrival. The body of his letter might be planned somewhat after this fashion : — 1. My journey 2. My arrival 3. My location 4. My good wishes for all 156 COMPOSITION PLANNING This, briefly, might represent the table of contents of his letter. He may combine points 1-2-3 i^ the first paragraph, and develop point 4 in a brief closing one ; or he may make his letter longer if he desires to do so. The point is that some such plan as this, decided upon before he commences to write, will save his letter from confusion by giving it a natural and logical sequence. After he has been at the place for a fev\^ weeks he may plan a letter to one of his fellows somewhat thus: — 1. Inquiries after all friends 2. His sports and pastimes 3. The people at the place 4. His regards to all A letter to his mother or father, to his sister or brother, should follow some such regular line of development as that suggested here. He should search his mind to ascertain what things they will probably want to hear about, — perhaps the place, the people, the pastimes; he should by no means forget his good wishes for the people at home, making indi- vidual inquiry about particular members of the family; if he has forgotten anything that he needs, or if he is sending something to them, he should arrange such material in a paragraph by itself. Now this general direction applies as easily and as pointedly to whatever social or other correspondence we may have to do. If we have taken a new position, we might write home about 1. The character of the work 2. The colleagues in the work 3. The impression so far 4. The welfare of parents and others and perhaps many other things, according to the require- ments of the individual case. Moreover, the arrangement THE LETTER PLAN 157 of the contents of a letter may be quite arbitrary, provided however we always bear in mind that it is not well to say too much of ourselves, at least at the very outset. It is a mark of courtesy to make inquiry after the affairs and health of those to whom we are writing, early in the letter, though this plan is not often followed. We usually have the ques- tionable assurance to write considerably about ourselves and then to ''tag on" at the end our short inquiries and regards. But, after all is said and done, the proper thing is to arrange our letter material in some consistent, uncon- fused way and thus give our readers a minimum of trouble in reading them, and, if possible, a maximum of pleasure. The paragraph plan can be used most satisfactorily in arranging a letter. Deciding beforehand just what we want to say, we shall find it a distinct advantage to have the topic sentence of each section or paragraph of our letter already decided upon when we come tO' write the actual letter. Thus, a person writing to a friend in England, who is more or less of a public man, might arrange his letter material in this fashion : — 1. I sincerely trust that my not hearing from you for so long a time means no private or family troubles, but, rather, your public success. 2. So far as I have seen in the press, political affairs in England seem to have taken a turn for the better. 3. The v^orld has been fairly good to your American friends. 4. We are all looking forward to the pleasure of seeing you in the summer. 5. Our best v^ishes are yours. We have here indicated the contents of each paragraph of the letter, and now the matter of writing it is nothing more than one of mere expansion. 158 COMPOSITION PLANNING In short notes, such as mothers or fathers write to our teachers to excuse our absences and other delinquencies, our plans need not be so elaborate, but they should be quite as positive and distinct. Thus we shall find an excuse some- times very properly following this order : — 1. Request to be excused 2. Reason for absence 3. Courteous complimentary closing or this 1. Reason for absence 2. Request or excuse 3. Request to have lessons made up 4. Appreciation of courtesy Any order, so long as there is order, may be used. We ourselves may be called upon to write to our Prin- cipal to ask for some favor or privilege. We know how prone he is to say to us when we ask him personally for anything, *Tut it in writing, please''. This should put us on our mettle and we should be eager to do our best. Let us then plan the note carefully first, perhaps something like this: — ^ I. In compliance with your request, I write to say, 1. that I should like to drop French a. Reasons 2. that I should like to substitute Spanish a. Reasons 3. that my parents and I shall be much indebted to you for your best advice in the matter or, more briefly, 1. My reason for writing 2. My first request 3. My second request 4. Appreciation THE LETTER PLAN 159 But we must never forget that the numbers used in tabu- lating our points do not necessarily mean that we have as many paragraphs in our expanded work as we have topics. In the form just considered our note is to be a short one and it would look a bit queer perhaps to break it up into four parts. We might very easily combine 2 and 3, there- fore, having a brief introductory paragraph and a brief concluding one. Letters of congratulation and of condolence are fre- quently regarded not only as difficult to write, but as dis- agreeable. This feeling is very largely due tO' the fact that people do not think or plan them out definitely before sitting down to write them. No cut and dried formula can be set down for such letters, or for any letters for that matter, except in a most general way. Every letter that we write will of course have certain definite, individual details peculiar to itself, but we shall be the better able to cope with these individual situations if we form the habit of carefully planning before we write. Suppose a good friend has just won a prize for diligence at school. We will write him telling him, 1. How glad we are to hear of his success, 2. How much we hope that he shall have such success always, 3. How anxious we are to hear from one whom we are so proud to know, or telling him 1. That we were not surprised, for we knew he deserved it, 2. That we congratulate him heartily, 3. That we hope his success is significant of what his whole life is going to be, 4. That he must write us and tell us how it feels to have "grown so great'*. i6o COMPOSITION PLANNING Later, we may be called upon to write him a note con- gratulating him upon his recent marriage. If so, we may 1. Congratulate the groom on his good fortune, 2. Wish both bride and groom continuous prosperity and happiness, 3. Assure them of our lasting regard. In case a friend has had the misfortune to fail in some important examination, we should write to say, 1. That we are sorry, 2. That the greatest successes have been bred of failure, 3. That we know such will be the case with this failure. If a friend has lost a close relative, we may write him, 1. That we are grieved for him, 2. That we are eager to assure him of our warm friend- ship in such a crisis, 3. That we are anxious to render him any service. All such notes as those above sketched must be brief. It is the very rare exception indeed when the letter of con- gratulation or of condolence should be long. People that are very happy or very unhappy have not as a rule either the time or the inclination to read long treatises on the lot that has fallen to them. It must be distinctly understood that in the considera- tion of commercial letters (as in that of social let- ters) it is impossible to illustrate every kind of letter that may have to be written. As has just been said, every let- ter we write may call for some particular handling of some new thing. Indeed, we cannot discuss all the different forms of one kind of letter even, such a one for instance as that of answering an advertisement. To do so would THE LETTER PLAN i6l mean that we should have to answer nearly all the adver- tisements in a paper on a single day, for each one may call for some special thing. But as has also been said (not too often, we hope) if we form the habit of planning cer- tain kinds of letters, we shall get the training that will enable us to plan for all kinds, to meet any emergency in correspondence that may confront us. We have divided commercial letters into # Business Newspaper Circular and we will now study a few illustrations of plans for each of these, as we have done with the preceding group. In answering an advertisement it is a good plan to follow in our letter the order observed in the advertise- ment. Unfortunately this cannot always be done, for ad- vertisements are frequently very badly written and exhibit no consistent plan whatever. Instead, however, of this be- ing a disadvantage, it may be turned to advantage by us, in that we may be able to show a possible future employer that we possess a sense of order which his advertisement lacks, and thus we may impress him. Most advertisements for help perhaps ask for all or some of these four or five things, — age, education, experience, reference, salary expect- ed, — and usually this order is a good one to follow. In the first paragraph of our letter we can state our age and educa- tion; in the second, our experience and references; in the third short one, the salary expected. Or we might write five paragraphs of varying lengths, assigning one to each topic. In no case should we include all of our material in answer to such an advertisement in one paragraph. The proportions in such a letter are at once evident, — our ex- i62 COMPOSITION PLANNING perience needs to be treated in detail; our education may be next in importance; our references, next; and our age and the salary we expect should be given the briefest pos- sible space. Whether or not the advertisement asks for all these things, it is well for us to include them, stressing the points that the advertisement does mention. It is also well for us to place additional emphasis upon any phase of our experience or our education that we think particularly likely to aid us in securing the position. It is customary, though not always necessary, to preface such a letter with a brief phrase or clause telling where and when the adver- tisement was seen ; and to conclude it with an expression of hope that the application be favorably considered. Of course such matters of form as penmanship, punctuation, the omission of the pronoun *'I" wherever possible, cour- teous and correct expression, all of which count for so much in applications for positions, must be watched with particular care. Our letter plan then for such a case as we have been here discussing might run somewhat as fol- lows : — 1. Preface, age, and education. 2. Experience and references. 3. Salary expected. 4. Conclusion, usually linked with participial compli- mentary closing. The order may be changed as our judgment dictates in special situations. Sometimes age, salary expected, whether the applicant be married or single, and such other details, are combined in a single paragraph at the beginning. This arrangement has the merit of stating the important things, such as experience and references, at the very outset, so that they are read when the reader's mind is fresh to the letter. THE LETTER PLAN 163 In the ordinary business-question letter — a letter, that is, to a man or a firm asking for some special information — a prefatory sentence or brief paragraph is usually employed in which the privilege of inquiry is courteously asked, or the purpose of the letter stated. This is followed by the questions proper, and the letter is concluded with a parti- cipial complimentary closing. Our general plan for such a letter would then read as follows : — I. Preface "You will be good enough I hope to permit me to ask you a few questions in regard to your manufacturing plant. The information is to be used by me in a public debate — etc." II. Questions I. 2. 3- 4. III. Complimentary closing "Trusting that answering so many questions will not be too great an invasion of your valuable time, I am Respectfully yours, And here again we must remember that this is by no means a hard and fast form but that it is one good form for soliciting information. If we vary it we should always bear in mind the fact that our questions should be presented in some logical order, — in the order of what we regard their importance, perhaps, or in the order in which their answers would naturally unfold the information solicited. And somewhere in the letter there should always be a cour- teous apology for the intrusion which our letter makes, or a courteous expression of thanks for the privilege of writ- i64 COMPOSITION PLANNING ing to the party for whom the letter is intended for in- formation. This latter is especially important when our questioning is not likely to result in probable future pat- ronage, but rather when it is made for purposes quite for- eign to the interests of the one to whom it is sent; as in the illustration. In answering a business letter it is of course a good plan to take up each question in turn and answer it, unless two or more questions can be grouped under a single an- swer. There should also be an expression, either at the beginning or at the end, of pleasure in being able to fur- nish the information solicited. This is oftentimes linked with some such statement as, — ^'Assuring you of our prompt attention in case we can be of further service, we are, etc.'' This and other similar amenities in letter-writing are neces- sary (.though perhaps not always meant) to give a letter a courteous tone which no business house can afford to have its letters omit. There should never be any brusque- ness or abruptness in anything that we write, least of all in our letters, even though we be called upon often to write letters that are foreign to the actual business which we represent. In the case of our writing to publishers, — to order books, let us say, — ^the table of contents of our letter may be:— I 1. Enclosure 2. Names and numbers of books 3. Method of sending them 4. Complimentary closing Point I is frequently wrongly, written as follows, — "Enclosed please find five dollars ($5.00) for which send me, etc." The word *'please" belongs before the word THE LETTER PLAN 165 "send'', not before ''find''. The obligation, if there be any, is because of the sending, not because of the publisher's finding money in the envelope. There are probably as many kinds of order letters as there are kinds of business. Here as elsewhere we must simply bear in mind the importance of planning all of them before writing them. It is even more important if possible in these than in others, for the reasons that money is involved in the transaction, and that, if we want our orders accurately filled, we must state them accurately. We may write to a shop ordering clothes ; to a theater, or- dering seats; to a newspaper office, ordering a paper sent us ; to a thousand different places ordering things of a thou- sand different natures. In every case let us plan our let- ters explicitly, if not as follows, then in some equally good way : — 1. Mention enclosure 2. State clearly what is wanted 3. Tell how it should be sent 4. Close courteously The circular letter is, as a rule, an advertising letter; a letter, that is, that explains fully all about a certain com- modity and solicits patronage. It is nothing oftentimes but a composition in explanation cast into the letter form. It may contain description and argument and narration, but, if so, they are all used for the purpose of elucidating the explanation, and impressing the usefulness of some particular commodity upon us. Sometimes such letters are opened with a polite appeal for our consideration and at- tention, followed by a complete explanation of the thing to be advertised, and closed with a strong appeal for our pa- tronage. This gives us a tripartite division and presupposes the formal plan : i66 COMPOSITION PLANNING I. Introduction 1. Appeal for consideration 2. Statement of purpose of letter II. Discussion I. Full explanation of article or property or whatever it may be, by means of description, narration, or argu- ment, or all combined III. Conclusion I. Solicitation of purchase In many cases however the explanation of the matter is placed first in order to catch the reader's attention at once, and the details of courtesy, such as, ^'thanking you for the privilege of writing one whose patronage would be a com- pliment to the firm", are placed last or subordinately. Circular letters again may take the form of complaint. We may write a long letter to the principal of our school complaining of various curtailments of our liberties, or asking for certain extensions of privileges. Whatever our subject may be we should follow some such plan as this : — 1. Statement of our purpose in writing the letter, 2. Seriatim enumeration of complaints or requests, 3. Complimentary closing, thanking for past courtesies and hoping that the present requests (or complaints) will not appear ungrateful or presumptuous. Sometimes the circular takes the form of narration and excludes all other material. A story is told in which characters are made to converse about the commodity to be disposed of, or in which the commodity itself figures as an actor. *'The Road to Wellville^', ^The Gold-Dust Twins'^ etc., are cases in point. Here we would employ the regu- lar narrative outline and we cannot do better than consult the chapter dealing with that form of plan if we want guidance for writing such a circular letter. In circular letters, as well as in letters to newspapers. THE LETTER PLAN 167 we should try to forget, after we have complied with the letter form, that we are writing a letter. Such letters are really compositions with just sufficient of the letter flavor about them to justify our putting them into an envelope. Some of the greatest and most beneficial reforms the world has ever known have been brought about by effective letters written to the editors of newspapers and published by them. It is wise that we should strive to be able to write such letters. Nowhere is it more important that we look carefully to the form and expression than here, for our letters will be thrown into the waste-basket unless they are properly and convincingly written. The date in such letters is usually placed in the lower left-hand corner. The address may be placed at the top, upper right-hand corner, or underneath the signature. If a fictitious name be used, then the real name and address should be placed in paren- thesis underneath it. The salutation usually consists simply of: — "To the Editor of The Times :" or ^'Mr. Editor :'' The form then, graphically represented, is as follows : — To the Editor of The World: Introduction •. Body^ Conclusion - Respectfully yours, "Inquisitive" (James Thompson, 138 Broadway, Jan. 18, 1913. New York City). i68 COMPOSITION PLANNING It is customary in a newspaper letter to preface it with a request for permission to bring some matter to public attention through the columns of the paper to which the letter is written. Then the letter is commenced immedi- ately, and concluded quite the same as an ordinary letter, often with a participial complimentary closing. The fol- lowing skeleton illustrates this conventional type of letter : — 1. Prefatory sentence paragraph: "May I call attention through the valuable columns of THE TRIBUNE to the condition of the streets in the neighborhood of Washington Square?'* 2. The letter proper, planned and paragraphed beforehand; 3. The conclusion : "Trusting that you will give so serious a matter the effective attention that has so often in the past bene- fited the community, I am Respectfully yours. In many cases, however, letters are written to editors in reply to editorials or to other letters that have recently appeared. In such cases of course the preface and the con- clusion will differ somewhat from the above. At the out- set the editorial or letter that we wish to comment upon should be mentioned. The conclusion need have only such characteristics as those that are commonly attached to a composition or other piece of writing, or we may, if we are in agreement with the article to which we are respond- ing, congratulate the writer; while, if we are in disagree- ment, we may express the hope that the points brought out in our letter will be the cause of a change of opinion about the matter concerned. THE LETTER PLAN 169 EXERCISE I. Write letters for all the illustrative plans that have been given in this chapter. Be careful to follow the plan in each case. For the circular and newspaper letters select subjects in connection with your own school. IL Imagine yourself at boarding-school for the first time. Plan and write a letter home telling your parents about your arrival, your surroundings, your comrades, and your work. in. Plan and write a letter to one of your old boy friends telling him how you are spending your vacation. IV. Plan and write a note to your teacher, asking him to spend Saturday afternoon and evening with you. V. Plan and write a note to your Principal asking him to allow your literary club to use the chapel for a public meeting. VI. Plan and write a letter to a friend congratulat- ing him upon being elected president of his club. VII. Plan and write a letter to a friend who has just lost his mother. VIII. Plan and write a letter to Messrs. D. Appleton and Company, Publishers, at 35 West 32nd Street, New York City, ordering half a dozen books. Inclose the money; name the books; tell when, where, and how de- livery is to be made. IX. Plan and write a letter to R. H. Macy & Com- pany, asking to have a pair of gloves, which you are re- turning under separate cover, exchanged. Tell them ex- actly why you want to exchange the gloves and what you wish sent you in return. Assume that there may be a difference in price and provide for that difference in your letter. 170 COMPOSITION PLANNING X. Plan and write a letter to a theater ticket office, inclosing money, and asking for two tickets for a certain night in a certain part of the theater. XL Plan and write a letter to the manager of some team in another school, making arrangements for a game with your own school team. Time, conditions, and place must be clearly provided for. Write the manager's reply to your letter. If further correspondence is necessary to complete the negotiation, produce it. XII. You are to debate on a subject connected with department store employees. Plan and write a letter to the manager of some store, asking him a number of ques- tions as to hours, wage, length of service, schooling, etc. of the employees. XIII. Plan and write an answer to a letter that you have received asking you : — 1. Where you go to school, 2. The number of students and teachers in the school, 3. What you study, 4. What you intend to make of yourself, 5. How your present work is helping you to that end. XIV. Plan and write a letter to the White Star Line, 9 Broadway, New York City, inclosing a check for $25, and asking them to book you for passage to Eng- land. Designate: 1. The ship on which you want to go, 2. The date, 3. The class, 4. The location of the room, in a general way. THE LETTER PLAN 171 Ask them to tell you 1. When you shall reach England, 2. What the balance of your passage will be, 3. When that balance is due. Write the reply you receive from the White Star Line. XV. Plan and write answers to the following adver- tisements : — 1. Wanted: Bright, active boy, not over fifteen, for general office work. Must be well recommended. Box 17, Herald, Uptown. 2. For sale, cheap, good upright piano of standard make; used for one year. $500. new; will sell for $200. Debtor, Times, Downtown. 3. Situation wanted by expert book-keeper. .Excellent train- ing and experience. Expert accountant. X, Tribune. 4. THE EXCELSIOR SCHOOL A great school for boys ! Trains for business, prepares for college, fits for life. Write for circulars and information to S. E. Everett, Secretary, Excelsior School Building, 15 Bond Street. Phila., Penna. 5. Wanted : High school graduate as assistant secretary to manager of a large manufacturing concern. Must be able to approach people and furnish the best of references. An- swer in own handwriting. Box 20, Telegram, Central (These should be supplemented by a large selection of **ads'' from the daily paper, and also by ''ads'' com- posed by students and exchanged with one another.) 172 COMPOSITION PLANNING XVI. Plan and write an application for a position in a house which, so far as you know, has not advertised for any one, but with which you would like to be associated. State age, training, ambitions, willingness to start at bottom, and the desire tO' be kept in mind by the firm in case they do not need any one at the present time. XVII. Plan and write a circular letter for the public, advertising some article about which you have full knowl- edge, — such as a camera, a book, a certain kind of foot- ball, baseball, or hockey stick. Make your letter as ap- pealing as you possibly can. XVIII. Imagine that the snow has not been removed from your street for weeks and that it is now dirty and breeding disease. Plan and write a strong letter to some newspaper about the condition. XIX. Plan and write a long letter to a friend telling him what you have learned from this chapter about letter- writing and recommending that he study it also. XX. Write the letters suggested by the following plans. Add to the plans or improve them in any way that you can : — 1. A letter to your sister telling her a. when you shall arrive, b. that you would like her to meet you, c. that a friend is coming with you, d. how long you can stay. 2. A letter to your friend Carl a. asking him to visit you on Saturday, b. telling him to bring his skates, c. inviting him to stay to dinner, d. warning him to make arrangements to return home late. 3. A letter to your friend Bob asking him a. how he likes his new school, THE LETTER PLAN 173 b. how one must proceed to gain admission, c. whether the work is difficult, d. how long it takes to graduate. 4. A letter to the Mayor of your city asking him to address your club. Tell him definitely a. the time, b. the place, c. the kind of club, d. the length of speech desired, e. the subject you would like him to talk about. 5. A letter to the Hotel Rustic, Lake George, N. Y., asking a. the rate per week, b. for circular of sports, c. for best way to reach the place. 6. A letter to Messrs. A. G. Spalding and Bros., 25 West 42nd Street, New York City, asking for a. circular of various stock, b. terms on foot-ball suits and sweaters for your school team (state full conditions). CHAPTER IX THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION We are primarily concerned in this little volume with learning how to plan our work, with studying how to pre- pare to write and speak. But it is well perhaps that we review here in the briefest possible way a few of the fun- damentals of expression, for planning in composition work always implies of course subsequent writing or speaking. Perhaps we think that we know all about these things, they constitute such a ''straight-ahead'' sort of business; and perhaps we shall be very much bored with what follows in the present chapter. Moreover, we have just been told time and time again that, if we plan well, our written or oral composition will be more than two-thirds done, that it will be made very easy for us. This is true beyond all doubt. Yet the plan does not constitute the whole com- position, — there is still a third, and a very important third, of the work to be done, and we must therefore patiently bear in mind certain principles and details pertaining to our written and oral expression, if we would become good writers and able talkers. Everything that is said in this chapter pertains to oral as well as to written composition, though we have heard of much of it only in connection with written work. In the next chapter we shall deal ex- clusively with oral expression, with those principles of expression that apply chiefly, if not only, to speech. Sometimes we use the words title and subject in con- 174 * THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION 175 nection with composition as if they mean the same thing. This is a mistake and we should clearly differentiate between them. The title is really the label which we use for our subject. It corresponds to a family name in those stories like ^Tilgrim's Progress'' and *The Vicar of Wakefield" in which a character's name is oftentimes the name of his leading characteristic, or to the nickname which we apply to our friends, often so appropriately, such as "Easy", ''Bunny", etc. These are handy names or titles, and they are at the same time short definitions of the people they stand for. They are, in short, labels or titles for a subject in each case. But such labels should always have some- thing about them to define the thing they stand for. Some of our popular modern advertisements illustrate pretty clearly what titles should and should not be. Of course we come to know in a little time what a certain clever trade-mark or picture, or whatever it may be, represents or advertises after we have been educated to it. But in many cases the label was invented solely for the purpose of catching notice, and not at all with the intention of de- fining or describing the article for which it is used. In like manner we are often tempted, doubtless, to select fan- ciful and figurative titles for our compositions. If we write about bread we like to entitle our work ''The Staff of Life"; if about a great bridge, we like to use for our title "A Wonderful Span", etc. But it is a good deal bet- ter to avoid such titles as these, at any rate while we are in our apprenticeship. After we have become proficient in writing we may perhaps justifiably head our work with such titles as "The Jungle", "The Aftermath", "The Bub- ble", etc. For the present, if we are writing a character sketch of James Blank, we shall do well to use "James Blank" as our title. If we are writing- an account of our 176 COMPOSITION PLANNING coasting trip, we had better call our composition "Our Coasting Trip". So also with such subjects as "The House in Which I Live", "My Room", "A Comfortabk Window Seat", "My Dog Prince", etc. All of these are subjects about which we can write, the titles for which can- not be better stated than they are. But let us always re- member the hints given in our study of Purpose and Point of View ; namely, that the name or label or title we give to our subject-matter should be decided for us by the phase or part of that subject which we choose to accent in our com- position. Therefore, if in our character sketch of James Blank we wish to give prominence to his generosity, we can choose a more apt title. We can then use for the title of our composition, "James Blank, Philanthropist", per- haps, or "A Master in Generosity". If in our coasting trip we narrowly escaped serious injury and wish to accent this phase of the trip in the composition, then we had better take "A Narrow Escape" for our title. In like manner we may revise the other subjects suggested. "The House in Which I Live" might, under particular treatment, more appropriately be called "Home" ; "My Room" might very properly become "My Den"; "A Comfortable Window Seat" might mean a great deal more for our composition if changed to "My Cosy Corner"; "My Dog Prince" might deserve the title, "A Modest Hero"; etc. Of course we are justified in making our titles interesting and attractive and taking, without ever making them sensational or con- ventional or commonplace; and they should also always represent clearly and truthfully just what our composition is about. In the selection of a subject to write upon we must likewise be guided by limitations of knowledge, time and space. Subjects that lend themselves naturally to wide and varied division should not be chosen, as they will lead THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION 177 us too far and too broadly afield. Rather should we select a single one of the partitions and make a special develop- ment of that. We know thoroughly well that in form our composition work in each and every department should be neat and tidy. We should always be unwilling to submit any but our best writing and our best arrangement of material. This ap- plies to all of our work, to be sure, but with especial em- phasis to our work in composition. Here we are preparing something which intimately represents us for somebody else to read and scrutinize. We must be careful therefore to represent ourselves at our very best. We cannot expect anybody to read or appreciate what we have written unless it be neat and appetizing in appearance. The plans that have been drawn up in this book are tidily arranged, with even margins and consistent tabulation. Let us make it a point to have our compositions follow our plans rigidly even in this; though we may think we have done our full duty when we have followed with absolute accuracy the points we have set down in our plan. We should leave a generous margin in all the written work that we do. The *'margin- ing habit" is a companion in importance of the habit of proper capitalization, of accurate punctuation, and of cor- rect spelling. The interior margins, such as those for para- graphs and quotations and for the heading and closing in letters, should be observed with accuracy. None of us can afford to be reproached about the appearance or form of our compositions, if for no other reason, because the task of making them comply with good form is such an easy one. In these days of cheap books, when every one of us can own a pocket dictionary for the small sum of five or ten cents, there would seem to be no excuse whatever for bad spelling. Yet we know that there is a great deal of it. 178 COMPOSITION PLANNING We are probably conscious of a great deal of it in our- selves even though v^e know full well that there is nothing that so condemns us in the realm of writing as misspelling. Spelling rules will help us to some degree in this matter. But the greatest help in this, as in all things else, must be gained from our ow*n exertion and initiative. We must enslave ourselves for a few years, if need be, to the pocket dictionary, which we can never afford to be without, even though we be fair spellers. The "'dictionary habit'' is the only cure-all for bad spelling and if we are bad spellers we must therefore acquire the habit. We are usually warned by a hesitancy, however brief, whenever we are about to write a word of the spelling of which we are uncertain. It is at this instant of hesitancy that we must put down the pen and take up the dictionary. Most of us do not do this. We go on writing the word, in spite of the instinctive warn- ing we have been given, and ''trust to luck". This is a very bad procedure, for usually we shall find luck against us in the matter of spelling. Our pocket dictionaries must also be used for the study of syllabication. It is a mark of ignorance or slovenliness, or both, to divide a word wrongly at the end of a line, and particularly to divide a monosyllable or word of one syllable. We may h^ve been guilty of such things, as: divi- de sou- nd and if so we have erred grossly. But we may trust the new pocket dictionary to save us from further embarrassment in this line. Probably there is no more pitiable error, usually the re- sult of carelessness, than the failure to close our sentences THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION 179 properly, — the failure to conclude them when they should be concluded, to place a period at the end of the expression of a complete thought. We can as a rule avoid this error if we will just take the time to re-read aloud what we have written. If it sounds complete we may be pretty sure that a period should be placed after it; if not, then we must of course complete it. Our trouble in this direction usually occurs in the writing of complex sentences with long, de- pendent clauses in them. But here too we will have a nat- ural, instinctive hesitancy when we are in the midst of our sentence, and that hesitancy is an eloquent appeal for us to read the sentence aloud from the beginning. Then we shall probably save ourselves from error. "When I awoke this morning and saw the sun shining in at my window" Shall we place a period after "window"? Let us read the clause aloud and listen as we read. If we drop our voices after "window", then we shall probably be right in putting the period there ; if not, then we must complete the thought. Not one in fifty but would keep the voice sustained at that place. "When I awoke this morning and saw the sun shining in at my window, I thought I should be late for school." Now, if we read it, we shall find that it sounds complete; we let the voice fall at the end, and we place a period there. It is better for us at first to write short, simple sentences and gradually cultivate the habit of writing the longer, more involved ones. The study of elementary grammar, with the analysis of sentences of all kinds, is one of the greatest helps to the writing of complete and correct sentences, much modern opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. A series •i8o COMPOSITION PLANNING of short sentences will of course make our work read mo- notonously, and give it a disconnected, ''choppy" effect, but we had better at the outset suffer this defect in style with correct sentence structure than write ungrammatically. Practice under a teacher's guidance and the study of analy- sis in grammar wall soon enable us to lengthen our sen- tences from short simple ones to long compound and com- plex ones. The ear, however, must be trusted more than we have been trusting it. The complete, correct sentence is natural. Most of us have a ''sentence sense", but we do not give it opportunity to help us. What has just been said about the sentence applies in large measure to the paragraph. If we are careful in mak- ing our plan for a composition, we shall have very little difficulty in deciding when and where to commence and con- clude the paragraphs in our compositions. We can de- cide, as we have seen, just where these landmarks in our work should occur. It is an excellent safeguard to deter- mine them beforehand and to indicate them with pencil in the plan, if need be. The chief thing to be noted here, after having studied the chapter on paragraph planning, is that we should avoid a series of very short paragraphs, or a series of very long ones. More will be said of this at the end of the present chapter, under the subject of Variety. We have studied something in the previous chapters about SEQUENCE. This, we found, is a very important principle in the development and arrangement of material for a composition. We studied about the natural order of arrangement, the chronological order, and of cases where such order might be set aside for a different sequence. There we were studying the sequence of ideas, the easy and natural unfolding of one idea from another. But we come here to study sequence in a slightly different sense. We THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION i8i employ it here chiefly in its appHcation to words. If for instance we use a noun or a pronoun in one person to refer to some one, and in the same sentence or paragraph later use a noun or a pronoun of another person to refer to the same individual, we are violating the principle of sequence. To illustrate : — (i) ''One doesn't usually do it that way, but if you do you should be very careful." (2) ''When you^ enter the room, you see the lion's head the first thing, and it startles a fellow dreadfully." The italicized words in each of these examples are obvi- ously intended to refer to the same individual, but they are not sequential in person, as they should be. The sentences should read : — (i) "One doesn't usually do it that way, but if one does one should be very careful." or "You don't usually do it that way, but if you do you should be very careful." (2) "When you enter the room you see the lion's head the first thing and it startles you dreadfully." or "When a fellow enters the room, he sees the lion's head the first thing and it startles him dreadfully." Now they have perfect sequence in person. This sequence is called the sequence of person. Another common violation of this principle of sequence occurs in the use of predicates. As a rule, the tense in which we start a bit of conversation or other expression is the tense which we should retain throughout. This is not always the case, of course. But if we take up a good i82 COMPOSITION PLANNING book and read at random anywhere, we shall find that the same tense is retained uniformly, except perhaps where the author has introduced the words of another, in which case he has kept the tense of that other; or where he has wanted. to hasten or slacken the pace of his story by chang- ing from the imperfect to the present tense, or vice versa, as the case may be. We may rest assured that nothing like this will be found : "John goes to school regularly but Bill played truant." ''Goes" and ''played" are not in the same tense; they are not sequential, though obviously they are intended to be. Both predicates should be present tense or both should be imperfect. Such errors in sequence as a rule are no doubt the result of thoughtlessness, but we must train our ears and use our reason in our writing toward the avoidance of such an error as that here illustrated. And at the same time we must not get the idea that we cannot have two or more than two tenses in a single sentence. Everything de- pends upon the sense or meaning of our sentences. "My college professor told me that the air is composed of two elements." Here the past "told" is perfectly correct in connection with "is", the present form, for the idea expressed about the air is true at present and at all times, whereas the professor did not impart this information at the present time but in the past. The sequence of tense is decided therefore by a little reasoning about the meaning of the sentence. Mis- takes in sequence are more likely to occur in long-sustained passages of writing than in short ones. In our haste to record our ideas we may sometimes forget that in a pre- ceding paragraph we used the present tense while we are THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION 185 using the imperfect in the one we are engaged in writing. We may forget when we come to the end of a story that we started to tell it in the first person, whereas at the con- clusion we used the second or third. But such violations are easily corrected if they cannot always be avoided. There are three very old principles of Rhetoric which we must understand if we would make our writing all that it should be. They have been studied by us indirectly all along the way. We come now to study them directly. They are COHERENCE UNITY EMPHASIS The initial letters — c u e — suggest to us that they may be the *'cue" to much of our success in writing if we study them closely. They apply with equal force to the sentence, the paragraph, and the whole composition. By coherence is meant the harmonious co-hering or interrelating or dovetailing of the various ideas in our writ- ing, — be it sentence, paragraph or composition. The word has a use outside of its rhetorical significance and perhaps we can best negatively illustrate it there. If for instance a man gave a ball which was attended by royalty, by peas- ants, by sailors, by South Sea Islanders, by Chinese, and by others of different classes from different nations, the assemblage could not be said to be a coherent one. It would be most incoherent because the people would have too little in common to mingle harmoniously and agreeably one with another. In the sentence, therefore, ''Thomas goes to school regularly and Mary makes good cake'', we have something in English very similar to this ball in i84 COMPOSITION PLANNING society. There are two ideas in the statement, totally un- related, combined in one sentence. We say that the sen- tence lacks coherence, as a consequence of this. We must of course make two sentences of it, one for each idea, or change the wording to bring out the contrast. Now, in a larger way the same kind of error may occur in a para- graph and in a composition. We must be careful that every idea we give expression to in company with other ideas bears some consistent relation to those other ideas, and has therefore a justifiable place in our work as a whole. Our successive sentences must lead from those gone before to those following. This, and only this, will give our com- pleted writing Coherence. But not only should our ideas as expanded in a piece of writing have consistent and harmonious interrelation one with another, they should all with equal certainty bear pointedly upon the subject on which we are writing. Every word in a sentence, every sentence in a paragraph, every paragraph in a composition, should pertain directly, insis- tently, to the subject under discussion. Of course some words and sentences and paragraphs must be more impor- tant than others, but all of them must be indispensable to the development of the idea, if not to its major points, to its minor ones. There must be no superfluous word, sen- tence, or paragraph. When we have thus stripped our work of every unnecessary element in it, we have procured for it oneness or Unity. The principle of unity is closely related to that of Coherence. Coherence deals with the re- lations among words, sentences, and paragraphs ; unity deals with the relation of words, sentences and paragraphs to the subject of the composition. Probably, if one of these qualities is lacking from the composition, the other will be also, for sentences that are related to the same subject must THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION 185 be related to each other. It is conceivable however to have a series of sentences all relating to one subject, but ar- ranged haphazardly, without sequence. The problem of co- herence and unity then is to arrange them so that they will most smoothly relate to each other and at the same time form a complete whole in relation to the subject when ar- ranged. In our common parlance unity means ''sticking to the subject". We may illustrate the two qualities by the arranging of a number of irregularly cut blocks, so that, when the arrangement is complete, the figure represents an animal, — let us say, a horse. The many blocks have been coherently related to each other — dovetailed — and the com- pleted whole forms one figure, or a unity. The group of blocks was a unity without any correct coherence before they were arranged. So our selected material for a com- position forms a unity. We bring coherence to bear upon it and we have a complete and expressive unity. The two go hand in hand. We cannot separate them, yet they have distinct meanings and offices. By EMPHASIS we mean the placing of material in our composition, oral or written, where it will be most effec- tive, most emphatic. The emphatic places in sentences, para- graphs, or compositions are at the beginning and the end. The conclusion of a piece of work however is a more em- phatic place than the beginning, for here it is important to leave an impression, a conviction perhaps, upon our audi- ence; here we want to build up and emphasize our state- ment or our argument with great force. But we have heard also that first impressions are lasting ones. At the beginning of our work, then, we should state forcefully and strikingly what our purpose is to be and what the im- portance of our subject is. At the end we must show that we have proved that importance. These two directions i86 COMPOSITION PLANNING apply only most generally of course. Individual subjects will suggest by their very nature in most cases what should be emphasized at first, and what last. Emphasis is procured by building up one statement after another, each more forceful, more tense, more impressive than the one preceding it, until we have reached the limit of our power in the building-up process. Such emphasis at the end of a composition or a speech is sometimes called Climax. The various types of rhetorical sentences — loose, periodic, and parallel, — which will be discussed a little fur- ther on under the subject of Variety, can be used to excel- lent advantage in procuring emphasis, especially the periodic and parallel types. Repetition is also a method very often used for procuring emphasis. We must be careful however to distinguish between rhetorical emphasis and the more or less awkward repetition which results from the careless use of the same word too frequently, because of a too nar- row vocabulary, and which always grates upon a reader's or a listener's nerves. If we will refer back to the para- graph from Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities (page 79), we shall find in that an excellent example of rhetorical repe- tition used for the purpose of emphasis. The principle of variety is one of the most impor- tant, if not the most important, with which we have to deal when we come to write or speak. It has to do with the form of our expression, rather than with the content and arrangement of material, as have coherence, unity, and emphasis. Our purpose in cultivating variety, in trying to acquire a varied form of expression for our thoughts, is to rid our work, written and oral, of all possible monotony. We cannot of course blame any one for refusing to read the work of a monotonous writer or to listen to a monotonous speaker. We ourselves ignore both and we must therefore THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION 187 see to it that we are neither of them. There are so many resources for variety, that it is surprising that any one is ever monotonous in his expression. Yet in spite of all the various means of procuring this principle for our work, we are frequently confronted with people who have a great deal of valuable information to impart, but who do it in such a dry-as-dust, monotonous way, that it is impossible to give them our attention. Let us inquire at some length into the means of variety in expression. We may study words from our dictionaries, and thus increase our vocabulary. This will obviate the necessity of monotonous repetition of the same word. We must have so many words at our command that it shall rarely if ever be necessary for us to use the sarne word twice in close succession. We must be on intimate terms with such words as, however, therefore, although, consequently, more- over, notwithstanding, nevertheless, albeit, furthermore, and the many others of their kind. These words all have a very important significance in establishing close and subtle relations between our thoughts and we cannot afford to ignore them. Too often we are inclined to consider such words as meaningless, but they are not. On the contrary they have the power of giving shades of meaning which we cannot indicate in our work unless we use them. In addition to cultivating a wide variety in the choice and use of our words, we can furthermore cultivate a wide range of variety in our sentences. Perhaps the opportuni- ties for variety are greater here than anywhere else. We must not use the same words at the beginning of successive sentences, unless we do so for purposes of emphasis. If we are writing a composition about James Blank, we may carelessly commence many sentences with ''he". This will of course make very monotonous reading. We should i88 COMPOSITION PLANNING vary the words with which we commence sentences. Some- times we may commence with the subject, sometimes not.^ It will often be possible for us to start with a dependent clause, or with a phrase, or with a conjunction (it is quite proper to open a sentence with ''and" or ''but''), or with an adverb or adjective. All of these sentence beginnings, and others that will occur to us as we write, should be used alternately or at intervals. We should also vary the length of our sentences. Some should be long; some, short. But the long ones should not of course all be to- gether. They should be interspersed among the short ones and those of average length. Our thoughts vary in length, from the very long and very involved to the very short. Naturally, therefore, the expression of our thoughts must vary accordingly. Again, we may secure variety in our sentences by the form of expression we use. The dec- larative sentence is the most common type and in ordinary writing and speaking we shall probably use it most. But we should occasionally vary our form of expression by in- troducing interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sen- tences. We have a still further means of securing variety in sentence structure by alternating to some degree the grammatical types that we use, — simple, compound, and complex. The primers that we studied when we were chil- dren seem laughable to us now, because of their short, simple, monotonous, declarative sentences. Our writing will appear almost equally ludicrous unless we are careful to intermingle all these different forms in it. Sentences are also further classed, rhetorically, into the loose sentence, or the sentence that can be brought to a close at some place or places before the last word of the sentence is reached; the periodic sentence, or the sentence whose meaning is not perfectly complete until the last word is reached; and the THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION 189 parallel or balanced sentence, in which two or more ideas in words, phrases, or clauses, are set over against each other or balanced, as it were. These three types may be illus- trated as follows : — Loose: John came home from school hungry and tired, || and asked his mother for something to eat. Loose: I do not like Scott's books || because they are too detailed and extended. Periodic: When John returned from school, hungry and tired, he asked his mother for something to eat. Periodic: Whatever he may do, I am determined that I will never yield. Parallel: Train up a child in the way he should go, || and when he is old he will not depart from it. Parallel: In the summer we live in the country: || in the winter we remain in the city. We should study these sentences carefully in connection with the definitions given above and ascertain for ourselves whether they are true illustrations. We see that here again we have the possibility of varying our sentence structure in still another way. Moreover, there is almost infinite opportunity for variety in our sentence expression by the use of combinations which these various sentence types offer. We may, for instance, sometimes write simple-periodic sen- tences ; sometimes, declarative-parallel sentences ; sometimes, complex-interrogative-loose sentences; and so on. If it be too much to say that there is no end to these combina- tions, it is not too much to say that there is such possibility of varied combination in our sentence forms alone as to make monotony of expression little short of illiterate, and fit to be classed with bad spelling and ungrammatical sen- tence construction. In the length and form of our paragraphs we may also 190 COMPOSITION PLANNING cultivate the principle of variety. As in sentences, so in paragraphs, the length should be varied. Long, short, and medium-sized paragraphs should be intermingled. In form our paragraphs should not always open with the topic sen- tence. Sometimes it should stand first ; sometimes it should be the second, the third, or the fourth sentence in the para- graph. We should sometimes have only a summary sen- tence; sometimes both topic and summary sentences, par- ticularly in cases where emphasis is sought. Again, we should use as many as possible of the various methods of paragraph development in a single composition. It would be rather dull reading, if, in a composition of ten para- graphs, all of them were developed by the same method; or if all of them began with the same word, or with the same kind of construction. We have seen also that the various methods of paragraph development, like the various forms of sentences, may be combined, and we should make wide use of this privilege in writing our compositions. Enough has now been said to show that this very im- portant principle of variety is easily attainable: that, at least, we have almost unlimited means by which we may vary our expression. Let us cultivate them all from time to time and thus make our writing as readable and our speaking as "bearable" as possible. The various ways of procuring variety which we have just been discussing are here summarized in a bracket plan : THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION 191 Variety In words In sen- tences Avoidance of repetition Use of pocket dictionary , Use of such words as, thereforCy however y etc. In para- graphs' Beginnings of sentences Length of sentences with different words with words other than sub- ject with clauses with phrases with conjunctions f long \ medium I short fdeclarative Expression of sentences J i^^f^^g^tive ^ exclamatory [imperative (simple compound complex Rhetorical sentences r loose \ periodic [ parallel {complex - imperative - peri- odic simple-declarative-loose compound- interrogative- parallel, etc. f long Length of paragraphs \ medium I short Position of topic or summary sentence Form of paragraphs Combination para- graphs r first \ near middle . [ last {thoroughness occurrences particulars impression contrast f intermixture of any of the \ various forms designated \ by TOPIC 192 COMPOSITION PLANNING EXERCISE I. Make a complete study plan of this chapter. (The running plans in the table of contents are much too brief to be used as valuable study plans. Do not therefore be guided by them.) II. Test some of your own compositions for the various principles discussed in this chapter, and correct them. III. Every conscientious student is his own best spelling book. Make a list of words you have misspelled in your compositions. Study how they should be divided into syllables. Write them out in a book kept for the purpose and accent the correction by some means; as sepArate — o-cca^ion — beneficed — dissatisfy — di^a/?^ear — 2 1 I (dis+satis) i 2 or in some other way. IV. Select some paragraph or chapter from a novel you have read in class. Test its variety (words, sentence structure, etc.), its coherence, its unity, its emphasis, and its sequence. After you have made a careful study of it, plan and write a paragraph summarizing that study. V. Compose sentences of the following combina- tions : — 1. Loose-complex-interrogative. 2. Periodic-imperative-simple. 3. Parallel-compound-exclamatory. 4. Declarative-loose-compound commencing with a prepo- sition. 5. Interrogative-periodic-compound, commencing with a conjunction. THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION 193 . VI. Convert the following subjects into appropriate titles with proper capitalization, — the snow-covered moun- tain, the limited express, my new ambition, the pedlar, Harry's carelessness, ice, recitations, a strange fellow, early mornings, why Bob failed. VII. What mistake are you likely to make in spelling each of the following words? Find a rule in a spelling book for each one; or, better, discover a rule of your own for helping you to spell them correctly. If possible, group them according to rule or device. believing joyfully referring broadening manageable sealing disappoint neighbor speeches dissimilar places studying families planing suddenness folios planning suffering healthful potatoes turkeys heavily receipt tying until VIII. The sentences in the following paragraphs have been disarranged. Study them carefully to find the proper sequence ; then rewrite the paragraphs. I. At the same time the walk of elms, with the croaking of the ravens, which from time to time are heard from the tops of them, looks exceedingly solemn and venerable. I was taking a walk in this place last night, between the hours of nine and ten, and could not but fancy it one of the most proper scenes in the world for a ghost to appear in. The place was formerly a church-yard, and has still several marks in it of graves and burying-places. The ruins of the abbey are scattered up and down on every side, and half covered with ivy and elder bushes, the harbors of several solitary birds which seldom make their appearance till the dusk of the evening. There is such an echo among the old ruins and vaults that if you stamp but a little louder than ordi- nary you hear the sound repeated. These objects naturally raise 194 COMPOSITION PLANNING seriousness and attention ; and when night heightens the awfuhiess of the place, and pours out her supernumerary horrors upon every- thing in it, I do not at all wonder that weak minds fill it with specters and apparitions. With this purpose, he led his army down into a plain near Stirling, called the Park, near which, and beneath it, the Eng- lish army must needs pass through a boggy country, broken with watercourses, while the Scots occupied hard, dry ground. They were filled with light brushwood, and the turf was laid on the top, so that it appeared a plain field, while in reality it was all full of these pits, as a honeycomb is of holes. He then caused all the ground upon the front of his line of battle, where cavalry were likely to act, to be dug full of holes, about as deep as a man's knee. He also, it is said, caused steel pikes, called cal- throps, to be scattered up and down in the plain, where the Eng- lish cavalry were most likely to advance, trusting in that manner to lame and destroy their horses. Both these advantages he re- solved to provide against. He knew the superiority of the English, both in their heavy-armed cavalry, which were much better mounted and armed than that of the Scots, and in their archers, who were better trained than any others in the world. The king, on his part, studied how he might supply, by address and stratagem, what he wanted in numbers and strength. IX. Rewrite the following sentences correctly, giv- ing reason for the change in each case : — 1. London is said to have been a great city. 2. When I reached home yesterday my mother asks me where I was. 3. As one passes the house they can see a small garden in the rear. 4. When one reads his works you are impressed with his large vocabulary. 5. As one walks to the station they always see a crowd. 6. He reprimanded the pupil and then asks him to bring a note from his parents. THE WRITTEN COMPOSITION 195 7. As you enter John's room one sees a picture of his father hanging over the piano. 8. Playing ball gives one the exercise that they desire. 9. The colonists were obstinate but it was right. 10. Henry comes into the room and said I was wanted outside. 11. We received a telegram saying that he was coming to-day. 12. We were told that Berlin was the capital of Germany. 13. As he walked into the room one could hear the buzz of many voices. 14. As soon as one enters the room he sees himself in the mirror. 15. He said that the air we breathe was full of impurities. X. To each of the following statements add a clause commencing with hence, therefore, consequently, however, nevertheless, furthermore, or some other similar word : 1. Robert came home from school ill 2. There were only three present at the meeting 3. That was the worst thing he could have said 4. His failure disappointed him of course 5. When I returned he was still waiting 6. At last he came 7. They were in a sad dilemma 8. He still hopes to pass 9. There they were waving to us from the shore 10. After it is all over you will be extremely happy CHAPTER X THE ORAL COMPOSITION We must again bear in mind that practically everything that was said in Chapter IX about the written composition applies with equal force to the oral composition. We must get the idea out of our heads, that written language and oral language are separate and independent from one an- other. They are one and the same thing, being different only in form. We seem to take oral expression for granted. It seems to be impossible for us, careless as we sometimes are in our written work, to be even as careful in our oral discourse. The paper, the pen, the ink seem to add a bit of formidable glamor, bidding us **take care", for all of us are a little more careful (most of us a great deal more so) about our writing than about our speaking. Now, it is trite to say that we should always speak clearly and correctly; that we should pronounce our words accurately; that we should cultivate a good voice; and all the rest of it. We have heard it so many times before. But the mere telling will in nowise help us. We must have the slovenliness and the carelessness of our common speech brought home to us, if possible, in such a way as to embarrass us perhaps, before some of us shall be able to help ourselves out of the slough of illiteracy. Just as in writing we should aim at perfec- tion in the smallest, most obvious details, so in speaking we should endeavor to speak even the simplest word we have 196 THE ORAL COMPOSITION 197 to speak in such a way as not only to convey our meaning, but to give pleasure to those who hear it as well. In this chapter, however, we are to study chiefly about the oral speech, the speech that we are called upon to deliver before our class, or before our school, or in the literary club of which of course we are all members. It is a strange and unfortunate thing that there is nothing most of us dislike more than making a speech before others for the sake of training, when, at the same time, there is nothing that is calculated to do us more good or for which we shall be more heartily thankful when we grow older. To be able to stand upon our feet, face men, and tell them clearly and forcibly of some experience, or what we think, or what our convictions are about some live topic, is the most valu- able power we can have, and we should strive here and now to attain it; we should eagerly take hold of every oppor- tunity that presents itself for the cultivation of such power. We are sometimes deterred from making the most of our opportunities in this line because of shyness and ner- vousness, forgetting that these qualities are to be overcome, and not to overcome us; that Nature has given us the strength to subdue them and expects us to do it ; and that in nine cases out of ten the intensely shy and nervous person makes the best speaker after self-control has been acquired. The very greatest actors and orators, it is well known, were obliged to fight against nervousness persistently and contin- uously oftentimes for years, before they attained their suc- cess. But they never gave up the fight, and when they finally won, we know that their victory, their success, was proportionately brilliant as their struggle had been difficult. Even after their success was assured, they tell us that they were always nervous for a little while at the beginning of every public appearance. Indeed, a noted actor once told igS COMPOSITION PLANNING a body of students that he would be very scared if he were not nervous when he first went on the stage to play a great role, even though he had played it hundreds of times. It is little short of cowardly to be afraid of nervousness. The normally healthy student, instead of being afraid, should welcome it, for it gives him an opportunity to test himself, and to make mind prevail over matter. Once on our feet before an audience we can best for- get all about ourselves and all nervousness therefore, even forget our audience, by concentrating upon the subject we are going to talk about. We shall thus find ourselves mas- ters of the ''oral situation" by losing or giving ourselves up to the matter we have to discuss. This can never be done unless we are keenly interested in our subject and of course we should not attempt to talk on subjects in which we have no interest. But this concentration, this ignoring of everything and everybody except the thing we are going to talk about, is the secret of success at the beginning of public speaking. Ministers often tell us that it is much easier to pray than it is to speak, because when they pray they close their eyes and retire within themselves to what they have to say, as it were. They are not disconcerted by seeing people. And we know how much easier it is to read before a class than it is to speak, because we have the book before us to concentrate upon. Well, we must likewise cultivate the habit of concentrating upon the sub- ject matter of our speech, though it is not in a book before us, but in our heads, and though it is, therefore, more dif- ficult to "see." But, as we have intimated, difficulties should be the keenest appetizers. Another aid to the overcoming of nervousness is cor- rect breathing. We are apt to use only the upper part of our lungs for breathing unless we pay careful heed to it. THE ORAL COMPOSITION 199 Such a natural physical function as breathing, we think, perhaps, ought to take care of itself. And so it would if we were altogether natural creatures. But we are not ; the rush and tear of our modern life makes us very artificial and very nervous, and this nervousness makes for short, shallow breathing. Instead of taking deep, long breaths, we breathe in flutters. This is never conducive to poise and self-control. We have in our bodies, beneath our lung cavities, a sort of divisional organ called the diaphragm. This acts as a bellows or regulator for our breathing, if we permit it so to act. When we take a deep, long breath, this presses downward and outward ; when we exhale, it moves in the opposite directions. But when we breathe in our up- per lung capacity only, this organ is not called into play at all ; there is no forcing power in that part of our bodies, and consequently no air expulsion and refreshment in the lower parts of our lungs. Diaphragmatic breathing, therefore, must be insisted upon, not only to help us in overcoming our nervousness, and to give us poise and self-control, but also to force impure air out of our lungs and to supply the whole of our lung area with pure air and renewed power. We should take daily exercise in breathing, — long, deep, quiet breathing in pure fresh air, until we can trust ourselves to breathe properly without being conscious of it. Correct breathing will also improve the voice. The slight, husky, nasal, uncontrollable voice of the fluttering breather will be changed into a deep, resonant, manageable one by gaining mastery over the breathing. Nature really gave us all good voices, but we have neglected this, as we have so many other of her gifts. Not only do we smother the voice by our improper breathing, but we do not open our mouths when we talk ; we speak with our teeth together ; we do not give the voice a chance to do its best for us. Of 200 COMPOSITION PLANNING course all of this should be corrected. We should not at- tempt to speak until we have taken a good long inhalation of air. Then we should allow our voices to play over the exhalation, exhaling very slowly and holding reserve power in our lungs as long as possible. Speaking when the lungs are only partially filled or nearly empty not only gives poor voice but exhausts us physically. And that nasality, for which we Americans are so justly condemned, can be over- come only by careful management of the breathing and proper opening of the mouth. Our vocal cords are useless as sound creators. They are vocal only because of the air passing through them and setting up vibrations. There are questions of form for us to consider when we are delivering an oral composition before an audience of classmates or elsewhere. By this we mean that we should always carry ourselves with ease and dignity. A slovenly carriage ever implies that we are slovenly in breathing, in thinking, in voice, in pronunciation, — in everything. If we drag our feet, if we constantly have our hands in our pockets, if we stand on one foot and allow one shoulder to droop accordingly, if we become stooped, — if we do any one of these things we shall be somewhat justified in being very nervous on appearing before an audience. Our pres- ence will certainly not be prepossessing. We must of course stand erect, carry our heads high, step with vim, and be happy that we have hands for people to see and for us to use in helping to express ourselves. Gesture merely for the sake of gesture is always ridicu- lous. But gestures that are spontaneous, that are made as a result of feeling rather than as a result of imitation or for the purpose of show, are the most impressive and valu- able aids in assisting us to accent our points. The trouble is, we do not allow gestures ''to come'' oftentimes when we THE ORAL COMPOSITION ^oi do feel the impulse for them. We hold ourselves tense, even though our hands do want to go, and tell us so un- mistakably. But when we are talking to our fellows, we practice no such suppression. Then we gesture freely, nat- urally, and therefore gracefully. In spite of all the so-called rules there are no rules for holding or using the hands and fingers. We shall need none, if we will allow them to use themselves whenever they wish to do so. If we are inter- ested in our subject and have strong convictions and feelings about it, our thoughts as expressed by us in language will notify our hands when they want their help. Then we must not deny the assistance requested. No gesture is really awkward that springs spontaneously in accompani- ment to sincere thought and feeling. We should therefore use no force to suppress gestures. In whatever form they may insist upon manifesting themselves, we must let them come; for, sincerely made, they are often more eloquent than any words we may be able to summon. We have heard that actions speak louder than words. We must re- member at the same time also that gestures inserted with- out spontaneity will weaken the effect of the strongest words we may be able to speak. The pocket dictionary is an invaluable possession for the study of correct pronunciation and we must use it for this purpose quite as much perhaps as for the correction of wrong spelling. It is probable, however, that for the study of the laws of pronunciation, the values of vowels and con- sonants, and their modifications and inflections, we shall be obliged to go to the large dictionary in company with our instructors and take lessons in '*How to Use the Diction- ary''. We may think we know how to use it, but we may also be mistaken in this. It should be a matter of pride with us to finger the fewest possible number of leaves in 202 COMPOSITION PLANNING turning to the word we want to find. We should always make use of the thumb index in looking up a word. We should study in the introduction of any good unabridged dictionary the meaning of the various diacritical marks; such as, breve — macron — dot — diaeresis — wave — cedilla — circumflex — etc., for many of us perhaps do not know how to pronounce a word after we find it, owing to the fact that these marks, indicating quantity, accent, etc., are not understood by us. We should also familiarize ourselves in this introduction (i) with the classification of vowels, diphthongs, and digraphs, (2) with special consonant sounds, — c in such words as cell, city, cut, cot; g in such words as get, gain, gin, gist; ch in chorus, chord, chair, chore; th in thin, worth, then, smooth, that, those; ^ in so, this, wise, has; etc., etc.; (we must know why these letters or combinations are pro- nounced sometimes one way, sometimes another), and (3) with accent (primary and secondary) especially in such words as, — abject, accent, address, compensate, condolence, construe, consummate, demonstrate, detail, discourse, en- velop, essay, illustrate, etc., etc. But even when we are fully aware of the correct pro- nunciation of a word we are often very careless and slov- enly in its use. We know but we do not do. Yet these two words are synonyms. The pupil who says he knows but cannot express himself simply does not know fully; for the expression of any knowledge should itself be a part of that knowledge. If we know fully and accurately how to pronounce our words, — and there is no reason why we should not, — we must pronounce them correctly. But failure to breathe properly, failure to open the mouth, fail- THE ORAL COMPOSITION 203 ure to manipulate the tongue and adjust the lips, hurry and quickness in speaking, — all of these common faults mar the pronunciation as they impair the voice; and it would seem that even though we knozv that we are guilty of gross errors in pronunciation, enunciation, and articulation, we never- theless allow them to go uncorrected. We drop the "g'' from words ending in "ing"; we say ''daredn't'' for '"daren't"; we use the letter ''r" at the ends of words when we should not use it, and omit it when we should use it; and so on. We know better in almost every case. But there is perhaps a feeling among us that a person who enunciates distinctly is affected, that so long as wx make ourselves understood we are doing all that is necessary. These are of course false notions. If they were true in principle, then we should have nothing but noise for music, nothing but color for painting. There follows just below a list of words and phrases accompanied by the improper use or slovenly pronuncia- tion we so often give them. The list is not exhaustive in any sense. It should be supplemented by us from time to time as we hear or as we are conscious of using other bad forms. Only by means of this ''checking up'' process exer- cised on ourselves as well as others, and by the faithful use of the dictionary, can we hope to overcome the stubborn and slovenly habit of crude and vulgar pronunciation. DO NOT USE a for have (could-a) aggravating for provoking ain't for am not or is not or are not a little ways for a little way allude for mention an for and attacted for attacked atheletic for athletic awfully for very 204 COMPOSITION PLANNING awn azid beseeched bet between between bring can calculate cham-pe'-on de den det dey don't don*t che different than dis dooty drownded dunno effect et except few fing-er fowt fit funny gimme git good guess gwan had hadn't ought healthy hern hoird hisn hisself histry hurted V hoirted / illusion in jist kin laid learn leave for on for acid for besieged for beat for among to refer to one object for carry or take for may for intend for champion for the for then for death for they for doesn't for don't you for different from for this for duty for drowned for don't know for affect for ate for accept for the expression of quantity for finger for fought for fight for odd for give me for get for well for imagine or think for go on with ought for shouldn't for healthful for hers for heard (and others) for his for himself for history (and other slurred pro- nunciations) for hurt for allusion for ing (the mutilated ending) for just for can for imperfect tense of lie (lay) for teach for let THE ORAL COMPOSITION 205 less for number like for as like as a conjunction lookit for look at or look out love for like 'm for him, them (I told 'm) mad for vexed or angry me for my most for almost mudder for mother (fader, brudder) mutual for common naow for now nuss for ness nuther for another onto for unto party- for person propose for purpose or intend quantity for number quite as an adjective real for very reckon ^ for think say or listen (or both) as a preface to some remark set for past tense of sit (sat) soar for saw (the "r" trouble) some for somewhat something as an adverb statue for statute or stature te-aye'-ter for theater that as an adverb instead of "so** these and those to modify sort or kind tief for thief ting for thing tree for three trew for threw tru for through unce for ence ur for or verbal for oral wid for with witness for see wot for what wot-che for what you wunt for wont wunto for want to wunst for once wuz for was yourn for yours youse for you But if we make gross and illiterate errors in the use of single words, it is but natural that we should also violate 2o6 COMPOSITION PLANNING the rules of their relations when they are used with one an- other. We are careless perhaps in observing the gram- matical relations between words; we make errors in our usage of words; we indulge in uncouth and awkward epi- thets ; we make tiresome repetitions ; and so on. The most common of these mistakes to which we are perhaps ad- dicted are summarized below. Here again it is, of course, likewise impossible to be exhaustive. All of us have grammatical troubles just as we have troubles in pronuncia- tion and enunciation, that are peculiarly our own. The only road to improvement is to be keenly and constantly on our guard. Doctors tell us that patients can often do more toward bringing about their own recovery by trying to get well than any amount of prescribed medicine can do. The same thing is true of our grammatical ills, — if we try to effect recovery we can do much toward genuine health. Books and teachers can offer us only certain aids and sug- gestions by way of treatment, but we are our own best phy- sicians. The following hints are offered, therefore, as helpful suggestions only. Each one of us must do much more for himself than can be done here, or anywhere else. We should strive to avoid 1. Illiterate epithets and idioms : — This here — them there — he don't — I seen — she sung — he come (for imperfect tense) — the double negative (ain't got none) — the double superlative (most fullest glass) — end up — off of — start in — ^hadn't ought — I done — get a book off him — bunk into — feel badly, etc. 2. The misuse of such words as : — Like, as — beside, besides — shall, will — if, whether — ex- cept, without, unless — in, into — lie, lay — sit, set — can, may — bring, take — good, well, etc. THE ORAL COMPOSITION 207 3. Hesitation and its consequences : — The "endless chain'' sentence (connection of all ideas by *'and-a"). — The use of "well-a" ''why-a", "now-a" and worst of all "say" or "say-a" within or at the beginnings of sentences. — The constant use of "then" after the sub- ject (John then went). — The double subject (John he went). — The confusion of proximity, causing us to use a plural predicate with a singular subject, or vice versa, (Each of the boys were there). — The general use of plural verbs with such subjects as, — each, every- one, any, either, neither, etc. — The nominative case after "between", (Between you and /). — The disagreement of pronouns with their antecedents. — Failure to use a sum- marizing word after having used a long complex subject. — The use of two introductory words to introduce a noun clause, (He says how that his mother is ill). — The use of stock and hackneyed expressions, (He took in the situation at a glance). — The use of slang, (if per- mitted on occasion, it should be so phrased by the voice as to imply to our hearers that its better equivalent is in reserve; in writing, it should of course be placed in quotation marks). The ability to converse gracefully and freely with others cannot be too highly commended. To this end we should organize conversational clubs among our fellows. The time may come (we hope soon) when educators will see that it is quite as important to have conversational classes in Eng- lish as it is to have them in French and German and other foreign languages. But, until they do, we should organ- ize among ourselves for drill and cultivation in conversa- tion. It is the most important thing in the world for us to know^ how to talk with one another fluently, gracefully, and correctly. Not only should we find that such an organiza- tion would teach us politeness in conversation, teach us not to break in upon one another abruptly, but it would beget 2o8 COMPOSITION PLANNING in us also the additional power to make ready and appro- priate contributions to conversation. This power and the power to make clever and witty reply, known as repartee, can be acquired only by exercise. But once acquired we shall have an invaluable possession. There are some who fancy that, whenever they are thrown among people so- cially, they must tell jokes. They study a good joke book before going to a dinner, and then oblige everybody pres- ent to become a hypocrite in pretending to appreciate their borrowed and often antiquated humor. There is of course much to be said in favor of the good story, appropriately applied and well told. But never can it take the place of the sparkling, spontaneous wit that bubbles over in every direction from the tongue of a clever conversationalist. Let us then make it a point to talk as well and as interest- ingly as we can on all proper occasions, — at table, in cars, at recess; with our fellows and with our elders. Let us also listen intelligently to the conversation of others, that we may observe merits and defects and thereby profit our- selves. The living word is nowhere more delightful than in conversation. It is unfortunate, then, that in this prosaic age we have come to regard conversation too much as a means, and not sufficiently as an end in itself; we make it a commodity of intercourse rather than an art and a very fine one; we are too utilitarian in our view of the use and purpose of language, and not sufficiently artistic. There are two distinct types of speaking, prepared and unprepared or extemporaneous. Prepared speaking al- ways implies that we have memorized the words of another, or of our own after having written them, in order to deliver them to an audience. The forms of prepared speak- ing are recitation, oratory, argument, and impersonation. The order in which they are here named is the order in THE ORAL COMPOSITION 209 which we should study them. Recitation, the simplest and commonest, is the delivery from memory of the words, either prose or poetry, usually of another, with the aim of giving it whatever feeling and expression we think its author intended it to have. Oratory, the next simplest form, may mean the memorizing of the great orations of literature and delivering them to an audience, or, better, the memorizing of orations we have ourselves written, for presentation. Oratory should have in it forensic elements; elements, that is, that call for the expression of strong con- victions or beliefs or feelings in connection with the sub- ject treated. Argument, considered as a prepared type of speaking, implies that our argument has been written out word for word and memorized. It can rarely be the writ- ing of another that we memorize in argument. Like ora- tory, it calls for strong conviction and feeling about its subject. Impersonation is the most difficult of the prepared forms of speaking. It implies the memorizing of the lines in a dramatic piece of work and the full identification of one's self with the characters who speak them. The work of the actor and of the public reciter is the work of the impersonator. It is a very difficult work indeed, and one that depends more upon native gift and talent for suc- cess than do any of the other forms. Under the unprepared types of oral expression (known variously as extemporaneous, extempore, and impromptu speaking) occur all of the forms of our ordinary communi- cation with one another, all forms of speech. Conver- sation is the simplest and most obvious kind. It may take the form of ordinary social intercourse; or it may take on the more distinctly commercial aspect of secretarial or rep- resentative conversation. The secretary, the salesman, the repre.sent^tiye; the interpreter, — all such officials have to be 210 COMPOSITION PLANNING trained conversationalists, — conversationalists for definite business purposes, rather than for social pastime or delight. But they cannot depend very much upon the verbatim mem- orizing of words. They must be ready to meet any emer- gency by way of speaking. They must dictate letters off- hand ; they must interview strangers on a moment's notice ; they must persuade ; they must quickly discern the meaning of one man and put it into intelligible form for another. In short, they must be experts in ready oral expression. And, of course, they can become experts only by long prac- tice and constant care. But here, as in after-dinner speak- ing, as in telling jokes gracefully, as in standing before others and giving terse, pointed speeches or replies to speeches, much naturally depends .upon native talent. There is, to be sure, such a thing as a gift for speaking, but we are all inclined to place too much importance upon this in others, for the purpose of avoiding its discovery in our- selves. We can all of us acquire the ability of making a graceful speech in public, no matter what type of speech we be called upon to make; and cultivation of and practice in these briefer, more obvious forms will soon enable us to stand before an audience and make an address of much greater length entirely extemporaneously. A good deal of argument is made extempore, or is de- livered with only the plan as a guide. Extempore argu- ment is an excellent exercise, but, for the sake of the argu- ment as well as in justice to the speaker, it should not be attempted until one has had considerable experience in the other forms of impromptu speaking. It is quite enough at first to be obliged to stand before an audience and talk without any preparation whatever. But to do this and in addition feel that we are pitted against another is too much for the beginner in extempore speaking. We should THE ORAL COMPOSITION 211 practice first in the simpler forms, — conversation, jokes, speeches before our class, announcements, reviews of stories, etc., — before making an attempt at that form which not only calls for clearer and quicker thinking than any other, but in addition antagonizes us to another at the very out- set. As a beginning in extemporaneous argument, it is excellent training for a student to have rapid questions directed at him by the members of his class or club, and attempt to answer them. In this way he will be enabled to overcome that unreadiness and bewilderment which may embarrass him at first. Such drill will be of infinite value also in the answering of questions by teachers and in the ordinary recitation. The properly phrased, well-enunciated answers to such questions should be given as much consid- eration as the content, when it comes to assigning credit. And not only this, but also the position and general attitude assumed by us while answering questions should be made to count for or against us. There is not a situation in unprepared speaking, how- ever, that we shall not be able to meet, if we have care- fully pondered over the matter of planning, as we have studied it in this book, and if we observe the simple advice given in this chapter. We shall not of course have as much time to plan our material for oral work as for written, but the organizing habit which, it is hoped, we have by this time formed will "save" us wherever, however, whenever we may be placed for impromptu work in speaking. Im- mediately we are called upon for a speech, we must com- mence to organize our knowledge on the topic assigned, however brief, however incomplete that organization or plan may have to be. While taking our place before an audience, instead of wondering how we look, how we shall "make out", whether we shall fail, we should be deciding 212 COMPOSITION PLANNING exactly what point number one is going to be in our speech, what we shall say under heading number two, etc. If we have no time to get further than point one in our mental plan, let that make no difference. ''Well begun is half done." If we have only one point of our progress well in mind, the strong probabilities are that we shall have no difficulty in following it up sequentially and successfully. We must be able to match the suddenness of the call to an impromptu speech with our alertness to systematize the knowledge we have of the subject assigned. This will dis- place nervousness with concentration, and will prevent our falling into an unintelligible confusion. Such subjects as inflection, modulation, pitch, rate, force, emphasis, pause, phrasing, and subordination belong more exclusively to the study of elocution, so here we shall touch only upon those subjects which we ourselves may be able to interpret for the improvement of our daily speech. The first three named, — inflection, modulation, pitch, — have to do with the quality and tone of voice, something that nature will attend to for us if we observe those laws of breathing to which attention has been called ; rate refers to the speed of our speaking, and it is sufficient to say of this that we should not talk extremely rapidly or extremely slowly, but should strike upon that rate of expression which will not interfere with our being understood, nor yet make us appear unnatural ; force and emphasis refer more particu- larly to the quantity of voice placed upon any portion or portions of our speech, the accentuating what we have to say by means of loudness or intensity or variation in the rate of the voice. For the explanation of all of these we should turn to a good book on elocution. They are all of prime importance to us in the more advanced study of pub- lic speaking, but they need not be defined further than they THE ORAL COMPOSITION 213 are above for our purpose here. Pause, phrasing, and sub- ordination, however, which have to do with the manage- ment of the voice in its closer relation to subject-matter and are of every-day value to us, are worthy of a some- what closer consideration in this connection. Pause in speaking, either before or after we have made an important point, is a method of accentuating or empha- sizing that point. We have sometimes heard an eloquent pause or an eloquent silence. It was the result of this de- liberate act of emphasis on the part of the speaker. In ad- dition to this, pauses of varying lengths in our speech take the place somewhat of punctuation in our writing. We can usually tell where periods, semicolons, commas, etc., should be placed in the language of a good speaker. So surely, yet so unconsciously, does he pause here and there through- out his discourse, that we have no more doubt where his sentences end and where his thoughts are divided than we have about the declarative or the interrogative form of his expression. Just as we place a period, a question mark, a comma, almost unconsciously where they respectively be- long in our written composition, so we should indicate these same divisions in our speech by carefully graduated but natural pauses. Pause, then, is valuable for us in speaking, because it is a means of emphasis and accent, and because it indicates the division of ideas from one an- other. Phrasing is closely allied to pause in the matter of speaking. It means the grouping together of words into phrases and clauses by means of the voice, the partitioning of our oral expression into its grammatical compartments. Rather than talk straight ahead in an even, monotonous voice, placing all our phrases and clauses end to end, as it were, as if they were continuous with one another, we should 214 COMPOSITION PLANNING indicate a grouping together of all our subject, all our predicate, and all of our related modifiers. I "When John came home from school | he said, | *I think I'll go skating'; | but his mother reminded him | that he had chores to do."| Here, the perpendicular lines indicate the natural partitions of the thought. Instead of reading this sentence in one long monotonous strain then, we will read it in sections, or phrase it as indicated, and thus convey our meaning much more easily and intelligibly. And, what is equally impor- tant, the observance of the principles of pause and phrasing in our speaking will give us the opportunity for the con- trol and management of our breathing. Subordination is in turn closely allied to phrasing. By it we mean that we must show by the voice which ideas in our expression are subordinate to others. We should not in reading a complex sentence, for instance, give the depend- ent idea as much stress as the independent one ; we should likewise indicate by means of the voice whatever paren- thetical expressions we make use of; and we should keep modifiers in a place subordinate to the words they modify by the subtle and skillful management of the voice. We have all heard such things as these done with the voice by able speakers, and we ourselves do them very expertly when we are talking to a group of friends about something in which our interest in the account we are giving so holds us that we cannot be anything else but natural. Our con- centration has helped us. Subordination is quite as neces- sary an element in oral expression as it is in written, and we can easily indicate it, not by means of graphic outline, of course, but by carefully relating our ideas to one an- other in our minds before giving expression to them. THE ORAL COMPOSITION 215 In conclusion, then, let us try, as best we can, to im- prove our speech under whatever circumstances we are called upon to use it, by means of closely observing the suggestions made in this chapter. Training in vocal ex- pression along even these elementary lines will, if faithfully practiced, enable us (i) to stand in good position before a class and tell in well- pronounced, grammatical English exactly what we have seen, heard, or experienced; (2) to explain, describe or argue clearly, forcibly and grace- fully; (3) to converse freely and fluently; (4) to identify ourselves with some great character in lit- erature, and to relive in thought, feeling and expression that character's experience ; (5) to develop impromptu power; (6) to meet a "speaking emergency" with readiness and ease; (7) to think analytically before an audience ; (8) to interpret a piece of literature to others with spiritual and intellectual discernment; (9) to persuade others to our view; (10) to approach an employer or an employee of a firm with terse, well-delivered English ; (11) "to talk" a letter and to perform other secretarial duties efficiently ; (12) to state an opinion, with reasons, unhesitatingly, logically and pointedly; (13) to coordinate voice, mind, and body in such a way as to give us address and personality for any situation in which we may happen to be placed. 2i6 COMPOSITION PLANNING EXERCISE I. Make a speech before the class reviewing the contents of this chapter. II. Explain to your classmates how to do something — build a boat, take a picture, make a tackle, etc. — that you are interested in. When you are through, invite them to ask questions. III. Tell the story of some hero you have been read- ing of in literature. IV. Give an account to your classmates of some re- cent happening you read about in the newspaper this morn- ing. V. Describe some beautiful or wonderful sight you have seen. Invite questions when you are through. VI. Argue the following question before the class, — Resolved: That the study of oral expression is more im- portant than the study of written expression. VII. Give an account to your classmates of an excit- ing game you have recently seen. VIII. Imagine yourself just elected to the presidency of a club. Make a short speech of appreciative acceptance. IX. Make a short speech that would be appropriate on your retirement from the presidency of a club. X. Explain an algebraic or other problem at the board. XI. Answer extemporaneously the following ques- tion (and others that your teacher will assign) : — Why did the original thirteen colonies rebel against England ? XII. Enumerate in a note-book, kept for the purpose, all the errors in oral expression that you yourself have THE ORAL COMPOSITION 217 made, or that you have heard to-day. Correct them and study the correct form. Such a note-book or '^English diary'' should be in constant use. XIII. Deliver brief speeches on : — How to Write a Composition, The Kinds of Extemporaneous Speaking, The Value of Conversation, The Different Kinds of Plans, Point of View and Purpose. XIV. Organize the class into an "extempore club'' for an open meeting. Imagine an absent member to be ac- cused of theft. Let every member argue for or against the accused. (Speeches should be limited to five minutes each. ) XV. Imagine yourself an agent for some book or other article with which you are familiar. Talk to your classmates about it, trying to persuade them to buy it. Per- mit them to ask questions. XVI. Make a speech before the class, sketching one of the following characters : — Shylock — Portia — Ivanhoe — The Ancient Mariner — Sir Launfal — David Balfour. XVII. Take some composition you have written, in- dicate by pencil marks pauses, phrasing, and subordination, and then read it to the class accordingly. XVIII. Let some ''captain" or leader select a topic for discussion, divide it into sections, and assign these sections to separate members of the class. After each one has made a speech on his particular section, indulge in general con- versation about the topic by means of question, answer, and criticism. 2i8 COMPOSITION PLANNING XIX. Make an oral criticism of one or more of the speeches given before the class. Criticise from the points of view of subject-matter, position, voice, gesture, plan, pronunciation, grammar, pause, phrasing, subordination. XX. Tell a short joke v^hich necessitates the imper- sonation of one or more characters. CHAPTER XI THE KINDS OF COMPOSITION Broadly speaking, there are four kinds of composi- tion, — Exposition, Narration, Description, and Argument. Write them in almost any sequence and the initial letters will form a memory word. As we have arranged them here that word is *'Enda". This seems to be the best arrange- ment we can make, because it represents the order in either written or oral composition in which they are naturally developed. A child calls first for explanation or exposition of the things it sees about it. We know what curious, and sometimes bothersome, questioners children are. It is be- cause of this belief in the fact that exposition is demanded first, and therefore is the earliest form to be naturally de- veloped, that we have placed expository plans first in this book. When the child gets a little older, it wants to hear stories or narrations about the things already explained. Its ability to appreciate a picture or description of these things will develop, as a rule, only after it has understood them or heard stories about them ; though here our sequence is most imperiled, for we know the picture to be of great advantage, if used in connection with the exposition and the narration, for purposes of elucidation. Indeed, there are many cases in which it might very fittingly come first. The child, for instance, sees things before it asks to have them explained. But its mental picture of them is obscure or it would probably not ask so many questions. We are 219 220 COMPOSITION PLANNING thinking of word-pictures, however, since we are deahng with composition, and there can be little doubt but that the abihty for writing, as well as that for reading description, is much more difficult and therefore of later development than that for exposition, narration, or argument. The power to argue is naturally developed last, calling as it does for maturer insight than does any of the other three. But we shall find these types arranged differently in different books; some, maintaining that narration is developed first, or is the easiest to write, will arrange them neda; some, believing that description should stand first because of the concreteness of pictures, arrange them dean. We be- lieve, however, for the reasons just stated, that our arrange- ment is the most logical one. But we must hasten to add here that, just as we shall see a little later, no one of these four types ever stands alone, but two or more are always intermingled one with another, so also all four of them de- velop more or less simultaneously in the child. The an- swers to its early questions may be both narration and description. Precedence is given to exposition only because it is believed to be the most predominant in early childhood and because it is the least difficult therefore for the young to study first. We have shown the meanings of these four words in sketching their development thus briefly. To summarize, we may say that Exposition means explanation ; Narration means the telling of a story, or the setting forth of a series of related actions or happenings; Description means giving a word picture of a scene, a person, an object, or an event; Argument means the debating of any given question from various points of view. THE KINDS OF COMPOSITION 221 Now we must accent a little more emphatically what we have just said about the relations among these four forms of composition. What was said about description above applies with equal force to all the other kinds. Rarely does a single one of them stand alone. Two or more of them are always found blended, however slightly, the piece of work taking its name from that type that predominates. Thus, a novel like Ivanhoe or Treasure Island is called a story or a narration because most of it is concerned with the telling of a series of events in the development of one big event. But it contains much excellent description as well, many necessary descriptions, and even perhaps some argument. Likewise, in explaining how lead pencils are made, a writer might throw the whole exposition into nar- rative form by entitling his work ''The Story of a Piece of Lead'', and thus explain the manufacture of lead pencils in a vastly more interesting way in the narrative form than he could were he to set to work to write a cold, dry-as-dust exposition. But his composition would contain exposition and description as well and, again, perhaps argument also. It is quite possible that the picture of a great battle or of some great allegorical figure will be wonderfully helped for us, if it is accompanied with an explanation of its meaning, or with a narration of the event it represents. Again, a lawyer, in order to bring all possible power to bear upon his side of a case, may have to employ all four of these kinds of composition. If his client be suing a railroad for dam- ages, he may have to explain exactly how an accident hap- pened ; he may tell the story dramatically ; he may describe his client as a man of powerful physique before the unfor- tunate occurrence and as a pitiable cripple for life after- ward; and all of these he may combine into such a subtle and able argument as to win his case. 222 COMPOSITION PLANNING It will be pointed out later — though it has of course already been understood — ^that expository, descriptive, or argumentative points must be placed as subordinate topics in a plan that is distinctively narrative ; that narrative, de- scriptive, or argumentative points must be placed as subor- dinate topics in a plan that is distinctively expository; etc. This is a matter of much importance to w^riters of long works in any one of these types. But it is equally impor- tant for us also in our shorter experiments in composition, for we shall have to differentiate among them just as accu- rately in our ordinary ''school writing" as do authors in their "world writing". We see then that all four types may be, usually are, blended, each to help the other, and that the type that pre- dominates in this grouping, — ^the type, that is, that stands out most prominently, — is the one from which the composi- tion takes its name. It is possible, of course, as we have doubtless noticed in our study of literature, to reduce this intermixture to a minimum. In many expositions that we have read we have found almost nothing but pure exposi- tion; in many stories we have found almost nothing but the account of action. In description, which can be more easily isolated than the other types, we have found passages or indeed whole compositions that consisted of pure word- painting or word-picturing; and in afgument, which is the most difficult to isolate, we have nevertheless seen examples in which every sentence dealt a death-blow to the opposite proposition by means of pure argument. The four types do therefore exist as such, and we must consequently study how to prepare to write each kind as an individual type, as well as how to tell the one from the other in our reading. To this end we shall study expository, narrative, descrip- tive, and argumentative planning in the pages that follow. THE KINDS OF COMPOSITION 223 Then, as occasion requires, we shall be able to combine the different types to suit our special purposes. We shall see that many of the various styles of plans already discussed may be applied to any one of the types of composition just enumerated. Particularly is this true of the outlines which are named according to the arrange- ment of material, — running, formal, and informal. But we shall also see that there are certain forms of plan that belong to each separate kind of composition. It is better, for instance, we shall see, to use the sentence or the parti- cipial phrasal form for narration; the topical, phrasal, or clausal form for exposition and description; and the com- bination for argument. This arrangement cannot of course be made hard and fast, but it will be found to hold in the majority of cases which we shall meet with in our school work. Whatever variations occur will be noted as we pro- ceed. Up to this time we have studied carefully the form and arrangement of plans: subordination in plans; the various kinds of plans; and purpose and point of view. We shall therefore not develop our illustrative material so far as we have done in the preceding chapters, for we are now able to bring knowledge, which we did not possess before, to bear upon our tasks in writing. EXERCISE I. Make a formal study plan of this chapter. IL Select expository, narrative, descriptive, and ar- gumentative passages from some piece of literature you have read. Show what intermixture exists in each. in. Show how more than one of the types of compo- 224, COMPOSITION PLANNING sition here mentioned might be combined in dealing with the following titles : — The Old Mansion, Jack's Discovery, Sunday Baseball Should Be Prohibited, The Parade, The Balloon Ascension. IV. Make a plan in which you enumerate all the good narrations you have read. Show by means of your ar- rangement which of these are most purely narrative, and which least so. V. Make a similar outline for all the expositions, de- scriptions, and arguments you can remember reading, and classify them as you classified the narrations in Exercise IV. CHAPTER XII THE EXPOSITORY PLAN Exposition or explanation we take to be the com- monest type of composition among the four. There is scarcely a day that we are not called upon to explain some- thing to somebody, or that we do not call upon some one to explain something to us. ''How do you do it?" ''How do I get to such and such a place?" "Why did you do that?" etc., are all questions that we are constantly hearing. The answers to them, however brief they may be, are expository, for they all call for explanations. It is necessary that we study how to make a clear, definite, explicable answer to questions when they are asked us. If some one meets us on the street and asks for direction to some particular place, he will be helped just in proportion as we are masters of exposition. He may be in greater confusion than before making inquiry if our explanation to him is not concisely and explicitly expressed. We may know exactly where he wants to go and how best he can get there, but, as is too frequently the case, this knowledge is not matched with an equal knowledge of the laws of imparting information and consequently we fail to help the inquirer. It is best in all cases of expository answers to questions that we at the outset repeat the interrogation in the declara- tive form: — "Why are you doing this?" *'I am doing this because — " 225 226 COMPOSITION PLANNING If we can give evidence of quick organization of material in our answers, we shall be able to make them much clearer : — "Why are you doing this?" "I am doing this, first, because — ; second, because — etc." Here, by the introduction of "first", "second'', etc., we have divided our answer into a sequence that is easily fol- lowed, and into a sequence that should observe a regularly descending or ascending order of importance. If Mr. A. wants to get from the Strand, which he is now on, to Al- bany Street, which is on the other side of the city, we do not, of course, in giving him directions, trace his journey from Albany Street to the Strand, but we start at the point where he now is and trace the whole journey regularly as he will make it. With a little attention to our manner of answering such questions as these we can form the habit of systematizing the information we have to convey to such a degree that, when we come to write expository composi- tions, the matter of planning will not be so irksome or so difficult to us. The questions of parents and teachers should not be answered as briefly and as quickly as possible (as we too often do answer them) but always with some delibera'tion and forethought, not only upon what we are going to say, but on how we are going to say it as well. The relation between exposition and description is much closer than that existing between any other two types. This has already been intimated in the previous chapter, and we should have guessed it ourselves had we not been told. It is clear of course that in writing a character sketch of a person, in explaining a person, that is, we might enhance the explanation a good deal by accompanying it with a de- THE EXPOSITORY PLAN 227 scription or picture of the person. There may be, for in- stance, certain facial features that are indicative of charac- teristics. In speaking of a man as having a high forehead, a square chin, a slender neck, we explain indirectly by these bits of description that he possesses certain characteristics which such features indicate. Perhaps some of us have written compositions on the margins of which we drew il- lustrations or pictures of certain phases or parts of our sub- ject. Combining diagrams thus with our exposition we were enabled to give a much more lucid idea of the matter we were writing about. And such a combination cannot be too highly commended. Whenever and wherever possible, in explaining a subject to one who knows but little about it, we should unite diagrams or sketches with our written or oral explanations. We know how valuable the stereopticon is to the lecturer who is trying to elucidate a subject to an audience, and we know too how plain it makes things and how enjoyable it makes a lecture that might otherwise bore us. We know how invaluable an aid a map of a city can be, particularly if we are strangers in the city. We know how much Mr. A. will be helped if we take the time to draw a little plan of his journey from the Strand to Albany Street. And we know too that if our teachers accompany their verbal explanations with illustrative diagrams at the board, we are much better able to understand them. We may say, then, that as a rule exposition may be most advan- tageously helped by means of description, both verbal and graphic. The use of descriptive adjectives, the picturing of certain parts of the thing we happen to be explaining, will in most cases double the value of our exposition, because it will double the lucidity. No such interdependence exists between any two other types. The commonest form of exposition, which, for the sake 228 COMPOSITION PLANNING of convenience, we shall call Plain Exposition, develops its subject naturally from its beginning to its end. It is the style of exposition we should use when explaining a thing directly, for the first information of one who knows nothing whatever about it. It is ''out-and-out" explanation, busi- ness-like and always conscious of itself. There is no ele- ment of entertaining for the purpose of merely interesting, that we shall find in some other styles of exposition. As a rule our plan should follow the general headings here indi- cated : — I. Origin or source II. Kinds (Description) III. Methods or means of procuring (or manufacture) IV. Uses V. Effects These represent what should be the main topics in our out- line. The subordinate topics should now be placed under- neath and to the right of these. Or we may, if we choose, omit these words from our plan altogether, and in their stead state directly the facts that they stand for. If our title be "Coal", then we may say, instead of IV (Uses), what uses coal actually has. It is however a little better to retain these headings, or as many of them as we can use in connection with any given subject, for they enable our reader to follow the course of the development a good deal more easily. There are subjects of course to the treat- ment of which all of these topics cannot be applied, yet in explaining most subjects the majority of them will be needed. Indeed, one can hardly imagine a subject for an expository composition to which at least four out of the five major topics are not applicable. Let us be careful to notice that the plan suggested is THE EXPOSITORY PLAN 229 topical. As a rule the expository plan is topical, phrasal, or clausal. This is true because we must aim always to keep our points dependent upon our title and this depend- ence is always suggested by a topic, a phrase, and a clause, all being dependent members. The thing that we are ex- plaining is thus kept always before the reader's mind, every topic having something to which it must belong. We have seen that such is not the case where we have a series of independent sentences as our major points. A sentence is a complete statement wherever it stands. Under topic II (Kinds) we have placed the word ^'Description" in parenthesis. This indicates that most of what we have to say here may be descriptive in its nature. We have seen that in writing exposition we should be care- ful to subordinate as far as possible all elements that are not strictly expository. And we know also that this same rule is to be observed in writing narration, description, and ar- gument. Our major topics should always have in them a clear suggestion of the kind of composition we are writing. So also should our subordinate topics, wherever possible. Every one of the five main divisions above named suggests explanation. They do not suggest a story, or a picture, or an argument. When therefore we deal with II, which suggests, in addition to explanation, something of descrip- tion, we should, if our subject be "Coal", develop it some- what as follows : — II, Kinds I. Anthracite a. Hard b. Crystal-like ^. Bituminous a. Soft b. Powder-like 230 COMPOSITION PLANNING Or, if our subject be "Footbair' : — II. Kinds 1. Rugby a. The field b. The suit c. The play 2. Association ("Soccer") a. The field b. The suit c. The play Here we have subordinated to the second degree those topics, — "hard", "field", etc., — which are distinctively de- scriptive, an arrangement that we should usually follow. But it might often prove more interesting and enter- taining were we to invert our plan for Plain Exposition. Thus, again, if we are to write about "coal^"^ we may very well start our composition by telling how comfortable we are, sitting before the open fireplace. We may then enumerate some other effects of coal, and thus lead natur- ally into its various uses. From this point we can explaih how it is procured (or if our subject be "silk"''^ or "pa- per", or "jam", or "tennis racket", how it is manufac- tured), how many kinds there are and where it comes from. We have thus traced our subject "coal"" from its last place, our hearth, back to its first place, the mine ; and our outline has been reversed completely ; as : — I. Effects II. Uses III. How procured IV. Kinds V. Source This would give us an Inverted Exposition, a type that is just as easily written as Plain Exposition and one that has THE EXPOSITORY PLAN 231 the advantage of "catching the interest" at the outset. It is often used by speakers and writers when they find them- selves confronted with a difficult audience, or when they wish to treat a subject popularly. Children are often given most valuable information by centering their attention upon some most obvious thing near them and then working back from it to its various more remote characteristics. We have sometimes perhaps heard it called, "Proceeding from the known to the unknown". Another type of expository development is Narrative Exposition; that is, explaining a subject by way of telling the story of its existence. Sometimes this is thrown into the first personal form, in which case it is called Autobio- graphic Exposition. Such subjects as: — The Story of a Piece of Coal, The Story of a Piece of Silk, The Story of a Base-ball, When I Was a Piece of Coal, My Experiences as a Piece of Silk, My Career as a Base-ball, all suggest a story, but a story that is going to be explana- tory in its nature. In writing such an exposition we should be careful to make the events of the story or of our experi- ences as something, typical events and experiences. We must not take the unusual happenings connected with any- thing we are explaining, if we are bent upon giving to our readers a good general understanding of the subject. ''My Experiences — ", *'My Career — ", as a diamond, must be the experience, the career of the average diamond, other- wise it will lose its value as an informing piece of exposi- tion. 212 COMPOSITION PLANNING • The planning of a narrative exposition will be treated in the next chapter as well as here, because it may be either narrative exposition or expository narrative, — the one aim- ing primarily at explaining, the other at entertaining. Treated as narrative exposition our subject should be planned according to the forms above explained. *'When I Was a Piece of Coal", might then be arranged as fol- lows : — I. My Home I. 2. 11. My Family I. 2. 3- III. My Journeys and Changes I. 2. IV. My Uses in Life I. 2. V. My Effect upon Men and Things I. 2. 3. or I. My Effect upon the Room and Its Inmates I. 2. II. My Other Uses in Life I. 2. THE EXPOSITORY PLAN 233 III. My Various Journeyings I. 2. 3. IV. My Family I. 2. 3- V. My Old Home I. In either or both of these plans our purpose is to ex- plain the subject, but to explain it more entertainingly per- haps than we could have done by either of our former meth- ods. The same rules of subordination, for which spaces are left, apply here as in other cases. It sometimes happens that we are called upon to explain a subject, the very name of which suggests a variety of kinds or classes. Such titles, for instance, as ^Tables", ''Schools", ''Underground Railways'', ''Conveyances", etc., are so markedly generic that the very mention of any one of them suggests its specific equivalents. This was not nearly so largely true of "Coal", "Baseball", "Silk". When there- fore we are confronted with such easily divisible subjects, it is well to start our exposition with an explicit enumera- tion and differentiation of these various kinds, and then proceed to the explanation of one or of all of them, — if there are not too many divisions. Such a procedure means simply the changing of the sequence of I and II in our plan for Plain Exposition, thus :- — I. Kinds 11. Origin or source (of each or of one) HI. How procured etc. 234 COMPOSITION PLANNING But the plan for Inverted Exposition cannot be so easily applied to the composition where we are dealing with ''many in one". It is possible of course to tell how different roses affect one ; then to tell something of their uses ; then to ex- plain how they are grown and where they come from. It calls, however, for a good deal more care to prevent con- fusion if this method be followed with such a subject as ''Roses'', for instance. The autobiographic or narrative ex- pository plan can also be followed, if caution be taken not to individualize overmuch. The tendency with a very gen- eric subject always is (if we use the narrative method) to forget all the kinds but the one we are representing by the first person. WHEN I WAS A ROSE I. My Home I. 2. II. My Sisters and Brothers I. 2. 3- 4. III. How We Were Nurtured I. 2. 3. IV. Our Various Uses I. 2. V. Our Different Effects I. 2. 3- THE EXPOSITORY PLAN 235 Such exposition, in which it is necessary for us to enu- merate many different phases or kinds of our subject, is called Enumerative Exposition. The easiest, most lucid plan to follow will always be that where we name the kinds first (as suggested on page 233), but it will at the same time also be the most mechanical. To make the numera- tion, the mere tabulation, less obvious, we may make use of either the inverted type of plan or of the narrative, pro- vided that we exercise more than ordinary care to prevent confusion in doing so. Now, the plans that we have thus far studied in this chapter answer, we may think, for only certain types or kinds of expository subjects. They will do very satisfac- torily for telling exactly what a thing is: for explaining in a general way all about such subjects as those named. But suppose we want to tell how a thing is made, or how it works. This word how is the root-word in matters pertaining to exposition, and we cannot under any circum- stances ignore it if we would equip ourselves for writing some of the most obvious exposition. However, with a little adjustment, the plans already discussed, we shall see, will be quite sufficient to meet this '*How need". In order to tell how a thing is made we need only to dwell at much greater length upon point III — how manufactured — of our plan for Plain Exposition. Indeed we may ignore all the other points, if our aim be simply to explain how a thing is made, and elaborate this one alone. Perhaps our mothers or sisters are. the most expert in this form of ex- position, for their recipes for cake and other eatables are masterpieces in it. Otherwise we should not eat their deli- cacies with so great a relish. If we take one of their re- cipes and make a deductive outline of it, we shall get some- thing like the following for our major topics : — 236 COMPOSITION PLANNING I. Ingredients (or materials or parts) 11. Mixture (how made, combination or adjustment) III. Result (the product, description of) Of course II will be much more highly subordinated than the others, for here the bulk of material will have to be placed. Point I will call for enumeration, and point III for a good deal of description. These three points represent, however, the general lines along which we shall find it helpful to proceed when we are asked to explain for the first time how a thing is made. After we have gained some experience in this method, we may then take the lib- erty of inverting our plan as we did that for plain exposi- tion earlier in the chapter. We may proceed from the known to the unknown and thus write a more interesting and more entertaining exposition than we otherwise could. Thus, in treating the subject, ''How to Make a Kite'', we may outline our work as above, changing the terms slightly, perhaps ; or we may do it by starting with the complete kite that has fallen at our feet, telling what it looks like and then taking it apart, observing, as we do so, how and of what materials it is made. This, we see, would exactly reverse the process : I. The Product II. Manufacture (how made) III. Materials We might even write an exposition on "How to Make a Kite" in the narrative form. We should change the title a little in such a case, using perhaps something like this : "How I Became a Kite" THE EXPOSITORY PLAN 237 and taking for our major topics the following, I. My Parts 11. My Birth III. My "Kite-hood" Or, as in the former case, the topics might be reversed. One of the general schemes, however, as here suggested, should be closely followed in order that we may have a consistent and regular development. If we are dealing with the abstract subject ''Kites", we must of course use the plan for enumerative exposition. In explaining how a thing works, it is necessary for us to elaborate point IV (Uses) of our original expository outline and probably omit the other points. Naturally, to tell how a thing is used may not always mean to tell how it works, but to tell how it works invariably implies that we tell how it is used. The latter will necessarily go into much fuller detail than the former. In telling for instance what the uses of electricity are, we would enumerate first the actual uses, as, light, heat, locomotion, massage, etc. But to tell how it works in each individual case would mean a much wider elaboration of the topic. Therefore, in tell- ing how a thing works, as in telling how a thing is made, it is best that we should omit all the points but IV in the first case, and III in the second; otherwise, if we elaborate these points to the extent to which they should be elaborated, and treat the other points as well, we shall find our composition growing far too long, and perhaps unmanageable. Now, suppose we have some such title as: "How to Operate a Camera". 238 COMPOSITION PLANNING We may here divide our subject mainly into the natural sequence of operations; thus: — I St Operation: 2nd Operation : 3rd Operation: etc. or, we may use a more generally applicable form ; such as : I. Preparation II. Operation III. Discontinuance (or completion) "How to Work a Motor", "How to Fly a Kite", "How to Run an Automobile", and any number of other such titles coming under the general title of how a thing works, can be developed along any of these three main lines. And, here again, the method may be reversed, or converted into the narrative expository form, "How I Run", told, imagi- natively, in the first person by a motor, or "How I Fly", told in the same way by a kite, would probably have a novel and arresting interest at the very outset and through- out the composition. It has been noticed by this time that the divisions of subject-matter indicated follow pretty closely the divisions of the formal plan. The division names of the formal plan may be used, if we care to use them, but they will be found appropriate only in the case of Plain Exposition. We may, if we so desire, use our very first expository plan in the formal mold ; thus : — I. Introduction 1. Origin 2. Kinds THE EXPOSITORY PLAN 239 II. Discussion 1. Methods 2. Uses III. Conclusion I. Effects This however necessitates our using one degree more of subordination all along the line of development, and may as a consequence burden our work unduly. In the other types of exposition however, — Inverted, Narrative, and Enumera- tive, — it will be found better to keep to the informal plan, and to employ, wherever possible, words for our major topics that suggest our method, — words, for instance, that are more or less peculiar to the subject in hand, rather than the cut-and-dried terms of the formal plan. To illustrate : LIFE AS A PENNY I. The Mint I. 2. 3. II. My Restless Life I. 2. 3- 4. III. My Uses and Abuses I. 2. 3. 4. 5. IV. My Good and 111 Effects I. 2. 240 COMPOSITION PLANNING V. My Undoing I. 2. We come now to probably the most important type of the expository plan; namely, that of the character sketch. Though it will often, indeed usually, be enhanced by means of description, we must never forget that character sketch- ing is character explaining and is therefore properly classed as exposition. The subordinate description or pic- turing of form and feature will of course often help us to an understanding of the character of a person, but character itself is something that cannot be seen in the ordinary sense, though its manifestations may be. The easiest and most common form of plan for a char- acter sketch is the one in which the chief characteristics are enumerated at the outset^ each being taken up in turn for individual discussion in the order of this enumeration; thus : — JOHN BLANK Point of View — That of impartial acquaintance Purpose — To show that he is not a desirable companion I. Characteristics 1. Selfish 2. Untruthful 3. Lazy II. Selfishness 1. With his sisters 2. With his fellows 3. With his pets III. Untruthfulness 1. To his parents 2. To his teachers 3. To his fellows 4. To strangers THE EXPOSITORY PLAN 241 IV. Laziness 1. At home 2. At school V. Conclusion 1. Few friends 2. Unhappy life 3. My opinion of him The general method here adopted is at once obvious. The plan might be further elaborated by inserting subordi- nate topics of the second degree, stating concrete occasions upon which the exhibition of the various characteristics took place. Thus, II might be expanded : — II. Selfishness 1. With his sisters a. At games b. With gifts 2. With his fellows a. In play b. In school work c. In general attitude 3. With his pets a. In teasing them b. In feeding them Such an outline has the very grave danger, however, of making our composition too mechanical and artificial, but for the beginner in character sketching it cannot be too highly recommended. Sometimes the whole sketch may be deduced from a careful description of features, as: — I. John's appearance 1. Erect stature 2. High forehead 3. Clear eyes 4. Straight nose 5. Square chin 242 COMPOSITION PLANNING II. Characteristics deduced 1. Intelligence 2. Honesty 3. Straightforwardness 4. Determination III. Intelligence I. 2. etc. Or, if we desire to make the matter of description more of an incident or more subordinate, we may insert the descrip- tive details under each characteristic mentioned : — 1. Intelligence a. shown by high forehead 2. Honesty a. shown by clear eye etc. We can frequently enliven our sketch and make it vastly more interesting and less monotonously stereotyped if, at the outset, we tell a little story about our subject illustra- tive of his various characteristics. From this we can less obviously than in the other form deduce the characteris- tics and comment upon them briefly. And it will be possi- ble of course in telling the story to add brief descriptive touches. Thus : The grand old man took his place on the witness stand with that ease and composure of manner for which he had long been admired by all who were privileged to know him. His long white hair was brushed straight back, revealing his noble fore- head; and his eyes bespoke the daring, together with the gentle confidence, which one always looks for in a really great man. "Mr. Granville," snarled the opposing lawyer, ''at what hour do you dine?" "At the Christian hour, 12 o'clock, Sir !" came the answer like a flash. THE EXPOSITORY PLAN 243 I. The Story 1. Attitude 2. Appearance 3. Question 4. Answer II. Characteristics Displayed 1. Freedom 2. Frankness 3. Fearlessness III. Freedom I. 2. IV. Frankness etc. There is further the narrative character sketch (belong- ing to expository narrative), all of which deals with a story in which the character to be sketched is the central figure or hero. This type, however, properly belongs to Narra- tion and we will therefore study it in the next chapter. EXERCISE (Remember that an subjects should be limited by Point of View and Purpose.) I. Imagine yourself being asked the way to some remote part of the city or town in which you live. Write down consecutively the directions you would give. Draw a rough, marginal plan of the route. II. Complete those plans in this chapter that have been left incomplete. Add purpose, point of view, and sub- ordinate topics to each. III. Make as many different expository outlines for 244 COMPOSITION PLANNING each of the following- as you can. Then write the exposi- tion for three of them: How to Plant a Garden The Grading in our School How to Play Hockey Bricks The Base-ball Diamond Building a House How the Trolley Car Runs My Duties How to Make Stilts The Story of a Newspaper IV. Plan and write an exposition explaining a. some problem in algebra, b. some subject in biology, c. some subject in economics. V. Plan and write an exposition on each of the fol- lowing : A Diamond A Lady's Fan A Dew-drop A Piece of Chalk A Piece of Marble VI. Make an informal expository study plan of this chapter. VII. Plan and write an enumerative exposition on each of the following: Boots Vehicles Money Clouds Shoes VIII. Plan and write a character sketch of one of your classmates. Use a fictitious name and see if the members of your class recognize whom you refer to. IX. Make plans for character sketches you would THE EXPOSITORY PLAN 245 write on any of the following. Vary the types of outline used : — Rover, my Dog The Newsdealer Prince, my Pony * The Milkman Mary, my Sister The Sulky Conductor Jack, my Friend The Reckless Driver Father The Fisherman. X. Select several expository articles from the news- paper and deduce plans from them. CHAPTER XIII THE NARRATIVE PLAN We have said that narration is an account of action, of an event, or of a happening. The range or scope of narration may extend all the way from the most rapid kind of action, such as the account of an attack upon a for- tress, through ever lessening degrees to an account of a quiet stroll through the fields. Since we have to do with action in writing narration, it is always well for us to indi- cate this action at least in the major topics of our plan by means of verbs, the really narrative parts- of speech. This we can do by using the sentence form of plan or the par- ticipial phrasal form; or, if we choose to use nouns for our headings, we should see to it that the nouns used are such as are names of action ; nouns, that is, that connote action, such as plunge, dive, fight, groan, kick, etc. These nouns are not only the names of action, are not only used as verbs sometimes, but they give us a picture, however vague, of the action as soon as we read them, and we may for con- venience call them ^'narrative nouns''. Contrasted with such nouns as water, tree, illness, hand, they are seen to have a very distinct value for our purposes in narration. In slow narration, where we are concerned only with the most casual kind of action, we may write our major topics in chronological order, without paying very much attention to the fact as to whether one point is more important than another ; thus : — 246 THE NARRATIVE PLAN 247 I. I decided to take a walk I. 2. II. I strolled through the fields I. 2. 3. III. I studied the flowers and the trees I. 2. 3- 4. IV. I meditated upon the wonders of nature I. 2. 3. V. I arrived home I. 2. Or, we may prefer to use the other form : — I. Deciding to take a walk I. 2. ■ II. Strolling through the fields I. 2. 3- III. Studyhig the flowers and the trees I. 2. 3- 4. IV. Meditating upon the wonders of nature I. 2. 3- 248 COMPOSITION PLANNING V. Arriving home I. 2. Here, nothing but the most commonplace happenings occur and we have Slow Narration. Such subjects as *'My Study Period'^ ''Going to School This Morning", ''How I Spent Saturday", etc., lend themselves to slow narration. How- ever, all of them, under special circumstances, may become converted into the most rapid kind of narration. If, in taking our walk, we had met a ferocious bull which gave us a lively chase, our account of the little journey might have been converted into a hair-raising episode indeed. So it is with any other subject for slow narration, — our ac- count of it may commence most casually, something may have happened to hasten it, and the most rapid action may be the result. Suppose, now, that we want to write a more exciting story, such perhaps as the following series of nouns might indicate, — Boy, Gun, Fun, "Bust!" Dust!! or 1. Boy, 2. Gun, 3. Fun,— 4. "Bust!" 5. Dust!! Here the events have become more and uiore stimulating as our little story progressed. Points i and 2 created the situation. The other points built up a series of events which, though starting calmly enough, ended most disas- trously. There was nothing to alarm us in describing the boy. When he was given a gun we were perhaps a bit interested. When he decided that fun must follow, we probably sat erect in our chairs. When the gun went off, THE NARRATIVE PLAN 249 we should have been much excited; and possibly we wept when we found nothing but dust remaining from the little episode! No matter whether we were thus moved or not, we have here all the elements of a Rapid Narration. We must notice in conclusion that points i and 2, being intro- ductory points, are not narrative nouns, such as we said above should be used in depicting action. The nouns used in points 3, 4, and 5, however, all have a suggestion of action about them. In this story, as in all more rapid narration, there are two elements which must be fixed in mind as belonging par- ticularly to narration. These are Suspense and Climax. It is not sufficient that our rapid narration be composed of action, but the action must be arranged through steps of suspense and lead up to a climax. By suspense we mean the accentuation of interest or excitement in a story as it proceeds. Each point that we make in telling our story must have a keener zest in it than the one immediately preceding has. To be kept expectant, interested, excited perhaps, eagerly anticipating what is to happen next as a result of what has just taken place, — this is suspense. The more of such ''holds'' or "grips'' there are upon our interest, the more keenly shall we read the narration, the more keenly will our narrations be read. Moreover, these points of suspense must develop one out of the other in a scale of as- cending interest, — they must form the steps up which we are anxious to climb in order to find what is at the top of the stairs, in order to learn what the outcome or resolution of the story is. Each must be the result of the other, and each must "go the other one better" in point of interest. That point which represents the limit or highest plane of interest, the greatest conceivable point of interest, we call the Climax. The word "Bust!" in our homely illustration 250 COMPOSITION PLANNING above is the climax of that story. At this point in a story our suspense is usually exhausted. Something must hap- pen to unravel or solve the situation here. The point (there may however be more than one) that follows quickly upon the climax is called the Resolution. It is usually more expository than narrative in that it explains away the tense situation that has gone before and brings us to tHat delightful place, of which we have so often heard, where everybody decides to "^live happily (or otherwise) ever after''. Of course it will be clear that the matter of proportion enters very largely into the arrangement of material in narration, since we must apportion certain sections to sus- pense, and certain others to climax and resolution. The points of suspense should demand our attention for at least one-half or, better, three-fourths of a story, the climax and the resolution occupying the remainder. The resolution should be as brief as possible, for no one will be very deeply interested in a narration after all the best happenings have been recounted. There is very little to read of or to *^read for" after the climax has been reached, except per- haps the explanation of a few vague details, or the subse- quent disposition of characters. Some stories, such as many of Poe's, Stockton's, Gorky's, Coppee's, and a vast number of others, conclude with the climax, leaving the reader to ponder upon the outcome, though they are left in nowise unfinished from the point of view of workmanship. This is a particularly characteristic method with the French story writers ; and it can be used much more safely in short stories than in longer ones, or in novels. However, Bret Harte in America and Thackeray in England have taken popular novels at their points of resolution and have con- structed interesting and readable new stories upon the con- THE NARRATIVE PLAN 251 elusions of the older ones. We will illustrate this propor- tion by means of lines, and then present a better plan of rapid narration. The proportion of parts should, generally speaking, be as follows : — Suspense or Climax Resolution Suspense Climax Or, as it is often better represented, in order to indicate the increasing interest a story should have : — THE BOY WHO COULDN'T SWIM Point of View — That of a comrade on the river bank Purpose — To show the result of heedlessness I. Bob plunges in 1. Advised to stay out 2. Laughs at advisers II. He splashes about awkwardly 1. Doesn't know the stroke 2. Keeps mouth open 3. Struggles harder and harder 252 COMPOSITION PLANNING III. He calls tragically for help 1. Realizes his foolishness 2. Cannot save himself IV. He sinks 1. Our efforts to locate him 2. Our dive for him V. He comes to surface 1. Attempts to save himself 2. Calls feebly VI. He again comes to surface I. Mute and pale VII. He appears the third time 1. Deathly appearance 2. Grabbed by rescuer VIII. He is pulled to shore with difficulty 1. Drags rescuer down 2. Both seem lost, but 3. Both are safe at last IX. He regains consciousness I. Recognizes mother, doctor and friends Or, if we prefer the participial phrasal plan, or the plan in which we use narrative nouns for major topics, we may proceed according to one of these : — II. III. Plunging in I. 2. I. The plunge I. 2. Splashing about awkward- ly I. 2. 3- Calling for help T II. III. The splash I. 2. 3- The call for help X* 2. 2. THE NARRATIVE PLAN 253 IV. Sinking IV. The sinking I. I. 2. 2. V. Coming to surface V. The first rise I. I. 2. 2. VL Coming to surface a sec- VI. The second rise ond time i. I. VII. Appearing the third time VII. The third appearance 1. I. 2. 2. VIII. Being pulled to shore VIII. The rescue 1. I. 2. 2. 3. 3. IX. Regaining consciousness IX. The recovery I. I. In this illustrative plan, whichever form we have, our first six points are points of suspense, though I and II are so quiet as to justify us perhaps in calling them intro- duction. Each succeeding one represents Bob's position as more perilous than its predecessor. Point VII would seem to be quite the most serious in Bob's swimming ex- perience. Our excitement is at fever heat just here. In VIII it begins to be abated or resolved, and the com- plete resolution occurs in point IX. It will be noticed that our topics, both major and minor, are stated in some form by means of which action is indicated. The verbs used are in very large measure active action words; that is to say, each one connotes some special, clearly defined action. We should avoid using such verbs as, was, is, have, must, etc., in our major topics, unless they are auxiliary to other verbs that denote real action, for these verbs are really not action 254 COMPOSITION PLANNING words at all. And in the plan where we make use of nouns we have been careful to deduce narrative nouns from the original otitline. It is perhaps a little better to use the sen- tence form of plan at the outset of our writing narration, for we are thus less likely to make errors in the matter of keeping our points uniform in expression and indicative of action. Sentences are moreover clearer to the average reader than phrases or single words can ever be, and it is a good exercise for us to write complete sentences when- ever we can do so. The minor points in a narrative outline may however be expressed in whatever form we care to use, — words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, — so long of course as we express ourselves systematically. It is always best when we have a story to tell to get to work at once with it, to start with some important event in that story, and to conclude equally promptly and tersely. But sometimes, particularly in long stories, it is necessary to explain or describe certain details at the outset, in order that the reader may understand what is to follow. And again, some writers insist upon adding a moral to the ends of their stories. We have all read such narrations, and perhaps we have been bored not a little. However, when a story is to contain either or both of these, our narrative plan must necessarily assume more or less the formal style of plan. We may, if we choose, omit the middle point — Discussion, or Development — and insert our narrative points directly instead, but the Introduction and Conclusion should be kept apart from the rest of the plan; briefly thus: — I. Introduction 1. Characters 2. Scene 3. Conditions or circumstances THE NARRATIVE PLAN 255 11. Discussion or II. He plunges in I. 2. etc. XI. Conclusion 1. A sadder but a wiser boy 2. Effect upon all Sometimes the introduction may be given and not the con- clusion, and vice versa. We can perhaps conceive of the necessity for an introduction a good deal oftener than for a conclusion. The conclusion to most stories can be gracefully absorbed in the resolution and this should al- v^ays be attempted. Too often the conclusion is little more than the author's insistence upon himself, the unre- sisted desire to express his own comments upon the char- acters of the story, or to advise the reader of this, that, or the other useless thing. And just here we should fix in our minds the mean- ing of the word ^'episode'', though we probably know ex- actly what it means from the reading we have done in various authors. An episode is a lesser, a subordinate, a minor event in a story; or it may be a major happening, but one that, standing alone, is not sufficient of itself to form a complete story. It is to a narration very much what a phrase or a clause is to a complete sentence. In the above plan the call for help, the sinking, the rescue, are all episodes in or sections of the story. A complete narration is therefore made up of a series of coherently connected episodes. We hope the rapid narration has not been over-accented 256 COMPOSITION PLANNING here, for that would be something of a mistake. The average cheap detective story is a bad example in rapid narration, and is oftentimes the result of concentration upon that type of narration alone. In such stories the writer has purposely exaggerated and colored (too often with blood) the elements of suspense and climax, until there is little or nothing else to be found in his work. The rapidity of action has become unregulated and un- couth. The author does not keep it under restraint. A boy once very aptly defined a detective story as one in which the author held the reader by his hair over an in- terminable precipice and left him hanging there. This is a very good definition, indeed. But we can ignore such stories very profitably and without any regret because we have no end of good rapid narration to read. Nearly all of' those stories and novels which are recommended by our teachers, or which we find in our libraries, are excel- lent rapid narrations. Scott, Dickens, Stevenson, Thack- eray, and their scores of brother and sister writers will more than satisfy our appetites for good and exciting nar- ration if we will but let them. There are also many poems that belong to this class of narrative, such as By- ron's Mazeppa, Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome, Cole- ridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Arnold's Sohrab and Riistum, and others. We shall find in all of these every one of the qualities of good narration without any of the bad qualities of the cheap detective story. We might observe for a moment just a brief classification of a few narratives we have read from time to time, indi- cating clearly the slow and the rapid type; and placing between them a group of narratives of medium action, though these will of course be more variable than the other two forms : — THE NARRATIVE PLAN 257 Slow — Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford — Whittier's Snowbound — Medium — Franklin's Autobiography — Bunyan's Pilgrim's Prog- ress — Longfellow's Courtship of Miles Standish — Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal — -Rapid — Scott's Quentin Durward and Ivanhoe — Blackmore's Lorna Doone — Dickens' Tale of Two Cities — Haw- thorne's House of Seven Gables — Stevenson's Treasure Island — Byron's Mazeppa and Prisoner of Chilian — Coleridge's Ancient Mariner — Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. Naming thus but a few, we see that the rapid narratives predominate and that, therefore, we should have no cause to complain that we have no good reading of this kind. It is worthy of our consideration also that writers of narration frequently feel the necessity of starting their stories immediately, no matter what important introduc- tory details they may have to present. Paradoxical as it may appear, they will postpone the introduction until after the story itself is told, and thus make of it a kind of con- clusion. Yet it is not really a conclusion, because it hap- pens to be placed last. We have learned by this time, it is hoped, that the conclusion of any piece of writing is not so called because it stands last in that piece of writ- ing, but rather because it contains material which by its very nature is condiisive; and it is the same with the intro- duction : not everything that stands first in a piece of writ- ing is to be called introductory, but there are certain specific elements in writing that are introductory by their very nature, no matter in what part of that writing they occur. We have noticed the transposed introduction in The An- cient Mariner. Coleridge starts his story at once, and the reader's interest is thus caught just as the Wedding Guest's interest was caught by the Mariner, who in turn began his story abruptly and suddenly. At the end of the poem, however, the poet explains, through the Mariner, how it 258 COMPOSITION PLANNING happens that the story is told here and now, and why it is told to such a person as the Wedding Guest. In other words, the time, the scene, the conditions of the story, all of which are distinctly introductory points and which we should expect naturally to be introduced at the beginning or incidentally along the way, are all stated at the end. The poem has also a clearly marked conclusion distinct from this in the moral it teaches in the four or five last quatrains and in the disposition of characters. As in exposition, so in narration, those passages or parts of different kinds of composition that are necessary to the story should be introduced subordinately. The de- scriptions of characters or scenes, the explanations of con- ditions, all of which may be very necessary to a proper un- derstanding of our story, should be kept strictly incidental and subordinate. Remembering then that narration is, as an account of action, arranged chronologically, and, if rapid, arranged also through steps of suspense to a climax and brief reso- lution, we come now to the consideration of one or two special types of narration. Many of our reading problems in arithmetic and algebra are short narratives to which we strive to find correct resolutions. History is a story of what has actually happened in the past. Sometimes it is very slow narration, to be sure, and sometimes, when re- counting the events in an attack or a battle, it is very rapid indeed ; and of course it must always contain a fair amount of exposition and description. But after all the different kinds of composition have been taken account of in the history of any particular country or of any particular period, we shall find that narration predominates, that all the other forms have combined in such a way as to make narration the type of the whole. THE NARRATIVE PLAN 259 We referred at the end of the preceding chapter to the narrative character sketch. This form of composition is nothing more or less than the elucidation of certain char- acteristics by means of action on the part of the character. By what our subject does, our readers are able to infer pretty accurately what he is. The titles for such composi- tions are usually simply the names of the characters about whom we are writing, or their names with their leading characteristics added. Thus : — "FRECKLES'' (or " TRECKLES/ THE DARING'O Point of View — That of a fire chief Purpose — To show Freckles' superiority over other men I. Introduction I. How he got his name II. Freckles discovers fire I. 2. 3. HI. Freckles sends in alarms I. 2. 3. IV. Freckles is the first in the burning building and the last out I. 2. 3. 4. V. Freckles carries burning people down ladders to safety I. 2. 3. 26o COMPOSITION PLANNING VI. Freckles refuses rewards I. 2. 3. In this composition, we read about Freckles' doings and from them we gather exactly what kind of fellow he really is. As a rule there is a minimum of description given, either by way of introduction or as incidental to the whole story. We are concerned almost only with the actions of the character because we are writing a narrative character sketch. Biography, together with autobiography, forms one of the most important types of narration, rapid if of such men as Napoleon and Washington; slow, if of such men as Emerson and Thoreau; sometimes both rapid and slow, if of such men as Tolstoy and Lincoln. Having, as it does, a maximum of event and a minimum of character sketch and description, it belongs, as we were told in the preced- ing chapter, to narration proper. It is a life story. Of course by telling the main events and happenings in a man's life, we may throw the brightest light upon his char- acter, but it is a reflected light, reflected from the story of his life, and we are not writing then a character sketch per se. The exhibition of characteristics is a more or less incidental thing. The most common type of plan for the average "Life'' runs in chronological fashion, very much as follows : — I. Birth II. Early education III. Profession (including start in life) IV. Great works and achievements V. Retirement VI. Death THE NARRATIVE PLAN 261 Often the mere details are given at the beginning, and the last point is devoted to eulogizing the subject of the sketch : — I. Dates (birth and death) 11. Early education HI. Profession (including start in life) IV. Great works and achievements V. Retirement VI. Eulogy (summary of achievements and the world^s in- debtedness to subject) Again, we may find that a biography or autobiography- can be inverted, as it were, with most interesting and tell- ing effect. We may start with the latest and most vivid affairs in a man's life, — his last utterances, his death, his funeral and interment. Then we can proceed to his great life affairs and conclude perhaps with a contrast between our subject's great accomplishments and his humble birth and parentage. To illustrate : — I. Conclusion of a great and glorious life I. 2. 3. 4. II. Phenomenal achievements I. 2. 3. 4. 5. III. Equipment for this work the key to his life I. 2. 3. 262 COMPOSITION PLANNING IV. His success compared and contrasted with his humble beginnings I. 2. 3- 4. And still another method in biography and autobiogra- phy is to start with a man's great works and center all other details of his life about these as mere incidents or as contributing factors to them. This wide leeway may lead us to think that we may employ almost any method in writing biography. Well, we may do so, provided that here as everywhere else our work evidences plan and system, and does not present a man's career as a jumbled mass of unrelated experiences. The outline of a man's life depends so largely upon what kind of man he happened to be that it is more difficult here than anywhere else to lay down hard and fast rules about a plan for his biography. No two men are exactly alike, and it is natural therefore that accounts of men's lives must vary accordingly. It is for this reason that we have postponed this form of narration till the last, after we have studied the various styles of outlining. We now have a sufficient foundation in planning, or should have, to enable us to make a dozen different kinds of biographic outlines and have them all equally good. We must bear in mind, however, that, in all cases where we are dealing with a character whose life has been made up of a series of events each more exciting than the other, until a climax in his career is reached, we should treat our subject just as we would any other narrative subject. Our purpose, in other words, should be to make a good story of the life of a man, provided the elements in that life warrant THE NARRATIVE PLAN 263 our doing so without any exaggeration. It will be prac- tically the same as a narrative character sketch, with the exception that it will be much wider in scope and much more detailed in information. EXERCISE (Remember that your plans should have Purpose and Point of View, and that in writing upon most of the sub- jects suggested below you should use your imagination freely if you would make your narration interesting.) I. Plan and write slow narrations on the following topics : — My Day in School Watching a Robin A Walk with Rover Saturday Morning's Sport How We Went to the Fair II. Show by means of outline how all of the above may be converted into rapid narrations. III. Deduce a good narrative plan from some story (prose or poetry) you have read. Indicate suspense, cli- max, and resolution. IV. Draw up rapid narrative plans^sentence, clausal, or topical — on the following : — A Brave Rescue • . At the Game Frank and the Indians Tom's Great Hit A Spirited Contest Robinson's Downfall Catching a Fish Jim's Quickness A Sensational Home-run Rocking the Boat V. Make a plan of some battle you have studied about in history. Include exposition and description in 264 COMPOSITION PLANNING the plan, and accompany it with marginal diagrams of the fields and battle lines. VI. Plan and write a biography of a. Tabby the Cat b. Frank the Horse c. Rover the Dog VIL Make a plan of your own life of the past two or three years. VIII. Make a formal narrative outline, based upon and elaborating the following story : — In consequence of hunger, John steals fruit from a fruit- stand. He is taken before the magistrate by a policeman. His father and mother appear. A rich man arrives in his motor at the last moment. The boy is pardoned. He starts life anew. IX. Plan the story of some hero or heroine you have read about in literature. Imagine yourself figuring in the story and write it therefore in the first person. X. Write a narrative character sketch of each of the following, imagining each to have done some deed that brings out particular qualities. You may add the leading characteristic of each to the title if you prefer: *'Reddy'' — 'Tatty"— "Gritty"— "Bunny"— "King". CHAPTER XIV THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN Description is a word picture of any person, place or thing. The first and easiest arrangement of material for description is of course the natural one, or the one that corresponds most nearly to our method of viewing a thing with the eye. If we look at a field, we see first the broad, general expanse and outlines of the field. We have no close or detailed scrutiny of anything in the field, but just a most general idea of it. As we continue gazing at it, however, our eyes become focused or adjusted, so that we see more and more minutely into the field and witness all that it contains. The finest details are brought out clearly to our view proportionately to the length of time we spend in gazing at it. In other words, our viewing of objects is directed from the general to the particular; our eyes grow more and more capable the longer we concentrate them upon an object; again, our method of seeing things is, to use a homely figure, somewhat funnel-shaped, as fol- lows : — General to Particular It begins broadly and focuses to a point. What more nat- ural therefore than to arrange our word-picture, — which 265 266 COMPOSITION PLANNING must be a reproduction of our visual picture — in the same order in which we actually see it? We shall have then in our descriptive composition plan two main divisions, — one setting forth a general view and one setting forth a particular or detailed view. The first of these divisions is sometimes called The Glance, be- cause it represents about as much, with about as much accuracy, as we see when we glance at an object momen- tarily and then look away. The second division is some- times called The Detail (or Details), because here we re- cord what we see on closer and continued study. Now, bearing in mind these two grand divisions of our method of seeing, and therefore of our method of writing about what we see, we must also understand what proportion exists between the two parts. Immediately we have glanced at a thing and have fixed its general outlines in our minds, we begin to study it more closely, if we con- tinue to look at it at all. We do not tarry long with the general view because our eyes will not allow us to do so. By the very nature of their organization they in- sist upon going into the details of the picture or turning to something else. They must scrutinize more and more minutely every instant they gaze at the thing which at first they saw only casually. Our glance or general view will therefore be much briefer than our particular or detailed view, because, as we understand from the above, it is the natural method for it to follow. More- over, our descriptive plan should be topical or phrasal; and just as the verb is par excellence the narrative part of speech, so the adjective is the descriptive part of speech. With this much information in mind, then, let us ex- pand our picture of the field into a plan: — THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 267 I. General view 1. Size — large 2. Shape— square 3. Color — yellow Now as we concentrate upon it and study it more and more carefully, the contents of the field will dawn upon our vision in some regular order, from the larger to the smaller, from the more striking to the less striking. The generalized view will not only become particularized, but all around and about it new objects will loom into view, and the record of what we now see may be set down in some such fashion as this : — II. Particular view 1. Wheat a. very ripe b. large quantity c. partly standing d. partly shocked 2. Men a. at reaping ^ b. at binding 3. Boys a. carrying sheaves 4. Two dogs This represents then the order in which we would see the field and its contents. We must understand now another element in descrip- tion : namely, The Impression we get from the picture, the person, the scene, or the object that we are portraying. Rarely do we see anything that we are not in some way impressed by it. So in writing a word-picture we will state at the conclusion briefly just what impression is made upon us, and we will therefore be stating indirectly just 268 COMPOSITION PLANNING what impression we hope we have made upon the reader in our composition. There will be danger doubtless of our confusing the impression with the purpose or the glance. The three are, however, distinctly different one from an- other, and we must bear the difference in mind carefully, so that we shall not repeat in our impression what we have stated previously in the purpose or glance. The pur- pose tells exactly what our object is in writing the com- position, what we are going to show or prove; the glance, let us repeat, states just what we see, looking for the first time at the object we are describing; the impression states what feeling the whole gives to us after our having shown something about it, after our having seen it. The impression is further different from the glance in that it is a glance within ourselves, as it were, after we have viewed a thing fully. If we close our eyes for a moment and study the image that arises in connection with the scene we have just witnessed, we shall not be far from the true impression we have received. If we have been going through a home, its comfort may have impressed us; if through an office building, its convenience; if through a battleship, its equipment, its strength, or its solidity. But the general view or glance of all of these is a distinctly different thing. It cannot be nearly so complete or conclusive with an object in describing which we have been obliged to move from place to place. We cannot of course see all of the thing at once, but our glance in such a case must give as much as can be seen, or must deduce, from seeing a part, what the whole is like. Now, we are prepared to complete our plan, including in it all the elements of simple description: THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 269 THE FIELD I. Point of View : From one side of the field 11. Purpose : To show the spirit of the harvest III. Glance: 1. Size — large 2. Shape — square 3. Color — yellow IV. Details : 1. Wheat a. very ripe b. large quantity c. partly standing d. partly shocked 2. Men a. at reaping b. at binding 3. Boys a. carrying sheaves 4. Two dogs a. looking for mice V. Impression: Industry, thrift, and happiness This represents the most common type of descriptive w^riting, taking, as it does, the word-picture directly from the eye-picture of the scene viev^ed, and consisting of these five grand divisions in the proportion indicated by the spacing: — I. Point of View II. Purpose III. Glance IV. Detail V. Impression 270 COMPOSITION PLANNING In viewing a certain scene or person or object it is quite natural that our attention may be arrested by some- thing peculiar, by something that stands out as distinct and unique. In such a case we should be justified in giving our first attention to that striking feature because our eye is naturally caught by it first. If, in the middle of our field, there had been a huge steam-thresher, we should of course have seen it at once, and we should have gath- ered up with our eyesight all the remaining details of the field as a sort of fringe to this central figure. The con- tents of our plan, then, recording our view of the field, would be somewhat different. The glance and the details would have a changed content and proportion. In fact, we might dispense with these names altogether perhaps, and proceed by means of an informal outline follow- ing the descriptive sequence of development. We will re- vise our plan of the field to meet the new conditions ; first, using the descriptive plan ; second, using the informal plan. The title, the point of view, the purpose and the impres- sion, all remaining the same as in our previous plan, will not be repeated: (I) III. Glance 1. Huge engine and machine 2. Much smoke and noise 3. Large piles of straw and grain IV. Details I. Around the engine a. Feeding the grain b. Taking away the straw c. The number of laborers d. The noise and bustle THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 271 2. Other parts of field a. Wheat standing b. Wheat shocked c. Reapers and binders d. The carriers e. The watchful dogs V. Impression (2) I. The huge engine a. b. c. d. II. The scene about it a. b. c. III. The scene elsewhere I. a. b. 2. a. b. c. IV. The spirit of the field a. b. c. Both forms of plan are good. Both proceed from the general to the particular. Both consistently and regu- larly develop the picture. But the striking figure in the picture has more or less reversed our order of procedure. In our first description of the field we saw at first every- 272. COMPOSITION PLANNING thing in a general way and then focused on each particu- lar object more minutely. In our second description we focused on a particular thing at once, because it im- pressed us at once, and then we proceeded to the descrip- tion of the other things in the field. We took the large and noticeable thing as our center first and then radiated from this in every direction about the field. It is necessary that we understand a little better than was explained in Chapter VII just what is meant by Point of View in its application to description. It was hinted there that point of view in description means the place from which we view an object. This is the point of view of position and the kind of point of view that we shall most commonly have to use in our descriptions. But it often happens that, when we look at a thing, we move closer to it as we study it, or perhaps we are obliged to walk around it to get a complete view of it. In such cases we have what is known as moving point of view. In planning, as well as in writing a descriptive composition in which we make use of a moving point of view, we should always inform the reader, by some word or phrase, of the time and place of change, and, in some instances also, why the position is changed. Suppose now that in our study of this field we became so interested that we changed our position frequently. From our first point of view, on one side of the field, we took in a general view of it. But after a brief glance about, we walked over to the engine perhaps and went completely around it. Then perhaps we walked to the standing wheat to examine that. From here we may have proceeded to the shocks, to the workers and, last, to the dogs. The* effect of thus changing our point of view in the field would be simply to give us a closer, more de- THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 273 tailed view of each separate part or object. Perhaps there is not so much to be gained by changing one's point of view in the examination of something all of which can be seen at once. But in describing the exterior or the interior of a home, all of which cannot of course be seen at once, this moving about from place to place is most, necessary. From no single point shall we be able to see all of a house, whether we are to describe the inside or the outside of it. If describing the interior we must pass hirom room to room; if the exterior, we must walk all around it. Let us now examine an outline based upon such a moving point of view : AN OLD ENGLISH MANSION I. Point of View: From the entrance, moving through the house back to the entrance II. Purpose : to show the irregularity of the interior of an old English mansion III. Glance : 1. Low and expansive 2. Plain and substantial 3. Tastefully furnished IV. Details : A. Downstairs 1. Entrance hall and stairs a. Broad b. Well-lighted c. Easy lounge 2. Drawing-room, up two steps to right of en- trance a. Many windows b. Well-furnished p. Piano 274 COMPOSITION PLANNING 3. Parlor, down one step to left of entrance a. Six windows, beautifully curtained b. Extremely large c. Fine paintings d. Elegantly furnished 4. Dining-room, rear of hall, down one step from parlor and drawing-room a. Mahogany table b. Trophies of hunt c. Magnificent plate 5. Kitchen, rear of dining hall, up one step a. Rows of well-scoured pots and pans ' b. Immense stove c. Large table d. Pantry to right B. Upstairs 1. Red room, head of stairs, over dining-room 2. Blue room, up two steps from hall, over draw- ing-room 3. Green room, down one step from hall, over parlor 4. Small hall a. From great hall b. To bath-room, over kitchen V. Impression : It gives one the impression of being the home of refined, well-to-do, old-fashioned people. We may also have a personal point of viev^ in descrip- tion, though usually it is not expressed. But it must be clear to us that a farmer viev^ing a field would see it in a somewhat different light from an artist, though both of them view it from the same place. The same difference will be found to exist in the treatment of almost any sub- ject from two or more personal standpoints. We need express this, however, only when we feel that we would like to present our picture through some particular view THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 275 in order better to bring out its qualities. Mostly, in writ- ing description, we shall do well to confine ourselves to the layman's point of view, as most of us will doubtless be viewing objects in a general way for general purposes. If, in addition to this view, however, we can add a special point of view, our work will be the more definite for our doing so. It occurs time and time again that we are obliged to group our description of a person about some central point in his appearance that is striking, just as we did with the engine in the field. Whatever there may be about him that is striking we take first, and gather around it those features that are much the same as in other people. Thus we remember Higg the son of Snell in Scott's Ivanhoe for his lameness; we remember Ichabod Crane in Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow for his thin- ness and lankness; we remember certain peculiarities about our friends, about buildings, and about scenes first, be- cause these impressed or '^struck" us first, and we use them about which to construct the remaining details by means, of which we build up a whole and complete picture. ''He is a hunch-back", 'That man is a cripple'', *'He has a treacherous eye", '1 don't like his large, square jaw", and other similar expressions that we hear made about people indicate centers of description for us easily to designate whom we refer to. We may illustrate such a personal description as follows : 276 COMPOSITION PLANNING TOM THUMB I. Point of View : 1. Position a. Directly in front of him 2. Personal a. Curious spectator at theater II. Purpose : To show the extraordinary smallness of the man III. Glance : 1. Size a. Extremely short b. Features proportionately small c. Like a child in appearance 2. Color 3. Clothing IV. Details : I. Physique a. Height in feet and inches b. Weight, approximately c. Strength, approximately d. Smallness probably a deformity 2. Features all small a. Head b. Face c. Nose d. Ears e. Mouth f. Neck 3- Arms and legs 4. Body a. Small b. Thin V. Impression : Reminded me of one of the pigmies in Guilt- ver's Travels On the other hand, when there is no abnormal or strik- ingly characteristic thing about people, we shall find that THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 277 they are described by the best authors in a regular, some- times monotonous, way. They will commence, as we have done in our plans, with a general view and then take up in detail the features, either from head to foot, or in some other quite systematic manner ; thus : — EVANS I. Point of View: — A few feet in front of subject II. Purpose : — To show what an excellent type of man he is physically III. Glance : — 1. Size 2. Color 3. Clothing IV. Details :— 1. Head 2. Neck 3. Shoulders 4. Arms 5. Body 6. Legs 7. Feet V. Impression : — I. A vigorous, healthy, well-developed man Scott's description of Quentin Durward, Cooper's de- scription of David Gamut in The Last of the Mohicans, are excellent examples of such a method of describing per- sons. The plan above can of course be made much more detailed by the insertion of descriptive adjectives after each topic. We may compare the two methods of description dis- cussed so far with the picture an artist would paint of some group of people. If he wished to bring out some striking 278 COMPOSITION PLANNING situation, such as a tableau in a drama or an opera, he would place the character or characters participating in it in the foreground of his picture, arranging all the others in the background. If on the other hand he were paint- ing the characters as grouped for a photograph, not rep- resenting their several parts or any particular situation, he would strive to give to one as much light and prominence as to another. Thus far we have confined our study almost entirely to the form of outline to be used in building up a descrip- tion, and this is our main business. But we must also consider briefly the different kinds of description in order that we may understand how our descriptive plans should vary according as we are writing one kind or another. The simplest type of description is that we have just dealt with; namely, the description that pictures anything in the natural way by means of words among which ad- jectives predominate. We may call this, for purposes of convenience, simple description. In it, as we have seen, we always report directly what we have witnessed through the agency of our senses and we make that report in the simplest, most straightforward language we know. We must select adjectives that have accurate application; verbs that have descriptive value, such as, rustle, scream, strug- gle, gurgle, etc. ; nouns that are not only the names of things, but that describe those things in part also at the same time, such as effort, blood, home, castle, rapids, etc. ; and adverbs that describe as well as define action, such as roughly, stealthily, greedily, ferociously, etc. Nowhere is the careful selection of words so important for us as in writing description. Here, as nowhere else, we must refuse to rest until we have found the inevitable word, the word that exactly dovetails with an accurate picture of THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 279 the scene we are trying to depict. Here, too, we must give our senses full play. We may be inclined at first to think that seeing is our whole concern in equipping our- selves to picture things. It is very important indeed, but it is by no means to be used to the exclusion of hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting. We must hear a sound before we can describe it; we must feel the brier before we can tell just exactly what its prick is like; we must smell the new-mown hay if we would describe its odor to an- other; and we must taste our food before we can tell others whether it is bitter or sweet. Of course seeing may help in all of these processes. More, all of our senses may be called into play in the description of a single situa- tion ; or any two or three of them may be required in com- bination, the others not being necessary for a complete un- derstanding of it; and often our sight alone is all that is necessary to the full and effective description of a scene or object. We must therefore learn to give our senses full and free rein and then to search untiringly until we find words that adequately express what they experience. The youngster who said, "Ice-cream soda tastes like a sneeze feels," did both of these things pretty accurately, if somewhat crudely. In simple description, then, we transfer directly to paper, by means of especially chosen words, the picture of a scene or object or person exactly as we sense it. Our descriptions above of the field and of the person are simple descriptions. Of course the care- ful choosing of our words and the full play and interpre- tation of sense impression are necessary in all description, but, because simple description is the most common and the type which most of us will be called upon to write most often, it is particularly important that we bear them in mind in this connection. 28o COMPOSITION PLANNING A second kind of description is description by means of comparison. Here, in order to make another person see the picture we are portraying as we have seen it, we com- pare the object to be described to something that the other person has seen and thus make it easier for him to grasp the picture. We are constantly making use of such com- parisons in our conversation and writing. Some one asks us whom John looks like. We reply by saying that he resembles Bill. We thus compare John, whom our inquirer has never seen, to Bill, whom he has seen, and therefore give him the best possible idea of John's appear- ance. "He swims like a fish", ''she sings like a bird", ''they dance like fairies", and the hundred other compari- sons we make daily use of, are descriptions by means of comparison. They are of course similes, the simile being the simplest figure of comparison. We cannot do better than identify this figure closely with comparative descrip- tion, for we can always use it to advantage when we are concerned with giving another a picture of something he has never seen. But we must employ not only the short simile, such as those just used; we must also use the sustained or con- tinued or lengthened simile if we would be absolutely clear. It may not be enough to say that a house is shaped like the letter L. An extended comparison of the house with the letter L will bring out clearly that the entrance is, perhaps, in the angle; that the kitchen is located at the top of the letter; that the dining-room is between the kitchen and the entrance hall; that the large living-room is situated to the right of the entrance on the lower hook of the letter. Such comparisons as this are common in literature. With the slightest cultivation of inventiveness we can find a suitable sustained comparison for almost any- THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 281 thing we are called upon to describe. We have many numbers and many letters at our command, and we have no end of other material in our minds from which we can, with a little thought, draw apt comparison and illus- tration. We should not deny our work this little thought, for just in so far as it is made clear by shrewd and clever illustration will it be enriched. We see, however, that such description is more or less involved; that it is not simple and direct, but that it is somewhat complex and roundabout. We may not picture the thing itself at all, but rather something that it is like, in order that it may be pictured with very approximate closeness. We may in summary state the method in a somewhat equational form as follows : — John has seen X but has never seen Y. I have seen X and Y both. Therefore, I give John a good idea of Y by comparing Y with X. The third type of description is description by effects; the description of a person, place, or thing, that is, by tell- ing how one is affected by that person, place, or thing. This IS still further removed from simple description than comparative description is. It has a minimum of descrip- tion, if any, about the thing to be described, whereas the simple description has a maximum, and the comparative description contains an indirect picturing of it. But in de- scription by effects we may say practically nothing about the thing we are describing, giving all of our attention rather to the effect of the object upon others. We may write many pages about how we were affected by a certain noise, or sight, or odor, without giving anything but the mere name of the noise, the sight, or the odor. The great 282 COMPOSITION PLANNING beauty of Helen of Troy was described, not by telling the colors of her eyes and hair, — these would have been petty details indeed in dealing* with such beauty, — ^but rather by telling what effect her beauty had upon others. We our- selves doubtless have often, in our account of some scene we have witnessed, dwelt at greater length upon the effects of the scene upon us than upon the actual details of the scene itself. In such description we tell how we feel under given conditions or surroundings, and those to whom we are talking are thus enabled to get an accurate idea of those conditions. But in description by means of effects we are not con- fined to telling how we ourselves are affected by any par- ticular thing. We may strengthen the description by deal- ing with the effect of our subject upon many others besides ourselves, — upon other people, upon animals, perhaps, or upon things. Thus a certain person sitting in a room may make the room seem cold, may cause the canary to stop singing, may cast a reserve over everybody and everything. Perhaps we remember how, when Godfrey and Dunstan Cass have their first quarrel in George Eliot's Silas Mar- ner, before any word is spoken between them, the pet dog of their home gets up from his comfortable place, looks at both of them pityingly, and then leaves the room. Now, this same thing is allowable and often desirable in comparative description as well. We are always at liberty to multiply the number of our comparisons of any given subject, and need not confine ourselves to any particular one. To describe a house clearly, by means of comparison, we may have to take the subject up in sections, comparing each section to a letter or a figure, or something else, thus making our description composite. Again, both of these types of description may be presented in a negative way. THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 283 We may accent the effect a certain thing has upon us by- telling, first, in what ways we were not affected by it. In seeing the ocean for the first time, for instance, it may be that we were impressed not so much by the size of it, nor by its constant roar, nor yet by its salty odor and its soft damp breezes upon our cheeks. It may not have im- pressed us by any one of these perhaps. It may have been the sum total of all of them that struck us, or it may have been that the feeling of insuperable and uncontrollable power which came over us at the first sight of the ocean was the one and only effect that it had upon us. In com- parison also we may dwell at length upon telling what a thing is not like. If, for instance, we are describing some- thing that is perfectly unique, in and of itself, we can best bring out that uniqueness by first enumerating the many things that it is not like. To illustrate, — in describ- ing a pair of skis we may quite properly commence by saying that they are not like skates ; that they are different from sleds; that they are not quite like sled runners; that they are dissimilar to snow-shoes ; that, in short, they have a character all their own. And in all such cases as this, as we studied in exposition, our description can be helped by marginal drawings. Furthermore, it may be helpful and necessary some- times, especially in long descriptions, to combine all of the different types of description in order to bring out lucidly the complete picture or series of pictures which is to be portrayed. We can easily find examples of such combina- tion description in the short poems and stories we have read in school. And of course the three methods are always to be found in combination in long novels, and in history. When we have occasion so to combine them, we should as a rule commence our writing wath a simple description of 284 COMPOSITION PLANNING the object, then proceed to the comparative form, and con- clude with description by effects. This is the best pro- cedure because of the fact that the more complex type should not be placed before the reader at the outset of his reading, and also because it is the most natural method of development. Now the planning of description by comparison and de- scription by effects is the same in general as that of simple- description. We follow either the natural order, or we take the most striking thing at the beginning and group other details about it. If it is a comparison we wish to draw, we can make the general comparison at once, and then follow it out minutely, as we did with the letter L a moment ago; if we wish to deal with the effects, we may give the general effect or the most striking one at first and then proceed as we did in the simple description of the wheat field. Moreover, we may describe certain subjects by any or by all of the three types of description, accord- ing as we wish to impress our reader. If our purpose be simply to give a clear and truthful picture of the subject, we must proceed by simple description. If we wish to make a subject clear to one who knows absolutely nothing about it, we shall do well to introduce some comparison into our work. If we want to create strong vivid feeling in our reader, such as respect, fear, horror, or the like, we may proceed by means of effects with good reason. In conclusion let us examine the three following out- lines, all dealing with the same subject, but each represent- ing a different type of description from the other. We see that, using the same subject, we may have more than one style of description developed from it. Usually the pur- pose will tell us what kind of description we are going to have, but the content should indicate it as well. THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 285 THE TRAMP I. Point of View : From close range II. Purpose : To portray faithfully his forlorn appearance III. Glance : 1. Height 2. Carriage 3. Clothing IV. Details : A. Physical features 1. Head a. long, disheveled hair b. irregular features c. dirty face 2. Body a. stooped shoulders b. dangling arms c. sunken chest and stomach d. ungainly proportions 3. Limbs a. long and thin b. huge, knotted knees c. large, uncouth feet B. Clothing 1. Hat with many holes 2. Red kerchief on neck 3. Fringed coat, with only one arm 4. Trousers a. held by string b. fringed at bottom 5. Boots a. badly torn b. not mates c. much too large V. Impression : The most forlorn and deserted looking crea- ture I had ever seen 286 COMPOSITION PLANNING THE TRAMP I. Point of View: From my window II. Purpose : To show his similarity to a scare-crow III. Glance : 1. Inanimate looking 2. Frightful looking IV. Details : 1. Standing motionless 2. Disjointed and awkward 3. Hands extended for alms 4. Old, misfit clothing 5. Deserted and uncouth 6. Forbidding of approach V. Impression: More dead than alive; more like a poorly clothed stick than a man THE TRAMP I. Point of View : From street II. Purpose : To show how alarming he was III. Glance: 1. My heart thumping 2. My hair standing I 3. My limbs quaking IV. Details : 1. Pertaining to myself a. My entire being shocked b. My inability to run or speak c. My fear d. My pity 2. Pertaining to Fido a. His slinking away b. His sidelong glance c. His low growl V. Impression : As if some one risen from the grave were standing before me THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 287 EXERCISE (Remember that all subjects should be limited by Point of View and Purpose.) I. Plan and write simple descriptions on the fol- lowing topics : — A Mountain I Have Seen The News-stand at the Corner Our Yard The Old Spring-House The Seashore The Railroad Station The Gymnasium Tom Smith, Conductor Our Classroom The Avenue XL Plan and write a description on each of the fol- lowing topics, in each case grouping the description around some peculiar or distinctive feature : — The Beggar The Gnarled Oak My Dog Prince The Shower A Peculiar House A Formidable Policeman Evans, the Night Watchman A Surly Boss The Mascot Casey, Expert Batsman III. Plan and write a comparative description on each of the following, as if for one totally unacquainted with the subject: — - An Automobile The Monument A Trolley Car My Room A Fire Engine IV. Plan and write a description of effects on each of the following : — The Waterfall The Prison The Park in Winter The Cripple Jack, After His Fight 288 COMPOSITION PLANNING V. Plan and write a description of one of your classmates, using a fictitious name for him, and aiming at having it so true that the others, on hearing it read, can tell who is hieant. VI. Plan and write a description of the scene briefly sketched below. First, state the simple details; then, com- pare the scene with something; and then, tell what effect it had upon you or upon others. There has been a great railroad accident. A few have been killed, many injured, and many badly shocked. Cars are wrecked; bodies are lying prone; people are looking for loved ones; fore- men and attendants are busying themselves with attempts to clear up the awful scene. VII. Plan and write a description of some picture that is in your room, or of one that you have seen else- where. Try to follow the same plan that you think the artist followed in painting it. VIII. Plan and write a simple description of each of the following: — The Postman The Teacher The Milkman The Shoemaker The Grocer IX. Imagine each of the persons named in Exercise VIII to have some peculiarity. Plan a description center- ing around this peculiarity in each case. X. Plan and write a negative description of some rare and wonderful thing or sight it has been your privilege to see. Make use of comparison or of effects, or of both. XL Select good descriptive passages from your reading and outline them. Explain which type (or types) of description they illustrate. THE DESCRIPTIVE PLAN 289 XII. Draw up three plans for each of the following subjects, one for each kind of description. Then select one of the titles and make a single descriptive plan for it in which you employ all three types to some degree. The Huckster The Parade The Pedlar The Crowd at the Open-air Con- The Ocean Liner cert The Crowded Car CHAPTER XV THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN We have often doubtless disagreed with our friends in our conversation with them. They have contended that certain things are true; we have contended perhaps that these things are not true but that their opposite is true. Thus disagreeing, we have proceeded in our conversation until one of us was persuaded to the view of the other, or both of us gave up all hope of agreement. Such a con- versation is called a debate or an argument. We are said to be debating or arguing with our friends when we disagree with them and try to win them over to our view. When we argue thus about such casual topics as come up in daily conversation, our argument is an informal one. In this chapter, however, we have to reckon more particu- larly with formal argument, — argument, that is, that is centered around a definitely set question with definitely chosen sides and debaters assigned. Informal or conver- sational debate is nevertheless a most valuable training for us and we should never fail to turn a wholesome disagree- ment with our friends into an opportunity for improving ourselves in this important form of discourse. The power to win others over to our way of thinking on the spur of the moment, without any definite preparation, is admittedly the most enviable possession a man can have. It can be cultivated nowhere to better advantage than in polite and dignified oral controversies with our fellows. Keen atten- 29Q THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN 291 tion and interpretation, wide reading, and a fair attitude toward others are, to be sure, necessary attributes in any kind of a debate, not only for the sake of courtesy and consideration toward our opponents, but for our own suc- cess and benefit in the argument as well. The title of a formal argument is called the Proposi- tion or the Question. It is usually preceded by the word or words, "Resolved", *'Be it resolved", or ''Let it be re- solved". A complete title then would read as follows : — Resolved: That football should be discontinued in our schools. We observe by the way, of course, that ''Resolved" is fol- lowed by a colon (or it may be a comma) and that the first word in the proposition, "That", is capitalized. Such questions as the one just used for illustration lend themselves to two lines of consideration ; first, there will be those who will maintain that football should be discon- tinued and who thus agree with the question ; second, there will be those who will argue that it should not be discon- tinued, and who thus disagree with the question. The first will argue what is known as the Affirmative side ; the second will argue what is known as the Negative. The affirmative, in other words, agrees with or affirms the proposition. The negative disagrees with or negatives the proposition as stated; inserts the word "not" into it, and proceeds to argue against the question as originally framed. We must exercise great care in keeping this distinction clear. It may happen, for instance, that the question will be negatively stated in its original form ; thus : — Resolved: That football should not be continued in our schools. 292 COMPOSITION PLANNING This form of question is always somewhat more confusing than one in which the word "not'' is not used, but the rule of affirmative and negative above stated is applicable in the same way here. Those who argue that football should not be continued are on the affirmative side of the question. Those who argue that it should be continued are on the negative. The sides remain the same therefore as in debating the former proposition, but the different form of statement used makes the situation a little more complicated, a little more difficult to understand. The negative here, however, as elsewhere, is determined by the insertion of ''not''. In the present proposition the inser- tion of this word will give us a double negative, which, we know very well, is equivalent to a positive form of ex- pression. Resolved: That football should NOT not-be-continued in our schools. We can always be sure, therefore, to "find" the negative statement by the use of "not", however awkwardly it may make the question read. And for this purpose, as for all others in this connection, a clear and exact understanding of the phraseology of the proposition must always be had before we can properly proceed with the debate. Thus far then we see that argument is somewhat dis- tinct from the other forms of composition we have studied, in that it uses a different terminology for its parts. We have seen that the title is called the question or the propo- sition ; that this title is stated in a certain formal way ; and that it is divisible always into two sides or parts, the affirm- ative and the negative. There is another new and very important name to be learned in connection with argument ; namely, Brief, the name given to the plan or outline of an THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN 293 argument. It has its origin in a classical Latin word, breve, which means a short catalogue or summary. In law, where it is most commonly used in connection with plan- ning cases, it means the summary of a part or of the whole of a case. "To take a brief" means that a lawyer ac- cepts the conduct of a case; ''to hold a brief' means that he is retained as counsel. The word is, moreover, used as an infinitive and as a participle, — ''to brief a case", or "briefing an argument". In drawing up the brief for an argument we are espe- cially confined to the formal type of plan. It is in the brief that the formal divisions, — introduction, discussion, conclusion, — come into their fullest and best inheritance. In arguing with and before people it is most important clearly to define the terms of the question upon which the debate is based; to present our arguments in a systematic and forceful way; and to leave upon the audience a last- ing, and, if possible, convincing, final word. When a law- yer has a case to argue, he draws up an elaborate brief in which he makes absolutely certain that he has covered these three points. His audience (the jurymen) must first understand the question upon which they have to decide; otherwise, no matter how excellent the arguments pre- sented or how appealing and convincing his final words, they can come to no fair decision. The brief for an argu- ment should therefore contain the three formal divisions: the introduction to define the words in the question that need defining, to state clearly how and why the question arises, what our position is and how we are going to pro- ceed; the discussion to set forth a well-organized, well- arranged order of argument, material for which has been summoned by previous study and with which we com- pletely surround the question ; the conclusion or "summing 294 COMPOSITION PLANNING up'' to review the strongest arguments presented and to appeal emphatically for favorable decision on the ground of their irrefutability. In the proportion of these parts it is clear that, as usual, the bulk of our brief will be taken up with the dis- cussion, and it is well that we should study carefully how to order an array of arguments after we have all the ma- terial for them in our hands. At the outset of our discus- sion we should always place an argument or two of a strik- ing nature with which to catch and ''clinch" the attention of the audience and to startle our opponents. Such an argument is sometimes called a *'snap" argument, or an argument of impression. It should always be brief, but decidedly to the point. We have seen in our study of Em- phasis that the beginning and the end of a piece of writing are the emphatic portions of it. This holds never more strictly than in the discussion of an argumentative brief. We open therefore with a short, terse, striking argument. In the middle of our discussion we present all those argu- ments of conditions and circumstances touching upon the question which cannot be omitted from any complete con- sideration of it, yet which are not all of first importance. These should be arranged from the least to the most valu- able. After we have fully surrounded our subject, after we have touched upon every phase or manifestation of it, we proceed to conclude our discussion with the strongest arguments in our possession. These important final argu- ments are those from authority and experience. They are considered the two most irrefutable types of argument a debater can present. He may here substantiate his position and all he has said in support of it by quoting from some recognized authority who is in accord with his view. The quotation of statistics in proof is also a weighty argument THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN 295 from authority, if we are dealing with a question to which statistics can be appHed. We may also deduce an argument of equal strength from our own experience or from the ex- perience of those who have successfully put into operation the thing for which we are contending in the debate. If we ourselves have seen or experienced anything that directly corroborates our view of the proposition, we may cite it of course as irrefutable. Generally considered then, the skeleton or brief for an argument should be developed along the following lines : — Resolved: That .... (state the question) I. Introduction 1. Source of question 2. Importance of question 3. Definition of terms 4. Selection and rejection of material according to side or position 5. If more than one debater, explanation of divi- sion of material or order of argument II. Discussion 1. Arguments of impression a. First "snap" argument b. Second "snap" argument 2. Arguments of condition and circumstance a. First argument b. Second argument c. Third argument d. Fourth argument etc. 3. Arguments of emphasis a. Argument from authority b. Argument from experience III. Conclusion 1. Summary of argument 2. Conviction and appeal 296 COMPOSITION PLANNING There are two kinds of debate, — single debate and team debate. By single debate we mean a formal debate be- tween not more than two people, representing respectively negative and affirmative sides of the question. Each de- bater, consequently, in a single debate, is obliged to handle all the arguments for his side of the question. The plan for both negative and affirmative should follow that pre- sented above. The whole argument of either side being in one person's hands, he is at liberty to arrange his points in the order in which he thinks he can make them most effective. In the actual presentation of the argumentative speech before an audience the affirmative speaker always precedes the negative. It is possible therefore that the second, or negative, speaker may, after he has heard the arguments of his opponent, have to rearrange his plan somewhat and thus violate the order estabHshed above, in order to meet new situations with which the affirmative speaker has confronted or surprised him. Of course a well- prepared debater will have foreseen all possible surprises in his preparation, and will not therefore be embarrassed by being obliged to reform his line of battle after the firing has begun. And it must not be assumed that, because the first, or affirmative, speaker has defined the question and given points as to its source and importance, the negative speaker may omit the introduction from his argument. He needs to define the terms of the question as he, the negative speaker, sees them; he needs to discuss the source and im- portance of the proposition from the negative point of view. The two introductions may be similar in many or most re- spects ; on the other hand, they may be significantly different and the real argument may need to begin at the very first point in the introduction. The decision of a great public debate once hinged almost entirely upon the definition of THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN ^97 the word ''adjacent" in its relation to the idea intended by the question. A single debate, then, is bred of the conversational de- bate of which we read at the opening of the present chap- ter, the only difference between the two being, that, in- stead of informal and unsystematized conversation in con- versational debate, we have in single debate a formally stated question, an ordered array of argument, and an alter- nate, uninterrupted presentation of arguments for either side. By team argument we mean an argument in which four or more debaters participate, two or more on the affirmative, and two or more on the negative. Here again the same plan or outline of material is followed. But a difficulty arises, perhaps, from the number of speakers. Usually one man is designated as the leader or ''captain'' of his team and he partitions or divides the arguments as- sembled into as many groups as there are speakers on his side, and assigns a speaker to each group. The best speaker, taking it for granted that the speakers are of unequal ability, is usually assigned the last and most effective arguments, the last part of the debate being, as we have seen, the most emphatic part. If there be three debaters on the team, then a good speaker is also placed first on the program, this being another important place from the point of view of emphasis. The poorest speaker of the three should be assigned to the middle portion of the discussion, though it is hoped that in any debate in which we may have the pleasure of participating the speak- ers will be of almost equal ability so that this embarrassing matter of assignment according to ability will not arise. The actual apportionment is left entirely in the hands of the captain, who usually calls in the advice of the "coach" 298 COMPOSITION PLANNING or instructor. He will always try to assign the parts of the argument equally in regard to time and material, all speakers being given equal periods of time in which to present their arguments. In the case of there being three men on the team, the first speaker may be assigned the introduction and the arguments of impression; the second, the arguments of conditions and circumstances; and the third, the arguments of emphasis and the conclusion. This arrangement presupposes of course that the three portions of the debate indicated are of about the same length. In case there are two or four men on the team, the parti- tion should be made in similarly equal divisions and the assignments made accordingly. The questions for single debate should of course be much simpler in form and narrower in possible scope than the questions for team debate. In the former, where only two people are pitted against each other, it would be re- quiring too much of the debaters to assign to them a broad, complex question. Moreover, it would be monotonous, not only for them but for the audience to which they speak, if they undertook to handle all the arguments of a large, comprehensive question. There are cases on record where a debater has been obliged to talk all day in order to exhaust his side of a proposition or case. This has some- times been the case in a lawyer's arguing before a jury, but it invariably happens that the lawyer has a number of silent assistants, — other lawyers, that is, who do his brief- ing in sections and watch closely all the details of the oppo- sing proceedings. But in our work, which is not yet so am- bitious in scope, we must select such questions as the fol- lowing for single debate-: — Resolved: That the study of algebra is more important than that of English. THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN 299 Resolved: That our school periods should be sixty rather than forty minutes in length. Resolved: That tv^o meals a day are all that are neces- sary for the average human being, etc. We see at once that these questions are sufficiently simple to be covered completely by a single debater on each side, and yet not oblige him to speak at undue length. Their scope, in other words, is comparatively narrow^ by the side of such questions as these : Resolved : That w^omen should be granted the suffrage. Resolved: That our course of study needs modification. Resolved: That the sale of intoxicating liquors should be prohibited. etc. We are at once impressed with the fact that these questions will probably be much more ably handled by at least two debaters on each side. Their scope is broader; they are vastly more general in their nature. The following question and brief for the negative show us that the possibilities of the question are quite within the range of a single debater : BRIEF FOR NEGATIVE Resolved: That Our School Day^ Which now Closes AT 2.30, Should Be Extended to 4 O'clock. I. Introduction A. Source of question I. Agitation as to a. per cent, of failure b. expenditures c. unused buildings 300 COMPOSITION PLANNING B. Importance of question 1. to parents 2. to teachers 3. to pupils C. Definition and explanation of terms 1. "School day" 2. "Closes'^ 3. "Intermission" 4. "Vacant" and "class periods" II. Discussion A. Argument of impression I. Achievements of schools under present plan a. b. c. d. e. B. Arguments of condition and circumstance 1. Opportunity offered now for outside work a. b. c- 2. Health of pupils and teachers a. b. c d. 3. Fatigue resulting from prolonged enclosure in- doors a. b. c. C. Arguments of emphasis I. Authorities in hygiene say that five hour day is best a. b. c. d. THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN 301 2. Citation of indifferent and detrimental results in schools where the experiment has been tried, and comparison with our own school a. b. c. d. III. Conclusion A. Summary 1. It has proved no better where tried 2. It deprives of opportunity to earn money 3. It imperils health 4. The best authorities oppose it 5. In many. cases it has failed B. Therefore, it is our strong belief, as it must also now be yours, that an extension of school hours from 2.30 to 4 o'clock would be a decidedly bad innovation But the material for the following question is so abun- dant, and the question itself of such wide importance that there should be at least two men to argue each side : — AFFIRMATIVE Resolved: That Capital Punishment Should Be Abol- ished. I. Introduction: A. Source of question. B. Importance of question. C. Definition of terms : — 1. "Capital punishment." a. Kinds. b. Status. 2. "Abolished.^* D. Our position. E. Division of material. 302 COMPOSITION PLANNING II. Discussion: A. Punishment should always be remedial, but 1. Capital punishment says, "Abandon hope", 2. Dead man cannot be reformed, 3. Society's failure is writ large. B. Capital punishment is 1. Not protective and preventive, a. As many murders now as ever ; 2. Not retributive, a. Retribution a survival of savagery, b. "An eye for an eye" not good morality, c. State vengeance but little better than per- sonal vengeance; 3. Not deterrent, a. Formerly the death penalty was paid for many other crimes, b. Those crimes have not increased as a result of discontinuance of capital punish- ment, c. Its abolition has been deterrent probably; 4. But debasing a. To society, b. To individuals, c. Particularly to young. C. Responsibility of society, 1. To all its members, 2. At all times, 3. In spite of repeated failures. D. The abolition of capital punishment, I. Its effect, a. Might increase murder for a time, but b. Would lessen it in the long run (see II. c. 3). c. For it would increase respect for life. E. The horror of mistakes, 1. No remedy or recompense possible, 2. One mistake only should be sufficient to cause abolition. THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN 303 F. Moral sentiment rising, 1. Becoming more difficult to convict, 2. Frequent public protests, 3. The question of hanging women, 4. The appeals for pardons, 5. The ethical consciousness of communities as- serting itself. G. Great principle of the sanctity of life, 1. Of the criminal's life as well, 2. Great dangers in all progress, 3. If society would perfect herself, she must risk abolishing capital punishment, 4. God's law — "Thou shalt not kill" — is also vio- lated by the gallows, 5. Capital punishment is thus a crime against God. H. Authorities and experience, 1. Great humanitarians, — a. All oppose capital punishment, 2. Its abolition is making for good wherever it has taken place, — a. Statistics, b. The case of Italy. III. Conclusion: A. We have proved that 1. Capital punishment is not remedial, 2. It is not protective, preventive, retributive, de- terrent, but debasing, 3. It is the duty of society to help all its members, 4. The abolition of capital punishment would make for good, 5. Frequent mistakes have awakened the ethical consciousness of communities, and 6. People are coming to see not only the futility, but also the injustice of it, 7. It constitutes a crime itself not alone against man, but against God, 8. The moving spirits of all times have opposed it, and its abolition has made for good. 304 COMPOSITION PLANNING B. Therefore, in view of these irrefutable arguments, we maintain that capital punishment should be abol- ished. NEGATIVE * Resolved: That Capital Punishment Should Not Be Abolished. I. Introduction A. Source of the question B. Importance of the question C. Definition of terms 1. "Capital punishment" a. Kinds b. Status 2. "Abolished" D. Our position E. Division of material II. Discussion A. Sanctity of life 1. "Thou shalt not kill" 2. Killing that is not murder a. Self-defence b. War c. Legal execution B. Philosophy of the punishment 1. It is protective 2. It is preventive, 3. It is retributive 4. It is deterrent C. Capital punishment best punishment for murderers 1. Confinement expensive 2. Reform unlikely 3. Liberation dangerous 4. Their lives and examples debasing * The pupil will note that one brief is punctuated fully while the other is unpunctuated. (See page 28.) THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN 305 D. Shall sentimentality decide 1. Shall we shirk duty because unpleasant 2. Is not all real discipline hard 3. Shall we allow the publicity that has been given an occasional mistake to influence us E. Reason demands capital punishment 1. It is needed for safety of society 2. The victim's soul cries out for vindication 3. Justice utters her decree F. Experiments in other methods of punishment show necessity for it I. Statistics a. From states where it is abolished b. From states where it is in vogue c. Comparison III. Conclusion A. We have shown that 1. The sanctity of life demands capital punishment 2. It is justified by its effects 3. Murderers are a menace to society 4. Only sentimentality advocates its discontinuance 5. Reason and experience have proved the necessity for it B. Therefore in the light of the overwhelming argu- ments we believe that capital punishment should not be abolished The discussion here has not been divided into its three divisions as defined above, only because it would have ne- cessitated another degree of subordination in a brief that was already sufficiently subordinated. The character of the various arguments is such, however, that, as will be seen, they fall naturally into these divisions. After the first speeches on both sides of a debate have been made, there is always opportunity given to each side to refute certain arguments that have been presented by the 3o6 COMPOSITION PLANNING other. These after-arguments are called the Refutation or the Rebuttal. In the case of a team debate, usually only one man is allowed to speak in rebuttal. Which one this is to be is a matter to be settled among the debaters them- selves, though usually the rebuttal is made by the captain of the team. But a good speaker is naturally more than ever necessary at this point of the debate. It is customary for the debaters on one team to be permitted to confer v^ith one another v^hile those of the opposite side are speaking. This being the case, points for rebuttal can be gathered by all, though the presentation of them devolves upon but one. Now, the better the arguments have been prepared, the more untiring and exhaustive the members of the teams have been in gathering material and covering the field, the less need will there be for a refutation, the less opportunity will there be given for it. Every good debater will strive to foresee all the arguments of the opposite side. Just in so far as he is able thus to anticipate his opponents' line and substance of reasoning, will he be relieved of the difficulties of refuta- tion. No one is qualified to argue well on the affirmative of a question until he has thoroughly acquainted himself with the arguments of the negative side. This may seem paradoxical, but after we have participated in several de- bates we will perhaps better understand its truth. Expert knowledge of both sides of the argument plus strong con- viction for the one argued, usually equals success in de- bating. But it is rare indeed that our foresight can be so suc- cessful as to make refutation unnecessary. Usually we shall find that we have failed to foresee everything, espe- cially in a complex question, or that the opposing de- baters have made misstatements, have lacked accurate in- formation, or have misunderstood or misinterpreted our THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN 307 own arguments. Such faults as these we must of course deal with in our rebuttal. And this rebuttal will in very large measure have to be extemporaneous, except in so far as notes have been made during the course of the de- bate, which may be used for guidance. The order of the reply should be arranged along the same general lines as that of the discussion; that is, we should proceed from the less to the more emphatic, bearing in mind here, as we did in our discussion, that our opening words in rebuttal should be striking, but tactful and winning. Never, however, must we resort to cruelty or insult in our remarks, no matter how much we may be tempted to do so or how inviting an opportunity we may seem to have. Debaters frequently make this very serious mistake and, as a result, quite justly lose a great deal by it. Our plan for rebuttal, then, should deal with the points above enumerated in the following order : — 1. Misstatements and misinterpretations 2. Omissions 3. Misinformation or lack of information 4. Reference to our own formal summary, as yet un- refuted Point 4 is in most cases a matter of repetition. If, how- ever, our opponents have given us little to refute, we can, if we are alert to the situation thus created, make an ex- cellent point of rebuttal by reminding the audience that such is the case, and that our opponents have left nothing for us to do but to reinforce our previous arguments which they have left unanswered. The point of courtesy will serve to particular advantage here. We have often doubt- less been embarrassed for a speaker (though he himself has not been) on hearing him hurl epithets of sarcasm at his opponents in rebuttal. This, we must again insist, 3o8 COMPOSITION PLANNING should never be allowed. Politeness and courtesy toward an opponent will always impress an audience much more favorably than rudeness of ever so slight a quality. There is no objection to wholesome fun and humor; no objec- tion to turning an opponent's argument gently into an ab- surdity, if it can be done; but we must be careful always to differentiate between ''making fun of" and ''fun making". We have learned already (Chapter XI) that the four types of composition may be intermixed, that indeed no one of them often, if ever, occurs alone. Argument would seem to be the clearing house of the four, for here we find them working together much more frequently than elsewhere. A debate is a composite form of composition in which exposition, narration, and description all con- spire, along with argument, to make a point, to establish a proof, to undo an opponent. Our introductions, as we have seen from the plans presented, are almost entirely exposition. In our discussion we are at liberty to call any form of composition into play to substantiate our con- tentions, — we may paint a word-picture that will impress or elucidate; we may tell a story or use a parable directly parallel with the phase of the question we are dealing with, that will be irrefutably convincing; we may explain a situa- tion with a clarity that must place vividly before every one some unforgettable plan or operation. All of these things we may do, and yet have the result, the sum total, form a unified and systematic argument. The last points in the discussion and all of those in the conclusion should — usually unconsciously will — consist of pure, abstract ar- gument. But we can likewise conceive of a debate w^hich will consist of genuine argument everywhere else, though this of course would be somewhat exceptional. Perhaps THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN 309 we cannot do better in this connection than to turn to Chapter XI and re-read what was there said about the method of a lawyer in preparing his argument in a certain case. We have been studying argument all along very much as if it were a form of oral composition only, and, taking the brief out of the question, this is largely true. We read exposition, narration, and description, but we hear argu- ment. In other words argument is a more live, oral and active form of composition than any of the others. We should not however consider this an excuse for not writing out our arguments. After we have drawn up our briefs, we should proceed just as we did in the other forms of written work. It is, as we have already found, the best possible exercise to follow an outline in writing, after we have carefully organized the material. But as a rule, if we are writing argument for delivery before an audience, it should be written out in detail and memorized. After we have acquired some ability in speaking we may omit the writing altogether and make our argumentative speech from the brief alone. In such cases, where the argument is not written out but where the speaker depends entirely upon his brief, the brief should be as detailed, as highly subordinated, as possible. Briefs for legal cases are fre- quently of great length, but seldom are the arguments written out, the detailed subdivision in the brief taking the place of the solid writing. Great danger attends upon extemporizing too freely in debate. Nowhere is greater deliberation or closer prepara- tion necessary than here, where eyery word spoken counts for so much by way of loss or gain in its results. Yet unfortunately nothing is more common than extempore debate among those who have little or no training in it. 310 COMPOSITION PLANNING Extemporaneous speaking is a most valuable exercise, but, as we have learned (Chapter X), it should be commenced with some of the other forms of composition. Slovenly expressions very easily creep into our English in all kinds of extemporaneous speaking, but nowhere more easily than in debate. Such expressions as "Now to my first point", "As my colleague has shown", etc., while not absolutely wrong in themselves, are nevertheless bad and hackneyed when used to excess, as they are often apt to be in unpre- pared debate. The various types of plan may likewise be combined in argumentative briefs. We may use the topical, the phrasal, the clausal, or the sentence form of plan. And we may use any two or more of these in combination. This must not mean, however, that a confused form of plan for our argument is to result. On the other hand we can have and should have the most consistent uniform- ity in the midst of this variety. But argument, having weighty decision dependent upon it, should have the privi- lege of employing those different forms of plan in its development that may be made the most effective. In our introduction it may be necessary to have only topics, — the words that have been indicated above. In other cases however it may be necessary not only to write the words, — "Definition of terms" — ^but to write out in the brief the actual definition. In the discussion, again, we may use any one of these forms of plan. It is somewhat common in this part of our brief to combine the sentence and clausal forms, as we have done in our briefs on capital punishment, thus : — I. This is a serious wrong, because a. it does this b. it does that or. THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN 311 2. Because this is allowed, we have a. poverty b. oppression or, to use the phrasal continuation, as : — I. In the case of a. factories b. stores c. offices In the summary it is best to state our conclusions in the form of perfect sentences, in order thus to make our final words quite clear to the minds of our listeners. But, whatever form of expression we may select, we should see to it that all those topics coming under the same subdivision are kept uniform. In our summing up we should not state some of our proofs in sentence form, and some in phrasal, but all should be stated declaratively and completely, and the concluding sentence should in addition bear an indica- tion, by means of such a word as ''therefore", that it is the final deduction of all that has gone before. Of course our summary or conclusion is but a restatement of our former arguments in a somewhat condensed form. But here the accentuation, clarity and convincingness are more particu- larly necessary and valuable than anywhere else in the whole argument, though of course important everywhere; and we are justified in selecting, as indeed we are through- out our plan, those vehicles of outline expression which best procure these qualities for us, so long as we do so con- sistently. EXERCISE I. Compose ten questions for single argument and draw up the briefs, either affirmative or negative, for at least two of them. 312 COMPOSITION PLANNING IT. Compose ten questions for team argument and draw up briefs, either affirmative or negative, for at least two of them, indicating the apportionment of parts. III. Draw up affirmative or negative briefs for the following questions for single argument : — Resolved: That our high school course is impractical. Resolved: That our schools should remain open all summer. Resolved: That Sunday baseball should be prohibited. Resolved: That the capital of the United States should be nearer to the center of the country. Resolved: That yellow journalism should be suppressed. IV. Draw up affirmative or negative briefs for the following questions for team argument, — Resolved: That church property should be taxed. Resolved: That v^omen, in v^hatever line of v^ork, should re- ceive the same salary as men holding similar posi- tions. Resolved: That government by commission should be estab- lished in all large American cities. Resolved: That large fortunes should be taxed by the state. Resolved: That the House of Governors should be made a permanent legislative body. V. Outline a rebuttal for each of the briefs pre- pared in answer to Exercise IV. VI. Draw up a brief, affirmative or negative, for the following question. Introduce much narrative and de- scription into it, and indicate them by means of changed form of outline: — Resolved: That motormen and chauffeurs be obliged to bear the expense of caring for victims injured or killed by cars they are running. THE ARGUMENTATIVE PLAN 313 VII. Draw up a brief, afifirmative or negative, for a single argument on the following question. Use as many different forms of plan as you can, consistently and ef- fectively : — Resolved: That theaters should be open on Sundays. VIII. Plan and write both the affirmative and the negative rebuttal for the argument on capital punishment (page 301). Complete the brief presented on "Resolved: That the school day, which now closes at 2.30, be extended to 4 o'clock.'' IX. Make both affirmative and negative briefs for a team argument on the following question. Indicate the partition or assignment of arguments : Resolved : That boys be allowed to decide for themselves what profession or business they will enter. X. Make a formal study plan of the chapter on The Argumentative Plan. XI. Draw up a brief, affirmative or negative, for a single argument on the following question. Add also a rebuttal for offsetting the arguments which you anticipate your opponent will present: — Resolved: That planning our written work carefully before writing it is a good thing. XII. Draw up briefs, either axffirmative or negative, for the illustrative questions on page 299. CHAPTER XVI THE DRAMATIC PLAN There are three methods by which we may record the words of others in our oral or written composition. We may re frame them into our own phraseology, as : — John said, that he would not go when Bill asked him to join the party, and thus express them by means of simple or indirect dis- course. Or we may state the actual words and construc- tion of the speaker, as: — John said, "I will not go," when Bill asked him to join the party, and thus use the conversational or direct discourse. Or again, we may state the actual words of all speakers with their names attached, in alternation, thus : — Bill: Will you go with our party, John? John : I will not go. ' and make use of the dramatic or dialogue method. These three methods, then — the simple or indirect, the conversational or direct, the dramatic or dialogue — may be used in placing the words of others before an audience. They vary in importance with the occasion and the form of composition. 314 THE DRAMATIC PLAN 315 INDIRECT DISCOURSE Usually the first method will be found easiest and most natural. To put the thoughts and expressions of others into our own words is very much the same as fitting a new picture to a frame that we like and are accustomed to. When this method is used, we should place a comma after the word "said'', or "replied'', or "retorted", or what- ever other word we use to indicate the words of another, and this is usually followed with the word "that". This introductory word is not always expressed, however. Whenever a series of statements follows the predicate it should be used, but where the discourse is comparatively brief it is not necessary. "John said he would not go" is quite as good as "John said that he would not go". But, in the following example, it is a little better to have "that" expressed before each clause, in order to keep the various statements separate: "He said that the matter would re- ceive his attention, that no stone should be left unturned to make it right, and that we could depend upon his in- vestigation absolutely." It would be unwise to use "that" before one of these clauses and not before the others. DIRECT DISCOURSE Direct or conversational discourse is the most trouble- some for beginners in writing. The punctuation has to be looked after very carefully in order to make the quoted part clear and separate. All direct statements and quota- tions must be marked off by means of quotation marks, and when it is necessary to place a quotation within a quo- tation, these marks must be observed with mathematical 3i6 COMPOSITION PLANNING accuracy, for the quotations must be kept distinct one from another. To illustrate: John said, **My father said to me sternly, 7c>hn, you must not do this.' " Here we see there are two direct statements, one within the other. John says something in which he states directly what some one else (his father) says. While it is not usu- ally the case, such quotation may be extended to a highly in- volved degree. To illustrate further: John said, "My father said to me very sternly, 'My boy, you must act ac- cording to that famous old dictum, "Well begun is half done," if you would make a success of your work.' " We see that the double and the single quotation marks are used in alternation to separate the several parts of the quotation. This alternation is continued to whatever length may be necessary in quoted material. In the above, the marks stand as follows: — [2] \m [31 I (21 11] Ul J since there are three quotations used by one speaker. In other words, the quotations stand in much the same rela- tion as the parenthetical quantities in an algebraic equa- tion : — [J ( ■ ) N It is necessary to remember always, that as in algebra a bracket, or brace, or parenthesis at the beginning of a quantity must have a corresponding bracket or brace or parenthesis at its end, so also in quotations our quotation marks must always be paired. Thus, in the above dia- gram ( I ) must have a corresponding ( i ) at the end, and THE DRAMATIC PLAN 317 (2) and (3) likewise. Not to observe this completion will throw the reader into confusion. We must observe here also that, as in indirect dis- course, the words "said", "replied", etc., are followed by the comma where the quotation follows them. It is better, as a rule, to capitalize the first word of every direct quota- tion, no matter how many quotations occur consecutively. This rule need not be followed, however, if in quoting from literature we commence to quote in the middle of a line, — " honor is the subject of my story". Here the quoted part begins after the first word of the line and the first word in our quotation need not be capitalized because it is not capitalized in the text from which it is taken. The great importance of the correct use of quotation marks can be seen where several different speeches are quoted within a single paragraph. Here the quotation marks keep speeches separate and individual which other- wise would appear confused. The better usage, however, in passages of continued quotations, is to give each quo- tation, however short, a line by itself. If we consult our favorite novels and stories, we shall see that this rule is followed pretty generally, quotations being allowed within paragraphs only where those quotations are very brief and unimportant (page 58). ' When the quotations are written on separate lines and the discourse is between two persons only, it is not neces- sary even to indicate the speakers, for the alternation is easily followed by means of quotation marks. Even where there are more than two speakers, some writers can conduct the conversation lucidly without those monotonous guiding posts already referred to, — "John said", "Bill replied", "retorted John", "answered Bill", "cried John", "explained Bill", "John put in", "hissed Bill", etc. 3i8 COMPOSITION PLANNING Of course, we have a wide range of words to select from to relieve this monotony, but even when we have used them all, we may still be very tiresome to our read- ers. Examine the following bit of conversation, written in both ways: — I. The Colonel and the young lieutenant were the last left on the old bench. Dusk was fast closing into darkness. "Well, perhaps you're right. It's certainly very odd. Good night," said the elder of the two, as he got up to go. "Good night, Colonel," replied the other. "Good night, my boy," repeated the elder. "You'll leave in the morning, then?" called the younger. "O, yes indeed," came the Colonel's answer through the dark. The Colonel and the young lieutenant were the last left on the old bench. Dusk was fast closing into darkness. "Well, perhaps you're right. It's certainly very odd. Good night." "Good night, Colonel." "Good night, my boy." "You'll leave in the morning, then?" "O, yes indeed." Observe, further, the following page of conversational composition : — "Good morning, sir !" Startled at hearing this greeting in the midst of such a crowd of black people, I turn sharply around in search of the man, and see him at my side, with the blackest of faces, but animated and joyous — a man dressed in a long white shirt, with a turban of American sheeting around his woolly head, and I ask: — "Who the mischief are you?" . THE DRAMATIC PLAN 319 "I am Susi, the servant of Dr. Livingstone," said he, smiling, and showing a gleaming row of teeth. "What! Ls Dr. Livingstone here?" ''Yes, sir." "In this village?" "Yes, sir." "Are you sure?" "Sure, sure, sir. Why, I leave him just now." "Good morning, sir," said another voice. "Hallo," said I, "is this another one?" "Yes, sir." "Well, what is your name?" "My name is Chumah, sir." "What ! are you Chumah, the friend of Wekotani ?" "Yes, sir." "And is the Doctor well?" "Not very well, sir." "Where has he been so long?" "In Manyuema." — From Henry M. Stanley's A Meeting in the Heart of Africa. DIALOGUE The third kind of discourse, dramatic or dialogue, is familiar to most of us through its use in the catechism, and in many of our text-books. Much of the best learning of the world has been presented by means of the dialogue method. It is preeminently an expository method. We have seen that full answers to our questions will eluci- date a subject. So, if we are writing an explanation of some subject to a friend, we can best do it perhaps by imagining first of all his questions, writing them down briefly, and then stating full answers to them. Some- times this is called the Greek method, because it was so skilfully used by Socrates and other Greek teachers. So 320 COMPOSITION PLANNING effective and beneficial has it proved that it is now used by all teachers. In form, the dialogue differs from the two foregoing styles of discourse in that the quotation marks and the commas are not used. We state first the name, as: — Teacher : Pupil : or Question : Answer : or John : — Bill:— or Lawyer : — Witness : — following it with a colon or dash or both in every case ; or we write the names in the middle of the page between the lines of the dialogue. Care should be taken to make each part of the dia- logue grammatically complete, however. We should not start our answer to a question with the word "Because", or with any other denoting dependence: — NOT — Teacher: In what direction is England from New York? Pupil : Northeast. Teacher: Why is it not colder, therefore? Pupil: Because it is warmed by the gulf stream. BUT — Teacher: In what direction is England from New York? Pupil: England is northeast of New York. Teacher: Why is it not colder, therefore? Pupil: England is not colder than New York because it is warmed by the gulf stream. THE DRAMATIC PLAN 321 In other words, the answer should repeat the main part of the question as a subject. The question should hkewise be directly stated and should never imply an answer. Thus : — Teacher: England is northeast of New York, isn't it? Pupil : Yes. is an erroneous form of question, because it implies the answer. It is sometimes called the leading question. Moreover, both question and answer are wrong here, be- cause the proper proportion between the two is lost sight of. "The leading question always induces the lazy an- swer'', it is said. The answer is the all-important thing in dialogue of this expository sort, the question being merely to guide and direct. The answer must then be full and explicit; the question, short and to the point. Where a series of such questions and answers is necessary to elucidate a subject, they should be developed slowly and step by step in regular order. If we consult a series of map questions in geography, or of review questions at the conclusion of some chapter in history, we shall see that they develop always some regular line of thought and in- vestigation. DRAMATIZATION The Dramatic Plan: — When the dialogue form is used to tell the story of a unified, continued, eventful happening it is narrative or dramatic. Drama always calls for the dialogue form; but the use of the dialogue form of dis- course does not always imply that the subject-matter is dramatic, as we have seen above. To be dramatic, a theme 322 COMPOSITION PLANNING must contain much action, usually developed as narration is developed, and also steps of suspense to a climax and con- clusion or resolution. Of course, there is also much litera- ture that is dramatic that is not cast into the dialogue form, but it can very easily be so written and we can probably think of many cases where it has been done. Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities was, we know, very successfully drama- tized and played. Omissions, additions, many changes were made, to be sure, but its main theme, in and of itself, was intensely dramatic. On the other hand, we have known a whole play to be written in the form of a short story in which the chief events of the play and most, if not all, of the characters were set forth. Lamb's Tales from Shak- spere, for instance, is a case in point. Here again some- thing is lost in the conversion, many changes, many omis- sions, are necessary, but the center or core of the dramatic story remains the same. It is necessary to make a very wise choice of events from a story if it is to be converted into a pleasing drama. Selection and rejection count for more here perhaps than almost anywhere else. In every novel and story there are long descriptive passages, which we must omit in our dramatization. Then, too, there are always a number of subsidiary actions which are unnecessary for the develop- ment of the main theme of the story. We must decide whether our play is to be a comedy or a tragedy ; whether it is to be a play for amusement, for moral uplift, or for laying bare some great social wrong. Always, we must have some purpose in mind before we construct our plan, or scenario as it is called, for the selection of the proper material cannot otherwise be made. It behooves us in our reading to be observant, there- fore, of dramatic qualities. Perhaps we can select certain THE DRAMATIC PLAN 323 parts of some long stories or all of some short stories and draw up dramatic briefs or outlines of them. This will be a wholesome exercise, for there are important dif- ferences in construction between the drama and the story or novel. Enumerate as many of these differences as you can and decide, if possible, when each of the two forms, drama or novel, has the advantage over the other. In drawing up our scenario or dramatic brief we should first state our title, then the name of the original writer (if we have borrowed a story), or dramatist (if we are outlining a play), then a complete character cast (or dramatis personam), and finally a summarized state- ment of the time, place, and chief events of the drama. This concludes our brief proper. It may be followed (should be, if it is to be presented) by the dialogue written out for each character. By character cast we mean the names of the charac- ters participating in the play, together with a short ac- count of who they are, with the real names of the actors playing the parts, thus : — James Brown, bank cashier Mr. Arthur Drew. Everett Brown, his son, a ne'er-do-well. .Mr. Thomas Ryan. Any one of various methods of arrangement may be used in ordering the names in the cast. Sometimes the most important is placed first; sometimes last. Sometimes characters are placed in the order of social position. (This used to be the case always in plays written for pres- entation under monarchical governments.) Sometimes all the male characters come first, followed by the female, and then, after a space, the name of the leading lady or gen- 324 COMPOSITION PLANNING tleman. Again, the characters may be placed in the cast in the order of their several appearances in the play; if ''James Brown" is the first actor to appear after the cur- tain goes up, then his name belongs first on the program, etc. It matters not which one of these methods of cast- ing we select, so long as we consistently follow one of them. The summary of the time, place and chief events (or argument) of the play should be made in sections called acts. These represent large and important divisions in the movement of the story. Where the action is highly involved we may subdivide each act into subdivisions called scenes, but it is better for us to keep our action and our division of it as simple as possible. Shaksperean plays are divided into five acts as a rule and each one of these is in turn divided into scenes. But in our day a simpler form of drama is required and the play of three or four acts is most common. As in narration, we should arrange to have our climax near the end; if our play consists of three acts, we will place it near the end of the second or in the beginning of the third, and in the latter part of the third act we will conclude the story, reserving some element of surprise or some unimportant threads of ac- tion still to be worked out. Our first act must contain exposition; that is, it must always lucidly introduce us to the characters and situation of the play, — to the who, the how, the when, the zvhere, and the zi^hy. If our play is to consist of four acts, the first and the last should deal with those matters just referred to; the second and third should deal with the development of the main theme, the climax falling near the end of the third act or possibly early in the fourth. In short, our dramatic brief should be a program for a play that is to be presented. It will re- THE DRAMATIC PLAN 325 semble a real theatrical program, but with the story of the play added. Of the three dramatic plans following, the first and third are brief adaptations from short stories : ICHABOD CRANE or ICHABOD CRANE Story by A Drama Washington Irving. in Three Acts by Dramatization by Robert Blank, based upon Robert Blank. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. Character Cast. Ichabod Crane, a schoolmaster Mr. John Shaw- Katrina Van Tassel, a marriageable heiress Miss Evelyn Hay. Brom Bones a suitor to Katrina and a village "terror" Mr. Lloyd Smith. Baltus Van Tassel, her father Mr. Thomas Evans. Hans von Ripper, a prominent citizen Mr. Davis Brown Pupils, villagers, farmers, rowdies. ACT I — Crane's Schoolhouse — i o'clock p. m. Argument : Summons to Van Tassel's Party. ACT II — The Van Tassel House — Evening of the same day. Argument : Merry-making. Crane and Bones in heated rivalry for Katrina's favor. ACT III — Sleepy Hollow — Later the same night. Argument: Crane on his way home from the party, pursued by real and imaginary *'bogies " 326 COMPOSITION PLANNING LOVE AND LOTTERY, An Original Drama in Four Acts by Robert Blank. Dramatis Personce. William B. Shapland, millionaire elder of Grove church Mr. Jay Roberts. Mollie Shapland, his daughter, a "catch" Miss Violet Ray. Charles Arscott, her weakling fiance, in her father's employment Mr. James Ogden. Rev. Alan Brown, pastor of a poor church Mr. John Holder. Mrs. Alan Brown, his wife Miss Cora Claire. "Billy" Brown, their runaway son, formerly engaged to Mollie Mr. Donald Drew. Messengers, church officers, village folk. Time — The present. Place — An American country town. Synopsis of the Play. ACT I — The Brown Home — Afternoon. (The parishioners give the Browns a party. "Billy," their long-lost wayward son, unexpectedly returns.) ACT II — The Brown House — Two evenings later. (The Shaplands and Arscott are calling. "Billy" congratulates Mollie and Arscott and lays bare to the company his experiences as a spendthrift and renegade.) ACT III— Mr. Shapland's Office— A few days later. (Rev. Brown and his wife call to ask help to pay Billy's bad debts. While waiting, they discuss recent rumors about Arscott. Billy promises reform. Mollie happens in. She pleads with her father, and partly prevails upon him to employ the boy and help him otherwise.) THE DRAMATIC PLAN 327 ACT IV— The Village Church— One week later. (All hands including "Billy" are decorating for Mol- lie's wedding. Arscott is suddenly called for by Mr. Shapland's secretary. Rumors of his defaulting have been heard. A telegram arrives for "Billy" telling him of his enormous success in a lottery. Arscott has proven untrustworthy. Mollie gives her hand to "Billy.") JIM HAWKINS, HERO A Play in Three Acts, adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson's famous story, Treasure Island, by Robert Blank Cast of Characters Sometime pirates under Captain Flint Billy Bones, "a true sea dog" ^ Black Dog, his old shipmate. Pew, a blind man Dirk, a ship hand Johnny, a ship hand , Mr. Hawkins, proprietor of the Admiral Bcnbow Mrs. Hawkins, his wife Taylor, his gardener Mrs. Crossley, a friend of Mrs. Hawkins Dance, supervisor of the revenue office Dogger, one of his men David Livesey, a physician John Trelawney, Esquire, "backer" of a treasure seeking expedition Thomas Redruth 1 His Richard Joyce . Uoyal John Hunter . . . J men Blandly, his friend and representative 328 COMPOSITION PLANNING Alexander Smollett, captain of the good ship His- paniola Arrow, the first mate Job Anderson, the boatswain Israel Hands, the coxswain John Silver (known also as "Long John" and "Bar- becue"), cook on the good ship Hispaniola. . Harry ) His boys at the Ben f ''Spy Glass Inn" "Captain Flint," his parrot Tom Morgan, his friend, l rj. >• "Honest hands," Silver's first victims Tom ( ' Dick Johnson, a "square pirate" O'Brien, a "rank Irelander" George Merry, a "long man with yellow eyes". . . . Abraham Gray, "with Captain Smollett" Ben Gunn, a marooned pirate and JIM HAWKINS, cabin boy, adventurer, and hero Seamen, servants, and villagers. Time: the eighteenth century. ACT I— England. Scene i — At the Admiral Benbow Inn, Black Hill Cove, England. Scene 2 — At Bristol, England. ACT II — On board the Hispaniola. Scene i — The deck of the good ship Hispaniola. Scene 2 — The cabin of the good ship Hispaniola. ACT HI — Treasure Island. Scene i — At the log-house. Treasure Island. Scene 2 — In Ben Gunn's cave, Treasure Island. THE DRAMATIC PLAN 3^9 SYNOPSIS OF THE ACTION ACT I. Billy Bones, an old pirate, dies at the Admiral Benbow Inn. He leaves a chest containing a valuable diagram of the exact geographical location of a buried treasure. Some of his old com- rades are lurking about in the neighborhood intent upon stealing this; but Jim Hawkins and his mother rummage the chest in search of money due them, find the packet containing the diagram (which they place little value upon) and are off to the village to escape the attack upon their house proposed by the ex-pirates. Squire Trelawney, learning the contents of the packet, eager for adventure, fits out a ship to go in search of the treasure. The crew is selected, and with Hawkins as cabin boy, Smollett as cap- tain, Livesey as doctor, and John Silver as cook, the good ship Hispaniola sets sail upon her hazardous voyage. ACT II. Jim Hawkins, concealed in an apple barrel on deck, hears Silver and certain of his loyal followers planning treachery. Tre- lawney and his men are to be killed, the diagram taken, and the treasure found and apportioned among the mutineers. Jim se- cretly passes the word to Doctor Livesey and tells him to arrange a secret council in the cabin. Here Jim explains the situation, and the Captain, Trelawney, and Doctor Livesey consider it well. Jim is made to feel his importance and his responsibility, and all are keyed to meet any emergency. ACT III. The mutiny has come, with losses on both sides. Though all the principals have been spared, they are in Silver's power in the little log-house on the island. Jim returns from a great adven- ture which he defiantly tells to his captors. When the actual hunt for the treasure is made, the mutineers are disappointed to find that someone has been before them, for the spot where it should be, according to the chart, reveals nothing but ^ huge hole. This is 330 COMPOSITION PLANNING explained in the next scene by the appearance of Ben Gunn, a marooned pirate, whom Jim has met before in his travels over the island, and whom Silver has previously known in his adventures on the sea. Ben Gunn has the treasure safely stored in his cave and Silver acknowledges with much chagrin that he has been worsted by his old enemy. His little victory is turned to sudden defeat; the old officers of the Hispaniola resume their places, and preparations for departure begin. Stage Directions: — If our play is to be acted it is neces- sary to write the dialogue for each character. In addi- tion, we must also state clearly certain directions for the players. Many of these occur interspersed through the dia- logue placed in parentheses and written in italics. They should give information as to entrances and exits on our stage, dress and make-up, stage furnishings, and stage ''business''; that is, the special action to be employed by the actor. Such points as dress and make-up and stage furnishings may need to be stated at the beginning of each act; points relating to exits and entrances and ''business" may be introduced anywhere. Frequently, a stage plan is drawn as follows; we can vary it to suit our own school conditions : Upper Right Lower Righ Upper Left Lower Left Front If this were our stage arrangement, we would indicate the various exits or entrances by means of letters ; as, THE DRAMATIC PLAN 331 (Enter U. L.) Enter Upper Left. (Enter L. R.) Enter Lower Right, etc. Moreover, by using the diagram, we can indicate the fur- nishings or give the stage settings, as is done here. Color schemes, however, will have to be indicated by writing. Directions in regard to character make-up may be illus- trated thus: — (Rev. Alan Brown — black suit of clerical cut; top hat; um- brella; Bible; mutton-chop whiskers; glasses; bald frontal; stilted and conventional in manner and movement.) And ''business" should be indicated always at the place it is intended to be acted ; thus : — Lord Fop: [^Asidcl So! she would inquire into my amours — that's jealousy, poor soul ! — I see she's in love with me. — [Aloud.'] O Lord, madam, I had like to have forgot a secret I must needs tell your ladyship. — Ned, you must not be so jealous now as to listen. Love: [Leading Berinthia up the stage.] Not I, my lord; I am too fashionable a husband to pry into the secrets of my wife. Lord Fop: [Aside to Amanda, squeezing her hand.] I am in love with you to desperation, strike me speechless ! Aman: [Strikes him on the ear.] Then thus I return your passion. — An impudent fool ! Lord Fop : Gad's curse, madam, I am a peer of the realm ! Love : [Hastily returning.] Hey ! what the devil, do you affront my wife, sir? Nay, then [Draws. They fight.] Aman: What has my folly done? — Help! murder! help! — Part them, for Heaven's sake. Lord Fop : [Falls back and leans on his sword.] Ah ! quite through the body, stap my. vitals! — From R. B. Sheridan's A Trip to Scarborough. Our dialogue should indicate the actual business wherever possible. Shakspere has nearly always indicated action 332 COMPOSITION PLANNING by the word. Hamlet in his advice to the players advised suiting the action to the word. Hence, when Brutus says, "For so much gold as may be grasped thus'', ''thus" really amounts to a stage direction for gesture. We can find many such subtle directions on almost every page of Shakspere's plays, if we keep our minds open while read- ing them. EXERCISE I. Write the following passage from Dickens (i) in conversational form and (2) in dialogue form. Had he ever been a spy himself? No, he scorned the base in- sinuation. What did he live upon? His property. Where was his property? He didn't precisely remember where it was. What was it? No business of anybody's. Had he inherited it? Yes, he had. From whom? Distant relation. Very distant? Rather. Ever been in prison? Certainly not. Never in a debtors' prison? Didn't see what that had to do v/ith it. Never in a debtors' prison? — Come, once again. Never? Yes. How many times? Two or three times. Not five or six? Perhaps. Of what profession? Gentleman. Ever been kicked? Might have been. Frequently? No. Ever kicked down stairs? Decidedly not; once received a kick on the top of a staircase, and fell down stairs of his own accord. Kicked on that occasion for cheating at dice? Some- thing to that effect was said by the intoxicated liar who committed the assault, but it was not true. Swear it was not true? Posi- tively. Ever live by cheating at play? Never. Ever live by play? Not more than other gentlemen do. Ever borrow money of the prisoner? Yes. Ever pay him? No. Was not this in- timacy with the prisoner, in reality a very slight one, forced upon the prisoner in coaches, inns, and packets? No. Sure he saw the prisoner with these lists? Certain. Knew no more about the lists? No. Had not procured them himself for instance? No. Expect to get anything by this evidence? No. Not in regular government pay and employment, to lay traps? Oh, dear no. Or THE DRAMATIC PLAN 333 to do anything? Oh, dear no. Swear that? Over and over again. No motives but motives of sheer patriotism? None whatever. — From Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. II. Report part of the conversation in one of your classes, both directly and indirectly. III. Explain the working of a camera or of some other thing v^ith vv^hich you are familiar, by means of dialogue question and ansv^er. IV. Write an imaginary dialogue betw^een a mouse and a trap, (a) before the mouse is caught, (b) after the mouse is caught. V. Convert the following indirect expressions into the direct form: — 1. They said they preferred apples to peaches. 2. He replied to my query as to his destination that he was going to London. 3. He retorted that I should never go with his consent. 4. He was very angry when I told him that he was as fat as I was tall. 5. When I inquired the way to the place, the tall man said it was too complicated to explain. 6. She told me that she had lost the book but begged me not to divulge the fact to her mother. 7. Evans said that he could not eat meat because it invariably poisoned him. 8. He asked me if I was aware that I had dropped my book. 9. When I asked him how he did it, he explained that it was a secret. 10. As they were descending from the mountain, she called that she could go no further. VI. Convert the following direct expressions into the indirect form: — I. "Where have you been?" I asked John as he entered the 334 COMPOSITION PLANNING 2. "You ought not to have allowed him to cheat you," she said. 3. "He will not be so unjust as to deprive me of my child," wept the impoverished mother. 4. While we were sailing quietly along, Mary murmured, "O, dear, I wish we could keep right on forever." 5. "Keb! Keb! 'Av a Keb, Sir!" called the cabbies as we ar- rived at the station. 6. To my inquiry she replied, "Take the first road on your right and the old homestead will be seen on the left just after you make the turn." 7. "How could you have so far forgotten yourself," she asked, . "after I had warned you about this very thing?" 8. They said, "As we were going into the cavern the boatman came running after us calling, 'Wait a moment, you have left your wraps behind.' " 9. He asked, "Please tell me who said, 'Give me liberty or give me death/ " 10. "Did he convince you of the truth of the matter?" I asked. "O dear no !" replied the Doctor. VII. Punctuate the following : — 1. They said the speaker quoted those famous lines from Long- fellow life is real, life is earnest and the grave is not its goal and we felt that they were appropriate. 2. To the question how old are you he replied younger than I look and older than I act. 3. I met a man by the wayside he commenced to whom I said tell me my man what you conceive to be the chief end of life. Death he replied, and went on with his work as if I had already met that end. 4. The teacher said please close the door John certainly re- plied he as he courteously did it. . 5. Place the plank here where Here by the wall Why not there out of the sun Because I want it nearer the workshop VIII. Write the following first in direct and then in indirect discourse. What is lost or gained in each case? THE DRAMATIC PLAN 335 Clerk: I refuse to comply with your request. Employer: Then you must leave my service at once. Clerk: Very v^ell, Sir; but remember that I reserve the right to expose you and your business methods. Employer : Do your worst, young man ; you cannot ruin a business with the world-wide reputation mine enjoys, if you devote your whole life to petty revenge. Clerk: We shall see. Good morning. Sir. IX. Using the above bit of dialogue as a nucleus, im- agine the full situation, develop three or four acts from it, and extend the dialogue. X. Make a dramatic plan of some event reported in the newspaper. Use your imagination for extending it and rounding it out. XL Enlarge upon the following episode. Divide it into acts. Write the dialogue for at least one act. Evelyn is giving a party to her young friends. Tea has been prepared and the company is enjoying it. Her brother Ralph and his boy friends who are playing "Indian" enter and turn things upside down. There is much confusion and many hard words are heard before the Indians depart. Then things are set in order and tea resumed. XII. Make a list of short stories suitable for drama- tization. Dramatize one of them. INDEX Accent, 202. Adjectives, in description, 278. Adverbs, in description, 278. Addison's The Tatler, quoted, 82. Address, in letters, 150-154. Adherence, 15. Advertisements, answers to, 161-162. Affirmative, in argument, 291. Analytic plan, defined, 102; illustrated, 105-106. Application letters, 162. Arabic numerals, 14, 44. Argument, defined, 220; extempore, 210, 309; relation to other forms, 308; single, 296; team, 297; terms of, 291. Argumentative brief, 299-301. Argumentative plan, 290. Arnold's Sohrah and Rustum outlined, 12. Arrangement of material, 23. Authority in argument, 294-295. Autobiography, 260. Autobiographic exposition, 231. B Balanced sentence, 188-189. Biography, 260. Body, or discussion, 35-38, 48. Borrow's Lavengro, quoted, 83. Bracket plan, defined, 106; illustrated, 107. Breathing, 198-199. Briefing an argument, 292-293. Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Prog- ress, titles in, 175. Business letters, 162-165. Byron's Mazeppa, narrative type, 256. Capitalization, in letters, 150, 153; in plans, 28; in titles, 175-176. Captain, in debate, 297. Character cast, 323. Character make-up, 331. Character sketch, 240-243. Choice of words, 201 ; in description, 278. Chronological order, 10. Circular letters, 165-166. 337 338 INDEX Circumstance, arguments of, 294-295. Clausal plan, defined, 91 ; illustrated, 92-93. Climax, defined, 249-250; proportion of, 251. Coherence, in composition, 183- 184; in paragraphs, 66. Coleridge's The Ancient Mari- ner, order in, 50. Combination plan, 95. Common errors, in speaking, 202-207 ; in writing, 178-183. Complimentary closing, 152-153. Composite paragraph, 79. Composition, form in, 177; kinds of, 219; oral, 196; written, 174. Concentration, 198. Conclusion, in argument, 294- 295; in description, 268; in exposition, 239-241 ; in general plan, 35, 48; in narration, 250-251, 257. Condition, arguments of, 294- 295. Congratulatory letters, 159-160. Contrasts in paragraphs, y6. Conversation, importance of, 207-210. Conversation in paragraphs, 58- 59. Conversational discourse, 315- 319. Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, description in, 277. Creighton's The Crimean War, quoted, 105. D Debate, single, 297; team, 296. Deductive plan, 102. Detail in description, 266. Description, defined, 220. Description, by comparison, 280; by effect, 281 ; by sense testimony, 279. Descriptive plan, 265. Description and exposition, 226- Description, negative, 282-283 ; simple, 268-269, 278. Development, or discussion, 35- 38,48. Diacritical marks, 202. Diagrams, in description, 280- 283; in exposition, 227. Dialogue, 319. Diaphragmatic breathing, 199- 200. Dickens' Pickwick Papers, quoted, 83. Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, order in, 51 ; quoted, 79. Dictionary, use of, 201-202. Discourse, kinds of, 314; conversational, 315-319; INDEX 339 dialogue, 319; direct, 315-319; dramatic, 321 ; indirect, 315; simple, 315. Discussion, body or develop- ment, 35, 48. Drama and novel, 322-323. Dramatic discourse, 321. Dramatic plan, 314, 323. Dramatis personce, 323. Dramatization, 321. Echo- words, 64; illustrative paragraph, 64-65. Eliot's Felix Holt, quoted, 73. Eliot's Silas Marner, descrip- tion in, 282; order in, 51. Emphasis, in argument, 294- 295; in composition, 185-186; in paragraphs, 6^. Episode, defined, 255. Epithets and idioms, illiterate, 203-207. Epithets in description, 275. Errors, in epithet and idiom, 202; in grammar, 181; in pronunciation, 202; in use of words, 203. Experience, arguments of, 294- 295- Exposition and description, 226- 22y, Exposition, defined, 220. Exposition, enumerative, 234- 235; inverted, 230-231 ; plain, 227-228. Expository plan, 225. Extemporaneous speaking, 208. Events, planning by, 125. Form of expression, in plan- ning, 26-28. Form, in oral composition, 200; in written composition, 177. Formal letters, 138-143. Formal plan, defined, 35-36; illustrated, 36, 38, 39. Generic terms, 21. Gestures, 200-201. Glance, in description, 266. Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield, order in, 51 ; titles in, 175. Grammar, 181. Graphic plan, defined, 13; illustrated, 13, 14. H Heading, in letters, 148-149. Headline plan, defined, 113; illustrated, 11 5-1 17. Hesitation in speaking, 207. How, in exposition, 235. 340 INDEX Idioms and epithets, illiterate, 203-207. Impersonation, 209. Impression, in argument, 294- 295; in description, 2(iy\ in paragraphing, 75. Indirect discourse, 315. Informal letters, 138, 143. Informal plan, defined, 29; illustrated, 23-24. Interchangeable plans, defined, 95; illustrated, 97-101. Introduction, in argument, 294- 295; in description, 266-270; in exposition, 226, 236, 238; in general composition, 35-48 ; in narration, 254-255; Introduction, incidental, 52. Introduction, omitted, 52. Irving's The Alhanibra, quoted, 82. Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, description in, 275 ; dramatic plan of, 325. Irving's The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, outline quoted, II-12. K Key-words, 62. Kinds of composition, 219; discourse, 314; letters, 138; paragraphs, 78; plans, 86; sentences, 187-189. Kingsley's Westward Ho, quot- ed, 71. Leading question, 321. Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The, dramatic plan of, 325. Letter forms, 145-146. Letter margining, 145-146. Letter, parts of, 144. Letter plan, 137. Letters, classification of, 138. Letters, application, 162; business, 162-165 ; circular, 166; congratulatory, 159-160; formal, 138-143; informal, 138-143; newspaper, 167; order, 164-165; sample plans of, 155-168; school, 158; sympathy, 160. Loose sentence, 188-189. Love and Lottery, dramatic plan of, 326. Loweirs The Vision of Sir Launfal, order in, 51 ; outlined, 12. M Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome, narrative type, 256. Make-up, character, 331, INDEX 341 Margin, in compositions, 177 ; in letters, 145-146; in paragraphs, 57; in plans, 44-45. Meredith's The Ordeal of Rich- ard Fever el, quoted, 75. Method, in argument, 293-294; in description, 265-266, 270, 285-286; in exposition, 228, 230, 236- 243; in narration, 250, 254, 260- 261 ; in paragraphing, 70-78; in speaking, 211-212. Mispronunciations, list of, 203- 206. Misuses, list of, 206-207. Mutilated endings, 203-204. N Names, advice as to, 47-48. Narration, defined, 220. Narration, bad, 256; rapid, 256-257; slow, 246, 257. jSlarrative exposition, 231-232. Narrative plan, 246. Nasality, 200. Negative argument, 299. Negative description, 282-283. Negative form of question, 291- 292. Nervousness, 197-198. Newspaper letters, 167. Nichols* Milt on' s Short er Poems and Sonnets, quoted, 109. Nouns, in description, 278; in narration, 246. Novel and drama, 322-323. Numerals, Arabic, 14, 44; Roman, 14, 44. O Occurrences, paragraph meth- od, y2. Oral composition, 196. Oratory, 209. Order letters, 164-165. Paragraph, conversation in, 58- 59; defined, 56; illustrated, 64, 66, Paragraph-composition plan, 6^- ^, Paragraph development, com- parison, y6\ composite, 79; impressions, 75; occurrences, 72; particulars, 74; thoroughness, 71. Paragraph length, 57. Parallel plan, in biography, 109- no; in English, 112; in history, in; in language, in ; in literature, no; in science, 112. Parallel sentence, 188-189. Participial closing, 152. 342 INDEX Particulars in paragraphing, 74. Pause, 213. Periodic sentence, 188-189. Phrasal plan, 87. Phrasing, 213-214. Picture plan, 13. Places, planning by, 125. Plans (illustrative) analytic, 105-106; argumentative, 295, 299, 301 ; bracket, 107; clausal, 92-93 ; combination, 97-101 ; deductive, 105-106; descriptive, 267-271, 273, 285- 286; dramatic, 325, 326, 327; expository, 229-230, 232, 234, 240, 243; formal, 36, 38, 39; graphic, 13; informal, 23; letter, 155-168; narrative, 247, 248, 251, 252, 259, 261 ; parallel, 109-112; phrasal, 87-91 ; picture, 13; paragraph, 64, 65, 71, 73-75, rebuttal, 307; running, 9, 10, 11, 12; running-graphic, 46; sentence, 94-95 ; study, 105-106; topical, 86-87. Planning, importance of, 3-7. Poe's Tales, order in, 51. Point of view, defined, 120-121 ; illustrated, in description, 272-273, 276-277; illustrated, in. general compo- sition, 124, 125-130, 131- 132; moving, 126, 273; personal, 126-127; physical, 126, 272. Position for speaking, 200. Preparation of speeches, 211- 212. Process of plan building, 19-22. Pronunciation, 203-205. Proportion, 10. Punctuation, in letters, 148- 151; in plans, 28. Purpose, defined, 127; illustrated, 129-132; wrong, 132-134. Q Question and answer, 225-226, 320-321. Question in debate, 291-292, 299. Question, leading, 321. Quotation, 317. Quotation marks, 316. Quotation within quotation, 316. Rebuttal, 305-306. Reference, in plans, 14. INDEX 343 Refutation, 305-306; plan for, 307. Rejection of material, 20-21. Relation of composition types, 221-223. Resolution, in drama, 324; in story, 250-251. Roman numerals, 14, 44. ''Rough-and-ready" plan, 89. Running-graphic plan, defined, 47; illustrated, 46-47. Running plan, 8. Salutation, in letters, 150. Scenario, 323. Scope, in composition, 42 ; in questions for debate, 298- 299. Scott's Ivanhoe, description in, 275; order in, 51. Scott's The Monastery, quoted, 74. Scott's Quentin Durward, de- scription in, 2yy. Selection of material, 20-21. Senses, in description, 279. Sentence plan, 94. Sentence sound, 179. Sentences, kinds of, 188-189. Sequence, in composition, 10; in sentences, 180-183. Shakspere, stage directions in, 332. Sheridan's A Trip to Scarbor- ough, quoted, 321. Similes in description, 280. Simple discourse, 314. Slurred pronunciations, 203-204. "Snap" arguments, 294-295. Speaking, 196. Specific terms, 21. Spelling, 178. Stage business, 331. Stage directions, 330. Stage plan, 330. » Stevenson's The Dynamiter, quoted, yy. Stevenson's Treasure Island, dramatic plan of, 327. Study plan, defined, 102; illustrated, 105-106. Subdivision, process of, 20-23. Subject, of composition, 175. Subjects and titles, 174-177. Subordinate topics, lo-ii. Subordination, degrees of, 26; in paragraphing, 67-69; in planning, 11 ; in speaking, 214. Summary sentence, 61. Suspense, defined, 249; proportion of, 251. Syllabication, 178. Sympathetic letters, 160. Synopsis, in dramatic plan, 324. Tabulation, 43-45. Thoroughness in paragraphs, 71- TOPIC, key v^ord to para- graphing, 78. 344 INDEX Topical plan, 86. Topics, major, lo-ii; minor, lo. Topic sentence, 60. Time, planning by, 125. Titles and subjects, 174-177. Treasure Island, dramatic plan of, 327- U Uniformity, 26. Unity, in paragraphs, 66; in whole composition, 183, 184-185. Usage, 202-208. Variety, defined, 186-191 ; plan of, 191. Verbs, in description, 278; in narration, 253. Voice, management of, 199; use of, 199-200. W Words, in discourse, 317; for variety, 187. Written composition, 174. fS BOOK IS DUE ON THE t a on, STAMPED beSw^"^^^^^ AN INITIAL F/NE~~oir . WILL BE ASSESSED ^^ ^^ 25 CENTS TH.S BOOK ON rH° Drr/.r^""^ ™ "^^RN W"-L INCREASE TO SO cLJi"^- "'"^ "ENALTY DAY AND TO S. On ^.^^^^ °'^ THE FOURTH OVERDUE. ""^ °'* THE SEVENTH dIy % DEC 9 1888 JUt 16 M WAY 28 IS4III AUG 13 ^^^ »^UL 24 1945 80ct'54BP OCT 8 1354 Lu LD 21-50m-8,.32 Sj^t^.JfS UIP^<^H^4^ re 02286 8WI 6 9mr ^W6?5#^' 259577 C:'-^-^--^ c'+xsoduioo