LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 ERIC SCHMIDT
 
 EXERCISES IN 
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM F., MOZIER 
 PRINCIPAL OF THE OTTAWA TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL 
 
 OTTAWA, IUC,
 
 Copyright 1909 
 by W. F. MOZIER.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Lesson I. -The Same Old Story. 
 
 Students who have reached the high school have already spent 
 much time in the study of the English language. They have studied 
 English grammar for several years, and have had their grammatical 
 errors pointed out to them again and again. They have been 
 taught spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and paragraphing, 
 and have written innumerable specimens of narration and de- 
 scription, not to mention exposition and argumentation. In short, 
 they consider "English Composition" an old story; yet too often 
 we find them well on their way through the high school course or 
 even graduated from the school, making the same old mistakes 
 and exhibiting the same old weaknesses, in both oral and written 
 composition. 
 
 Why is this? Is the English language so difficult a means of 
 expressing thought that young people cannot master it? Certainly 
 not. The trouble is due, in the main, to the following two causes: 
 
 1. The language that is commonly heard outside the school 
 room is far from being either careful or correct English. Children 
 unconsciously imitate the speech that they hear around them, and 
 by constant repetition, form bad habits of language that even the 
 persistent training of the school can hardly overcome. 
 
 2. Pupils think that English, because it is their native language, 
 is easy and requires little or no study. They therefore do not 
 apply themselves diligently to their English work, and so neglect 
 that drill and constant guarding of themselves that are necessary 
 to the overcoming of bad habits of every kind. 
 
 Surely, nothing is more an evidence of reflpement and more 
 "worth while" than to speak one's own language in a correct and 
 pleasing way. Many a man, otherwise very worthy, has condemned 
 himself in the opinion of others by faulty speech. It is entirely 
 inexcusable for a high school student to say "have went", "I seen", 
 or "I done". It is not necessary for him to correct older people 
 when they say these things they may not have had his advantages 
 but it is necessary for him to correct himself.
 
 4 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Now, the way to overcome bad habits it (1) to quit the habits; 
 (2) to substitute good habits in their places; (3) to cultivate with 
 all one's might the new good habits, until through constant repeti- 
 tion and practice they become as firmly fixed as the bad habits were 
 before. 
 
 Suppose, then, that we make a determined and successful effort 
 this year (1) to correct all our old-time errors of everyday speech 
 and writing; and (2) to acquire considerable skill and ease in 
 writing simple themes in a clear, well-connected, and pleasing 
 style, so that composition may not be for us a difficult and confusing, 
 process, but a pleasure to ourselves and to others. To help along 
 a little in this effort is the purpose for which these exercises were 
 prepared. 
 
 ERRORS IN GRAMMAR. 
 
 Errors in grammar are called Solecisms. But no matter what 
 they are called, they must be absolutely rooted out of the speech 
 of a person who wants to be considered well educated. We shall 
 therefore begin our work with a little effort at correcting some of 
 the more common solecisms. These have been pointed out to us 
 a hundred times, but still the old demon Habit grips many of us, 
 and the wrong word will slip out in unguarded moments, even 
 though we know better. 
 
 If one were asked to pick out the half dozen most startling and 
 heart-rending errors in the grammar of everyday speech, doubtless 
 one could safely choose the following as winning first prize: 
 
 a. Using the objective for the nominative form of the pronoun, 
 when the subject is compound; as, "Her and I are going together" 
 for "She and I"; "Him and me are in the same class" for "He and 
 I." Nobody would think of saying "Her is going" or " Him is in 
 the same class"; yet there is no more reason for using such forms 
 when they are compounded than when they are alone. If you are 
 ever in doubt, drop one of the pronouns and see what form should 
 be used when the pronoun stands alone; the same form should be 
 used when the pronoun is compounded with another. 
 
 Supply in the blanks the correct form of any pronoun you 
 choose except "you": 1. and ate a whole pie. 2. - and 1 
 were the only ones who passed. 
 
 b. Using the double negative to den/; as, "There isn't nobody 
 here" for "There isn't anybody here". Never use the double 
 negative when you mean to deny. If you have already used a 
 negative in the sentence, use "any", "anything", or "anybody", 
 following it, not "no", "nothing", or "nobody".
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 5 
 
 Supply in the blanks the right form: 1. I haven't (got) 
 clothes to wear. ("Got" may be used in conversation, though not 
 in writing. However, it is better to omit it.) 2. She didn't win 
 
 prize. 3. You 1 haven't (got) right to interfere in the game, 
 
 more than I have. 1. It isn't (of) use to tell him. 5. It 
 isn't going to make noise. 6. It isn't such thing. 7. It isn't 
 (of) use trying. 8. There isn't the matter with you. 
 l j. I haven't (got) to do. 
 
 c. The use of "seen" for "saw" in the past tense; as, "I seen 
 him just a minute ago" for "I saw him". 
 
 Supply the right form: 1. What do you think I in the 
 hall just now? 2. The teacher me doing it, so I stopped. 
 3. You needn't hide your hand, 1 what you had. 
 
 d. The use of "done" for "did" in the past tense; as, "He done 
 me a good turn" for "He did". 
 
 Supply the right form: 1. I as well as I could. 2. He 
 a poor piece of work on that house. 3. I'll tell you what I this 
 morning. 
 
 e. The use of "have went" for "have gone"; as, "You ought 
 to have went with us" for "You ought to have gone". 
 
 Supply the right form: 1. I know I oughtn't to have to the 
 circus. 2. John has just out of the room. 3. The team has 
 already to the park. 
 
 f. The use of "good" for "well"; as, "The orchestra played 
 good" for "played well". The test is always as follows: if the verb 
 indicates action, use "well", not "good". 
 
 Supply "good" or "well": 1. I didn't sleep very last night. 
 2. I didn't play at all in today's game. 3. Your coat fits you 
 pretty , doesn't it? 
 
 "Well" is sometimes an adjective meaning "in good health"; 
 it should be used in this sense after the verb "feel", instead of 
 "good". "Well" should also be used with the verb "look" in the 
 idiomatic expression "look well". The following IB the correct 
 usage: "He feels well and he looks well, because he sleeps well.' 
 "That picture looks well in that place." 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 Write four sentences illustrating each of the six cases just 
 discussed. (Twenty-four sentences in all).
 
 ti ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Lesson II. 
 
 Tell or write an account of some incident or experience of 
 your summer vacation, introducing several examples of the correct 
 usage of the forms discussed in Lesson I. 
 
 Lesson III. Some More Pitfalls of Grammar. 
 
 Though the errors in Lesson I are perhaps the most shocking, 
 still no educated person should permit himself to fall into the 
 following bad usages: 
 
 a. The use of "don't", for "doesn't", with "he", "she", or "it" 
 as the subject; as, "He don't study his lessons", for "He doesn't 
 study". If yot; are in doubt, expand the contracted form; as, "It 
 doesn't (does not) make any difference". Not even those who say 
 "It don't" would think of saying "It do not"; yet "don't" means 
 "do not". 
 
 Supply "doesn't" or "don't": . 1. She says she care, so I 
 care either. 2. Why he come; it's late. 3. The book say 
 anything about it. 
 
 b. Singular for plural number of the verb, especially with a 
 compound subject, or when the sentence is introduced by 'tthere", 
 or with "you" as subject; as, "There was a dog and a cat in the 
 house", for "There were". "Where was you all the time", for 
 "Where were you". 
 
 Supply the right form of the verb "to be": 1. An old man 
 and his son coming down the street. 2. I thought there more 
 apples in the dish. 3. What you doing in the assembly room? 
 4. There n't any more girls to go. 
 
 c. Plural verb or pronoun for the singular, when the subject 
 is "every", or "each", or a compound of any of these words; as, "Let 
 everyone study their lessons", for "his lesson". "Each of the boys 
 are expected to play", for "is expected". 
 
 Supply the right form: 1. Every one of the girls invited to 
 bring mother (s). 2. If every one will get out note book, 
 will see the note on page 6. 3. Has everybody brought book 
 to the class? 
 
 d. Nominative form of the pronoun for the objective, when 
 the pronouns are joined by "and" or "or" after verbs and preposi-
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 7 
 
 tions; as, "Between you and I", for "Between you and me". 
 "Mother spoke to you and he", for "you and him". This error 
 arises no doubt from trying to avoid the error of Lesson I (a). 
 Knowing that the combination "him and me" is wrong when used 
 as subject, pupils think it is always wrong. This, of course, is a 
 mistake; when used as object "him and me" is the correct form. 
 The test here is to drop out one of the pronouns; whatever is the 
 right form for one pronoun used alone is right for the two used 
 together. 
 
 Supply the correct forms, using any pronoun but "you"; 
 
 1. Mother gave the book to Brother and . 2. Father wants 
 you and to come home early. 3. John and Mary own the pony 
 together ; their uncle gave it to both and . 
 
 e. "Lay" for "lie", "laying" for "lying", "laid" for "lay" or 
 "lain"; as, "Lay down, Carlo", for "Lie down, Carlo". "The book is 
 laying on the shelf" for "is lying on the shelf". This is a common, 
 but very unrefined form of error, and one who is liable to it should 
 make every effort to avoid it. "Lie" and its forms (lay, lain) take 
 no object after them. "Lay" and its forms (laid, laid) always 
 take an object. Never use the forms "laying", "is laying", or "laid" 
 without an object, and remember that "down" is an adverb, not 
 an object. If you mean "did lie", use "lay" or "was lying", not 
 "laid". 
 
 Supply the right form: 1. We down to sleep where the 
 campers had the night before. 2. Let's down here. 3. Sh-h, 
 down, I see a bear. 4. Gyp is ing before the fire; let him 
 there, poor fellow; I have a rug on the floor for him to on. 
 
 f. "Set" for "sit" or "sat"; as, "Let's set down", for "Let's sit 
 down.'. "Set" and its forms (set, set) require an object; "sit" and 
 its forms (sat, sat) do not. Never use "set", except in the case 
 of the sun, without an object. 
 
 Supply the right form: 1. How long hare you been ing here? 
 
 2. He on the rock all day fishing. 3. the bowl on the table. 
 4. It is already ing there. 5. Your new coat doesn't well 
 on your shoulders. 
 
 g. "Raise" for "rise", and "raised" for "rose" or "risen", as, 
 "The river has raised over night", for "has risen". A very common 
 error. "Raise" and its forms (raised, raised) always require an 
 object. If there is no object, use rise, rose, or risen. 
 
 Supply the right form: 1. I believe the water a foot today. 
 2. The frost has the walk. 3. The bread won't . 4'. See, 
 how the river has .
 
 8 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 h. "Come" for "came" and "run" for "ran", in the past tense; 
 as, "He come to town and run all the way", for "He came and ran". 
 
 Supply the right form: 1. I just in a minute ago. 2. He 
 the car at full speed as he round the corner. 
 
 i. "Will" for "shall" and "would" for "should", with subjects 
 "I" or "we" when mere prediction is intended; as, "I know I will 
 be ill", for "I shall be". Do not say "I, or we, will or would" unless 
 you mean to promise or to state your determination. If the action 
 is beyond your control, use "shall or should" with "I" or "we". 
 Always use "I or we shall or should" before "be glad", "be pleased", 
 "be obliged", "appreciate", "be sorry", "regret". 
 
 Supply the right form: 1. I fear I be late. 2. If I don't 
 study harder, I fail in my examinations. 3. I be pleased to 
 meet your friend when he calls. 4. If you would come, I be 
 very much obliged and appreciate it as a favor. 
 
 j. Use of the adjective for the adverb with verbs of action; 
 as, "You did fine", for "You did finely". Adjectives most often thus 
 misused are "regular", "steady", "easy", "beautiful", "fine", "grand", 
 "swift", for "regularly", "steadily", "easily", "beautifully", "finely", 
 etc. 
 
 Supply the right form of 1. "Steady." It rained all day. 
 2. "Easy". He gets his lesson so . 3. "Regular". He goes to 
 church pretty now. 4. "Rapid." The car went by so that 
 I couldn't tell the number. 5. "Fine". How are you getting along? 
 . If the verb is a verb indicating action, you must always use 
 the form in "ly". 
 
 k. "Those" or "these" "sort" or "kind", for "that" or "this" 
 "sort"; as, "I don't like those kind of peaches", for "that kind". 
 "Kind" and "sort" are singular and require a singular adjective. 
 
 Supply the right form: 1. I dislike kind of problems. 
 2. sort of people weary me. 
 
 1. "Like" for "as"; introducing a clause; as, "You don't do it 
 like I do", for "You don't do it as I do". "Like" governs a single 
 word and should not be followed by a clause with subject and verb. 
 If you use the clause, you must precede it with "as" or "as if". It 
 is correct to say, "He talks like his father", but you must say, "He 
 talked as his father used to talk," because the second verb, "used", 
 creates a clause, and this clause must be introduced by "as", not by 
 "like". 
 
 Supply "like" or "as" or "as if": 1. I can t sing I once sang. 
 2. You look you had been out all night. 3. She can't cook a 
 meal sister cooks them.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 9 
 
 m. The use of "broke" for "broken", "chose" for "chosen", 
 "drove" for "driven", "fell" for "fallen", "flew" for "flown", "froze" 
 for "frozen" "rode" for "ridden", "shook" for "shaken", "spoke" for 
 "spoken", "stole" for "stolen", "took" for "taken", "tore" for "torn", 
 "wore" for "worn", and "wrote" for "written" after "has" or 
 "have" or some form of the verb to be (as "am", "are", "is",) ; 
 as, "My watch is broke", for "is broken". 
 
 Supply the right form of each of these fourteen verbs in the 
 following sentence: "I have ", inserting after form of the verb 
 some words to complete the sentence; as, "I have (chosen) my 
 studies." 
 
 Lesson IV. 
 
 Write an account of a conversation in which two or more boys, 
 or girls, discuss a picnic.or a game of baseball, or some form of 
 social entertainment, which they have attended or are going to 
 attend. In writing this, introduce as many of the forms discussed 
 in Lesson III as possible. 
 
 Remember (1) that quotation marks must be placed after as 
 well as before, the completed remarks of each speaker; (2) that 
 interruptions like "said he", "George continued", must be set off by 
 commas and not quoted; (3) that the two parts of the quotation 
 thus interrupted must be surrounded by quotation marks. Example 
 "1 say, John," enquired Joseph, "where are you?" 
 
 Limit your narrative to 300 words. Plunge right into the midst 
 of it. Make it natural and spirited. 
 
 You might begin in some such way as this: They sat down on 
 the steps, laid their hats down, and at once started in. "Oh, Susie, 
 doesn't it seem good to be out of school", Maud began; "now we 
 can have all the picnics we want", etc. 
 
 Remember to introduce into your narrative compound pronoun 
 subjects and objects, "don't" or "doesn't", "everybody", forms of 
 "lie", "rise", "sit", "come", "run", and as many other of the forms 
 of Lesson III as you can introduce without making your story 
 artificial.
 
 10 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Lesson V. Errors in the Use of Words. 
 
 Another bad habit in language Is the habit of using certain 
 words that are either not good English words at all (Examples 
 "flunk", "ain't"), or that are not good English when that particular 
 meaning is applied to them (Examples "rubber" for "turn around", 
 "knock" for "find fault with"). Such expressions creep into daily 
 conversation and are very common, but all good authorities 
 condemn them, and the dictionaries brand them with certain special 
 marks. Expressions of this character are called Impurities. 
 
 Now. everyone should take a special pride in speaking and 
 writing pure English, and BO we shall consider briefly some of these 
 classes of impurities. We shall (1) name the class, (2) define or 
 explain it if necessary, (3) give some words as examples, and (4) 
 translate these words into pure English. 
 
 1. Slang. 
 
 Everyone knows what slang is. It consists of those catchy, 
 flippant, overworked expressions, of wide popular circulation, that 
 come and go, and that fill the daily speech of the uneducated or 
 the careless with names for all kinds of objects, qualities, or acts, 
 that are anything but the right names. Slang expressions have the 
 advantage of force and picturesqueness, and occasionally one may be 
 used for effect, if we quote it, in writing, or if we indicate by the 
 intonation of the voice, in speaking, that we do not take it seriously. 
 Nevertheless, the habit of using slang should be carefully guarded 
 against. The two great objections to its use are: 
 
 (a) It lowers the tone of our speech or writing; *, k V\A- 
 
 (b) It cripples our vocabulary; that is, if wev'get into the habit 
 of using slang, the slang expression comes into the mind for every 
 idea, and when we really want to use pure English, we cannot think 
 of a reputable term. 
 
 4 
 
 Give pure English equivalents for the following: 
 
 bawled out a date all in 
 
 flunk a bid some class to 
 
 punk stung bunc 
 
 bluff nerve fired 
 
 a pony batty rough house 
 
 a dub dippy sore 
 
 a mutt fierce bum 
 
 a jay rattled give him away 
 
 a guy smarty sit down on
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. li 
 
 guy chesty size him up 
 
 roast lobster give him the laugh 
 
 swell knock jolly him 
 
 a peach kick he's easy 
 
 peachy classy an easy mark 
 
 hot air a fake hand a lemon 
 
 grafter the limit four-flusher 
 
 good eats a feed the candy 
 
 2. Illiterate Expressions. 
 
 These are certain terms, or modes of expression, that we at 
 once recognize as being the result of a lack of education, or of 
 low and vulgar associations. 
 
 Avoid the following expressions: 
 
 ain't a widow lady leave me go 
 
 hadn't ought het up unbeknownst 
 
 disremember nohow afeared 
 
 heft our'n, your'n ten foot high, (feet) 
 
 everywheres onto weighs ten ton, (tons) 
 
 this here that there dark-complected 
 
 lady friend them books this way, lady 
 
 growed (grown) drawed (drawn) blowed (blown) 
 
 ketched (caught) bursted or busted knowed (known) 
 
 3. Unauthorized Abbreviations. 
 
 These are very common, but good authority is entirely against 
 them. All of them have a more or less flippant sound, and some 
 of them ("gents", for example) are vulgar. "Want ad" is a 
 technical newspaper word and may be used as such. "Gym" and 
 similar abbreviations are a kind of technical school slang, perhaps 
 allowable as one of the distinctive features of school life, when 
 used with moderation in conversation around the school itself; 
 but to use them constantly, or for the purpose of mystifying persons 
 who do not understand them, is affectation. "Phone" is convenient 
 for those who think that "telephone"' is too much trouble, and 
 "auto" is useful to those who call an automobile an "automobeel", 
 but neither abbreviations is authorized by the best usage. 
 
 The following are some of the most common of these unauthor- 
 ized abbreviations: 
 
 an ad phone way (away) 
 
 auto photo exam 
 
 doc gents gym 
 
 prof pants lit 
 
 pard most (almost) math 
 
 cap rep (reputation) lab (laboratory)
 
 12 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 4h Words Formed without Authority or Newly Coined Words. 
 These are expressions that have been coined, often by news- 
 paper or magazine writers, to meet some immediate demand of 
 condensed phrasing, or to name some new condition or object. 
 Until they are accepted by good authority, they will have to be 
 avoided. 
 
 Examples follow. Translate them into pure English, 
 orate walkist 
 
 resurrect talkist 
 
 laborite singist 
 
 enthuse function (social gathering) 
 
 a steal burglarize 
 
 a combine to suicide 
 
 Sundayed oslerize (chloroform as useless) 
 
 well posted postal (post card) 
 
 stand-patter balance (for rest) 
 
 stand-patism muck-raker 
 
 5. Colloquialisms. 
 
 These are words or expressions that are not permitted in 
 written composition, but are heard frequently in conversation, where 
 there use is allowable on the ground of ease and naturalness. 
 Examples are: 
 
 don't aren't have got (for "have") 
 
 doesn't won't guess (for "think") 
 
 can't a couple (of dollars) a lot of 
 
 6. Miscellaneous. 
 
 The classes of words mentioned in the preceding paragraphs 
 are called Barbarisms. Other classes of barbarisms, which however 
 are not likely to trouble us so much, are Provincialisms (expressions 
 peculiar to a certain restricted region, as, "carry" for "escort,'' 
 Southern) ; Obsolete words (expressions gone out of use, as 
 "whilom" for "formerly") ; and Foreign words (examples, "beau 
 monde" for "fashionable society", "per se" for "in itself"). 
 
 IMPROPRIETIES. 
 
 There are certain words, perfectly good in themselves, that 
 ignorant or careless speakers and writers are continually misusing 
 for other words that have a somewhat similar meaning or sound. 
 Such an incorrect use of a good English word is called an 
 Impropriety. An impropriety differs from a barbarism, or impurity, 
 In that an impropriety is the wrong use of a word, while a 
 barbarism is the use of a wrong word. For example, when we say 
 "gentlemen's waiting-room", meaning "men's waiting-room", we
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 13 
 
 commit an impropriety; when we say "gent's waiting-room" for 
 
 "men's waiting-room", we commit a barbarism, for "gent" is itself 
 
 a forbidden word. 
 
 The following words are often used improperly; distinguish 
 
 between the meanings of the words in each pair or group, and 
 
 write sentences illustrating these distinctions. 
 
 all of, whole of character, reputation 
 
 affect, effect deceased, diseased 
 
 accept, except plenty, plentiful 
 
 expect, suspect, suppose Professor, Mr. 
 
 learn, teach most, almost 
 
 may, can in, into 
 
 female, woman, lady last, latest 
 
 some, somewhat, something farther, further 
 
 except, unless, without last, latest 
 
 people, parties, persons mad, angry 
 
 all ready, already alumni, alumni reception 
 
 all together, altogether like, as 
 
 amount, number, quantity as, so 
 
 recollect, remember stop, stay 
 
 Lesson VI. The Structure of Sentences. 
 
 Every high school student knows what a sentence is, at least, 
 theoretically. He has for years written sentences, analyzed them, 
 and manipulated them in various ways; yet here again we find the 
 same old troubles in the themes of even advanced students. 
 
 The chronic diseases of sentences, if care is not taken in their 
 construction, are the following: 
 
 1. They "ramble on" after the thought is reaJly complete. 
 Instead of closing with a period at the end of a completed thought 
 the writer jots down a comma, and goes glibly on with what ought 
 to be a new sentence, including it in the preceding sentence without 
 a connecting conjunction. Example: "We then rode on to town, 
 when we got there we tied our horses at the village store, the 
 proprietor was out in front, he asked us to come in". (Correct this 
 sentence by inserting periods or conjunctions in the proper places). 
 
 2. Thoughts (clauses) that do not belong together, because 
 they are not closely related or because their relationship is not 
 carefully indicated, are placed in the same sentence. Example: 
 "When we are absent from school, we have to make up our lessons
 
 14 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 the next day, and we study Latin, geometry, English, and history." 
 Make two sentences of this, or reconstruct it so as to show some 
 relationship between the clauses; thus, "We study Latin, geometry, 
 English, and history. When we are absent from school, we have to 
 make up our lessons the next day". Or thus, "We study Latin, 
 geometry, English, and history, and let me tell you it is no small 
 task to make up such studies on the day after one has been absent, 
 as we have to do in this school." The expressions indicated by 
 heavier type serve to create some relationship between the other- 
 wise apparently unrelated clauses. Still, this second method is 
 hardly so good as the first for the sentence just quoted. 
 
 3. The sentence ends too soon, and expressions such as 
 relative clauses, "also" clauses, and participial phrases, which ought 
 to be included in the one sentence, are added as new sentences. 
 Examples: "We made a roaring fire of brushwood. Which was 
 pretty comfortable after our long, cold ride". Corrected, "We made 
 with, brushwood a roaring fire, which was pretty comfortable after 
 our long, cold ride." Or better, "We made a roaring fire of brush- 
 wood. This fire was pretty comfortable after our long, cold ride." 
 "The soldiers still marched on and on into the forest. The sun 
 having set several hours before." Corrected: "The soldiers still 
 marched on and on into the forest, though the sun had set several 
 hours before." "We got thoroughly wet. Also the wind blew our 
 hats away." Corrected: "We got thoroughly wet, and to add to OUT 
 troubles, the wind blew our hats away." Avoid introducing either 
 a new sentence or a clause by means of "also". "Also" must either 
 be avoided entirely, or must follow some other word in its clause. 
 
 4. The clauses of the sentence are badly connected, from lack 
 of conjunctions or conjunctive expressions. You will be surprised 
 how nicely an apparently loose and disconnected sentence will be 
 "straightened out" by the insertion of just a little conjunction, 
 provided it is the right conjunction. Example: "We were tardy 
 this morning, we had to stay after school." Insert "and so" before 
 the second "we". 
 
 Now all these "diseases" of the sentence may be cured by the 
 exercise of a little care and common sense, and by the observance 
 of a few simple directions. 
 
 1. Every sentence is a complete assertion, question, or com- 
 mand, having as its Base (a) a Subject, and (b) a Predicate, which 
 asserts, questions, or commands with reference to the subject. 
 The predicate must be a finite verb, not a participle or an infinitive. 
 The sentence must have this subject and this finite verb, and these 
 in turn may be modified by words, phrases, or clauses (other 

 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 15 
 
 sentences connected with the main sentences by subordinating 
 conjunctions), provided these modifiers really have a near enough 
 relation to the sentence to be included in it. 
 
 2. Some sentences have two or more independent bases, which, 
 with their modifiers, are connected by co-ordinating conjunctions. 
 Such sentences are called compound sentences. Do not, however, 
 make a compound sentence unless you feel that the relationship 
 between the two independent thoughts is sufficiently close to 
 warrant their being placed in the same sentence. 
 
 3. When you' have written down what you feel to be a complete 
 thought, and what sounds like a complete sentence when you read 
 it aloud, stop the sentence, insert a period, and then go on with the 
 next sentence, beginning it with a capital letter. A person whose 
 mind works logically ought, to be able to tell when one thought ends, 
 and a new thought begins. Be careful about this. Test by both 
 thought and sound. 
 
 4. Be sure to keep out of the same sentence thoughts that 
 are not closely related. Thoughts may be placed in the same 
 sentence if they are related in any of the following ways: the 
 second thought a repetition, a continuation, a cause, a consequence, 
 of the preceding thought, or a contrast with it, or associated with 
 it in time or place. 
 
 5. However, even if the thoughts are related by any of the 
 relationships indicated in (4), still, generally this relationship has 
 to be shown by such conjunctions as "and", to show repetition or 
 continuation; "but", to show contrast; "therefore", "and so", to 
 show consequence; "oecause", "for", "since'', to show cause. 
 Be careful to use enough conjunctions and the right conjunctions. 
 Do not, however, make the sentence too long by stringing out 
 clause after clause, even though conjunctions are used. Especially 
 avoid introducing "and", more than once in connecting co-ordinate 
 clauses in the same sentence. It is better in such cases to divide 
 the one sentence into several. 
 
 Examples: "The band was playing, the crowd was gathering 
 in the park." Insert "and". The class were all present, the 
 teacher was not there." Insert "but". "The day was rainy, we did 
 not have a good time." Insert "and so". "We were happy, 
 examinations \\ere over." Insert "for". Another way to improve 
 such sentences is to use a semicolon in place of the comma. 
 When that is done the conjunction is not necessary. In pome 
 cases, however, it is almost necessary to use a conjunction instead 
 of the semicolon.
 
 16 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 EXERCISES. 
 
 1. Write a sentence containing four clauses, and beginning 
 "The bell rang ." 
 
 2. Write a sentence containing two contrasted thoughts; a 
 sntence containing two thoughts, one the consequence of the other; 
 a sentence containing two thoughts, one the cause of the other; 
 a sentence containing three thoughts belonging to the same scene. 
 
 3. Divide the following into its component sentences: The 
 high school course is divided into four years of thirty-eight weeks 
 each recitation periods are forty-five minutes long and there are 
 five recitations a week in each study to complete the course one 
 must secure thirty-two credits a credit represents a term's work in 
 one full subject. 
 
 Lesson VII. 
 
 Write a narrative of what you did yesterday. You might 
 call it "The History of a Day," or "A Day's Happenings". Do not 
 exceed 300 words or so. Make this a study in careful construction 
 and connection of sentences. Be careful about your conjunctions. 
 Test all your sentences by reading them aloud to yourself. If by 
 the sound and the sense, a sentence seems to be ended where you 
 have placed a comma, investigate and see if you ought not to 
 substitute a period for the comma, and begin a new sentence with 
 a capital letter. Do not neglect to use such conjunctive or 
 reference expressions as "after this", "when I had ", "then, too", 
 "in this way", "however", and the like. Still do not overdo the 
 matter of conjunctions; there is a happy medium between "sad" 
 cake and burnt cake. 
 
 Lesson VIII. --More About the Sentence. 
 
 After one has by practice acquired a sensitive feeling for what 
 ought and what ought not to be in a sentence, one is prepared to 
 investigate the internal structure of the sentence and to see how 
 its various parts may be arranged so as to express the thought 
 most clearly. For above all things, assuming that everything is 
 grammatically correct, clearness is the great aim of expression. We 
 speak and we write that others may receive our thought, and it
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 17 
 
 is our duty so to express ourselves that this thought may be 
 received with the least effort on the part of our readers or hearers. 
 
 Lack of clearness may be due to the fact that a sentence is 
 capable of two meanings. Such a sentence is said to be ambiguous. 
 
 Here are a few directions for securing clearness and avoiding 
 ambiguity: 
 
 1. Put related elements of the sentence near together, or at 
 least in such positions relative to each other that their relationship 
 will be plain. Such "related elements" are (a) subject and verb, 
 (b) verb and object, (c) pronoun and antecedent, (d) modified 
 expression and modifier. Test your sentences to see whether any 
 one of these elements is so misplaced that its relationship to others 
 is doubtful. 
 
 A. Ordinarily the natural order of words in the sentence 
 should be followed; that is, (1) Subject and modifiers; (2) verb; 
 (3) object and modifiers; (4) modifiers of verb. Whenever this 
 order is varied, as it often is for emphasis or variety, care should 
 be taken to preserve clearness. Example of natural order "The 
 king's daughter, rising from the throne, addressed the poor old 
 beggar kindly." 
 
 B. The antecedent of every pronoun should be evident without 
 hesitation; hence the pronoun should be placed near its antecedent. 
 If the reference of a pronoun cannot be made clear, it is better to 
 repeat the antecedent or to use a synonyn of it, rather than to use 
 the pronoun. Examples: Not "It was the son of the gardner who 
 took his father's place", but "It was the gardner's son who took his 
 father's place". "The cat finally found a home with an old hen, 
 and no one abused her (?) after that". Better "The cat finally 
 found a home with an old hen, and no one abused Pussy after that." 
 
 C. Modifiers should be placed next to the words they modify. 
 This is especially true of relative clauses and participial phrases. 
 We all know how ludicrous sentences become through the neglect 
 of this caution. For example: "Hanging on the wall, I saw a 
 picture", for "I saw a picture hanging on the wall". "I saw an old 
 soldier with his dog, who fought in the war of 1812". 
 
 D. Closely related to (C) are participial phrases that not only 
 are not near the words they modify, but that have no word at all to 
 modify. For example: "Turning the corner, a church came into 
 view". "Proceeding on our way, the sun finally set". "Turning" 
 and J 1<: proce<eding" modify nothing Uhat is .expressed in their 
 sentences. Such expressions have to be turned into clauses; as, 
 "When we turned the corner, we saw a church." "As we proceeded 
 on our way, the sun set".
 
 18 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 2. Another way to preserve cleariess is to express in the same 
 form elements having the same use in the sentence; that is, if 
 there are several coordinate modifiers, make them all word, or 
 phrase, or clause modifiers; do not mix the several forms if you can 
 help it. For example, not "He was a man of high ideals and who 
 loved his country", but "He was a man of high ideals and of 
 intense patriotism" both phrase modifiers; or "He was a man 
 who had high ideals and who loved his country" both clause 
 modifiers. 
 
 3. Finally, do not be afraid to repeat whatever is necessary 
 to make the sense clear, whether it be the article, the pronoun, 
 the antecedent, the verb, or the auxiliary. Examples: 1. The 
 secretary and treasurer were both present. Since there are two 
 individuals, repeat "the" before "treasurer". 2. I want you to 
 stay at my house and to entertain your friends. Repeat "I want" 
 after "and", if you mean that. 3. The teacher said that the pupil 
 must bring back his book. Substitute either "the teacher's" or 
 "the pupil's" for 'his", whichever you mean, or change to direct 
 discourse The teacher said to the pupil, "Bring back my (or your) 
 book." 4. I never have and I never will go to a skating rink. 
 Insert "gone" after "have"; or better "I never have gone to a 
 skating rink, and I never will go to one". 
 
 Now, there is nothing difficult about any of these suggestions 
 for good sentence construction, either in this lesson or in Lesson 
 VI. They are simple and easy to understand. All that is needed 
 is care, and a close revision of your sentence after you have 
 thought out your first expression of it. To get things right in this 
 world, no matter what they are, requires attention, carefulness, 
 and preseverance. The only way to acquire knowledge and skill, 
 whether it be in baseball or in composition, is (1) to observe and 
 learn accurately at the beginning; (2) to remember; (3) to 
 practice. 
 
 Lesson IX. 
 
 Write sentences illustrating each of the points brought out In 
 Lesson VIII, as follows: 
 
 1. One sentence illustrating the natural order of words in the 
 sentence. 
 
 2. One illustrating the natural order slightly varied for clear- 
 ness.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 19 
 
 3. Two illustrating the correct placing of pronoun and ante- 
 cedent. 
 
 4. Two illustrating faulty position of modifiers corrected. 
 
 5. Two illustrating "dangling" participial phrases corrected. 
 
 6. Two illustrating similarity in form of similar elements. 
 
 7. Two illustrating repetition of words for clearness. 
 
 Lesson X. The Paragraph 
 
 Most persons when they get to thinking about a subject, have 
 several thoughts about it, each of which is expressed In a sentence. 
 Such a group of sentences related to one another by their relation- 
 ship to a common subject, we all know, is called a Paragraph. 
 
 Unity of the Paragraph. 
 
 One of the first principles to remember in paragraphing is, that 
 a paragraph is not simply several sentences thrown together into 
 a group for mechanical effect, because somebody in authority thinks 
 a composition looks better when cut up into such groups. Not at 
 all. Every sentence in a paragraph should have to do with one 
 principal proposition called the Topic of the paragraph; and no 
 sentence has any right in the paragraph unless it serves to set 
 forth, explain, illustrate, repeat, or in some way enlarge upon the 
 topic. The topic is the father and the other sentences are the sons. 
 If somebody else's son creeps into a paragraph, he must be expelled 
 and must go seek his own father. This relationship of all the 
 sentences to the topic gives the paragraph what is called Unity. 
 Every paragraph, as well as every sentence, should have unity; 
 that is, be about one theme. 
 
 A paragraph generally contains (1) the topic sentence (that 
 is, a sentence stating the topic), though this is some times omitted, 
 especially in narration; and (2) other sentences explaining, illustrat- 
 ing, expanding, repeating, contrasting with, or proving, the topic- 
 sentence. 
 
 A paragraph begins with an indentation from the left, continues 
 through several sentences of the character just indicated until the 
 topic is developed, and ends like a sentence, and If possible with 
 an indentation from the right. 
 
 Tak one of your text books, turn to some page, and state the 
 topics of six paragraphs on that and subsequent pages.
 
 20 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Pick out one of these paragraphs that begins with a topic- 
 sentence, and then tell what office each subsequent sentence per- 
 forms; that is, whether it repeats, explains, illustrates, proves, 
 the topic- sentence. Try this with several paragraphs. 
 
 Lesson XL 
 
 In the following, first write the topic-sentence given, and then 
 write after each topic-sentence, sentences of the character indicated 
 in each case. Do not write whole paragraphs; simply write the 
 sentences specified. 
 
 1. Virtue it its own reward. (Two sentences explaining this). 
 
 2. The day was dark and gloomy. (Two sentences repeating 
 and adding details to this topic). 
 
 3. The bell rang the close of school. (Two sentences continu- 
 ing the narrative). 
 
 4. It pays to study one's lessons. (Two or more sentences 
 illustrating this topic). 
 
 5. Vacation is a joyful time. (One sentence contrasting with 
 this). 
 
 Lesson XII. Coherence of the Paragraph. 
 
 Coherence is a word of Latin derivation meaning a cleaving, 
 or sticking together, of parts; a suitable connection of the elements 
 that go to make up the whole thing. 
 
 A paragraph, like everything that is properly constructed, 
 should have not only unity, but coherence; that is, its sentences 
 should not only be about one topic, but they should also be put 
 together properly. 
 
 Coherence of the paragraph involves two things: (1) Proper 
 arrangement of the sentences; and (2) proper connection be- 
 tween them. 
 
 The arrangement of the sentences is determined by the 
 natural development of the thought through the paragraph. 
 Usually the topic-sentence comes first, though sometimes, for the 
 purpose of keeping the reader in suspense, it is saved till the last.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 21 
 
 After the topic-sentence, if necessary, may come a sentence 
 explaining it, or repeating it in different form. Illustrative 
 sentences would naturally follow explanatory sentences. Sentences 
 that show results or that prove, would naturally come toward the 
 end. Sometimes a paragraph begins with a preparatory sentence, 
 or one connecting it with the preceding paragraph, and ends with a 
 little summary of the substance of the paragraph. Care should 
 always be taken that like kinds of sentences be placed together; 
 that is, that explanatory sentences be placed with explanatory 
 sentences and not mixed in with illustrative sentences or proofs, 
 and so on. Consciously or unconsciously, we should plan the order 
 of sentences before beginning to write. However, in all of this try 
 not to make your paragraphs artificial; do not follow one set plan 
 always. Vary the arrangement of your sentences in different 
 paragraphs. After a time you will fall into the habit of logical 
 arrangement without very much conscious effort. 
 
 With the order of sentences settled, the next consideration 
 is, how properly to connect these sentences. This is very important. 
 If your paragraph sounds disconnected or "jerky," you' will be 
 surprised how readily it can be worked into unity and coherence 
 by a little attention to the connection between sentences. 
 
 The proper connection between the sentences may be secured 
 by: 
 
 1. Conjunctions or conjunctive phrases. 
 
 Examples: "He longed to excel in his studies and 
 dreamed of winning the Latin scholarship. Yet nature had not 
 endowed him, etc." "After school Josephus worked in a bakery 
 shop. Indeed, he was willing to do anything to work his way 
 through college." 
 
 2. Words of reference. 
 
 Example: "After school Josephus worked in a bakery 
 shop. In this way he managed to work his way through college/' 
 "He played golf and fished. These diversions kept him in good 
 health." 
 
 Such reference words serve to connect the two sen- 
 tences by directing the attention back to some expression in the 
 preceding sentence. 
 
 3. Repeating In the second sentence some word or Words 
 from the first. 
 
 Example: "His mind was quick to act. His thought 
 played about every subject with lightning-like rapidity." 
 
 4. Inverting the sentence order to point more directly to 
 some word in the preceding sentence.
 
 22 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Example: "Johnson decided to take up athletics at the 
 rery beginning. In athletics, he knew he could shine, though he 
 was not so sure about books." Here the phrase, "in athletics" is 
 hi verted from its natural place in order to bring it nearer to the 
 word "athletics" in the first sentence. This seems to bind the 
 sentences together more closely. 
 
 5. Sometimes no special devices are needed to show the 
 connection, the close relationship of the thought being sufficient 
 in itself. This, of course is really a more "artistic" way than to 
 resort to too many special devices, but one has to be very careful 
 that the connection is clear and unmistakable, if one omits the 
 connectives. 
 
 As a final suggestion with regard to the paragraph, it may 
 be observed that some variety in the structure of the different 
 sentences as to length and form, makes the paragraph less 
 monotonous and more pleasing to read. Long sentences may 
 alternate with short, compound or complex with simple, interroga- 
 tive with declarative. 
 
 In the paragraph from your text book that you consulted in 
 Lesson X, (1) Note in what order the sentences are arranged; 
 (2) describe the means by which the sentences of the paragraph 
 are connected. 
 
 Exercise. 
 
 In the following paragraph, rearrange the sentences and connect 
 them properly, so as to give the paragraph unity and coherence. 
 
 We started out. We were going to a picnic. It was a bright 
 day. The day was also warm. We were in a picnic wagon. The 
 day was bright, but it stormed before we got home. We reached 
 our destination about ten o'clock. We had a very pleasant time. 
 We left for home about eight o'clock in the evening. We spent 
 the day rowing, playing outdoor games, and gathering flowers. 
 The storm was very severe. 
 
 Lesson XIII. 
 
 Develop one of the following topic-sentences into a complete 
 paragraph. Make the topic-sentence the first sentence of your 
 paragraph and then follow it with the rest of the par graph : 
 
 1. The storm rose in all its fury.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 23 
 
 2. Three men were riding along through a dark forest. 
 
 3. Be true to your friends and sincere in everything. 
 
 4. The best athletic sport is . 
 
 5. It's an ill wind that blows no good. 
 
 6. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. 
 
 7. I remember well iny first day in high school. 
 
 Be careful to confine yourself to one paragraph, but 
 make it a paragraph of six or eight sentences. Look carefully to 
 its unity and coherence. 
 
 Lesson XIV. Punctuation Capitals. 
 
 It is not necessary in this little treatise to repeat all the 
 minute rules of punctuation. You have had them given to you time 
 and time again, and if you still make mistakes in punctuation, it 
 is because of forgetting or, more likely, of being careless. 
 
 For our present purpose it will be sufficient to cadi special 
 attention to certain troublesome usages, taking it for granted that 
 you are familiar with the ordinary rules of punctuation. 
 
 CAPITAL LETTERS. 
 
 I. Everybody knows that the following should be capitalized: 
 (1) the first word of every sentence; (2) the first word of every 
 complete line of poetry; (3) nouns and pronouns referring to the 
 Deity; (4) proper names and adjectives derived from them; 
 
 (5) the important words in titles of books and other publications: 
 
 (6) the names of the days of the week, of the months, and of 
 festivals, but not of the seasons; (7) the first word of a direct 
 quotation. 
 
 II. Note carefully the following directions: 
 
 1. Do not capitalize common nouns unless there is 
 some special reason for capitalizing them. It startles one to come 
 upon an unnecessary capital, as in this "He took the book and 
 placed it on the Piano." Such mistakes are shere carelessness. 
 
 2. A common noun is, however, capitalized under the 
 following conditions: 
 
 (a) When it has really become a proper noun by virtue of 
 being the name of some particular object as distinguished from 
 other objects of its kind, or of some historical event, or the like.
 
 24 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Examples: 1. Does she go to the High School or to the 
 Convent? (On the other hand, the following, also, is the correct 
 xvsage Is there a high school or a convent in this town?) 2. He 
 fought in the Revolution. Indeed he has fought in every revolution 
 that has occurred during his lifetime. 3. The Reformation began 
 in the sixteenth century. (Note that custom does not capitalize 
 the names of centuries.) 
 
 (b) When it is joined to a proper noun as part of the name. 
 
 Examples: Washington Street, La Salle County, The War of 
 1812, the Illinois River, the Rocky Mountains, the Lincoln School, 
 Northwestern University, the Ottawa High School, the Boat Club. 
 
 (c) In both (a) and (b) usage differs. Generally every 
 newspaper or other publication has its own "style" with regard to 
 these points. However, to capitalize seems the more consistent 
 and less confusing practice. 
 
 3. There is no good reason for capitalizing the names 
 of college classes (senior, freshman) or the names of subjects in 
 the school course of study, such as rhetoric, algebra, history, unless 
 they are proper names like English, Latin, and German. Example: 
 I studied history, Latin, geometry, and English composition in my 
 sophomore year. 
 
 4. Titles of persons are capitalized when joined to 
 proper names; otherwise they are not capitalized, except in the 
 case of very high officials, like the president and his cabinet. 
 
 Example: Mayor Green has been mayor for six years. Who 
 is the commanding general? I think it is General Graves. I saw 
 the President at the White House. 
 
 5. When expressions are formally introduced, or 
 enumerated, or tabulated, the first word is generally capitalized, 
 the same as the first word of an independent sentence. 
 
 Examples: 1. Resolved, That the school session, etc. 
 
 2. My program is as follows: 
 
 First hour Algebra. 
 
 Second hour History 
 
 Third hour Study 
 
 Fourth hour English 
 
 3. The value of Latin study. 
 
 (a) Mental discipline 
 
 (b) Training in English 
 
 (c) General culture
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 25 
 
 6. The names of the points of the compass are not 
 capitalized, except when they indicate regions of a country. 
 
 Example: Not all of the states south of the Mason and 
 Dixon's Line joined the South in the Civil War. 
 
 Exercise. 
 
 Refer to some page of your history text book designated by 
 your teacher, and justify (i. e., show there is good reason for) the 
 use of all the capital letters on that and several subsequent pages. 
 
 Lesson XV. The Comma. 
 
 The comma has four principal functions: 
 
 I. It separates: 
 
 1. Words or phrases in a series, when not all the con- 
 junctions are expressed. 
 
 Ex. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are elementary studies. 
 Algebra, geometry, bookkeeping, are high school studies. Calculus 
 and sociology and astronomy are college subjects. 
 
 Note When all of the conjunctions are omitted but the last, 
 the commas should still be inserted before the conjunctions, as in 
 the sentence, "Reading, writing, and arithmetic are elementary 
 studies." This is the best usage and should be followed. If the 
 words are not really in a series, but each modifies all of the 
 expression that follows, no commas are used. Ex. "She bought a 
 pair of long black silk gloves." "Long" modifies "black silk gloves." 
 
 2. Clauses of a compound sentence, when the con- 
 junction is expressed. Ex. "John goes to night school, and his 
 sister, Mary, helps him with his studies." But "John goes to night 
 school and is assisted by his sister, Mary." Note that the second 
 sentence is not compound, but simply has a compound predicate. 
 If a new subject follows the conjunction (as, "sister" in the first 
 sentence) insert the comma; if not, omit the comma. 
 
 II. It sets off (from the rest of the sentence) 
 
 1. Parenthetical expressions, if brief and fairly close 
 of connection. 
 
 Ex. His story, to speak plainly, was false. 
 
 2. Short introductory expressions not closely con- 
 nected with what follows.
 
 26 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Ex. Well, I think there is no doubt of it. Yes, I will 
 go. Why, you have made a mistake. 
 
 3. Vocative expressions (names of objects addressed). 
 Ex. There, sir, you have finally passed. Please read, 
 
 Charles. Father, please, father, come home. 
 
 4. Appositives (words in apposition) unless practically 
 incorporated with the words they modify, or unless they are 
 general titles preceding a proper name, or unless they are pronouns. 
 
 Ex. Moloch, the second speaker, pleaded for war. 
 Peter the Great instituted sweeping reforms. Queen Elizabeth 
 never married. The poet Longfellow lived at Cambridge. The 
 President himself entered the room. We girls all passed. 
 
 5. The clause that introduces a short quotation, 
 whether actually introductory (at the beginning), or at the end, 
 or parenthetical (dividing the quotation). 
 
 Ex. He said, "I will return in a few months. But you 
 must know," he continued, "that it will be no easy task." "I fully 
 realize that," said the boy in front. 
 
 6. Unrestrictive modifiers, whether phrases or clauses. 
 This is one of the most important rules for the comma 
 
 and should be carefully noted. If you have mastered the difference 
 between a restrictive and an unrestrictive modifier, you have 
 mastered the secret of the right use of the comma in a large 
 number of cases. A restrictive modifier is one that is necessary to 
 identify the modified word. It answers the question "which" or 
 "what" placed before the modified word. An unrestrictive modifier 
 is merely additional of explanatory. It could be omitted and you 
 could still identify the modified object. If the modifier is restrictive, 
 do not use commas. If it is unrestrictive, commas must be used. 
 
 Ex. These are the books that you ordered. The books 
 lying on the table are mine, the books on the shelf ar'e yours. 
 (These modifiers all answer the question "which books," are 
 necessary to identify the books, are restrictive, and therefore are 
 not set off by commas. 
 
 Further examples: 
 
 Un restrictive. The old man, taking a seat by the window, 
 began. , 
 
 Restrictive. That old man taking a seat by the window ia 
 Grimes. 
 
 Unrestrictive. This peculiar old house, which Jack built, IB 
 famous in story. (Identified by "this peculiar old"; the clause 
 "which Jack built" is unnecessary for identification.)
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 27 
 
 Restrictive. (1) The house that Jack built is famous in story. 
 ("That Jack built" is necessary to indicate what house you mean. 
 Hence it is restrictive and must not be set off by commas. 
 
 (2) This is the cow that tossed the dog that worried 
 the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house 
 that Jack built. (Nc commas used, because all the clauses are 
 needed to identify the objects they modify.) 
 
 Un restrictive. He goes to school, where he is kept out of 
 mischief. 
 
 Restrictive. He goes to a school where he is kept out of 
 mischief. 
 
 Note. Sometimes a clause that is really restrictive is set 
 off by commas when it is inverted in the sentence or is some 
 distance from the word it modifies. 
 
 Ex. When he feels so disposed, he goes to school. But He 
 goes to school when he feels so disposed. The cow with the 
 crumpled horn, that tossed the dog. 
 
 III. It indicates omission especially of the verb, in contracted 
 expressions. 
 
 Ex. During our first year we study algebra and ancient history; 
 during the second year, geometry and modern history. 
 
 IV. It is used to preserve clearness or make the meaning 
 plain, where no definite rule applies. 
 
 Examples: (1) Before a verb when the subject is remote 
 and another verb intervenes ''The man who perseveres and who 
 keeps persevering, will succeed. (2) To indicate that a modifier 
 applies to only one of several words "The man, and the woman 
 with the baby-carriage, were nearly run over." "rie fell, and rose 
 easily." The modifiers, "with a baby-carriage" and "easily", modify 
 only "woman" and "rose"; they and the words they modify are 
 therefore set off by commas to Indicate that they do not also modify 
 "man" and "fell." 
 
 EXERCISES. 
 
 Punctuate, and give reasons for the use of commas and capitals: 
 
 1. come albert and bring your note book pen and ink 
 
 2. I went down the road he said and seated by the fence 1 
 saw an old tramp. 
 
 3. the man sitting on the fence was a tramp. 
 
 4. the old man slowly seating himself on the fence said 1 will 
 go no further.
 
 28 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 5. that brick hou'se over there which my father built is forty 
 years old 
 
 6. my old college friend John Jackson is here 
 
 7. my friend Jackson is here 
 
 8. we could not cross the bridge being down. 
 
 9. this i hope will keep you busy yes i know it will 
 
 10. you are going to Chicago and will return tomorrow 
 
 11. you are going to Chicago and so i will return tomorrow 
 
 12. good morning sir he said are you well strong and hearty 
 
 13. this is my brothers report card which he thought he had lost 
 
 14. some of the students said that it was white others that it 
 was yellow 
 
 Lesson XVI. 
 
 I. Turn to some page of your history text book designated by 
 your teacher, and explain the uses of all the commas on that and 
 the next page. 
 
 II. Punctuate the following, paragraphing, also where 
 necessary : 
 
 Utopia Illinois november 2 1909 
 my dear mother 
 
 it is a cold gloomy and stormy day as i sit here at my window 
 and begin my regular weekly letter home looking from my window 
 i see a few discouraged pedestrians who have been bold enoiJgh to 
 face the storm that almost overwhelms them the wind seems to say 
 stay in the house you foolish people but .evidently they have 
 business abroad well i have got pretty well started in my work 
 at the Utopia high school and begin to feel entirely at home the 
 school certainly offers a good course of study and i mean to get 
 as much out of it as i can excuse this blot my pen slipped 
 how are father and joe are they still in the country gracious the 
 clock is striking six and i must go down to supper or i will miss 
 out at the first table i am feeling very well indeed as i hope you 
 all are with much love to all of you not forgetting fido as ever 
 your devoted daughter grace
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 29 
 
 Lesson XVII. Other Punctuation Marks. 
 
 We shall not go into minute detail at present in the matter of 
 other punctuation marks than the comma, but we shall consider a 
 few simple usages. 
 
 The Semicolon. 
 
 1. Separates clauses of a compound sentence when the con- 
 junctions are omitted. 
 
 Example. The day was rainy; we did not have a good 
 time. (See Lesson VI, Section 5.) 
 
 2. Separates clauses of a compound sentence even when con- 
 junctions are expressed, if the clauses are rather long or are them- 
 selves cut up by commas. 
 
 Example. The student who studies Latin, other things 
 being equal, will generally excel in his English; but the student 
 who picks out what he considers easy studies will usually fail 
 even in these. 
 
 3. Separates clauses connected by such conjunctive adverbs 
 as "therefore", "hence", "then", "however", and the like. 
 
 Example. I did not study during the year; therefore 
 you behold these tears at examination time. 
 
 4. Precedes "as", "namely", "viz." 
 
 Example. There are three branches of the subject; 
 namely, civics, economics, and sociology. 
 
 5. Separates dependent expressions, having a common de- 
 pendence. 
 
 Example. He maintained that such a course Was 
 unnecessary; that, furthermore, it was impolitic; and that it would 
 lead to disastrous results. 
 
 The Colon. 
 The colon is used 
 
 1. Mainly as a means of formal introduction. It see'ms to 
 say "as follows", bei'ore a statement, a quotation, an enumeration, 
 or the like, when formally introduced. 
 
 Example. The comma has four important functions: 
 to separate, to set off, etc. His statement was as follows: I wish 
 to present the following resolutions: 
 
 2. Sometimes to separate clauses, themselves subdivided by 
 semicolons.
 
 SO ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 The Dash, 
 
 The dash is used 
 
 1. To mark an abrupt break in the sentences. 
 
 Example. I want to see why, where did you come 
 from? 
 
 2. Before an expression that sums up what has preceded. 
 
 Example. Home, family, friends, business interests, 
 all these he gave up for the cause. 
 
 3. Before an afterthought, added abruptly. 
 
 Example. He was a perfect orator a second edition 
 of Webster, so to speak. 
 
 4. In various ways to introduce examples, illustrations, 
 enumerations, tables, etc., especially if the sentence ends on one 
 line and the enumeration follows on the next. 
 
 For example, see the first sentence under this section. 
 
 5. Some students think that the dash may be used for almost 
 any mark of punctuation, and so they sprinkle their compositions 
 freely with dashes where commas, or even periods, ought to be. 
 This, of course, is absurd. 
 
 Parentheses. 
 
 Marks of parenthesis are used to set off parenthetical matter 
 that is too disconnected to be set off by commas. Very frequently 
 dashes are used in place of parenthesis marks. 
 
 Two points need a little attention: 
 
 1. Whatever mark would be required in the sentence after 
 the word immediately preceding the paranthesis if there were no 
 parenthesis, should be placed after the second parenthesis mark, 
 not before the parentheses or within them. 
 
 Example. He told me his whole history, of his own 
 accord (you know I wouldn't ask him), and I told him your history 
 in return. 
 
 2. Do not use the marks of parenthesis to "strike out", or 
 cancel, a word or expression. Draw a line through the expression 
 instead. 
 
 Example. Incorrect I want to (take) bring my dog 
 with me. Draw a line through 'take" Instead of using parentheses.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 31 
 
 Quotation Marks. 
 
 1. For the main rule for quotation marks, see Leson IV. 
 
 2. Whether a question or an exclamation mark should be placed 
 before or after the quotation marks when both follow the same 
 word, depends upon whether the question or exclamation mark 
 belongs to the quotation or to the sentence containing the quotation. 
 
 Example. He cried out "Where are you?" The 
 question mark belongs to the quotation. Did he cry out, "I am 
 struck"? Here the question mark belongs to the sentence, not to 
 the quotation. 
 
 3. Do not quote an indirect quotation. 
 
 Incorrect He said "that none but boys could come in." 
 Correct He said that none but boys could come In. 
 
 Miscellaneous Marks. 
 
 Without going into an extended discussion let us note a few 
 cautions regarding other punctuation marks. 
 
 1. Be sure to use the apostrophe, when the noun is in in the 
 possessive case, and be sure to notice whether your noun is singular 
 or plural. Of course in the latter case, as you know, the apostrophe 
 follows the s, if the plural ends in "s". If the plural does not 
 end in "s", and in the singular, the apostrophe precedes the "s". 
 
 Example. Boys' and men's clothing. A lady's hand- 
 kerchief. Illinois Teachers' Association. 
 
 Always form your nominative plural first, before adding the 
 apostrophe. 
 
 Example. Ladies' gloves (not ladie's gloves). 
 
 2. If the singular ends in "s", the possessive is formed, not 
 by putting an apostrophe before the "s," but by placing after the 
 "s" either the apostrophe or the apostrophe and "s". 
 
 Either Dickens' works, or Dickens's works, but not 
 Dicken's works. Mr. Hughes's dog. 
 
 3. No apostrophe is used in its, yours, hers, theirs, or ours. 
 
 4. In using the Hyphen, never divide a monosyllable. 
 Especially be careful to avoid dividing the ed from the rest of the 
 word at the end of a line, when the whole word is a monosyllable 
 like "turned", "walked", "forced", and the like.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Lesson XVIII. 
 
 Turn to some page of one of your text books designated by 
 your teacher and explain the uses of all the punctuation marks on 
 that and the next page. Be able to rewrite the pages correctly 
 punctuated, when your teacher dictates them to you. 
 
 Lesson XIX. 
 
 Write a composition of 300 or 400 words on "My Troubles with 
 Punctuation Marks", or "My Chief Sins in Punctuation", or "The 
 Punctuation Marks Go on a Picnic", or "Mrs Comma Entertains in 
 Honor of Mrs. Period", or a similar subject, in which you can 
 incidentally or otherwise introduce some of the rules of punctuation. 
 
 Lesson XX.-- Spelling. 
 
 Some persons maintain that the ability to spell well is a natural 
 gift, and that there are some very intelligent persons who can 
 never learn to spell. This latter statement is foolish; all persons 
 of intelligence can learn to spell. 
 
 Any one can learn to spell with reasonable correctness, if he 
 will 
 
 (1) Acquire a clear-cut and certain understanding of the 
 phonetic (sound) value of letters. 
 
 (2) Develop correct habits af (a) observing; (b) remembering; 
 (c) practicing the spelling of words. 
 
 (3) Learn and remember a few rules or cautions with respect 
 to the spelling of certain types of words as follows: 
 
 RULES, OR CAUTIONS. 
 
 1. Pronunciation. Note carefully certain words in which 
 letters or syllables are frequently mispronounced, slurred, or 
 inserted, in speaking.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 33 
 
 Examples. Laboratory, government, temperament, 
 temperature, history, nominative, beneficent, sacrilegious, athletics, 
 tremendous, portentous, covetous, mischievous. 
 
 2. Derivation. Attention to the derivation of certain words 
 will fix their spelling in the mind. 
 
 Examples. Dis-appoint, dis-appear, dis-satisfied, (all 
 formed with "dis" prefixed to a complete English word), re-com- 
 mend, preparation (prepare), desperate ("spero", hope), de-scribe 
 (scribeo-write; de-down). 
 
 3. Transposing of letters. In some words there seems to be 
 a perverse tendency to transpose, or change the position of, certain 
 letters; note carefully the exact spelling of such words, and in what 
 syllables the troublesome letters occur. 
 
 Examples. Permanent, tragedy, religion, origin, origi- 
 nal, deity, maintenance. 
 
 4. Repeated letters. In some words where letters or syllables 
 are repeated, careless people sometimes omit the repetition. 
 
 Examples. Possession, assassinate, repetition. 
 
 5. FJnal "y" before suffix. 
 
 (a) Before any suffix except "i", final "y" after a 
 consonant changes to "i". Examples. Married, marriage, merri- 
 ment; but- marrying. 
 
 (b) Before any suffix, final "y" after a vowel remains 
 "y". Examples. Playing, played, playful, employment. 
 
 6. Final "e," silent. 
 
 (a) Is dropped before a suffix beginning with a vowel. 
 Examples. Tame, taming; mate, mating. 
 
 (b) Is retained before a suffix beginning with a con- 
 sonant. 
 
 Examples. Use-ful, pale-ness. 
 
 (c) Exceptions. 
 
 (1) Termination "ie" changes to "y" before "I"; 
 Example. Die, dying. 
 
 (2) Termination "ce" and "ge" retain "e" before 
 "a," "o," "u," to preserve the soft sound of"c" and "g"; Examples, 
 Peace-able, courage-ous. 
 
 (3) "dge" drops "e" before "ment"; Example, 
 Judgment. 
 
 7. Doubled consonants. 
 
 (a) Monosyllables and polysyllables accented on
 
 34 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 the last syllable, ending in a single consonant, double, the conso- 
 nant before a vowel suffix. 
 
 Examples. Drop, dropping; transfer, transferring. 
 
 (b) Polysyllables not accented on last syllable 
 are ncrt usually doubled before such suffixes; Examples. Differing, 
 preference. 
 
 8. Long and short sound of vowel. 
 
 In the words discussed in (6) and (7), the sound 
 of the vowel will guide you in the spelling. If the vowel sound 
 is short, you may feel reasonably sure the consonant is doubled; 
 Examples. Matting, robbing, (exception, "giving"). If it is long, 
 there is but one consonant; Examples. Mating, robing. 
 
 9. Hard "c" and "g." 
 
 Before an "e" or "i" suffix, words ending in "c" 
 insert "k", and words ending in "g" double the "g", to preserve 
 the original sounds of these letters. Examples. Picnic, picnicking; 
 dig, digger. 
 
 10. Words ending in "ly". 
 
 (a) Have two "I's" when the "ly" is added to a 
 word already ending in "I." Examples. Moral-ly, real-ly. 
 
 (b) Otherwise, they have only one "I." Examples. 
 Merrily, truly, prettily. 
 
 11. Words ending in "ality", Were formed by adding "ity", 
 not "lity", to words ending in "al"; hence they have only one "I". 
 Examples. Moral-ity, real-ity. 
 
 12. Words ending In "ous". 
 
 Drop "u" before "ity". Examples. Monstrosity, 
 generosity, curiosity 
 
 13. Combination "ei" and "1e". 
 
 In this combination, "e" usually follows "c" and "i" 
 follows other letters. Examples. Receive, believe, brief, deceive. 
 
 14. Combination "ia" or "ai"; no need of confusing them. 
 Th,e combination "ia" is pronounced "ya". .. Example, Christian. 
 Hence, unless the pronunciation is "ya", spell with "ai"; example, 
 Britain. 
 
 15. Terminations "ance" and "ence", "ant" and "ent". 
 
 These are very troublesome. If you have studied Latin, 
 it will help somewhat if you remember that "ance" and "ant" 
 terminations usually come from Latin verbs of the first conjugation 
 (vowel "a"), "ence" and "ent" terminations frota verbs of the other 
 conjugations (vowel "e").
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 35 
 
 Examples. Constant (from "constare"), but consistent 
 (from "consistere"), superintendent ("intendere")i perseverance 
 ("perseverare"). 
 
 16. Terminations "ise" or "ize", "able" or "ible", "ar" or "er", 
 "el" or "le" or "al" or "il". Troublesome, but have to be learned 
 by close observation. Examples. Advertise, civilize, surprise, 
 probable, forcible; calendar, cylinder; level, meddle, medal, civil, 
 nickel. 
 
 17. Termination "ed", in past tense. 
 
 Careless writers sometimes omit the "ed" of the past 
 tense. Guard against this common error. Example, "When I 
 came to the house I turn around and walk back", for "turned" and 
 "walked." 
 
 There are exceptions to several of the foregoing rules, but 
 these exceptions are best learned by observation, and by noting that 
 they are exceptions, as you have occasion to see and use them. 
 
 Lesson XXI. 
 
 Be sure you can spell all the words given as examples 
 in Lesson XX. After you have learned them, spell them from 
 dictation by your teacher. 
 
 Lesson XXII. 
 
 The three spelling lessons that follow need not be assigned 
 consecutively if the teacher desires to distribute them through the 
 course. 
 
 Spell the following words: 
 
 abbreviate arithmetic daily 
 
 accept^ association dairy 
 
 accompdate arrive experiment 
 
 accident ascend decreased 
 
 accidentally awkward deceased, 
 
 accompanying automobile defendant 
 
 accumulate auxiliary definite
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 accusative 
 
 balance 
 
 develop 
 
 ache 
 
 becoming 
 
 development 
 
 achieve 
 
 benefit 
 
 difference 
 
 acknowledge 
 
 bicycle 
 
 dining room 
 
 acknowledgment 
 
 boundary 
 
 despair 
 
 acquaintance 
 
 bureau 
 
 disciple 
 
 acre 
 
 bus-iness 
 
 discipline 
 
 address 
 
 botany 
 
 dissatisfaction 
 
 admiring 
 
 capital 
 
 divisible 
 
 admissable 
 
 capitol 
 
 domestic 
 
 advantageous 
 
 carriage 
 
 druggist 
 
 advertise 
 
 ceiling 
 
 eighth 
 
 advertisement 
 
 characteristic 
 
 eighteen 
 
 afraid 
 
 choose 
 
 eligible 
 
 agreeable 
 
 chose 
 
 embarrass 
 
 all right 
 
 changeable 
 
 etc. 
 
 almost 
 
 chimney 
 
 excellent 
 
 already 
 
 coming 
 
 enemies 
 
 altogether 
 
 commit 
 
 envelope (noun) 
 
 always 
 
 column 
 
 equivalent 
 
 angel 
 
 committee 
 
 equal 
 
 angle 
 
 confectionery 
 
 excel 
 
 amount 
 
 consent 
 
 except 
 
 apparatus 
 
 conscience 
 
 existence 
 
 apparent 
 
 contemptible 
 
 excitement 
 
 appearance 
 
 comparative 
 
 
 arrange 
 
 chemistry 
 
 
 Lesson XXIII. 
 
 Spell the following words: 
 
 fatal 
 
 indestructible 
 
 messenger 
 
 fascinate 
 
 individual 
 
 month 
 
 February 
 
 infinite 
 
 moreover 
 
 fiend 
 
 insignificant 
 
 much 
 
 foreign 
 
 intelligent 
 
 muscle 
 
 formally 
 
 intellectual 
 
 mystery 
 
 formerly 
 
 intimate 
 
 murmuring 
 
 forty 
 
 invitation 
 
 mountainous 
 
 forty-five 
 
 inviting 
 
 naturally
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 37 
 
 fourteen 
 
 irregular 
 
 necessary 
 
 freight 
 
 irresistible 
 
 necessarily 
 
 fulfill 
 
 isthmus 
 
 necessity 
 
 genitive 
 
 itself 
 
 nervous 
 
 grammar 
 
 its 
 
 niece 
 
 grievous 
 
 judgment 
 
 ninety 
 
 guard 
 
 knowledge 
 
 ninth 
 
 gymnasium 
 
 lead (noun) 
 
 noticeable 
 
 handkerchief 
 
 led (verb) 
 
 occasion 
 
 hauled 
 
 laid 
 
 occasionally 
 
 height 
 
 later 
 
 occur 
 
 hear, here 
 
 latter 
 
 offered 
 
 hoping 
 
 lightning 
 
 occurred, occurring 
 
 honorable 
 
 loose 
 
 officer 
 
 hugely 
 
 lose 
 
 operate 
 
 humor 
 
 losing 
 
 opportunity 
 
 humorous 
 
 lying 
 
 opposite 
 
 hundred 
 
 making 
 
 original 
 
 hurrying 
 
 many 
 
 organization 
 
 imaginary 
 
 mapped 
 
 origin 
 
 immediately 
 
 mathematics 
 
 oneself 
 
 impossible 
 
 mediaeval 
 
 outrageous 
 
 improbable 
 
 medicine 
 
 
 incident 
 
 merely 
 
 
 indispensable 
 
 meant 
 
 
 Lesson XXIV. 
 
 Spell the following: 
 
 parallel 
 
 receipt 
 
 stopped 
 
 parallelogram 
 
 recipe 
 
 studying 
 
 paralysis 
 
 recollect 
 
 studies 
 
 parliament 
 
 reference 
 
 succeed 
 
 partner 
 
 rehearsal 
 
 success 
 
 particularly 
 
 released 
 
 such 
 
 people 
 
 relief 
 
 surprise 
 
 penitentiary 
 
 representative 
 
 sure 
 
 perform 
 
 religious 
 
 suspicious 
 
 persecute 
 
 residence 
 
 syllable 
 
 perspiration 
 
 responsible 
 
 sympathy 
 
 persuade 
 
 revenue 
 
 their
 
 38 
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 physiology 
 
 rhyme 
 
 their 
 
 physics 
 
 ridiculous 
 
 thoroughly 
 
 piece 
 
 rhythm 
 
 through 
 
 pitiful 
 
 running 
 
 therefore 
 
 planned 
 
 rhetoric 
 
 till 
 
 poison 
 
 safety 
 
 totally 
 
 possessive 
 
 salary 
 
 truly 
 
 potatoes 
 
 satire 
 
 together 
 
 practicing 
 
 satyr 
 
 twelfth 
 
 prejudice 
 
 scenery 
 
 too 
 
 precede 
 
 sentence 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 preference 
 
 seize 
 
 until 
 
 prevalent 
 
 sensible 
 
 vegetable 
 
 principal (adj.) 
 
 sensitive 
 
 view 
 
 principle (rule) 
 
 separation 
 
 village 
 
 prisoner 
 
 separate 
 
 villain 
 
 privilege 
 
 simile 
 
 volume 
 
 proceed 
 
 simultaneous 
 
 weak (adj.) 
 
 professor 
 
 similar 
 
 weather 
 
 pronunciation 
 
 sophomore 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 prosecute 
 
 sociable 
 
 whether 
 
 pursue 
 
 souvenir 
 
 weighed 
 
 prove 
 
 specimen 
 
 which 
 
 quantity 
 
 speech 
 
 writing 
 
 quiet 
 
 stationary (adj.) 
 
 woman 
 
 quotation 
 
 stationery (noun) 
 
 women 
 
 quotient 
 
 statistics 
 
 zoology 
 
 recognize 
 
 stretch 
 
 
 Lesson XXV.-Letter Writing. 
 
 You have no doubt written a good many Betters and have been 
 drilled considerably in letter writing, but a little review will serve 
 to call attention to certain necessary points. 
 
 Parts of a Letter. 
 
 A formal letter, as distinguished from an informal letter of 
 friendship has the following parts: 
 
 1. The Heading. 
 
 (a) It consists of the place and date of writing. 
 
 (b) It is written at the upper right hand corner, in one, two,
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 39 
 
 or three lines according to its length. If no street address is given, 
 one line is generally sufficient. If two lines are needed, the street 
 direction and place should be written on the first line; the date, on 
 the second. If three lines are needed, write street direction on 
 tne nrst, place on the second, date on the third. 
 Examples. 
 
 (1) Utopia, Illinois, August 10, 1909 
 
 (2) 708 Illington Avenue, 
 
 Utopia, Illinois, August 10, 1909. 
 
 (3) 1012 Eighteenth Street, 
 
 South Ludington, Maine, 
 August 10, 1909. 
 
 (c) Notice certain points illustrated, in (b). 
 
 1. The best modern usage avoids all abbreviations; note that 
 "street", "avenue", "Illinois", "Maine", "Eighteenth", and "August" 
 are all spelled out in full, not abbreviated. Sometimes in business 
 letters this rule is not observed strictly, but even here its obser- 
 vance is better. 
 
 2. The form "August 10" is the correct form; not "August 
 10th", or "8-10-'0'J." Do not add "d", "rd", "st", or "th" to the 
 number of the day of the month. 
 
 3. The several parts are separated by commas, even if they 
 are on different lines, and a period is placed at the close of the 
 heading. 
 
 2. The Address. 
 
 (a) It consists of the name and address of the person 
 written to. 
 
 (b) It is usually written in two lines. The first line, the 
 name, is written even with the left-hand margin and a line or so 
 below the heading. The second line, the place, should be to the 
 right of the first line, beginning at about the middle of the first 
 line. 
 
 Example. 
 
 Utopia, Illinois, 
 
 August 10, 1909. 
 Messrs. A. H. Banks & Co., 
 
 Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 (c) Notice that in the address (1) courtesy requires that the 
 title (Ex. "Messrs.") precede the name; (2) the street address
 
 40 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 need not be given; (3) if no street address is given the entire 
 address proper ("Chicago, Illinois") is written on one line; (4) the 
 name of the state should not be abbreviated; (5) the last line is 
 followed by a period, the first line and other lines before the last, 
 if there are any, by commas. 
 
 (d) Courtesy requires that no titles should be abbreviated 
 except Mr., Mrs., Messrs., and Dr. Spell out other titles, such as, 
 President, Professor, General. It is courteous also, not to omit 
 "the", where it is a part of the name; as, "The University of 
 Chicago", "The Fidelity Company." 
 
 3. The Salutation. 
 
 (a) It is a conventional form like "Dear Sir", "My dear 
 Madam", "Gentlemen", placed before the body of the letter. 
 
 (b) It is written even with the left-hand margin and even with 
 the first line of the address. 
 
 Example. 
 
 Utopia, Illinois, 
 
 August 10, 1909. 
 Mr. James Doogan, 
 
 Larson, Oklahoma. 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 (c) Notice (1) that the first word and all nouns of the 
 salutation are capitalized ; but (2) that an adjective like "dear", 
 unless it is at the beginning, is not capitalized; (3) that the 
 salutation is followed by a colon in formal letters, by a comma in 
 informal or less formal letters. 
 
 (d) Forms of the salutation for a formal letter are: 
 Sir: or Madam: (almost coldly formal). 
 
 My dear Sir: or My dear Madam: (less formal). 
 Dear Sir: or Dear Madam: (still less formal) 
 My dear Mr., or Mrs. Smith, (still less formal) 
 Dear Mr., or Mrs. Smith, (least formal) 
 Dear Sirs: 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 The foregoing salutations are arranged in the order of their 
 formality, the most formal first. 
 
 (e) "Madam" is used for both married and unmarried women. 
 It seems awkward and inconsistent for the latter, but there is no 
 substitue except the name of the young woman addressed; of 
 course "Dear Miss" would be insufferably vulgar. After the first
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 41 
 
 exchange of letters, unless the letters were very formal business 
 letters, the second letter could perhaps be addressed "My dear Miss 
 Brown". "Gentlemen" or "Dear Sirs" is the salutation for a firm. 
 "Gentlemen" is probably the better of the two expressions. 
 
 4. The Body of the Letter. 
 
 (a) It should be clear, direct, courteous, and simple. 
 
 (b) Avoid such hackneyed phrases as "your favor", "the 
 same", "said order", "herewith", "hand you" (for "enclose"), 
 "yours of the 9th received", "thanking you in advance", "and 
 
 .oblige", "I beg to remain". They used to be considered very 
 business-like, but the best present uisage is against them. Say, 
 "I have your letter of August 9. In reply, permit me to say," or 
 "In reply the shipment was made, etc." 
 
 (c) In the body of the letter, do not abbreviate words that 
 you would not abbreviate in any other form of composition (for 
 example, "mo." for "month", "Mr. G." for "Mr. Grimes", "Cin." for 
 "Cincinnati"), and do not omit pronouns and articles (for example, 
 "Will enclose check" for "I will enclose a check"; "Consignment 
 received" for "Your consignment was received"). Such expres- 
 sions sound entirely too flippant for even our rapid business 
 methods. 
 
 5. The Complimentary Close. 
 
 (a) It is a conventional expression like "Yours truly" or 
 "Respectfully yours", at the close of the letter, before the signature. 
 
 (b) It is written on a separate line below the last line of the 
 body of the letter, beginning near the middle of the line. 
 
 Example. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 James Jefferson. 
 
 (c) Notice (1) that it begins with a capital letter but that 
 no words but the first are capitalized; (2) that it is followed by a 
 comma. 
 
 (d) Various forms for formal letters are: "Yours truly", 
 "Yours very truly", "Yours respectfully", (not "respectively"), 
 "Very truly yours", "Respectfully yours." 
 
 (e) Do not write simply "Yours", or "Yours etc.", and do not 
 abbreviate "yours" into "y'rs", or "respectfully" into "resp'y". Do 
 not write "I am" or "and oblige" (if you use it) or "as ever", on a 
 separate line, but incorporate them in the body of the Jetter. The 
 complimentary close should occupy only one line.
 
 42 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 6. The Signature. 
 
 (a) It is the name of the writer. 
 
 (b) It should be written on the Jine below the complimentary 
 close, beginning almost at the middle of the complimentary close 
 and extending beyond it to the right. 
 
 (c) In a formal letter, write your signature as you expect to 
 be addressed, except that a woman signs with her Christian name 
 as well as her surname (Mary B. Graves). Therefore if she is 
 writing to a stranger it will be necessary for her to indicate in 
 some way how she is to be addressed, whether "Miss" or "Mrs.", 
 and if the latter, her husbands initials; this may be done by writing 
 in parentheses under the signature or in the lower left-hand 
 corner. "Address: Miss Mary B. Graves", or "Mrs. J. G. Graves", 
 as the case may be. 
 
 7. The Superscription. 
 
 (a) This is the address on the envelope. 
 
 (b) Observe the same rules for this as for the inside address, 
 except that the street direction must be given. Special pains 
 should be taken to make the superscription plain. 
 
 Example. 
 
 The Fidelity Company, 
 
 815 Safety Street, 
 
 Baltimore, 
 
 Maryland. 
 
 (c) Notice (1) that abbreviations are to be avoided; (2) that 
 the different parts (including the state name) occupy separate 
 lines, each a little further to the right than the preceding; (3) that 
 the diflerent parts are followed by commas, except the last, which 
 is followed by a period. 
 
 (d) Some consider the form in (b) as old fashioned, but it 
 has the advantage of clearness and of long established 
 usage. Some prefer to omit all punctuation marks, 
 some begin all the lines on the same margin as the first lino, 
 writing the city and state names on the same line. Any of these 
 ways has good authority, but some of them seem "freakish". 
 
 Lesson XXVI. 
 
 1. Write a letter to he publishers of your history text book 
 ordering a copy of the book and sending payment for the book. 
 In writing amounts of money be careful to use a form like this,
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 43 
 
 (1) "one dollar and fifty cents" or simply "$1.50" not "One dollar 
 ($1.50) and Fifty cents"; (2) "two hundred (200) dollars", or 
 "$200," not "two hundred ($200) dollars. 
 
 2. Write to the First National Bank of America, at 910 
 Broadway, St. Louis, applying for a position as stenographer. 
 Remember that letters of application should state: (1) the position 
 that you are applying for; (2) the general facts about you that an 
 employer would want to know; (3) your special qualifications for 
 the place you seek; (4) references. Make the letter clear, straight- 
 forward, business like, simple, and modest. Do not make it too 
 formal. 
 
 3. Suppose you were commissioned to order some athletics 
 or gymnasium supplies; write to A. G. Spalding & Bros., Chicago, 
 ordering the goods. In ordering several items, tabulate your order; 
 that is, write the several items on separate lines, indicating clearly 
 the amount and character of each item. Ask for a discount. State 
 when you will remit. 
 
 Lesson XXVII.-- Informal Letters. 
 
 The directions discussed in Lesson XXV had reference to 
 formal letters. In the main, the same rules apply to informal 
 letters, or letters of friendship, but with some exceptions, as 
 follows : 
 
 1. The inside address is often omitted in informal letters, or 
 Is written at the lower left-hand corner at the close of the letter. 
 
 2. The salutation is, of course, less formal, and usually 
 includes the name of the person addressed ; as, "Dear Miss Graves", 
 "Dear Tom", "My dear Grace", "Dear Father", "My dear Jackson". 
 
 3. The body of the letter is naturally of a more easy and 
 conversational style than that of a formal [letter, but it should not 
 be rambling or loose or careless in expression. Do not use much 
 hackneyed phrases as, "I hardly know what to write", "Well, I 
 must close", "I guess I have told all I know". Do not abbreviate, 
 or omit necessary words. Be courteous and not too confidential. 
 Do not fill your letter with slang or with foolish sentiment, or with 
 anything that you might be ashamed of ten years afterward. 
 
 4. The complimentary close is more familiar and cordial than 
 in a formal letter. Its character will depend upon the degree of
 
 44 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Intimacy between you and your correspondent. Good forms are 
 "Sincerely yours", "Very sincerely yours", "Faithfully yours", 
 "Cordially yours", "Your loving son", "Lovingly", "Devotedly". 
 
 5. Some authorities insist that the full name should be signed 
 to an informal letter, just as to a formal letter. This is, of course, 
 the safest way in case the letter should be missent, but one has to 
 use one's own judgment. If the writer thinks his full signature 
 sounds too formal, it is likely he will sign "Tom" or "Dick" if he 
 wants to. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 1. Write a letter to a friend describing your school life. 
 
 2. Write a letter asking a friend to visit you, and te/lling your 
 plans for his or her entertainment. 
 
 Lesson XXVIII. Social Correspondence. 
 
 1. Formal notes of invitation, regret, and the like are written 
 in the third person throughout. The word "I" is never found in 
 them, and the word "you" or "your" only in invitations to large and 
 formal social gatherings. The writer refers to himself as 
 "Mr. ", and to the persons addressed as "Mr .and Mrs. ". 
 
 2. Note (1) that such notes have no heading, no address, no 
 salutation, no complimentary close, no signature; (2) that the 
 home address of the writer of an invitation, and the home address 
 and the day of the week or of the month, in case of reply may be 
 written in the lower left-hand corner, but nothing else; (3) that 
 numbers are spelled out in words, not written as figures; (4) that 
 no abbreviations are permissable except "Mr.", "Mrs.", or "Dr." 
 Be careful to spell out the word "and"; do not use the plus sign 
 in its place. Spell out the abbreviation "Prof.", "Gen.", "Col." 
 
 3. Forms. 
 
 (a) Invitation. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Wilson request the pleasure of Mr. 
 Anson's company, on Friday evening, June the twenty-fourth (or 
 the twenty-fourth of June), at half after eight o'clock. 
 
 The Elms. Dancing. 
 
 0>) Acceptance. 
 
 Mr. Anson accepts with pleasure (or, is pleased to accept) the 
 kind invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, for Friday evening, June 
 the twenty-fourth, at half after eight o'clock. 
 
 910 Illington Avenue, 
 June the eighteenth.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 45 
 
 (c) Regrets. 
 
 Mr. Anson regrets that he is unable to accept the very kind 
 invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson (or Mr. and Mrs. Wilson's very 
 kind invitation) for Friday evening, June the twenty-fourth. 
 
 910 Illington Avenue, 
 June the eighteenth. 
 
 (d) Invitations. 
 
 (1) To meet Mrs. Arthur Radcliffe 
 Mr. and Mrs. Horton Thompson 
 
 request the pleasure of 
 
 Mr. An son's 
 
 company at dinner 
 
 on Tuesday, February fourth 
 
 at eight o'clock 
 
 705 Seventy-second Street. 
 
 (2) Mr. and Mrs. Horton Thompson request the pleasure of Mr. 
 Anson's company at dinner, on Tuesday, February the Fourth, at 
 eight o'clock. 
 
 To meet Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Radcliffe, 
 
 705 Seventy-second Street. 
 
 (3) The Class of Nineteen Hundred and Twelve 
 
 of 
 
 The Utopia High School 
 requests the pleasure of your presence at the 
 
 Graduating Exercises 
 Thursday evening, June the seventh 
 
 at eight o'clock 
 the Utopia Theatre 
 
 4. For afternoon teas or card parties or receptions the card 
 of the hostess is frequently used, as follows: 
 
 Mrs. James Howe Warden 
 
 Wednesday, December eighth 
 
 From three to six. 
 
 Bridge
 
 46 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 (e) It must be noted with regard to aill these forms that slight 
 changes in wording will occirr from year to year at the whim of 
 fashion. If one is contemplating a large entertainment or wedding, 
 for which engraved invitations are to be issued, the correct form 
 can be suggested by the stationery or engraving house. 
 
 (f) Note (1) that in writing an acceptance the hour as well as 
 the day should be included (Form b.) ; (2) that in writing regrets 
 no reason need be given (Form c), though some persons prefer to 
 insert after "that" "owing to a previous engagement"; (3) that 
 the verbs must be in the present tense not the future; as, "regrets 
 that he is unable" (not "will be"), "is pleased to accept" (not "will 
 be pleased"); (4) that the word is "accept", not "except"; 
 (5) that in very formal invitations commas and periods are omitted 
 at the ends of lines (Form d, 1, 3, 4.) 
 
 5. Some Little Points of Etiquette. 
 
 The following are matters of etiquette rather than of English 
 composition; still, they are so closely associated with the subject 
 that they are perhaps not amiss here. 
 
 (a) Though acceptances and regrets are worded to both host 
 and hostess, the envelope should be addressed only to the hostess. 
 It is the hostess who is supposed to look after such things. 
 
 (b) To send invitations by messenger is considered somewhat 
 better form, but often this is impracticable, and it is perfectly 
 allowable to send them by mail. Do not address the envelope 
 "City", write the name of the town. If the invitation is sent by 
 messenger, the street address is sufficient, and the name of the 
 town is omitted. 
 
 (c) Replies to invitations should not be neglected. The 
 question often arises, "Is a reply necessary, and if so, of what 
 form?" In general a reply is necessary if the invitation is of the 
 
 form that "requests (the pleasure of company". In replying, 
 
 one should follow closely the wording of the invitation. If the 
 invitation is formal and in the third person, the reply should be so, 
 too. If the invitation is an informal note in the first person (See 
 Lesson XXIX) the reply should be of the same character. 
 
 The character of replies to various kinds of invitations is as 
 follows: 
 
 (1). Write a formal reply in the third person. To formal 
 invitations to dinner, luncheon, card party, theatre party, home 
 wedding, (direct response to bride's parents, or to whoever issues 
 invitation), wedding breakfast, commencement exercises. A dinner 
 invitation should be answered within twenty-four hours. 
 
 (2) Send your visiting card on the day of the entertainment
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 47 
 
 if you do not attend; if you do attend, no reply is necessary. 
 Afternoon tea, church wedding, wedding announcements (cards to 
 bride's parents, sooou after receipt of announcement), reception. 
 
 If one is very intimate with the person who issues the 
 invitation, as in the case of a young girl about to be graduated, a 
 little informal note of congratulation is a very proper thing. 
 
 Lesson XXIX.-- Informal Notes. 
 
 1. It frequently happens that short informal notes of a social 
 character have to be written, extending, or replying to, an invitation, 
 acknowledging a gift, expressing congratulations or sympathy, and 
 the like. These notes are written in the first person, addressed in 
 the second, and signed by the writer. To be able to write such 
 notes in a simple, graceful, gracious, and courteous manner is 
 well worth striving for. Simplicity and courtesy are the key-notes. 
 
 2. Such notes often omit some of the parts of a formal business 
 letter; for example, the day of the month, in the heading, may be 
 written out and the year omitted. The address is placed at the 
 last in the lower left-hand corner, if written at all. The salutation 
 and the complimentary close would be similar to those of a letter 
 of friendship. No set rule for the form of an informal note can 
 be given. Its very name signifies "of no set form." Its expression 
 is determined by the subject and by the circumstances in which 
 it is written, and by the degree of intimacy of the correspondents. 
 
 3. Forms (not to be followed exactly, of course, but merely 
 suggestive.) 
 
 (a) invitations. 
 
 My dear Mr. Dalton, 
 
 My mother wishes me to say that it would give her much 
 pleasure to have you come and spend Wednesday evening, October 
 fourteenth, with us, very informally. 
 
 We are inviting a few friends to come at eight o'clock to meet 
 Miss Ethel Ross, who is staying with us, and we hope that you will 
 be one of the number. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Evelyn Bate.
 
 48 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Dear Caroline, 
 
 The girls of our class are arranging to have a picnic on Saturday, 
 June eighth. Each one of us is entitled to invite one guest, and I 
 hope you will give me the pleasure of going as mine. 
 
 We shall leave by steamer from the Clay Street dock at ten 
 m the morning. If you' can go, as I hope you can, I will call for 
 you on my way to the boat. Perhaps you had better be prepared 
 for stormy weather. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 Helen Dale. 
 
 My dear Miss Wrenii, 
 
 Our inter-class track meet is to be held at the Driving Park on 
 Saturday, May fifteenth. May I have the pleasure of your company 
 at the meet? If you care to go, I shall be happy to call for you at 
 half past one. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Harold Robins. 
 
 Dear Tom, 
 
 The girls of the Domestic Science class are to give a little 
 spread at Helen Dorr's home on Friday evening of this week, at 
 six o'clock. If you feel disposed to take the risk and be 
 experimented upon with our cooking, we shall all be pileased to 
 have you come. 
 
 Very sincerely, 
 
 Edith Cook. 
 
 (b). .Replies. 
 
 My dear Miss Rate, 
 
 I am indeed delighted to accept your mother's kind 
 Invitation for Wednesday evening, October fourteenth, at eight 
 o'clock. It will be a great pleasure to me to meet your friend, Miss 
 Ross, who was a seminary chum of my sister Marian. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 James Dalton. 
 
 Dear Edith, 
 
 I should say I am willing to be experimented upon by the 
 Domestic Science girls, and so I accept with pleasure your kind 
 invitation to the spread at Miss Dorr's on Friday evening. May I 
 call at your home about a quarter of six that evening and 
 accompany you to Miss Dorr's? 
 
 Very sincerely, 
 
 Thomas Jeckyll.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 49 
 
 (c). .Various Notes. 
 Dear Mrs. Thomas, 
 
 I want to thank you very much for the beautiful graduation 
 gift you so kindly sent me. I shall always take pleasure in 
 wearing the pin, both because of its beauty and its usefulness, 
 and because of its association with one who has always been most 
 kind to me and most thoughtful of my happiness. 
 
 With sincere love, 
 
 Jessica Wright. 
 
 My dear Edith, 
 
 I received the invitation to your graduation exercises, for 
 Wednesday, June the tenth. I am very sorry that my school duties 
 will not permit me to go to Bookton and be present at the exercises. 
 It hardly seems possible that you are so soon to be a college 
 graduate, does it? Why, it is only a few years since we were 
 making mud pies together as children. 
 
 Please accept my cordial congratulations and my best wishes, 
 and believe me always, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Albert Aldrich. 
 
 My dear Mrs. Branton, 
 
 I am deeply grieved to learn of the overwhelming sorrow that 
 has come upon you. I know that I am unable to say anything to 
 soften your affliction, but I want you to know and feel that my 
 thoughts are with you, and that you have my deepest sympathy in 
 your sorrow. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Harriet Gray Davis. 
 
 My dear Mrs. Davis, 
 
 Your kind message of sympathy affects me deeply and is trifiy 
 appreciated. The sympathetic words of those whom I know to be 
 my true friends are my greatest comfort in this hour of sorrow. 
 
 Most gratefully yours, 
 
 Margaret Branton. 
 
 Lesson XXX. 
 
 1. Write a formal invitation to a dinner party, from Mr. and 
 Mrs. Arthur Hobson to Mr. and Mrs. Borden, for next Friday 
 evening, at six o'clock.
 
 60 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 2. Write regrets from the Hardens. 
 
 3. Write an acceptance from the Bordens. 
 
 4. Suppose you were Invited to the wedding of Miss Adelaide 
 Ream Smith to James Howard Hutt, at the home of Miss Smith's 
 parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Smith, two weeks from today. 
 Write the invitation and your acceptance. 
 
 5. Write an informal invitation to one of the girls or boys to 
 attend a birthday party in your honor on your next birthday 
 (whatever the date may be). Choose your own hour and form of 
 entertainment. 
 
 6. Write to a boy or a girl friend in another town thanking 
 him or her for a Christmas gift that you have received. 
 
 Lesson XXXI.Kinds of Composition Description. 
 
 I. The Four Kinds of Composition. 
 
 We have been working along for some time on what might be 
 called the raw material of composition, and the manner of handling 
 it. Exercises in grammar, in correct English, in sentences, in 
 paragraphs, in punctuation, in spelling all these are merely means 
 to an end. That end, or final purpose, is the expression of our 
 thoughts! in a whole composition, or theme, as it is sometimes called. 
 
 As you have learned, no doubt, before, there are four main 
 kinds of composition, or discourse. These are 
 
 1. Description representing objects or conditions as they 
 are at some one selected point of time. A description is a word 
 photograph, or painting. For example, we describe a house, a 
 person, a landscape. 
 
 2. Narration representing objects or conditions as they are 
 In action through several successive points of tima A narrative is 
 a moving picture exhibit. We narrate an incident, a biography; 
 an historical event, a story. 
 
 3. Exposition explaining (1) what characteristics are common 
 to objects of a given class; and (2) explaining the meaning of 
 general statements, or propositions. For example, we explain such 
 a subject as "The Camel", "Money", "The Power of Habit". 
 
 4. Argumentation attempting to prove the truth of some 
 statement, or proposition. For example, we argue such subjects
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 51 
 
 as, "Every Boy Should Go to High School", "Mathematics Affords 
 Better Training than Language". 
 
 In the lessons that are to follow, we shall consider 
 a few simple principles and directions concerning each of these 
 forms of composition, and what is better we shall try to gain 
 some skill in writing such compositions by actual practice. 
 
 II. DESCRIPTION. 
 
 1. There are two general classes of description, distinguished 
 from each other by their respective purposes. These are 
 
 (a) Scientific, or Informational Description, the purpose of 
 which is to give our readers as exact a knowledge of the object 
 as we have. The aim here is merely information. Examples 
 descriptions of a machine, of a lost dog. 
 
 (b) Literary, or Artistic Description, the purpose of which is 
 to give our readers the same general impression of the object that 
 we have. The aim here is rather to interest and entertain than to 
 inform. Examples descriptions of a deserted mill, a landscape in 
 autumn, an old beggar. 
 
 2. The first requirement in description is, that the writer shall 
 observe closely, before he attempts to describe, and shall be sure 
 that he himself sees clearly what he is trying to make others see. 
 
 3.. In scientific description he must see and know every 
 detail; in literary description he must see and know and feel those 
 details that are necessary to produce the effect that he wishes to 
 produce. For example, in describing a machine, he must not 
 neglect any detail necessary to make its construction and 
 appearance clear to one who has not seen it. In scientific 
 description one must photograph with words. On the other hand, 
 in describing an old beggar, one must not neglect the details that 
 create the general impression of poverty and dependence, and 
 produce the feeling of pity that the writer himself feels, but other 
 details may be omitted. 
 
 4 All description has this difficulty that the writer has to 
 present in language that takes time to read, a number of details 
 that have to be taken in by the reader all at once, if he is to get 
 the impression that the eye would receive at one glance. The 
 reader must remember at the end of the description, what was 
 given at the beginning, and must put all the details together, or 
 he will not get the right picture in his mind. 
 
 5. To overcome this difficulty in writing descriptions you 
 must
 
 52 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 (a) Realize that not all details can be given. 
 
 (b) Choose your details according to your purpose. 
 
 (c) Begin your description with a general outline or 
 representation or impression. This is called the fundamental image. 
 Example. "The Court House is a large, square, three-story, 
 stone building." 
 
 (d) Follow this with particular details in order of 
 place, or relation to each other, or prominence, being sure that you 
 indicate where the detail belongs in the whole picture. 
 
 (e) When you have finished, ask yourself, "Have 1 
 given too many details? Have I left out some important detail? 
 If some one had described the object to me in this way, should I be 
 able to see it as it is?" 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 Mention (1) the details you would give; and (2) some you 
 would omit in describing: 
 
 (a) A lost dog. 
 
 (b) Your school room. 
 
 (c) A grove in winter. 
 
 (d) Your family cow. 
 
 Lesson XXXIL Description. 
 
 Before taking up the description of specific kinds of objects, 
 let us notice a few general suggestions respecting the art of 
 describing. 
 
 1. The primary elements of all description are the qualities 
 that we perceive by the senses; that is, form, color, sound, taste, 
 smell, touch. You cannot make your reader perceive the object 
 you present unless you describe its size, shape, and color; or it 
 may be its taste, or its odor, or its sound, or its hardntess or 
 smoothness, as the case may be. These are the materials with 
 which you paint your picture. 
 
 2. These materials, however, must not be used without careful 
 distribution, any mort than a painter would simply dash red, yellow, 
 black, and green paint upon his canvas without attending to where 
 he dashed it. In other words, all these details must be grouped 
 about some central prominent detail, giving the whole description.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 53 
 
 unity. In scientific description this unity is secured by showing 
 the relation of all the details to the purpose of the object. (For 
 example, in describing your public library if the relation of each 
 detail to the purpose of the building is brought out, the memory 
 will hold these details better.) In literary description, unity is 
 secured by selecting details that will create the one prominent 
 impression that you wish to make. (For example, in describing 
 a ruined mill, give details presenting ruin and desolation.) 
 
 3. But if unity is important in description, coherence is equally 
 important (See Lesson XII). No one can get an accurate 
 impression of what you describe, unjless (1) you indicate clearly 
 where each detail belongs with reference to the rest; and (2) 
 unless you do this without waste of words by devices of connection. 
 Adverbial clauses, relative clauses, participial phrases, various 
 adverbial phrases of place, are the best means of accomplishing 
 this. Examples of such devices "Nearby", "on the other side", 
 "to the right", "beyond which", "where this ended", "lying beneath 
 which", "resting upon", and the like. 
 
 4. A very helpful device in description is comparison. The 
 mind learns, as we know, by building on the knowledge it already 
 has, and by passing from the known to the unknown. Comparing 
 details of your object with what is familiar, whether they are like 
 it or different from it, assists the reader in forming the picture. 
 This was one of the strong points in the descriptive power of the 
 great poet Dante. He likened objects in Inferno to familiar 
 Italian objects, and thus painted pictures that his countrymen 
 could not fail to understand. As examples of this device of 
 comparison "The town was situated in a cup-like valley". "Arms 
 like the fans of a windmill". "He had a wolfish expression of 
 countenance." 
 
 5. The last example in (4) illustrates another useful element 
 in description, that is suggestion. Sometimes a single word, like 
 "wolfish" will suggest a whole train of details, and so make it 
 unnecessary to mention them specifically; for example, "Cassius 
 has a lean and hungry look." Such single suggestive expressions 
 are called epithets. Epithet is a valuable device to secure vividness 
 in description, but it must not be overdone, or it will become an 
 affectation. 
 
 6. Imitative words, words that (reproduce their meaning by 
 their sound, are helpful in certain instances of description; for 
 example, "murmur", "roar", "hiss*, "thud", "growl", "splash", 
 "patter", and the like. 
 
 '< Finally, imagination is a livening and warming influence in
 
 54 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 description, as it is in all forms of writing. It enables the writer 
 to transport himself and his reader to the scene described, and 
 especially to produce the mood or general tone that he desires in 
 his picture. Imagination peoples the old homestead that he is 
 describing, with all the scenes of the past; and hi the lonely 
 forest, it calls up the Indian and the pioneer long departed, and 
 paints their portraits on the canvass. Imagination was the source 
 of Dickens's great power, alike in his pathetic, his humorous, and 
 his horrifying descriptions. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 1. What would you adopt as the central or guiding principle 
 in selecting details for a description of 
 
 (a) A crowd at a street carnival. 
 
 (b) A race horse. 
 
 (c) A locomotive. 
 
 2. Smuggest some comparisons that would be helpful in a 
 description of: 
 
 (a) President Roosevelt. 
 
 (b) A mountain. 
 
 (c) An old tree. 
 
 3. Suggest some epithets that might be applied in the 
 description of: 
 
 (a) A beautiful woman. 
 
 (b) A thunder storm. 
 
 (c) An angry man. 
 
 Lesson XXXIII. Description of Artificial Objects. 
 
 I. The subjects of description fall under six main classes: 
 
 1. Artificial objects (made by man). 
 
 Examples. Manufactured articles, mechanical contri- 
 vances, buildings. 
 
 2. Groups of artificial objects. 
 
 Examples. A room, a town. 
 
 3. Single Natural Objects. 
 
 Examples. Flowers, plants, animals. 
 
 4. Groups of natural' objects, or natural scenery.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 55 
 
 Examples. A vallay, a sunset, a storm. 
 
 5. Persons. 
 
 (a) Appearance. 
 
 (b) Character. 
 
 6. Groups of persons. 
 
 Examples. A street crowd, a mob, a group of children. 
 
 II. In this and the following lessons, we sha^l take up each of 
 these classes of description and discuss it very briefly under the 
 following headings: 
 
 1. Details to be selected. 
 
 2. Plan, or order of details. 
 
 3. Method of treatment. 
 
 4. Illustration. 
 
 III. DESCRIPTION OF ARTIFICIAL OBJECTS. 
 
 Note that your subject must be some particular object that 
 you have seen, having special characteristics distinguishing it 
 from others, (Ex,, our piano, Locomotive No. 180), not a class of 
 objects (Ex. the piano, the steam engine). The latter are subjects of 
 exposition, to be discussed later, not of description. 
 
 1. Details to be selected. 
 
 (a) What it is (if necessary to inform reader.) 
 
 (b) General appearance or characteristics the fund- 
 amental image. 
 
 (c) Material, shape, size, color, peculiarities that 
 distinguish it from others of its class. 
 
 (d) Its location, or where you saw it. 
 
 (e) Its history or traditions. 
 
 (f) Its special use, or function. 
 
 (g) Impressions produced by it upon the writer or 
 upon others. 
 
 2. Plan, or order of details. 
 
 The order of details may be varied, but one would begin with 
 (a) as indicated in (1), if that is necessary (Ex. The Sphynx) ; if 
 not, with either (b) or (d), following with (c), and (f), if you 
 use (f); then (e), if used, ending generally with (g), if used at all. 
 If you begin with (d) (Ex. "Halfway up the front stairway of 
 Grandfather's house is an odd old mahogany clock". "I walked 
 down to the Rock Island station the other day, and on a side track, 
 there stood, fresh from the factory, engine No. 810.") you would
 
 56 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 naturally follow with (b) and (c). If your subject is a building, 
 the natural beginning is (d). Often there will be nothing to say 
 on the subject of (e) or (g). Do not have one set plan for all your 
 descriptions that would be artificial. Cultivate variety and 
 naturalness. 
 
 3. Method of treatment. 
 
 (a) Your method of treatment will depend upon your purpose. 
 If your aim is merely to inform, seiect details that serve to dis- 
 tinguish the object from others and to identify it, and give in a 
 condensed way all that are necessary for that purpose, giving unity 
 to your description by indicating the use, or function, of the object, 
 and the relations of the details to this general function. Com- 
 parison is often useful in making an object clear. You may also 
 have to use some technical terms (that is, words having special 
 meanings in certain arts or uses), for example "lever", "cylinder", 
 "escapement"'. Be sure to make their meaning plain and do not 
 use too many of them. 
 
 Illustration. The other day I invented a little device to assist 
 me in carrying wood upstairs. It is an inch board two feet long 
 and one foot wide, upon which the wood is placed, and which I hold 
 out in front of me with the edge against my body, like a shelf. A 
 rope is attached to the sides near the outer corners, and thrown 
 round my neck, to help support the weight. On each end of the 
 board a three inch strip is nailed securely, to keep the wood from 
 rolling off. The scheme works well. 
 
 (Notice how the use, or function of details is indicated.) 
 
 (b) If your purpose is not so much to inform as merely to 
 entertain (literary description), what you desire is to give your 
 readers the same general impression of the object that you yourself 
 have. In this case, secure unity by selecting details that contribute 
 to that impression. Many merely identifying details may be 
 omitted. Comparison, contrast, epithet, and imagination are useful. 
 History and tradition, also, may assist in giving a prevailing tone. 
 
 Illustration. Last week while I was rummaging in an old book 
 case in the attic, I came across the copy of Caesar that I studied in 
 the high school. Dear me, poor old Caesar! Neither moth nor rust 
 had corrupted him, yet he had that same worn and weary appear- 
 ance that I had when I translated him in Room Five. 
 
 Did I really study the book so hard? The green cloth cover 
 was scratched and frayed at the corners, and was gaping away 
 from the front fly-leaf, as if it wanted to desert the text and lead 
 an independent existence. On that fly-leaf, below my signature, 
 was the name of Somebody, who bears another name now alas,
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 57 
 
 not mine. I turned over the dog-eared and pencilled pages, till I 
 came to the Bridge. What a struggle I must have had with that 
 masterpiece of engineering construction! And the Vocabulary 
 how I must have wrestled with it. 
 
 Ah me, that was long ago, and Divitiacus, Veringetorix, and 
 that nameless soldier who bore the standard of the Tenth Legion 
 are shadows of the Past that misty region into which have 
 slipped those happy schooldays that will come no more. But I am 
 glad I found that Caesar I wonder if She still has hers. 
 
 (Note that unity is secured by selecting details that give the 
 impression of the book's being a well-worn reminiscence of the 
 pleasantly melancholy past.) 
 
 Lesson XXXIV. 
 
 (a) Describe for the information of your reader one or more of 
 the following objects, or any other object that your teacher may 
 suggest: 
 
 1. Your watch. 
 
 2. Your new gas stove. 
 
 3. Your automobile. 
 
 4. Your new party gown. 
 
 5. Some birthday gift you have received. 
 
 6. The Public Library (exterior). 
 
 7. Some other public building. 
 
 8. The High School (exterior). 
 
 (b) Describe for literary effect one or more of the following 
 objects or any other object that your teacher may suggest: 
 
 1. Your desk at school. 
 
 2. An old photograph album. 
 
 3. A new hat seen In a shop window. 
 
 4. A ruined building. 
 
 5. The bookcase in the corner. 
 
 6. The bulletin board in the hall. 
 
 7. Your piano, or some other much-used object at home. 
 
 8. The kitchen-sink. 
 
 9. The wood-shod. 
 
 10. The history text-book that you studied last year.
 
 58 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Lesson XXXV. Groups of Material Objects. 
 
 (Rooms, Interior of Buildings, Towns) 
 
 1. Details to be selected, and plan. 
 
 (a) Location or circumstances of viewing it. 
 
 (b) Point of view. 
 
 (c) Fundamental image general appearance or character- 
 
 ization or effect. 
 
 (d) Principal objects in order of prominence or of place. 
 
 (e) History, traditions, or associations. 
 
 (f) Impressions produced upon the writer or upon others. 
 In describing a group of objects, it is very important to select 
 
 a given point of view, and then not to shift it. For example, if you 
 are describing a room, you must confine your description to the 
 objects you can see. A town viewed from a bluff overlooking it 
 would be described differently from the same town seen from the 
 point of view of a river that passes through it. If it becomes 
 necessary to shift the point of view, indicate the change clearly. 
 When you come to specific objects, you will have to confine yourself 
 to the more prominent or striking, and either omit, or group 
 comprehensively, the others. You may begin either with the object 
 immediately in front of you, or with the most prominent object, but 
 after you have selected the starting point, you must work out 
 from it either to the right or to the left, describing objects in order 
 of place, and then coming back to it, if necessary, to work out in the 
 other direction. Sometimes one might begin with (e) or (f), of 
 the plan. Sometimes there will be nothing to say on those topics. 
 
 2. Method of Treatment. 
 
 Review what is said under this heading in Lesson XXXIII, III, 3. 
 
 If you are describing for mere information, as in the case of a 
 town or the interior of a buildi ng, your general style would be a good 
 deal like that of an encyclopedia or a guide-book article bare 
 details, without much, or any, embellishment. 
 
 If you are describing for literary effect, decide on the prevailing 
 impression or tone of the scene, and select details that serve to 
 reproduce that. Historical, traditional, or personal association may 
 be used with good effect. 
 
 3. Illustrations. 
 
 (a) Informational. 
 Utopia is a city of 12,000 inhabitants, situated in an oblong
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 59 
 
 valley between the bluffs of the White River, at the junction of 
 that stream with the Blue River. It is an old town, with a popula- 
 tion largely composed of persons of moderate means, who are 
 engaged in mercantile and professional occupations. There are, 
 however, several large manufactories. (Here they may be 
 envanerated). The business district is in the centre of the town, 
 surrounding a large county court house that stands in a square by 
 itself. The residence portion, etc. 
 
 (b) Literary. 
 
 As my car reached the brow of the bluff, the city of Utopia 
 came suddenly upon my view. 1 stopped and, with feelings not 
 easy to describe, gazed once more upon the city of my birth. It 
 was twenty years since I had seen it, but to the distant view, 
 twenty years had wrought but little change. A mile and a half 
 away the south bluff rose, as of old, in all its lines of beauty, dotted 
 with comfortable homes. At its foot, the White River still flowed 
 on undisturbed by commerce. Between me and the river, and 
 spread beneath me, was the same old town with its familiar objects, 
 the court house directly in front and nearly a mile disttant, 
 throwing the protection of the law around the surrounding business 
 district. To the right of this, and stretching out to the west, etc. 
 
 Notice that when you have selected a point of view, objects 
 must be described, not as you may know them to be on closer view, 
 but as they appear from that point of view. For example, no minute 
 details could be given of the White River or of the business district 
 in the foregoing description, for they are too far away. The 
 description is given unity by the general impression of "absence 
 of change" in the old town. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 1. Describe for information one of the following, or any other 
 subject your teacher may assign: 
 
 (a) Your school room. 
 
 (b) The interior of your church. 
 
 (c) A neighboring village or city. 
 
 (d) The interior of a factory. 
 
 2. Describe for literary effect one of the following, or any 
 other subject that may be assigned: 
 
 (a), (b), (c), or (d) in (1), preceding. 
 
 (e) Your home city from a certain point of view. 
 
 (f) The assembly room of your school. 
 
 (g) Some room in your home.
 
 60 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Lesson XXXVI.-Objects in Nature. 
 
 (Flowers, Plants, Animals.) 
 
 1. Note that here too, as in the description of artificial objects, 
 Lesson XXXIII, your subject must be some particular object (My 
 Dog, The Old Linden Tree), not a class of objects (Dogs, The 
 Linden Tree). The latter are not subjects of description, but of 
 exposition. 
 
 2. Subjects coming under this classification are some 
 particular flower, fruit, plant, tree, rock, gem, domestic pet, bird, 
 wild animal (at large or caged), insect, or the like, that you have 
 seen or known about as an actually existing individual. 
 
 3. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) Location or ownership. 
 
 (b) General appearance or characterization the funda- 
 
 mental image. 
 
 (c) Details in order of prominence or place shape, size, 
 
 color, parts. 
 
 (d) History or personal association. 
 
 (e) Use, or function. 
 
 (f) Impressions produced by it. 
 
 This order may be varied of course. Sometimes one might 
 begin with (d) (Example. When my grandmother moved into the 
 country, she gave me a queer little yellow kitten named Poky) : 
 or with (e) (Example. The strangest watchman that I have ever 
 met Is a grumbly old cinnamon bear owned by an old jeweller in 
 Douglas Court) ; or even with (f) (Example. I shall never forget 
 the feeling of horror that came over me when I first saw Goliath, 
 "The Man-destroying Gorilla"). In giving details under (c), the 
 order will depend largely upon the subject and the way in which 
 you decide to treat it. Sometimes mere place order will be best 
 (for example, the description of the external appearance of an 
 animal); sometimes details will be given in order of prominence, 
 the most striking first (for example, the color or size of a gem) ; 
 sometimes relation of parts with reference to their use will 
 determine the order (for example, the details in describing an 
 ostrich.) 
 
 4. Method of treatment. 
 
 (a) As in all description, this depends upon your purpose. 
 If you are simply describing for information, a brief, unormanented
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 61 
 
 catalogue of the prominent details is all that is necessary. Use 
 brief comparisons and technical terms when needed, being sure that 
 the latter are understood by the reader. 
 
 Illustration. 
 
 You will find the corner stake by taking a straight course due 
 south three hundred feet from an old walnut tree that stands 
 beside a little pond. This tree is about forty feet high, and its 
 sky outline is very irregular in appearance. The tree is easily 
 distinguishable by a large crooked limb that starts from the main 
 trunk about six feet from the ground and terminates in a jagged 
 end, where the wind has broken it off. The bark of the tree is off 
 in several places, and on one of the bare spots some one has carved 
 a letter "H". 
 
 (b) If your description is to be literary, decide upon the 
 general impression that you wish to convey and select your details 
 accordingly. Epithets, comparisons, figures of speech, and 
 imitative words are useful. Fancy, imagination, and sometimes 
 humor lighten up the picture. Technical terms (such as, "petals", 
 "eye-sockets", "fetlocks") may have to be used, but try to confine 
 yourself to such as most readers will understand. History and 
 personal association give a human interest to the description. 
 
 Illustration. 
 
 There never was a more dignifiedly "grouchy" creature than 
 Toodles. Toodles was a French poodle of uncertain age, whose 
 ear,ly training in some unknown family had soured a disposition 
 already taciturn enough. Added to this, he was deaf, and this 
 affliction no doubt increased both his ill temper and his solemnity. 
 His diminutive size, his white curly hair, covering his whole body 
 and falling over his bright wistful eyes, gave one the impression 
 that he was very lovable and even affectionate; but any attempt 
 at fondling him soon erased this impression, for at the slightest 
 approach toward familiarity, he would fly into a passion and snap 
 viciously at the offender. His dignity was not to be trifled with. 
 
 He had a way of secreting himself under chairs and in similar 
 places, from which he would emerge in a sputtery rage and bite the 
 shoes of unsuspecting callers who had unwittingly stepped or 
 rocked upon his tail. Having performed this duty to his offended 
 feelings, he would retire to his former resting place and withdraw 
 into a solemn contemplation of his violated dignity. 
 
 Although he was irritable and unfriendly to the common run 
 of humanity, to his mistress he was the pattern of devotion. He 
 considered himself her special guardian, and would do anything for 
 her within his power. No doubt the feeling that he was her
 
 62 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 protector increased his self-esteem and his sense of personal dignity. 
 If one were polite to his mistress, he adopted at least a tolerant 
 attitude, and even became solemnly friendly if cultivated in the 
 proper way. He had a few tricks of the more dignified kind, such 
 as sitting up on his hind legs, and for these he expected cake or 
 candy, or something of that sort. 
 
 In spite of his peculiarities one could not help liking him, and 
 feeling pity for this little deaf piece of perversity, whom fate in his 
 early days had not treated kindly. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 1. Describe for information one or more of the following, or 
 any other object assigned by your teacher: 
 
 (a) A horse for sale. 
 
 (b) A stray cow. 
 
 (c) An odd-looking boulder at the entrance to a canyon. 
 
 (d) Some strange wild animal that you saw in a menagerie. 
 
 (e) A strange flower that you found while out walking. 
 
 2. Describe for literary effect one of the following, or any 
 other object assigned by your teacher: 
 
 (a) Your family driving horse. 
 
 (b) A trained elephant that you have seen. 
 
 (c) A rose that some one dropped at a social gathering. 
 
 (d) Some household pet. 
 
 (e) The old tree in the front yard. 
 
 (f) An educated parrot or crow or raven. 
 
 Lesson XXXVII. Natural Scenery. 
 
 1. The subject divides itself into two general classifications: 
 (1) Nature at rest (Examples. A landscape, moonlight on the sea, 
 an autumn scene, Pike's Peak) ; and (2) Nature in activity. 
 (.Examples. A storm, a snowfall, a sudden gust of wind, sunrise in 
 the mountains, a forest fire, a flood). This latter division comes 
 very close to being narration, but as the descriptive element is 
 predominant, we shall call it description. 
 
 2. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) Circumstances under which seen time and occasion.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 63 
 
 (b) Point of view. 
 
 (c) Fundamental image general outline or appearance. 
 
 (d) Details in order of place, beginning with the most 
 
 prominent natural objects, buildings (if there are 
 any). 
 
 (e) Inhabitants of the scene men, other animals. 
 
 (f) Sounds and odors. 
 
 (g) Personal or historical associations. 
 
 (h) Progress ol events in order of time (if description of 
 
 "Nature in activity"), 
 (i) Impressions and effect. 
 
 The preceding is the most natural order, though of course it 
 may be varied. Usually (a) will come first, and (b) must be 
 indicated at the beginning; sometimes (e), (f), and (g) do not occur 
 at all. Of course (h) is used only when the subject is some phase 
 of nature in action. Sometimes (i) is introduced at the beginning. 
 
 3. Method of treatment. 
 
 (a) The same rules apply here as elsewhere with reference 
 to the distinction between scientific and literary description. See 
 Lesson XXXI, II, 3; Lesson XXXIT, 2; Lesson XXXIII, III, 3; 
 Lesson XXXV, 2, 3; Lesson XXXVT, 4'. 
 
 (b) When the purpose is literary, the language may be on a 
 somewhat more elevated plane than usual, especially in describing 
 nature in activity (for example, a storm) ; yet even here reasonable 
 simplicity should prevail, and the language should not be made too 
 "bookish" or overdrawn. Moderation is a fine thing even in a 
 storm or at a fire. Especially avoid (1) what is cajled "fine 
 writing", a "flowery" and pretentious way of saying what should 
 be expressed simply; and (2) the use of what are called "stock 
 expressions", that is, expressions formerly good enough perhaps, 
 but overworked and now stale, like gaudy styles once tolerated 
 when they were new, but now gone out of fashion (Examples. 
 "Raging torrent", "the devouring element", "the waves lashed them- 
 selves into a fury", "all nature seemed", "the sighing of the wind", 
 "a scene of entrancing beauty", "that the brush of a Raphael 
 could not portray"). Figures of speech, if not overdrawn, epithet, 
 imitative words, imagination, reminiscence, may all be used with 
 effect in describing natural scenery. 
 
 (c) Be careful in describing natural scenery to avoid 
 monotony of expression and simply cataloguing objects in order of 
 place, connected by such expressions as "and then", "next I see", 
 and the like. Try to secure some variety in connecting your
 
 64 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 sentences and in leading from one object to another. Participial 
 phrases, such as "winding away to the right", and dependent 
 clauses, such as "which was sheltered by an oak grove", are useful 
 for this purpose. 
 Illustration. 
 
 The morning view from my bedroom window is a good tonic 
 for the day. I am awakened by the chirping of some sparrows 
 fighting for their breakfast, and I open the blinds and look out. 
 
 The newly-risen sun bids good morning with a cheery smile, as 
 he lifts his head over the distant mass of foliage that clothes the 
 East Side. Through this covering of green, here and there a 
 dwelling appears, with spirals of smoke rising from it, which seem 
 to say, "Breakfast is nearly ready". In the foreground, where this 
 sea of home-dotted foliage ends, a cultivated field slopes down to 
 the Fox River, which, at its nearest point not fifty feet from my 
 window, winds like a silver frame round the whole picture and 
 disappears to the left, past a jutting rock and a green-clad island. 
 To the right, and just a block distant, the river hurries away 
 beneath a bridge, over which a group of laborers are coming to 
 their daily work. Far to the right, over the bridge and over the 
 long, low battlements of the Armory, rise through a bluish morning 
 mist the green bluffs south of the Illinois. 
 
 Sounds of traffic begin to be heard the rumble of a wagon, 
 the whistle of a distant interurban car, the clatter of dishes in the 
 dining room below me. Before the advancing waves of sunlight, 
 shadow and microbe-of-the-night alike flee, and a new day has 
 made a good beginning. 
 
 Lesson XXXVIII. 
 
 1. Describe simply for information one of the following, or 
 some other scene that your teacher may assign: 
 
 (a) The valley of the River. 
 
 (b) The scene from your front porch. 
 
 (c) The appearance of the sky at sunset on a certain 
 
 evening. 
 
 (d) A windstorm. 
 
 (e) A snowstorm. 
 
 Note. In this exercise describe without ornament, simply
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 65 
 
 giving in a well-connected way the facts that will enable your 
 reader to see just what you saw. 
 
 2. Describe for literary effect one of the following, or some 
 other scene assigned: 
 
 (a) The vaJley of the River. 
 
 (b) The scene from your bedroom window. 
 
 (c) A sunset scene. 
 
 (d) A windstorm. 
 
 (e) A heavy rainstorm. 
 
 (f) A snowstorm. 
 
 (g) The going out of the ice in spring. 
 
 Lesson XXXIX. Description of Persons. 
 
 1. This subject includes (a) description of personal appear- 
 ance, and (b) description of character. A complete description 
 involves both, but frequently each is made a description in itself. 
 
 2. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) Who the person is or circumstances of meeting him. 
 
 (b) Fundamental image general appearance or character- 
 
 ization. 
 
 (c) Details of age, stature, form, face (general shape, eyes, 
 
 nose, mouth, complexion), limbs, all arranged 
 according to their degree of individuality or distinc- 
 tlveness, and also with some reference to place order. 
 
 (d) Character general characterization, predominating 
 
 traits, peculiarities, habits, influence. 
 
 (e) Biography in so far as it illustrates (c) or (d). 
 
 (f) Comments on the person in a general way. 
 
 No one would be so foolish as to suggest a set plan for every 
 personal description. The foregoing order may of course be varied 
 in many ways, especially the details in (c) and (d). It seems 
 natural to begin with either (a) or (b). If (d) is introduced, it 
 naturally follows (c), though the order may be reversed. 
 Biography (e) is to be used only as it illustrates description, by 
 anecdote or incident, or as it seems to account for some physical 
 peculiarity or trait of character.
 
 66 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 3. Method of treatment. 
 
 Note again what has been said in previous lessons about the 
 distinction between informational and literary description. If the 
 description is merely for information, details are given briefly, 
 clearly, and without ornament, as one would give them for identifica- 
 tion of the person (Example. The description of an escaped 
 convict). If the purpose is literary, the aim should be to make the 
 description vivid and to give it unity by giving details that set 
 forth the most striking characteristic. In literary description, be 
 careful not to catalogue details in a monotonous way, but weave 
 them together by skillful use of dependent clauses, participial 
 phrases, and conjunctive expressions. Imagination, fancy, humor, 
 and pathos are effective. 
 
 Illustrative anecdotes and incidents often portray character by 
 suggestion better than it can be pictured by an actual enumeration 
 of the traits. This is an especially artistic method of portraiture. 
 
 4. Illustrations. 
 
 (a) Description for information. 
 
 Escaped from the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet, on June 
 25, 1909 Eric Krogson, life prisoner for murder. Swede, age thirty 
 years; height five feet ten inches, weight 170 pounds; light hair, 
 blue eyes, florid complexion, prominent cheek bones, large mouth, 
 with one front tooth missing, smooth-shaven; arms long; middle 
 finger of right hand cut off at second joint. Walks with a long, 
 swinging stride. Speaks English imperfectly. He is a dangerous 
 man and is especially handy with a club. He is likely to be found 
 in low resorts frequented by sailors. He drinks heavily and is 
 especially quarrelsome and dangerous when under the influence of 
 liquor. 
 
 (b) Literary description. 
 
 My little friend Edith came tripping along in all the bouyancy 
 of her ten years, carrying a bag of peppermint sticks. She almost 
 passed me before she noticed who it was sitting there on the park 
 bench. "Why, Mr. Miles," she cried, "I almost didn't see you. 
 Won't you have some candy?" "Certainly, but help yourself first," 
 I answered. "Oh, no, you must take the first piece, Mr. Miles." I 
 did so. She nodded approvingly her shapely little head of warm 
 brown hair, coiled "like a lady's" and decorated with a bow of 
 bright pink ribbon, and brushing off the bench in order to protect 
 her fresh white muslin frock, she seated herself beside me, her 
 straight and slender dignity contrasting decidedly with my stooped 
 and careless abandon.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 67 
 
 After she had extracted a stick of the candy and tested 
 it with teeth and lips as white and red as itself, she 
 said, "Why are you sitting out here without your hat, Mr. Miles? 
 You shouldn't do that, you'll catch cold." The firm little chin tried 
 to look very decided, but a roguish smile brought out a dimple that 
 spoiled the whole effect. "What if I do," I replied; "nobody cares 
 if I catch cold." At once the fair face flushed with -a. glow of 
 indignant protest, and the large brown eyes took on a serious look. 
 "Why, Mr. Miles, how can you say that? I would care an awful lot." 
 Dear me, little Edith, if you were only twenty years older! "What 
 a little mother you are," I said. "Who taught you to look after 
 people's colds?" "Well, you see," she answered, "when Mamma is 
 at the club or playing bridge, I have to look after Robert, and 
 Robert is always doing things to catch cold. A little brother is a 
 great care, Mr. Miles." 
 
 Just then a little mongrel dog came trotting along. He sidled 
 out of our way as he came opposite the bench, but Edith called 
 him and reached out a stick of candy to him. He stopped without 
 hesitation, and wagging his tail in thanks, took the proffered gift, 
 and lay down at the little slippered feet of Edith to enjoy his meal, 
 occasionally looking up gratefully at her and again wagging his tail 
 in acknowledgment of her bright glance of approval. 
 
 We talked for a time about various things, especially about 
 Edith's new doll, but at last she said that she must go and look after 
 Robert. As she left me, followed by "her new conquest, the mongrel 
 dog, I sighed and wished I were a little boy again, growing up side 
 by side with little Edith. 
 
 Note. An attempt was made in the preceding account to 
 illustrate how a person's appearance and character may be described 
 incidentally and indirectly, by means of that person's acts, rather 
 than by a pure description. The illustration comes dangerously 
 near being narration rather than description, though the fact that 
 the purpose is to describe probably places it in the latter class. 
 From this description, although we are not told in so many words, 
 we learn that Edith is both gay and serious; that she is kind- 
 hearted, affectionate, and motherly beyond her years; that she 
 is polite, well-bred, and dignified; but that she is still a little girl 
 who loves dolls., 
 
 The following is the same portrait given in the style of pure 
 description. This method is simpler and easier, though it does not 
 give any clearer picture than the first description. 
 
 Second Description of Edith. 
 I have a little friend named Edith, who often keeps me
 
 68 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 company as I sit on the park bench on sunny mornings. She is ten 
 years old, and of a gay and bouyant disposition. In some respects, 
 though, she is rather old for her years, for she has had much of the 
 care of her little brother Robert, and this has made her a motherly 
 little soul. 
 
 On a morning in the park, Edith is indeed a pretty picture. Her 
 straight and slender form, surmounted by a shapely head crowned 
 with a coil of warm brown hair, is carried with a sort of dignity that 
 sometimes overawes me, and when her fair face and her large 
 brown eyes take on a serious expression, I can hardly realize that 
 she is a little girl who still loves dolls and candy. She is very 
 neat and careful in her dress, but as I am a man, about all I notice 
 is, that her frock is generally white muslin, and that she usually 
 wears a bright pink bow in her hair. 
 
 She seems to be very fond of me, perhaps for the reason that 
 she is fond of all dumb, homeless animals, and I sometimes wish 
 that I could start my life anew and be a little boy of Edith's age. 
 But what a foolish thought, with a span of thirty years between us. 
 
 Lesson XL. 
 
 1. Describe for information one of the following, or some 
 other person designated by your teacher: 
 
 (a) A lost child. 
 
 (b) An escaped prisoner. 
 
 (c) A tramp suspected of burglary. 
 
 (d) One of your classmates. 
 
 (e) One of your relatives. 
 
 (f) The personal appearance of George Washington. 
 
 (g) The personal appearance of some other historical 
 
 character, from a portrait. 
 
 2. Describe for literary effect one of the following, or some 
 other person designated by your teacher: 
 
 (a) A little child of your acquaintance. 
 One of your acquaintances. 
 One of your relatives. 
 One of your classmates. 
 An old tramp.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 (f) Some eccentric character about town. 
 
 (g) The "meanest" person that you know, 
 (h) The noblest person that you know. 
 
 Lesson XLI.~ Groups of Persons. 
 
 1. This class of descriptions will nearly always be literary. 
 Subjects under this heading are crowds, mobs, groups of children, 
 the company at a social gathering, and the like. The element of 
 narration can hardly be kept out, though the purpose of this form 
 of composition is rather to describe the appearance and personality 
 of the group than to tell what it does. 
 
 2. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) Place, time, and occasion of the group's being gathered 
 
 together. 
 
 (b) The point of view from which it is seen. 
 
 (c) Fundamental image general character or appearance. 
 
 (d) Details the component members of the group, ar- 
 
 ranged usually in order of place, beginning with the 
 nearest or the most prominent. 
 
 (e) General impressions. 
 
 This plan may be varied by transposing (a) and (b) ; some- 
 times by beginning with (e) as a general preface, or comment on 
 what is to follow. 
 
 3. Method of treatment. 
 
 Little need be said on this subject other than what has been 
 said under this heading in previous lessons. Liveliness, vividness, 
 and condensation are desirable in this form of description. 
 Especially be careful not to describe at length any one member of 
 the group. What is wanted is not a series of separate minute 
 photographs, but a general picture of the whole group. Give the 
 description unity by relating all details to some central general 
 impression or predominant fact about the scene. 
 
 4. Illustration. 
 
 When the word went round that a lock-out had been declared 
 at the Works, we knew that there would be trouble. At the 
 appointed hour of eight Bergen's Hall was literally jammed with the 
 poor wretches whom the vengefulness of old Maiden had turned 
 away from their daily bread. The hall was long, but narrow and
 
 70 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 low, and the atmosphere soon became almost unendurable. A 
 dozen oil lamps, sputtering and smoking, served to throw a sort 
 of ghastly and deathlike pallor over the faces of the workmen 
 who had assembled there to voice their protest against the injustice 
 that had been done them. Ghastly faces they were, and brutish 
 too; for the men were mostly foreigners of the lower type, who 
 had come from the furnace of European oppression and been 
 seethed into nothing better in the melting-pot of America. On the 
 platform at one end of the hall a few of the leaders were gathered 
 together around a rickety table, upon which sat a broken pitcher 
 supposedly containing water for the speaker. 
 
 I shall never forget the fearful impression made upon me by 
 those passionate, brutal, hungry, pitiable faces, straining out 
 toward the speaker through the half-light, reflecting like children's 
 faces the changing tone of the speaker's words now solemn, now 
 wild, now pathetic, now horrifying; for the speaker was a skillful, 
 though ignorant, orator, and he talked unbridled Anarchy. My mind 
 went back to "Paradise Lost", and I thought of Satan addressing 
 the fallen angels in Pandemonium. At times one could hear the 
 labored breathing of the audience, as they listened in rapt suspense 
 to some tragic recital of wrong; then as the speaker ended some 
 terrible denunciation, a mighty roar would arise, followed by 
 confused jabberings of several languages, as if the builders of Babel 
 had just dropped into Hell and were being exhorted to join the 
 hosts of Satan. 
 
 Suddenly, and without the slightest warning, the cry arose, 
 "Police". I heard a crashing and crunching of floor and chairs, I 
 saw a mighty concerted rush toward the door, I felt a surge of 
 fresh air. Whiff the lights were out. I heard a voice, "Captain, 
 shall we fire?" A low reply and then six streams of fire shot 
 into the darkness of the hall, followed by such shrieks and curses 
 as I hope I may never hear again. Then more flashes, a stinging 
 sensation in my shoulder, and darkness. 
 
 Lesson XLII. Narration. 
 
 1. We have already been told (Lesson XXXI) that Narration 
 is the representing of objects or conditions as they act through 
 successive points of time. It is a series of moving pictures as 
 distinguished from description, which may be compared to a 
 photograph. While description tells how an object appears, 
 narration tails what it does.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 71 
 
 2. The elements of narration, that is, the materials out of 
 which we construct a narrative, are: (1) persons, or characters; 
 
 (2) acts, or incidents; (3) pictures, or scenes; (4) conversations. 
 When these materials are put together in an orderly way so as to 
 make (1) characters (2) act and (3) talk through successive (4) 
 scenes, we are telling a story, or narrating. 
 
 3. Some one has aptly put it in this way: The questions about 
 a narrative are (1) What? (2) Who? (3) When and where? 
 (4.) Why? This means that the writer must make plain in his story 
 (1) What happened, that is, the Plot; (2) Who did the things, that is, 
 the Characters; (3) Where and when the action took place, that is 
 the Setting; (4) and finally, the author must have some purpose, 
 or underlying meaning, that his story is intended to work out. 
 
 4. The Setting is the time and place of the story. It should 
 be (1) clearly set forth; (2) briefly set forth, sometimes even 
 incidentally, for too much attention to the setting delays the action ; 
 
 (3) in keeping with the action (For example, an Indian story would 
 have to be set in a time when there were savage Indians, and in a 
 place where they were found). 
 
 5. The Plot, or Story, must (1) be true to nature, and probable, 
 or made to appear probable; (2) present successive events that 
 grow naturally out of one another; (3) work toward a Climax, or 
 natural outcome, which the writer holds in mind from the beginning, 
 but which he would do well to keep the reader from knowing until 
 the end; (4) move as rapidly as possible through essential 
 incidents only, omitting those that are unimportant; (5) end at 
 the climax, without further explanation. 
 
 6. The Characters must (1) fit the action, that is, be such 
 characters as would naturally take part in such incidents; (2) be 
 natural and life-like, in character, in actions, and in conversation; 
 (3) not be too numerous; (4) mainly be portrayed by their acts 
 and their conversation, rather than by description. 
 
 7. The purpose, or motive, (1) must not be stated in set words, 
 but (2) must be worked out through the plot and left for the reader 
 to see for himself; (3) it may be simply to entertain, or to 
 picture manners, or to teach a lesson, or to work a reform, or to 
 state a social problem, or to solve a social problem. Young writers 
 would probably do just as well not to trouble themselves very 
 much about the purpose of their stories, but simply go ahead and 
 tell the story as simply and naturally as they can, letting the 
 purpose take care of itself. 
 
 8. The principles given in the preceding paragraphs apply 
 in all their details only to the more complicated kinds of story.
 
 72 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 like the short story of fiction or the novel, but in their main 
 principles they apply to all narration. 
 
 9. As in the case of description, so in narration, a few cautions 
 are worth remembering: 
 
 (a) Realize that not all details can be given. 
 
 (b) Choose only those details that contribute in some way 
 
 to the plot. 
 
 (c) Begin in either of two ways; (1) With the setting; 
 
 or (2) "In medias res"; plunge right into the midst 
 of the action, and bring the setting in later incident- 
 ally. 
 
 (d) Follow this beginning with the events in order of time, 
 
 being careful when events happen at the same time, 
 so to introduce and connect them as not to lead to 
 confusion. 
 
 (e) Be sure to have a climax toward which all the action 
 
 works. 
 
 10. Narration, like all forms of composition, requires unity 
 and coherence. Unity is secured by making all incidents of the 
 story (1) bear upon the one central plot that you are working out; 
 and (2) serve as successive steps leading up to the climax. 
 
 Coherence is secured by (1) following as nearly as possible the 
 order of time; (2) making each incident have some relation to the 
 preceding incident and grow out of it; (3) taking pains to use 
 such connective phrases, clauses, and paragraphs as will show this 
 time and cause relation. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 1. In Irving's story of "Rip Van Winkle" What is the setting, 
 and where is it introduced? Who are the characters? State 
 briefly the plot. What is the purpose? How does the story end? 
 Does it end with the climax? 
 
 2. Answer the same questions with reference to Longfellow's 
 "Evangeline." 
 
 3. In Macaulay's "Horatius", discuss the setting, the plot, 
 the characters, the climax, the ending. 
 
 Lesson XLIII. Incident and Anecdote. 
 
 I. An incident, as distinguished from the subject of a short 
 story or a novel, is a single event, occurence, or adventure, occupy-
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 73 
 
 ing a brief space of time, and often having in it the element of 
 unexpectedness or surprise. An anecdote is a very brief and 
 pointed account of a special kind of incident, usually of a 
 biographical character, and ending abruptly with an unexpected 
 and frequently humorous point. 
 
 2. In narrating incidents, the details should be few. The 
 time, place, and characters should be introduced at once, the 
 time and place briefly, in a phrase or clause (For example. "I 
 was walking down Columbus Street last Saturday, when "). 
 The action should begin immediately and move on without halting 
 for elaborate explanation or description, to the climax. When the 
 climax, or point of the story is told, stop; it is not necessary to 
 add a moral or an explanation. General conclusions of that 
 character (Example. "Thus we see virtue was its own reward"), 
 or commonplace introductions (such as, "An amusing incident 
 occurred the other day", or "That a fool and his money are soon 
 parted, is shown by the following incident") are not only un- 
 necessary, but flat and inartistic. Begin at the beginning of the 
 action, and end when the action is ended. The general style 
 should be easy and conversational. 
 
 3. Illustrations. 
 
 (a) An Incident. 
 
 His Gratitude. 
 
 The ferry boat was just pulling out for the South Side one 
 morning last week, when a pugnacious-looking little Irishman, 
 carrying a tin dinner pail, came rushing like mad down the 
 approach, shouting, "Shtop, Shtop." But it was too late, and the 
 boat was already six feet from the shore when he reached the 
 edge of the landing. Evidently he had a "date" which must be 
 kept, for without a moment's hesitation, gathering his five feet four 
 together in the posture of a monkey-on-a-stick, he shot through the 
 intervening space and landed kerplunk in the water. Those of 
 us at the back of the boat crowded to the edge in order to pull him 
 out when he should reappear, which he did immediately, sputtering 
 and blowing and still clutching the dinner pail. Two or three of the 
 passengers reached down, grasped him by the collar and the arms, 
 and hauled him rather unceremoniously into the boat. He was 
 choking and wheezing, and seemed to need bailing out; so we 
 rolled him on the floor, shook him a few times, and finally stood 
 him on his feet. 
 
 No doubt some of us, gathered around him in a semicircle, 
 unconsciously grinned, as our eyes fell upon his comical figure,
 
 74 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 but then we had saved his life, and so we kept still, awaiting his 
 formal acknowledgment of our service. It was soon forthcoming. 
 Still puffing, he cast his eyes over the assemblage with one look 
 of supreme disgust, and said, "What kind of a gazaboo of a 
 bo-oht is this? Oi'll suh-h th' city fur dommages, and if anny iv 
 ye gints will stip out on th' grass whin we land, Oi'U give ye 
 to laugh about that ye'll not furgit." 
 
 (b) An anecdote. 
 
 My friend Gorton, who has a special talent for saying 
 unfortunate things unintentionally, attended a social gathering the 
 other evening, at which a large part of the entertainment consisted 
 of musical numbers, readings, and various "specialties" by local 
 talent. Along about ten o'clock we were all pretty well bored, and 
 some of the men retired to the library to smoke. Gorton fell into 
 a chance conversation with a man whom he had met once or twice 
 at the club. "By the way, Bunker," he said, "who is that big, 
 homely woman who sang just before we came in? I never heard 
 anything worse. It was enough to fracture the cut glass 
 chandelier." 
 
 "You mean the woman in the pink dress?" 
 
 'Tes." 
 
 "Who sang 'Autumn Breezes'?" 
 
 Tes." 
 
 "That is my wife." 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 1. Write about an incident connected with on of the 
 following: 
 
 (a) School life. 
 
 (b) Sunday school. 
 
 (c) Church. 
 
 (d) A railway station. 
 
 (e) A street car. 
 
 (f) An automobile. 
 
 (g) Some game or sport, as baseball. 
 (h) A rainy day. 
 
 (i) A love aftair. 
 (j) The post office. 
 (k) Your home. 
 (1) A circus. 
 Give your narrative some suggestive heading, such as, "Almost
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 75 
 
 Tardy", "He Knew More Than the Teacher", "The Minister Forgot", 
 or the like. 
 
 2. Write from memory or invent some anecdote about one of 
 the following: 
 
 (a) A blunder in school. 
 
 (b) A boastful man. 
 
 (c) A bore. 
 
 (d) A case of mistaken identity. 
 
 (e) An absent-minded man. 
 
 (f) A very thin man. 
 
 (g) A fat man. 
 
 (h) Any other subject that you may prefer. 
 
 Lesson XLIV. Personal Adventures. 
 
 1. Closely related to incidents are accounts of various 
 adventures in which the writer has taken part. Indeed, these are 
 a kind of expanded incident, and many of the subjects of incident 
 could serve as subjects for this kind of narrative, if treated more 
 at length by the introduction of description and sometimes of 
 several incidents. Narratives of this class may have to do with 
 some hunting, fishing, exploring, or pleasure trip, some midnight 
 adventure of a thrilling character, a ghost or burglar story, or 
 the like. 
 
 2. This kind of narrative lacks the brevity and pointed 
 surprise of a short incident. It is rather a succession of incidents 
 following along naturally and easily in the order of time, with 
 brief descriptions introduced here and there. 
 
 3. These accounts often, and perhaps generally, begin with a 
 description of the setting (time and place). Like all narratives, 
 they should work up to a climax (Example. To the killing of the 
 bear, in a bear story), toward which all of the incidents should 
 contribute. The movement should be fairly rapid, depending 
 somewhat upon the character of the adventure. Do not introduce 
 every little unimportant detail (Example. Every little item of 
 preparation for a fishing trip). End either with the climax, or 
 with a sentence or so (not more) stating the results or after-effects. 
 For example. "In after years, when Nellie and I were married, the 
 skin of this beast was one of the proudest decorations of our home."
 
 76 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 4. The language should be fairly condensed, spirited, and 
 vivid. Do not use "fine writing" even at the thrilling moments. 
 Do not use such stock expressions as "the finny tribe", "the 
 piscatorial art", "the giant Simian", "the gleam of a baleful eye", 
 and so on. Secure condensation and close connection by participial 
 phrases, conjunctive expressions (such as, "in the meantime", "all 
 this time", "no sooner had than"), and dependent clauses. 
 
 5. Examples of this form of narration from books or 
 magazines may be read in the class for illustration. 
 
 Exercises. 
 Write an account of one of the following: 
 
 (a) Some hunting adventure. 
 
 (b) Some fishing adventure. 
 
 (c) Some exploring adventure. 
 
 (d) Some adventure on an automobile trip. 
 
 (e) Some adventure in the mountains. 
 
 (f) Some adventure on the river or the sea coast. 
 
 (g) Some adventure with a burglar. 
 
 (h) Some adventure with a supposed ghost. 
 
 (i) Any other actual adventure that you may have had. 
 
 Lesson XLV. Social Gatherings. 
 
 1. Accounts of social gatherings are among the most common 
 forms of narration. They are favorite subjects with young writers 
 and are considered by them to be rather easy. That they are so 
 considered, is all the more reason for exercising care in writing 
 them, in order that the writer may not fall into a loose and 
 colorless style, lacking all individuality. 
 
 2. Generally such narratives will involve more or less 
 description, but the writer should strive to introduce as much 
 action and conversation as possible and avoid an excess of the 
 descriptive. 
 
 3. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) The setting occasion, time, place. 
 
 (b) General description of the scene. 
 
 (c) General description of the company.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 77 
 
 (d) Incidents in order of time, freely interspersed with 
 
 conversation. 
 
 (e) Incidental descriptions of persons or types of persons. 
 
 (f) The close "lights out". 
 
 This order may of course be varied. For example, one may 
 begin with (b) or (c), plunging right into the scene at once, and 
 follow with (a). It is better to close with some action, rather than 
 with some general, commonplace comment. 
 
 4. Method of treatment. 
 
 (a) Omit unimportant incidents. Select the incidents that 
 make up the main "program" of the entertainment and certain 
 others that may be striking. 
 
 (b) Do not overdo description of scenes or persons. Make 
 your descriptions brief and vivid by comparison, epithets, and 
 condensed expression. 
 
 (c) By all means, avoid as far as possible the stock expressions 
 and specimens of "fine writing" that so commonly afflict this form 
 of narrative. Some of these are: "assembled throng", "dainty 
 refreshments", "sumptuous repast", "covers were laid", "the strains 
 of the well-known ", "the gentlemen were attired in conventional 
 black", "delightfully entertained a number of friends", "the wee 
 sma' hours", "tripped the light fantastic toe", "the mazy waltz", 
 "the popular caterers", "enjoyed the hospitality", "partook of light 
 refreshments", "charming hostess", "presided at the punch bowl", 
 "those present from abroad", "all voted they had had a delightful 
 time". Some of these expressions are a little hard to avoid, but it 
 will help a great deal, if you will write naturally, just as you would 
 talk, and tell what happened, in simple, straightforward language, 
 calling a spade a spade, without attempting to say things in a large 
 and labored way or to lavish unnecessary compliments. 
 
 (d) The ridiculousness of this "high-flown" style of writing is 
 illustrated by the following, actually taken from a weekly 
 newspaper: 
 
 "The select dancing party given by the ladies of the Eastern 
 Star on Friday evening last at the opera house was a very pleasant 
 social affair and largely attended. The sweet influences of the 
 Pleiades were there and they guided Arcturus through the mazes 
 of the dance. The ladies were beautifully costumed from the 
 latest fashion plates to the more antique, never more charming or 
 attractive in person or the grace of conversation, and the gentlemen 
 were in full dress with some variations. 
 
 "As the dancing commenced with the sweet strains of the
 
 78 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 "Orphean Lute", the floor presented a scene of animated liveliness 
 and poetized motion, as the danceurs, like fairies with airy-like 
 tread, tripped the light fantastic in the whirl of the dance. The 
 varied styles and steps would charm the most critical and fastidious, 
 from the graceful in movement and step, as danced the daughter of 
 Herodias before King Herod, to the antique and angular. It was a 
 Terpsichorean treat for the lovers of the art The ladies and 
 gentlemen vied with each other in splendor of attire, winsome ways, 
 grace in the movement of the dance, and in the charm of 
 commingled sociality. The merry scene was worthy the easel of a 
 Raphael. 
 
 "Many guests were present from Dodson and Dawson, enjoying 
 the entertainment, and exchanging social charms, hither drawn 
 by tenderer ties than the music and the dance." 
 
 5. There are two general styles of treating this subject of 
 social entertainments: (a) for information, as in newspaper 
 accounts; and (b) for literary effect. 
 
 (a) Newspaper accounts. 
 
 These are necessarily brief and should confine themeselves to 
 the facts that the reader wants to know. Omit all ornament and 
 in a simple, straightforward, matter-of-fact style tell (1) the time 
 and place and hosts; (2) the character of the entertainment, 
 enumerating the details without much comment, in order of time; 
 (3) the caterer and the orchestra (if your paper thinks it good 
 policy to advertise them) but without compliments; (4) the persons 
 present (if desired by the city editor and if you can give all the 
 names). 
 
 It is in newspaper accounts especially that the stock expressions 
 of (4, c) occur. Substitute good, plain synonyms for such expres- 
 sions; for example, instead of "those present were", say, "the 
 following were present" or "the guests were". Call refreshments 
 "refreshments", not "dainty" or "delicious" refreshments. Do not 
 mention any names of performers or guests (except out-of-town 
 guests), unless you can mention all. 
 
 (b) Literary accounts. 
 
 These are longer narratives than the newspaper account and 
 are designed to be a sort of short story or a history of the 
 entertainment. Their object is not so much to inform as it is 
 to entertain. The method of treatment of this form has already 
 been discussed in (4). Description, ornament, and some comment 
 are allowable, and even desirable, as they would not be in a news- 
 paper account.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 79 
 
 6. Illustrations. 
 
 (a) A correct newspaper account. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. William Summers entertained about a hundred 
 guests at a musical and dancing party, at their home on the North 
 Drive, on Friday evening, June 17, from eight to one o'clock. A 
 musical program was given from eight to ten, consisting of numbers 
 by the Misses Soarer, Mr. Lucius Bow, Mr. Simon Keys, and Miss 
 Sophronisba Bore. Refreshments were then served under the 
 direction of the Chicago caterers, Carvem and Fillem. Dancing 
 followed, in the new colonial ball room, which was elaborately 
 decorated in pink and gold. Music was furnished by the Scraper 
 orchestra. The out of town guests were . 
 
 (b) For illustrations of a literary nature, accounts of such 
 gatherings from novels or magazines may be read to the class. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 Write (1) a newspaper account; (2) a literary account, of one 
 of the following: 
 
 (a) A wedding. 
 
 (b) Somo "party" you may have attended. 
 
 (c) A birthday party. 
 
 (d) A concert. 
 
 (e) A picnic. 
 
 (f) A banquet. 
 
 (g) A Domestic Science "spread". 
 
 (h) A class entertainment in which a play was given, 
 (i) A Halloween, or Christmas, or Valentine party. 
 
 Lesson XLVL Games and Sports. 
 
 1. Games and sports, such as baseball, football, and the like, 
 can be made very interesting subjects of narration, because we all 
 know more or less about them from having participated in them or 
 viewed them, and because they afford opportunity for spirited 
 narration and for climax. 
 
 2. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) Setting time, place, occasion. 
 
 (b) The scene in general.
 
 80 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 (c) The crowd in general. 
 
 (d) Principal incidents in order of time, omitting un- 
 
 important events. 
 
 (e) The outcome the climax. 
 
 (f) The triumph of the victors. 
 
 (g) The departure of the spectators. 
 
 This order may of course be freely varied; for example, (b) 
 or (c) may be placed first. Often (f) and (g) should be omitted 
 entirely. 
 
 3. Method of treatment. 
 
 (a) The general treatment of tnese subjects should be spirited, 
 the movement rapid. Do not "putter around" getting your main 
 action started. For example "The pitcher took the ball from the 
 umpire, raised his arm and his foot, twisted around, and threw the 
 ball 'Strike', said the umpire." Of course the pitcher did that, 
 such things can be taken for granted. You would never get through 
 your story if you dwelt on details in this manner. Say simply, if 
 the incident is important enough to mention at all, "The very 
 first ball that Scotty threw was a strike." Condense whole 
 incidents or scenes into a phrase or a sentence, if they are un- 
 important, or omit them altogether. For example "After ten 
 minutes of play in which nothing much seemed to happen but 
 pushing and hauling back and forth, suddenly a mighty yell went 
 up, followed by an almost heart-breaking silence; for there was 
 Davis plunging down the field with the ball, no one between him 
 and the goal, and big Dan Dodger close at his heels." 
 
 (b) In describing games and sports, you will have to use 
 some technical terms, such as, "touch down", "punt", "infield fly", 
 and the like. However, do not use any more of them than are 
 absolutely needed, especially if you are writing for the general 
 reader. 
 
 (c) Here, too, avoid stock expressions and "fine writing", 
 and most of the more violent slang affected by sporting writers; 
 for example, "twirled the sphere", "swatted a homer", "plugged it 
 in the nose", "a bum heave to first". 
 
 (d) Above all, have in mind the climax. No other brief 
 accounts of ordinary events fit themselves so well to the working 
 up of a climax as do narratives of exciting games. The interest 
 should be made to grow through successive incidents. A scene or 
 an incident that halts the action for a moment may be introduced 
 just before the climax, in order to increase the effect of the climax
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 81 
 
 by holding the reader in suspense; then let the climax come with 
 a rush and all is over. 
 
 (e) Do not dwell long on your theme after the climax. Often 
 the climax is the most effective ending, followed by merely a clause 
 or a sentence of comment on the result. Illustration "True as 
 an arrow the ball shot between the goal posts and over the bar. 
 As it struck the ground, the silence of suspense that was almost 
 an agony a moment before, burst into one mighty, hair-raising yell 
 from the Brantford side of the field. We had won, six to four, and 
 the old score against Depford had been evened up." 
 
 (f) The same distinction between newspaper and literary 
 accounts holds here as in the case of social gatherings. The 
 newspaper accounts have to omit much of the description and the 
 artistic treatment of the literary narrative. Still, even in newspaper 
 reports of games, writers can, and do, adopt more of the literary 
 style than in accounts of social gatherings. 
 
 4. For examples of this form of narrative, see the tournament 
 scene in "Ivanhoe", the football game in "Tom Brown's School 
 Days", the chariot race in "Ben Hur", the arena scenes in "The 
 Last Days of Pompeii" and in "Quo Vadis." Current fiction and the 
 magazines also offer some good specimens. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 Write (1) a newspaper account, (2) a literary narrative, about 
 one of the following: 
 
 (a) A baseball game. 
 
 (b) A football game. 
 
 (c) A basket ball game. 
 
 (d) A track meet. 
 
 (e) A foot race. 
 
 (f) A race meet. 
 
 (g) How the old horse won the bet. 
 (h) The last game of the season. 
 
 (i) Some childhood game as you see some children 
 playing it. 
 
 Lesson XL VII.-- Scenes From Daily Life. 
 
 1. "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely 
 players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in
 
 82 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 bis time plays many parts." Round about us every day the strange 
 drama of human life is played in tragedy and in comedy, and its 
 shifting scenes and familiar pictures furnish unlimited material for 
 narration. No one of the classes of narratives we have considered 
 thus far is quite so varied in its scope of subjects as "Scenes from 
 daily life." The subjects range from scenes of simple home life to 
 tragedies of violence, crime, and death. As examples of subjects 
 under this classification, we may mention "A day in school", 
 "Helping Mother Saturday morning", "The jury disagreed", "The 
 burning of Factory A", "The wreck of the Sally Owen", "The close 
 of school", "A strike". 
 
 2. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) The setting time, place, occasion. 
 
 (b) The scene in general. 
 
 (c) The chief characters. 
 
 (d) The incidents in order of time and minor characters 
 
 introduced with them. 
 
 (e) The climax. 
 
 (f) Possibly (though very briefly, if at all), results. 
 
 This plan will necessarily be varied more often than any plan 
 given heretofore, because of the variety of subjects. Sometimes 
 (c) or (b) or even (f) will come first. (In the latter case, (f) plays 
 the part of a kind of moral, or text). Sometimes minor characters 
 are introduced before the chief actors, (Example. The mob before 
 the leader appears). Even the mildest form of narrative must have 
 some climax (Example. "Helping Mother Saturday morning" 
 climax, when the bread comes triumphantly out of the oven, or 
 when the last bit of work is finished, and you can join your waiting 
 chum). Usually it is best to end with the climax, and not spoil 
 the effect by continuing with something weaker. This is absolutely 
 essential if your story is of the dramatic kind. 
 
 3. Method of treatment. 
 
 The treatment of this class of narrative must necessarily vary 
 with the character of the subject, but all narratives of this class 
 should have the following elements: 
 
 (a) Human interest; that is, they must appeal to the feelings 
 and the experience of the reader by picturing human life. 
 
 (b) Unity, through some central idea that you are working 
 out, and some climax that you are working toward . 
 
 (c) Rapidity of movement, unimportant details being excluded. 
 
 (d) A style of language suited to the particular subject
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 83 
 
 calm and pleasant for the gentler scenes, intense and vivid for 
 those of great dramatic interest. 
 
 (e) Description and character-painting, as well as action, 
 but the description condensed, and the characters portrayed by acts 
 and conversation as much as possible, rather than by description. 
 
 4. Illustrations. All literature is filled with narratives of this 
 character. Some of these from standard authors may be read in the 
 class as illustrations. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 Write a narrative of at least 500 words about one of the 
 following: 
 
 (a) Some scene from school life the first day, opening 
 
 exercises, commencement day, or the like. 
 
 (b) Some scene from business life shopping, invoicing 
 
 stock, a Christmas rush, "our office". 
 
 (c) Some scene from factory life. 
 
 (d) Some scene from home life. 
 
 (e) Some scene from farm life. 
 
 (f) Some scene from public life a court trial, a public 
 
 meeting, a meeting of the city council. 
 
 (g) Some catastrophe a fire, a flood, the breaking of a 
 
 dam, a railway accident, the collapse of a building, 
 (h) Some scene of crime or violence a murder, a mob, 
 
 a strike, 
 (i) Some humorous scene catching a colt, a bashful 
 
 courting, seeing the circus, a scene of disorder in 
 
 school, a war of words. 
 
 Lesson XLVIIL Scenes Taken From History. 
 
 1. For the most part, the history of mankind moves on from 
 day to day in a quiet and unobtrusive fashion, but now and then 
 great events or achievements have flashed out and have stood like 
 brilliant paintings against the background of the commonplace. 
 The great historians have narrated these events so vividly that 
 many of them have become as familiar to us as events of our own 
 day. Examples of these striking narratives are accounts of battles, 
 famous trials, executions, and assassination scenes.
 
 84 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 2. The objection to assigning this kind of narratives to high 
 school students is, of course, that such students cannot possibly 
 write from original sources of information.but must depend on books. 
 This is true, but there are two good reasons nevertheless for assign- 
 ing you such subjects: (1) The writing of such themes will help you 
 in your history study, in connection with which you ought to narrate 
 a few such events; and (2) it may serve to train you for the time 
 w'hen possibly you yourselves may be great historians working out 
 history from original sources. 
 
 3. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) The setting time, place, historical background. 
 
 (b) The general scene. 
 
 (c) The central characters. 
 
 (d) Incidents in order of time. 
 
 (e) The climax. 
 
 (f) Results very briefly. 
 
 Here again the order may be varied, (b) or even (f) coming 
 first. By "historical background", mentioned in (a) is meant the 
 situation or conditions that brought about or that preceded the 
 particular event which is your subject. For example Suppose 
 your theme were "The Crossing of the Rubicon"; tell in a 
 sentence or a brief paragraph the condition that led up to this. 
 
 4. Method of treatment. 
 
 (a) Be sure that you do not merely copy or remember word for 
 word some historical account that you have been reading in order 
 to gain your information. Read several accounts, until you have 
 the. details well fixed in your mind; then write from memory, using 
 your own words. 
 
 (b) Since your account will generally be much shorter than 
 the accounts that you have read, omit all but the greater details 
 of action. 
 
 (c) In selecting the details that you will include, remember 
 the climax, and choose those incidents that are steps leading to 
 this climax. 
 
 (d) Make your language dignified and vivid, but it must he 
 your own, not that of some historian. Employ epithet, figurative 
 language, imagination, but do not overdo them, nor indulge in 
 "fine writing". Sometimes quotations from famous poems may be 
 introduced with good effect. 
 
 5. Illustrations. Some famous scenes form standard works 
 may be read in the cfass; such as, "The storming of the Bastille", 
 from Carlyle, or from "A Tale of Two Cities"; "The last stand of
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 85 
 
 the Old Guard" from "Les Miserables"; "The battle of Hastings", 
 from Dickens's "Child's History". For good specimens, see Green's 
 "Readings from English History". 
 
 Exercises. 
 Write an account of 500 words or so about one of the following : 
 
 (a) Some battle of the American Revolution Lexington, 
 
 Bunker Hill, Princeton, Yorktown. 
 
 (b) Some battle of the Mexican War Monterey, the 
 
 capture of the City of Mexico. 
 
 (c) Some battle of the Civil War Bujl Run, Shiloh, 
 
 Gettysburg, The Merrimac against the Monitor. 
 
 (d) Some battle of the Spanish-American War The 
 
 destruction of the Spanish fleet at Manilla, the battle 
 of Santiago, the storming of San Juan Hill. 
 
 (e) Some famous battle of ancient or modern times 
 
 Marathon, Arbela, Chalons, Blenheim, Marengo, 
 Austerlitz, Waterloo. 
 
 (f) HannibaFs Crossing of the Alps. 
 
 (g) The Visigoths crossing the Danube, 
 (h) Horatius at the Bridge. 
 
 (i) The execution of Charles I., or of Mary Queen of Scots, 
 
 (j) Columbus before the Council of Salamanca, 
 
 (k) The discovery of the New World by Columbus. 
 
 (1) Any other historical subject that may be assigned. 
 
 Lesson XLIX. Biography and Travels. 
 
 Biography and travels may well be considered in the same 
 chapter, for the reason that the latter, at least as we shall consider 
 them here, are really one phase of the former. A person's travels 
 are a part of his biography. Then, too, both of these subjects of 
 narration are largely personal, and both are lacking in the element 
 of complicated plot. 
 
 I. BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 1. The subject includes Biography proper, the narrative of the 
 life history of another, and Autobiography, the narrative of the 
 author's own life.
 
 86 
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 2. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) General statement of the character's place in history. 
 
 (b) Place and date of birth. 
 
 (c) Family influence of home surroundings Upon the 
 
 character. 
 
 (d) Early life and education. 
 
 (e) Life work how it happened to be taken up, early 
 
 failures or successes, final success, main incidents of 
 life in order of time. 
 
 (f) Great achievements classified and commented upon. 
 
 (g) Personal appearance. 
 
 (h) Character illustrated by anecdotes or incidents. 
 
 (i) Friends and associates. 
 
 (j) Results or influences of his life. 
 
 This plan of course admits of a great deal of variation, 
 according to the subject. For example one might begin with (c) 
 (Example. "Imagine a humble cottage and a family of poor 
 peasants. The father, etc., etc. In such a scene as this, there was 
 born, etc."); or with (j) (Example. "At the beginning of the 
 sixth century after Christ, the Arabs were an aggregation of loosely 
 joined tribes with no national organization and with little influence 
 upon the outside world. In the seventh century, we find them etc. 
 This great change was wrought by one man, Mohammed.") The 
 topic (f) may be omitted entirely, and its subject matter distributed 
 throughout (e). 
 
 3. In autobiography, at least such as students in school would 
 write, of course no such elaborate plan is necessary. The time 
 order is followed pretty strictly, and incident and anecdote are 
 introduced freely to illustrate and give life to the narrative. 
 
 i. Method of treatment. 
 
 (a) Prepare a plan, or outline, before you begin to write. 
 
 (b) Do not copy your information word for word from some 
 encyclopedia or biography, but read several authorities and write 
 from memory in your own language. This is the only honest way 
 of course. 
 
 (c) Adopt an easy, straightforward style, following largely the 
 time order. This time order may be varied in some cases by 
 grouping similar facts under the same topic. For example all of 
 an author's works may be discussed under the heading "Works", 
 though some of these books may have been written after events 
 narrated in later paragraphs.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 87 
 
 (d) Autobiography should be written in a simple, conversa- 
 tional style, frankly, and without making yourself out better or 
 worse than you are. 
 
 (e) In writing biography, look well to varying your connective 
 
 expressions. Do not keep constantly repeating "He then ", "I 
 
 next ", but make skillful use of participial and other conjunc- 
 tive phrases and dependent clauses; for example "Having 
 
 completed the eighth grade, I ", "When I was six years old, 
 
 we ", "Upon the completion of ", "His father having lost 
 
 his fortune, young William was compelled to ". 
 
 5. Illustrations. For illustrations of short biography, see 
 encyclopedia articles, biographies of authors in histories of English 
 literature, and some of Macaulay's essays, such as the essay on 
 Clive or the life of Johnson. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 1. Write a short biography of one of the following: 
 
 (a) Some author. 
 
 (b) Some historical character statesman, military leader, 
 
 or reformer. 
 
 (c) Some relative of your family. 
 
 (d) Some odd character that you know. 
 
 2. Write the story of your own life (your autobiography). 
 
 II. TRAVELS. 
 
 1. The only travels that you should write about, at least for 
 the present, are your own travels. 
 
 2. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) Occasion of making the trip or journey time and 
 
 place. 
 
 (b) Preparations (briefly). 
 
 (c) The start. 
 
 (d) Details in order of time places visited, incidents of 
 
 the journey, but not every small detail. 
 
 (e) Short descriptions interspersed through (d). 
 
 (f) The return. 
 
 (g) Results and comments, if worth mentioning. 
 
 3. Method of treatment. 
 
 (a) Write from memory or from your own notes; do not copy 
 from some guide book or book of travels. 
 
 (b) Aim to make your account entertaining by giving It
 
 88 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 human interest. Introduce personal experiences, little touches of 
 life, and the like. 
 
 (c) Avoid monotony of connectives as indicated in "Bio- 
 graphy", 4, e. 
 
 (d) Describe interesting things, but do not make descriptions 
 so long that they will destroy the thread of your narrative. 
 Condense them; make them lively and realistic. 
 
 4. Illustrations from Irving, Hawthorne, Dickens, Bayard 
 Taylor, and more recent travellers, may be read to the class. 
 
 Exercises. 
 Write an account of one of the following: 
 
 (a) Your summer vacation travels. 
 
 (b) A lake trip, if you have taken one. 
 
 (c) An ocean voyage, if you have made one. 
 
 (d) Down the river in a boat. 
 
 (e) A trip to Chicago, or to . 
 
 (f) From to by rail. 
 
 (g) From to by automobile. 
 
 (h) From to by boat. 
 
 (i) From to on horseback. 
 
 (j) A week in Washington, or in . 
 
 Lesson L.--Fiction. 
 
 1. We shall end our discussion of narration with those forma 
 of narrative composition that are the work of the imagination. 
 Supposedly, the narratives that we have written thus far, at least 
 with respect to their plots, have been true and taken from actual 
 life. Now we shall try our hand at "making up" stories of our own. 
 Such imagined stories are, as we know, called Fiction. 
 
 2. The way to go about writing such a narrative is first to set 
 your imagination at work on four different problems: 
 
 (a) First, you try to think out some theme or central thought, 
 or problem, or situation, that will work out into a story. This will 
 be the text of your story, just as a clergyman has a text for his 
 sermon, though you are not to state this text at the beginning, 
 after the manner of the sermon. Examples of such themes are 
 "A rolling stone gathers no moss"; a hard heart softened by a
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 89 
 
 bitter experience; a juryman learns from the testimony that the 
 defendant, charged with murder, is his own long-lost son he 
 believes him guilty what will you make him do? 
 
 (b) Having decided on a theme (Suppose it to be, "A hard 
 heart softened by a bitter experience"), you next ask yourself, What 
 kind of story, or plot, or series of incidents will illustrate this 
 situation and work out this problem? Evidently you must have (1) 
 some incidents illustrating some one's hardness of heart, (2) some 
 incidents leading up to the bitter experience, (3) an incident 
 narrating the bitter experience, (4) some incidents that exhibit the 
 softening of heart and the results of this. As soon as you begin to 
 figure out these incidents, you find that 
 
 (c) You must think out some characters to act out these 
 incidents. To illustrate you decide that (1) the hard-hearted 
 person shall be a rich but miserly man, who has (2) a lovely young 
 daughter whom he loves, in his cold way, but whom he evidently 
 does not love so much as he loves his money; he has (3) a private 
 secretary, who falls in love with this daughter. For a time, knowing 
 that the father wishes to arrange a rich match for his daughter, 
 they conceal their love from him, but finally they reveal it. In 
 his anger the father strikes his daughter down, and the blow 
 produces temporary insanity. After the daughter is cared 
 for, the secretary in a violent scene upbraids the father 
 and leaves his employ. That night the father analyzes 
 his own character. During the days of his daughter's 
 illness he visits her and stays by her bedside constantly. His self- 
 analysis, his sorrow, and the sweetness of his daughter's temper, 
 as she grows better, soften his harsh nature, and when at last she 
 recovers, he is a changed man. He hunts up the secretary and 
 reunites the secretary and the daughter. 
 
 (d) Finally, you must decide upon a place and time that will 
 be suitable to your plot and your characters; that Is, you must 
 determine upon your setting. 
 
 3. Having, then, chosen a theme, worked out a plot, and 
 decided upon the characters and the setting, everything should be 
 cmooth sailing. Just set your characters to acting and talking as 
 people naturally would act and talk in such situations, and your 
 story is complete. 
 
 4. The forms of fiction that we shall consider are Imaginary 
 Autobiography, Animal Fables, Fairy Tales, and the Short Story. 
 The most ambitious form of fiction, the Novel, we shall not attempt 
 to discuss further than to say that ail of the principles of narration 
 and of fiction writing set forth in this and in preceding lessons 
 apply with special force to the novel.
 
 90 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 IMAGINARY AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ANIMAL FABLES, FAIRY 
 
 TALES. 
 
 1. These three forms of fiction have this common character- 
 istic, that they deal with the impossible. The incidents that they 
 recount lie entirely within the realm of the imagination, and unlike 
 the incidents of the novel or the short story, could not possibly 
 take place in real life. In imaginary autobiography, some object 
 not a human being (for example, a hat or a rose) relates the story 
 of its life, as if it were a human being; in the fable, dumb animals 
 or other objects talk and think and act like human beings, usually 
 to illustrate some moral; in fairy stories, a whole world of 
 supernatural beings is created by the imagination and made to act 
 before us. 
 
 2. The special guiding principle that you are to bear in mind 
 in writing this species of fiction besides remembering the 
 directions that apply to all narration is, that you are to try to 
 make the improbable seem probable, and the unnatural seem natural. 
 Do this by making characters, plot, and setting as consistent with 
 one another as possible. The scene being in Fairyland, for 
 example, and all the surroundings unnatural, it is natural to have 
 the acts and the characters unnatural. In "Alice in Wonderland", 
 everything is so absurdly impossible that people's growing tall or 
 short at random, a March hare's talking, and similar impossible 
 things are the only things possible. 
 
 EXERCISES. 
 Write an imaginary autobiography of one of the following: 
 
 (a) A nickel. 
 
 (b) A school book. 
 
 (c) A school desk. 
 
 (d) An old hat or other article of wearing apparel. 
 
 (e) A pie or other article of cookery. 
 
 (f) Any other object that you may prefer. 
 
 Note. In writing this kind of narrative, adopt the easy, col- 
 loquial style of autobiography in general. Imagine yourself to be 
 the article and introduce incidents that would be likely and possible 
 in the life of such an article. Know, or learn, enough about your 
 subject to make its imaginary life consistent with what might 
 be the real facts in the history of such an object. For example, 
 if a rose is telling her life hstory, she must give as her birthplace 
 some locality where roses actually grow in nature.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 91 
 
 Lesson LL Animal Fables and Fairy Tales. 
 
 1. These two classes of story are assigned to the same lesson 
 In order that you may choose for yourself which you will write. 
 It would be well for some to write one kind and some the other. 
 Write, then, either a fable or a fairy story. If you prefer, make 
 your fairy story a giant story. If you are sure, after trial, that 
 you cannot write an original story, reproduce in your own words 
 some fable or fairy story that you 1 have read or heard toild. This, 
 however, is a confession of weakness, and is not advised. 
 
 2. Fables. The term "fable" in its wider sense applies to 
 any brief symbolical story which seeks to illustrate some moral 
 precept by the acts and conversation of brutes, inanimate objects, 
 or human beings. We are using the term in a more restricted sense 
 and excluding those fables (such as Aesop's fable of "The Father 
 and his Sons") in which human beings are the only characters. 
 
 In writing a fable, (a) choose a moral precept that the fable is 
 to illustrate; (b) be brief; (c) write in a plain, conversational 
 style; (d) introduce conversation; (e) have a climax that 
 
 illustrates the moral. 
 
 3. Fairy Stories. The term as here used includes all those 
 stories in which imaginary supernatural creatures (except ghosts) 
 play an important part. It includes not only fairy tales proper, 
 but stories of giants, gnomes, brownies, genii (as in the "Arabian 
 Nights"), and similar creatures. 
 
 In writing such tales, (a) create the right "atmosphere" for 
 your story by giving it a fanciful tone; (b) write in an easy, 
 conversational style, though figurative and imaginative language 
 may be used in keeping with the characters; (c) introduce con- 
 versation as well as action; (d) have some "point" to the story 
 that is brought out by the climax. 
 
 4. For illustrations, read some of Aesop's fables and any of the 
 celebrated fairy tales. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 Write, as already suggested in (1), preceding, either a fable 
 or a fairy story, as follows: 
 
 1. A fable, inventing your plot and your animal characters, 
 and choosing for your moral one of the following: 
 
 (a) A rolling stone gathers no moss. 
 
 (b) Familiarity breeds contempt.
 
 92 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 (c) Nothing venture, nothing have. 
 
 (d) One good turn deserves another. 
 
 (e) Look before you leap. 
 
 (f) No place like home. 
 
 (g) Example is more powerful than precept, 
 (h) Let well enough alone. 
 
 (i) Contentment is better than riches, 
 (j) Pride goeth before destruction. 
 
 (k) Any other proverb or moral precept that you prefer. 
 If you cannot work up any of the preceding themes into a 
 fable, you might try the following: "The Dog and the Fox" Moral, 
 "Honesty is the best policy" dog a watch dog earns living 
 honestly fox steals for living fox comes to bad end fox dying 
 admits to dog truth of proverb. 
 2. A fairy story. 
 
 Invent a fairy or a giant story of your own, or if you are sure 
 you cannot originate such a story, try one of the following: 
 
 (a) Crumbly Jake. 
 
 Jake always complaining falls asleep at work aroused by 
 fairies complains whisked away to fairyland complains clothed 
 magnificently complains fed ,sumptuously complains made 
 king of the fairies complains pulled from throne and taken back 
 to earth conducted by fairies to various scenes of misery 
 converted content thereafter and often visited by the fairies. 
 
 (b) The Magic Word. 
 
 Little boy, son of poor peasant, lost in woods stumbles upon 
 giant's home captured locked in closet till morning giant's wife 
 comes home giant about to beat her she uses magic word she 
 has learned while away giant subdued and does her bidding boy 
 hears word next morning giant drags boy out to eat him boy 
 uses magic word giant subdued boy leads him away finds home 
 keeps giant and makes him do the heavy work at home. 
 
 Lesson LII.-The Short Story. 
 
 1. Loosely speaking, we call any of the stories of Lesson LI short 
 stories, but we must learn to use the term in a more restricted 
 sense in the present lesson. What is nowadays technically called
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 93 
 
 a "Short Story" is something very different from the loose, rambling 
 tales of the oldtime story tellers. The distinctive characteristic of 
 the modern short story is, that it attempts to condense into a few 
 hundred words the situations", problems, and experiences of a whole 
 novel. Indeed, the short story Is a sort of miniature novel, having 
 a central theme or problem or situation that it aims to work out 
 with the same materials and means of real-life characters and; 
 incidents that we find in the longer work of fiction. 
 
 2. The method of the short story is as follows: 
 
 (a) It seizes the characters and the incidents at the 
 moment of some critical situation, and only incidentally 
 or by suggestion explaining the past, 
 
 (b) It rushes them on with rapid strides to a climax, 
 
 (c) Describing, explaining, and narrating minor 
 incidents with a few swift strokes, and 
 
 (d) Avoiding digressions and everything else that does 
 not contribute to the main purpose. 
 
 3. The short story not having room for everything, the writer 
 must decide what element he is to make most prominent. If he 
 intends to make the plot strong (as in a detective story), the 
 characters and the setting will have to be treated lightly. If his 
 story is a character study, the plot and the setting will be less 
 important. If he wishes to picture social surroundings or the 
 natural scenery of a certain region, that is, if the setting is made 
 prominent, the other two will be slighted. In any given short 
 story that you write, decide which feature you wish to emphasize, 
 and devote your attention especially to it. 
 
 4. Now reread carefully what is said about Narration in 
 general in Lesson XLII and about Fiction in general in Lesson L. 
 The directions and suggestions given in those lessons apply with 
 special force to the short story. 
 
 5. The best way to get an understanding of the character and 
 method of the short story is to read some of Hawthorne's, Poe's, 
 or Kipling's stories, or some short stories from the better class of 
 magazines. One of these might be read in the class. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 Write a short story of a thousand words or so on one of tho 
 following themes: 
 
 (a) A fool and his money are soon parted. 
 
 (b) A boy who is the joke of the school becoming the 
 
 school hero.
 
 94 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 (c) A great sacrifice made for one who is unaware of it 
 
 and who learns of it only when it is too late. 
 
 (d) A good man whose one great error of the past, now 
 
 atoned for and unknown by his associates, is revealed 
 at some critical moment. 
 
 (e) Heaping coals of fire (repaying some injury with 
 
 kindness) . 
 
 (f) A boy assuming blame for some serious fault com- 
 
 mitted in school by a girl, because 
 
 (g) The hare and the tortoise the race not always to the 
 
 swift, 
 (h) A case of mistaken identity (either humorous or 
 
 tragic). 
 
 (i) The power of habit, 
 (j) A mysterious murder, 
 (k) A mysterious disappearance. 
 (1) A mysterious robbery, 
 (m) The long lost will discovered, 
 (n) The ghost in the school tower. 
 
 In writing your story, do not take bodily the plot of some story 
 that you have read and present it as a story of your own. That 
 would not be honest. Make up your own plot. 
 
 Lesson LIIL Exposition. 
 
 1. We now come to a third kind of composition, which in 
 some respects is easier than description or narration and in some 
 respects is harder. This is Exposition, or as it might be called more 
 simply, Explanation. It is easier than description and narration in 
 that it does not, in the main, call upon the imagination or the 
 creative powers of the mind, but rather upon the intellect and the 
 reasoning powers. It is harder in that it deals with abstract and 
 general subjects that we do not perceive by the senses, but that we 
 have to think out by the intellect. 
 
 2. Exposition, stated briefly, is explaining the meaning of 
 things, and the things thus explained are not particular objects 
 that we can see, hear, and feel, but general ideas that exist only 
 in the mind, for exampe, not some violet, but the violet in general. 
 If our subject is some particular object that exists and that we can
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 95 
 
 perceive (Example Our automobile), we describe; but if our 
 subject is a general class of objects (Example automobiles), and 
 if we are expected to state the characteristic common to all 
 individuals of the class (Example all automobiles), we expound, 
 or employ exposition. If our subject is "Making plate glass at 
 the Federal Plate Glass Works", we narrate; if our subject is 
 "How to make plate glass", in general, we expound. 
 
 3. The subjects of exposition fall under two classes: 
 
 (a) General terms (single ideas) (1) Objects (ex. 
 glass); and (2) processes (ex. making glass). 
 
 (b) General propositions (statements, or truths) 
 Ex. The soul of man is immortal. 
 
 4. Exposition involves, or may involve, six different processes; 
 that is, there are six different steps in the full exposition of a term 
 or a proposition: 
 
 (a) Definition telling what it is; what qualities or 
 attributes it possesses. 
 
 (b) Giving Examples naming individual members of 
 the class as illustrations. 
 
 (c) Comparison telling what it is like. 
 
 (d) Contrast telling what it is not like. 
 
 (e) Division telling what it includes; that is, giving 
 its subdivisions, or telling what individual objects the term 
 applies to. 
 
 (f) Explanatory Description or Narration giving the 
 details common to all objects or processes of the class; 
 that is, describing or narrating the general class 
 characteristics. 
 
 5. Definition. 
 
 (a) To define a term is to tell what it is. There are several 
 ways of doing this, but we shall mention only two: 
 
 1. Definition by synonym; that is, defining a term by giving 
 another that means the same thing. Example "The trachea is 
 the windpipe". 
 
 2. Logical definition; that is, stating to what class an 
 object belongs, or of what kind it is, and then telling how it differs 
 from other of that class. This is called defining by genus (class) 
 and differentia (difference). It is the only really exact form of 
 definition. Example "An acute angle is an angle (kind of thing, 
 or genus) that is less than a right angle (how different from other 
 angles, or differentia).
 
 96 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 (b) The general term that defines should be the same part of 
 speech as the term defined. Example Botany (noun) is the 
 science (noun) of plant life. Do not define by childishly using a 
 "when", "where", or "if" clause. (Example Pessimism is where 
 you look on the dark side of things). 
 
 (c) Definition is very important in exposition. Every term 
 used should be defined unless you are sure your reader under- 
 stands it. 
 
 (d) Exercise. 
 
 1. Define by synonym: cranium, optimism, eccentricity. 
 
 2. Define by genus and differentia: an exponent (in 
 algebra), a square, a tyrant (in Grecian history). Point 
 out in each case what the genus is and what the differentia. 
 
 3. Define: a "fly" in baseball, an "infield fly", a 
 "credit" in school, domestic science. 
 
 6. The value of examples in making things clear is self-evident. 
 Every lesson of this treatise illustrates this fact. The one caution 
 is, that you must be sure that the example is an example of the 
 term under consideration and not of something else. For 
 illustration, if one should define "an impropriety" as "the mistaken 
 use of one good English word for another good word", which is a 
 correct definition, and then go on to give as examples, "hadn't 
 ought", "bum", and "punk", he would be giving examples of 
 impurities, not of improprieties, and would be using an illustration 
 that did not illustrate. 
 
 7. Comparison is very useful in making things clear. To 
 liken a term to one that the reader already knows is almost the 
 quickest way to give him an approximate notion of the term. 
 Example "The relation between negative and positive terms in 
 algebra is like the relation between debts and assets; a minus ten 
 will cancel a plus ten, just as a ten dollar debt will take away the 
 ten dollars that you have in your possession." 
 
 8. Contrast, or telling what the thing is not like, may likewise 
 be employed with good effect. Example "Narration differs from 
 description in that description is a photograph of the object at 
 one point of time, while narration is a moving picture of the object 
 at successive moments of time." Closely related to contrast is the 
 method of explaining a term by telling what it is not, as well as 
 what it is. Example "Education is not pouring information into 
 the pupil, but drawing out his faculties." 
 
 9. Division. 
 
 (a) Division of a term consists in stating the individual
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 97 
 
 members or the subclasses included in that term. Example after 
 defining an angle, we proceed to divide the term by stating the 
 different kinds of angles, or classes included in the term "angle": 
 (1) Definition An angle is the figure formed by two straight lines 
 drawn from a point; (2) Division There are three kinds of angles, 
 acute, obtuse, and right angles. 
 
 (b) Ordinarily a term may be divided in more than one way, 
 according to the basis upon which we decide to classify its members. 
 For example, classified on one basis (mode of expressing the 
 thought) sentences are assertive, interrogative, or imperative; 
 classified on another basis (structure), sentences are simple, com- 
 plex, and compound. This basis of classification upon which a 
 term may be divided in any particular case is called the principle 
 of division. 
 
 (c) Two important rules must be observed in dividing a term: 
 
 (1) The division must be complete; that is, the sum of all 
 the subdivisions must equal the whole term that is divided. No 
 individuals or subclasses of the term must be left out. Example 
 in the division of angles as acute, obtuse, and right, all angles are 
 included and accounted for; on the other hand, if we divide the 
 term "government" into monarchies and democracies, our division 
 is incomplete, for we have omitted oligarchies, and so certain 
 governments are unaccounted for in our classification. 
 
 (2) The principle of division (explained in (b)) must not be 
 changed; you must hold to the same basis throughout any one 
 classification. No one of the subdivisions may include any members 
 or individuals of the others. Example If you classify sentences 
 as simple, assertive, complex, and compound, you have changed 
 your principle of division, because "assertive" may include any one 
 of the other three. This error is called cross-division. 
 
 (d) Exercises. 
 
 Criticize the following specimens of faulty division and make 
 a correct division in each case: 
 
 1. The kinds of composition are narration, description, 
 argumentation, and short stories. 
 
 2. Numbers in algebra are either integers, fractions, or 
 radicals. 
 
 3. The students in our high school are boys, girls, and post 
 graduates. 
 
 10. Explanatory description and narration. 
 
 Explanatory description consists in enumerating and describing
 
 1)8 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 the different details that belong in common to all individual 
 members of the class described. For example, in explaining what 
 a watch is, after denning it you go on to mention and describe the 
 different parts that belong to a watch the case, the face, the 
 movement, and so on. This differs from pure description in that 
 pure descripition deals with some particular watch, which might 
 have a gold case, an Elgin movement, etc., while in explanatory 
 description you give details and characteristics that belong to all 
 watches alike. Likewise in explanatory narration, you enumerate 
 the steps of a process wherever it is carried on, not of some 
 particular instance of it; for example, "How bread is made", not 
 "How I made a loaf of bread". 
 
 11. The language of exposition should be above all things 
 clear and precise. You should employ words of the exact meaning 
 that you intend to convey. Do not use words loosely; do not say 
 "thing" if you mean "apparatus," " machine", or "device". Be sure 
 to distinguish between synonyms (words that have the same 
 general meaning, but that differ in degree or shade of meaning). 
 For example, do not say "same" if you mean "like", "square" if 
 you mean "oblong", "middle" if you mean "centre". 
 
 12. The general style of exposition is naturally more plain, 
 direct, and straightforward than that of narration or of description. 
 There is less occasion for ornament, epithet, figures of speech, and 
 the like. Still, this does not mean that the style must be entirely 
 devoid of life. Apt comparisons, illustrations, variety in form of 
 expression, will enliven even an apparently "prosy" subject. 
 
 13. Finally, and this is very important it is almost impossible 
 to write a clear exposition of any length without first thinking out 
 and writing down an Outline, or Plan, of your composition. If you 
 once get a good working outline, the battle is half won, for you 
 then have your subject well thought out and well in hand, and 
 can go ahead and expand the outline without worrying about what 
 is to come next. 
 
 In making the subdivisions of your outline, be sure to observe 
 the directions with regard to "Division" in section 9, of this 
 lesson. Especially beware of cross-division, and as you take up 
 each new principle of division, indicate clearly what that new basis 
 of classification is. Number your divisions, subdivisions, and 
 sub-subdivisions differently, using Roman numerals, Arabic figures, 
 and letters for this purpose. Indent each subdivision further than 
 the division of which it is a part. Underscore important words. 
 The following is given as a specimen of outline:
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 99 
 
 MONEY. 
 I. What it is. 
 II. Its uses. 
 
 1. A medium of exchange. 
 
 2. A measure, or standard, of value. 
 
 3. A standard for debts. 
 
 III. Its material. 
 
 1. Various substances other than metals. 
 
 2. Metals other than precious metals. 
 
 3. The precious metals. 
 
 4. Paper. 
 
 a. Issued by banks. 
 
 b. Issued by government. 
 
 IV. Which material is best. 
 
 1. The qualities that are requisites of a good money. 
 
 2. Absence of some of these qualities in 
 
 a. Substances other than metals. 
 
 b. Non-precious metals. 
 
 c. Paper. 
 
 3. Presence of these qualities in the precious metals. 
 
 4. Precious metals, therefore, the only suitable money. 
 
 Lesson LIV. Exposition Related to Description. 
 
 (Manufactured objects and mechanical contrivances.) 
 
 1. Exposition of this character consists in explaining the facts 
 that are common to all objects of the class named by your subject; 
 for example, the facts common to all clocks, if "Clocks" is your 
 subject. If you were setting forth the facts about a particular 
 object of this class (Example Grandfather's clock), your com- 
 position would be description. 
 
 2. Method of treatment. 
 
 (a) Be sure to give only class characteristics; do not bring 
 in any individual details that do not apply to all members of the 
 given class. For example, do not say in explaining clocks, "On 
 the face the twelve hours are marked in Roman numerals", because 
 they are not marked in Roman numerals on all clocks.
 
 100 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 (b) You will have to use technical terms; that is, terms 
 belonging especially to your subject, and having a special 
 meaning when applied to it (as "escapement", "movement", for a 
 clock or a watch). When you use them be sure their meaning is 
 explained by terms familiar to your readers. 
 
 (c) A very useful device in explaining objects, especially 
 mechanical contrivances, is the diagram. Diagrams, used to 
 illustrate the text and with parts numbered or lettered for reference, 
 are almost indispensable in explaining complicated machines. 
 
 3. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) What the object is definition. 
 
 (b) Expansion of the definition comparisons, contrasts, 
 
 etc. 
 
 (c) Examples if necessary. 
 
 (d) Explanatory description (with diagrams if necessary). 
 
 (e) Kinds (Division of the subject). 
 
 (f) Uses. 
 
 (g) History of its invention or use (if notable), 
 (h) Comments or suggestions. 
 
 This order will of course be varied according to your subject. 
 For example, either (f) or (e) might follow (b). Frequently (h) 
 will not be necessary or suitable. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 1. Write a 400 or 500 word composition on one of the following 
 subjects : 
 
 (a) The roll-top desk or some other piece of furniture. 
 
 (b) Some kitchen utensil. 
 
 (c) The umbrella. 
 
 (d) The thermometer. 
 
 (e) The fountain pen. 
 
 (f) Any other manufactured article of a simple kind that 
 
 may be assigned. 
 
 2. Write a 400 or 500 word composition on one of the following 
 subjects: 
 
 (a) The lawn mower. 
 
 (b) The carpet sweeper. 
 
 (c) The violin or some other musical instrument. 
 
 (d) The microscope. 
 
 (e) The elevator.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 101 
 
 (f) The telephone. 
 
 (g) The phonograph, 
 (h) The air pump. 
 
 (i) The steam engine. 
 
 (j) Any other machine or mechanical contrivance. 
 
 Lesson LV. Exposition Related to Description. 
 
 (Objects In Nature.) 
 
 1. This kind of composition is, for the most part, scientific 
 description of natural objects, giving the facts common to all 
 objects of a given class as distinguished from those facts that are 
 merely accidental and belonging to individual members of the class. 
 Subjects under this classification are such subjects as, "The camel", 
 "Bees", "Coal". 
 
 2. Method of treatment. 
 
 (a) Note what is said about exposition in general in 
 
 Lesson LIII. 
 
 (b) Note here, too, as in Lesson LIV, 2, a, the necessity 
 
 of confining your details to general and class facts. 
 
 (c) Observe the same rule as to technical terms as in 
 
 Lesson LIII, 2, b. For example, you will use such 
 terms as "petals", "calyx", "vertebrae", "dorsal fin", 
 and the like; be sure that they are explained or 
 understood. 
 
 (d) Diagrams or illustrations are useful, especially to 
 
 show structural arrangement of parts (internal organs 
 of animals, seeds of apple). 
 
 8. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) What the object is definition. 
 
 (b) Expansion of the definition by comparisons, contrasts, 
 
 etc. 
 
 (c) Examples (if necessary). 
 
 (d) Explanatory description form, structure, parts and 
 
 their uses (with diagrams if necessary). 
 
 (e) Kinds division of the subject. 
 
 (f) Distribution where it is found in nature. 
 
 (g) Practical uses.
 
 102 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 This order may be changed for variety. For example, some- 
 times (g) or (f) may be placed first. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 1. Write a 400 or 500 word composition on one of the following 
 subjects: 
 
 (a) The dog or some other domestic animal. 
 
 (b) The lion or some other wild animal. 
 
 (c) The butterfly or some other insect. 
 
 (d) The carp or some other fish. 
 
 (e) The earthworm. 
 
 2. Write a 400 or 500 word composition on one of the following 
 subjects : 
 
 (a) The rose or some other flower. 
 
 (b) The apple or some other fruit. 
 
 (c) The oak or some other tree. 
 
 (d) Maize (Indian corn) or some other grain. 
 
 (e) The potato or some other vegetable. 
 
 (f) Coal or some other mineral. 
 
 (g) Iron or some other metal. 
 
 Lesson LVL Exposition of Types of Humanity 
 and Human Institutions. 
 
 1. These are subjects that present a wide field for the writer. 
 Such themes as "The truly wise man", "The clown", "The dude", 
 'The new woman", "The agitator", are what we mean by "types 
 of humanity". Under the classification, "Human institutions" 
 would come such subjects as "Our public school system", "The 
 ideal high school", "Manual training in schools", "The town meeting 
 in Illinois", "Temperance reform", and the like. 
 
 2. Method of treatment. 
 
 The method of treating these varies with the subject and with 
 the way of viewing it. Do not "preach" too much. Do not indulge 
 in vague ideas; know what you are writing about. Be sincere and 
 straightforward. Use examples freely. Explain merely, do not 
 argu. Note again carefully the directions given in Lesson LIII. 
 
 3. Details and plan. 
 
 The subjects under these classifications are so varied and so
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 103 
 
 different that no set plan or even suggestive plan can be made out 
 that will cover them all. However, when you have selected your 
 subject and worked it up, before you begin to write be sure to make 
 an outline, or plan. This kind of theme especially requires an 
 outline in order to prevent one from writing in a rambling, dis 
 connected style. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 Write a composition of 500 words or so on one of the following 
 subjects: 
 
 (a) One of the subjects mentioned in (1). 
 
 (b) Algebra or some other high school study. 
 
 (c) Local option. 
 
 (d) City government in Illinois. 
 
 (e) The "sport". 
 
 (f) The boy who has too much money to spend. 
 
 (g) The girl who wants to be considered a "young lady", 
 (h) The truly educated man. 
 
 (i) Harmful ways of spending one's leisure moments, 
 (j) The newspaper, 
 (k) Popular superstitions. 
 (1) The power of habit. 
 
 (m) Any other subject of a similar character suggested by 
 your teacher. 
 
 Lesson LVII.-- Exposition Related to Narration. 
 
 (Processes of Construction, Human Activities, ,and Natural 
 Phenomena.) 
 
 1. This form of exposition is related to narration in that it 
 treats of action, but differs from it in that the actions are the 
 activities common to a Whole class, and not the particular acts, 
 of particular individuals, as in narration. Examples of this kind of 
 themes are "Glass making", "How pianos are made", "Making a 
 kite", "Running a steam engine", "The game of baseball", "How to 
 play bridge", "How ants build their nests", "How a crop of corn 
 is raised", "How to rear a child", "How plants grow", "Cyclones", 
 "Earthquakes". You will note that while these subjects vary 
 greatly in their range, they all belong under this classification, 
 because they explain certain general classes of activity.
 
 104 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 2. All the general directions for exposition apply here of 
 course, (Review Lesson L1II), and many of the rules of narration. 
 The general style will be plain and straightforward, though some 
 of the subjects permit more vividness of language than others 
 (examples, glass making, tornadoes). Keep in mind that you are 
 trying to explain to some one who does not understand, rather than 
 that you are describing for literary effect. This holds true even 
 for a subject like "Earthquakes" or "Cyclones". 
 
 3. Details to be selected and plan. 
 
 (a) Definition of the term if necessary and brief explana- 
 
 tion of it. 
 
 (b) Details of the process or the activity, whatever it may 
 
 be, in order of time. 
 
 (c) Comments in a general way importance of the 
 
 activity or benefits of it or results of it or folly 
 of it or where carried on or the like. 
 
 Exercises. 
 
 Write a composition of 500 words or so on one of the following 
 subjects: 
 
 (a) One of the subjects given in (1). 
 
 (b) An ideal recitation. 
 
 (c) The game of basket ball or any other game. 
 
 (d) Making a shirt waist or some other article of wearing 
 
 apparel. 
 
 (e) How to make a sled or some similar article. 
 
 (f) How to fish for . 
 
 (g) How to hunt . 
 
 (h) How to repair some article, 
 (i) The process of clay modeling. 
 
 Lesson L VIII. Argumentation. 
 
 1. We now come to the last general kind of composition that 
 we shall discuss, argument, or argumentation, as it is sometimes 
 called. Argumentation is the form of composition in which the 
 writer seeks to prove the truth of some statement. The subject 
 of argument must always be what is called a proposition. A 
 proposition, as distinguished from a term, is a sentence, and it 
 always contains two terms, the relation between which is stated in
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 105 
 
 the proposition. (For example "School examinations" is a term, 
 and "Abolished" is a term. If we connect them by a word showing 
 some relationship between them, as "should be", we have a 
 proposition "School examination should be abolished.") Whatever 
 the subject we wish to prove, it must be a proposition. One cannot 
 prove a term. 
 
 2. Argument ought not to be very difficult, because most 
 people like to argue, and we do more or less arguing all the time. 
 But the sort of argument that we hear is generally pretty loose and 
 careless. The fact is, that formal argument such as we are now 
 discussing requires great care, for if we are not careful we shall 
 make mistakes alike in our facts, in our evidence, and in our mode 
 of reasoning. 
 
 3. Before beginning to write or prepare an argument, the writer 
 must attend carefully to the following points: 
 
 (a) He must decide just exactly what he is going to try 
 
 to prove. 
 
 (b) He must decide upon the form of reasoning that he is 
 
 going to adopt. 
 
 (c) He must decide where the burden of proof lies. 
 
 (d) He must make a careful and full outline, or brief, as 
 
 it is called, of his argument. 
 
 4. A great deal of confusion often arises from the fact that 
 those who argue do not have clearly in mind just what they expect 
 to prove, and so they either try to prove too much or too little. 
 Sometimes in a debate the persons on one side have one under- 
 standing of the question, and those on the other a different 
 understanding. This confusion will be avoided if the proposition 
 to be argued is stated in terms about which there can be no 
 mistake. For example, suppose the proposition were, "Resolved 
 that high school studies should be elective." It should be made 
 plain what the term "elective" means, and also, whether you mean 
 all high school studies, or just some high school studies. 
 
 5. The Form of Reasoning. 
 
 There are two general methods of reasoning, or modes of 
 proving truth, induction and deduction. 
 
 (a) In the method known as inductive reasoning we examine 
 a number of particular facts, and noticing certain respects in which 
 they agree, we establish from this agreement a general truth, or 
 law. For example, we notice that aluminum, copper, iron, gold, 
 silver, lead, zinc, and various other metals are good conductors of 
 heat. From these separate facts we infer that all metals are good
 
 106 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 conductors of heat, thus establishing a general law. This is called 
 induction. But no induction can be perfect unless you have 
 observed all the possible instances that could come under the 
 class. If you should find one metal that did not conduct heat 
 your entire reasoning would fall. However, almost all our 
 knowledge is based upon induction. 
 
 (b) On the other hand, by the method known as deduction or 
 deductive reasoning, we reason from general truths to particular 
 facts. Having established by induction what we consider to be 
 the truth, that all metals are good conductors of heat, and 
 observing that tin is a metal, we reason that tin is a good conductor 
 of heat. In deductive reasoning we have two propositions called 
 premises, and from these we draw the conclusion. The fij-Ht 
 proposition, called the major premise, is a general truth. ("All 
 metals are good conductors of heat. ') The second, called the, 
 minor premise, is a particular fact. ("Tin is a metal.") If these 
 premises are both true, and there is a logical connection between 
 the two truths, the conclusion is correct. If either premise is 
 false, the conclusion is false. 
 
 (c) Now in writing an argument, you will probably use both 
 of these kinds of reasoning. If you try to prove anything 
 inductively you must be sure that you have a sufficient number of 
 facts to make your inference reasonably certain. If you try to 
 prove anything deductively you must watch out for three things; 
 first, that the major premise is true, second, that the minor premise 
 is true, and third, that when joined together, a conclusion follows. 
 Even if both premises are true, a conclusion may not fofllow if 
 there is no logical connection between the truths. For example 
 Major premise All United States senators are men; minor 
 premise Some men are negroes; conclusion Therefore some 
 United States senators are negroes. This conclusion does not 
 follow at all, in fact is not true, though both premises are true. 
 
 (d) Another form of reasoning is what is called reasoning by 
 analogy. It is really a form of inductive reasoning. In this you 
 reason that because certain conclusions followed certain conditions 
 in a given case similar to the one that you are considering, the 
 same conclusions will follow in the latter case. For example, 
 because the growth of wealth and luxury overthrew the Roman 
 Republic, people sometimes argue that the increase of wealth and 
 luxury in the United States will destroy our nation. Argument 
 from analogy is very effective, but one must be careful that the 
 likeness between the two cases compared is complete, and that 
 no new element appears in the case that you are arguing that would 
 prevent a conclusion similar to that in the first case. For example,
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 107 
 
 so many new conditions exist in the United States that were not 
 present in Greece or Rome, that wealth and luxury may not have 
 the same destructive effect with us as with the ancients. 
 
 6. The Burden of Proof. 
 
 The burden of proof means the necessity of overcoming what is 
 called the presumption in favor of one's opponent in the argument. 
 It means that one upon whom rests the burden of proof is handi- 
 capped, so to speak, by having to establish his position by positive 
 arguments, and that all his opponent need do is to refute or disprove 
 these arguments. For example, in a criminal case the defendant is 
 presumed to be innocent, and the burden of proof rests upon the 
 prosecution to prove that he is guilty. If then, the burden o! 
 proof rests upon your opponent, all you have to do is to refute his 
 arguments. If, however, the burden of proof rests upon you, it is 
 necessary to build up strong arguments to establish your position. 
 The burden of proof always rests on the debater (1) who seeks to 
 establish some new proposition or (2) to overthrow or change 
 existing institutions or conditions. 
 
 7. General Plan of an Argument. 
 
 (a) Introduction statement,and careful explanation of the 
 meaning of the proposition that you are to argue. Possibly some 
 explanation of your position and the position of your readers, or 
 hearers, on the subject. 
 
 (b) Body of the Argument. 
 
 1. One of your stronger arguments. 
 
 2. Other arguments logically arranged, and growing in 
 
 strength. 
 
 3. Your strongest argument at the end. 
 
 4. Refutation (answering opponent's argument). 
 
 5. Conclusion summing up of your several arguments. 
 
 8. In preparing a brief, or outline, of your argument, great 
 care should be taken in writing down the headings. The main 
 arguments should be numbered differently from the subdivisions 
 under them, and the sub-subdivisions should be numbered 
 differently from the subdivisions. In doing this, Roman numerals, 
 Arabic figures, and letters may be used.. Indent each subdivision 
 further than the heading of the division of which it is a part. 
 Underscore important words. 
 
 9. A specimen brief. 
 
 BRIEF. 
 Question Resolved, That a series of interclass track meets
 
 108 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 Is a better form of fall athletics for the boys of a high school than 
 football. 
 
 A. Introduction. 
 
 I. It Is assumed that but one of these forms of athletics can 
 be maintained in the school at the time specified. 
 
 II. It is not contended that football should be excluded if both 
 forms were practicable at the same time. 
 
 III. But it is contended that where only one form is practicable, 
 the track meet is the better form. 
 
 B. Brief Proper . 
 
 I. The purpose of athletics in a high school is to provide for 
 the boys 
 
 1. Healthful sports. 
 
 2. Physical training. 
 
 3. Incentive to do good school work in order that they 
 may take part in athletics. 
 
 4. And to provide these to the greatest number possible. 
 
 II. Track athletics provide at least equally well with football: 
 
 1. Healthful sport, 
 
 2. Incentive to do good work. 
 
 III. They provide better than does football a system of 
 physical training; because 
 
 1. The exercise furnished by them is more varied; 
 
 2. They are a less violent strain upon the body and the 
 
 nervous system; 
 
 3. They do not require so severe a preliminary training; 
 
 4. This preliminary training for them does not take f>o 
 
 much time from other pursuits. 
 
 IV. They provide training for a greater number of students 
 than does football; because 
 
 1. There are more events to take part in; 
 
 2. Any number of students can take part in any event; 
 
 3. Only those physically very rugged can take part in 
 
 football; this is not the case with track athletics. 
 
 V. They are easier to support financially than football; be- 
 cause 
 
 1. Their actual cost is less; because 
 
 a. The equipment is less expensive; 
 
 b. No out of town trips are required. 

 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 109 
 
 2. They draw better crowds. 
 
 VI. They are more favored by the public and the parents than 
 is football because 
 
 1. The public considers them more interesting; 
 
 2. Many persons object to football, but none to track meets. 
 
 VII. There are serious objections to football, on the ground 
 that 
 
 1. It is brutal; 
 
 2. It cultivates unsportsman-like conduct and unfairness 
 
 in players; 
 
 3. It cultivates a rowdy and "sporty" spirit among students; 
 
 VIII. None of these objections are advanced against track 
 athletics. 
 
 IX. Experience has proved the advantage of track athletics 
 over football 
 
 1. In other schools; 
 
 2. In our own school. 
 
 C. Conclusion. 
 
 Summary 'Track athletics therefore better than football, 
 because (1) they provide the same sport and incentive to work; 
 (2) etc., summarize reasons. 
 
 Lesson LIX. 
 
 Write an argument on one side or the other (affirmative or 
 negative) of one of the following subjects. Be sure to draw up a 
 brief before writing. 
 
 (a) Every boy or girl who can afford it should pursue a four 
 years' high school course. 
 
 (b) All the studies of the high school course phould be 
 elective. 
 
 (c) Ancient history, algebra, and geometry should not be 
 required as a condition for graduation from a high school. 
 
 (d) Co-educational high schools should be done away with, and 
 separate high schools should be maintained for boys and for girls. 
 
 (e) Every high school student should study some foreign 
 language for at least two years. 
 
 (0 Women should have the right to vote at all elections, 
 (g) The city should own the street railway system.
 
 110 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 (h) The operation of five cent theatres, skating rinks, and 
 public amusement parks is harmful to the community in which 
 they operate. 
 
 (i) Luxurious living on the part of the wealthy is an advantage 
 to the community. 
 
 (j) If a person can have only one of them, to the 
 exclusion of the other, education is a better possession than wealth. 
 
 Lesson LX.-- Debate. 
 
 1. In Lesson LVIII we discussed argumentation in general 
 and some of the rules governing it. The most useful form of 
 argumentation for high school students is oral debate. Indeed, it 
 is so important that we shall give a separate lesson to it. The 
 ability to think out logically your reasons for believing in a certain 
 way, and the ability to stand up and give those reasons in a well 
 connected and well worded little talk, are worth striving hard to 
 attain, and it is the duty of the school to see that you get the 
 training and the practice that help you to succeed in this effort. 
 
 2. Of course all the rules of Lesson LVIII (which you should 
 here review) governing argument in general apply also to debate, 
 but there are some additional special directions for the latter that 
 it is worth while to consider. 
 
 3. Preliminary organization and arrangements. 
 
 (a) It would be well for all the classes of the school to 
 organize debating clubs. An executive committee, or committee 
 on arrangements, might be elected, and this committee might 
 choose a presiding officer and a secretary for each debate, the 
 secretary to keep a short record of the debate and its outcome. 
 The committee might also appoint four leaders of debate for each 
 session. These leaders meet and decide upon a question, two of 
 them taking the affirmative, and two the negative side of the 
 question. The leaders may also, if that is thought desirable, choose 
 other debaters who shall be prepared to say a few words on their 
 respective sides of the question, after the four leaders have finished. 
 
 (b) In choosing a question, those who are to debate should 
 agree on just exactly what the question is; what is to be argued; 
 what is to be conceded by both; and what is not included. The 
 question should state fully and very definitely, what is to be proved 
 and what the various conditions are. For example, "Resolved,
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. Ill 
 
 That a boy just graduated from the grammar school will in four 
 years be better trained for business, by pursuing a four years' 
 course in a good high school in which he studies bookkeeping and 
 stenography along with the usual high school subjects, than he 
 would be trained for business by pursuing a year's course in a 
 business college, and then spending three years in a retail store." 
 Notice how in this question every condition is explicitly stated. 
 Of course not every question will be quite so complicated as this 
 question, but whatever it is, it should be stated as fully as its 
 character demands. 
 
 (c) In general, the subject chosen should be one that the 
 debaters and their audience are interested in, and also one about 
 which they know something or can gather original information. 
 Avoid such subjects as, "Resolved, That fire is more destructive than 
 water", or "That Lincoln was greater than Washington". Aside 
 from the fact that they cannot be proved either way, it is of no 
 importance that they be argued at all. 
 
 4. Preparation for the debate. 
 
 (a) At least two weeks should be allowed for preparation. 
 
 (b) In preparing a debate you should be sure to draw up 
 a brief in accordance with the directions and the model given in 
 Lesson LVIII. Using this brief as an outline, construct your speech 
 by expanding the several topics of the brief into sentences and 
 paragraphs. Do not write these down, but say them over to yourself, 
 at times aloud, until you have your argument well fixed in mind. 
 But do not memorize a set speech. You should, however, know 
 pretty well what you are going to say, in order that when you get 
 up to talk on the fateful day, you may not hesitate or blunder in 
 your speech. 
 
 (c) In working up your argument, take great care, and be sure 
 
 (1) That your reasoning is sound; that if you use 
 deductive reasoning, your premises are true and that 
 your conclusion logically follows; that if you use in- 
 ductive reasoning, your several facts are numerous 
 enough to make the conclusion reasonably certain; that 
 if you argue from analogy or example, your example fits 
 the case, and your analogy has no weak spots; 
 
 (2) That your assertions are true. 
 
 (3) That circumstances or conditions appealed to as 
 proof are facts; 
 
 (4) That authority (opinions of others) quoted is good
 
 112 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 authority, that people respect. 
 
 (5) That testimony (the evidence of others) is trust- 
 worthy. 
 
 (d) To sum up, your proof must rest on an argument con- 
 sisting of sound deductions, inductions, and analogies; and on true 
 assertions, facts, good authority, and trustworthy testimony. 
 
 (e) Bear in mind that nothing is more effective than good 
 examples and illustrations, provided they fit the case and have no 
 weak spots that your opponent can attack. 
 
 (f) Remember that if the burden of proof rests on your side, 
 you must build up strong arguments. If it does not rest on you, 
 but if the presumption is in your favor from the start, all you 
 have to do is to tear down your opponents argument. 
 
 (g) Finally, you should prepare yourself on both sides of the 
 question, in order that you may be in a position to anticipate and 
 answer your opponent's arguments. 
 
 5. Refutation. 
 
 The answering of an opponent's arguments is called refutation. 
 You may refute by attacking any one of the five points mentioned, 
 in 4, c; that is, 
 
 (1) You may attack 
 
 (a) The soundness of your opponent's reasoning, 
 
 (b) The truthfulness of some assertion, 
 
 (c) The existence of some alleged fact, 
 
 (d) The value of some authority, 
 
 (e) The reliability of some witness. 
 
 (2) You may show. 
 
 (a) That your opponent does not act in accordance with 
 his own arguments; 
 
 (b) That some of his statements are not consistent with 
 others that he has made in his argument; 
 
 (c) That some argument followed out to its legitimate 
 conclusion reduces to an absurdity. 
 
 6. The debate. 
 
 When the appointed day arrives, judges having been chosen, 
 the debate proceeds in this way: 
 
 (a) The first affirmative speaker states the question and 
 explains it, gives a sort of forecast of what his side expects to 
 prove, and gives his arguments, which should be the broader and 
 more general arguments.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 113 
 
 (b) The first negative speaker does the same thing for his 
 side of the question, and may also attempt to refute some of the 
 arguments of the first speaker. 
 
 (c) The second affirmative speaker continues the affirmative 
 argument and sums it up, and attempts to refute the preceding 
 speaker, and also to refute what he thinks the next speaker may 
 say. 
 
 (d) The second negative speaker attempts to refute his 
 opponents and continues and closes the negative argument. 
 
 (e) If there are other speakers, they are then called upon, 
 the affirmative and the negative alternately. 
 
 (f) Finally, one leader on each side may close with refutation, 
 or rebuttal, as it is sometimes called, of points made by the 
 opposite side, but he is not permitted to introduce any new 
 arguments. He must confine himself to rebuttal. 
 
 7. The conduct of the debate. 
 
 In carrying on the debate, a debater should 
 
 (a) Be careful of his grammar; 
 
 (b) Avoid needless repetition; 
 
 (c) Not use such expressions as, "You have heard the 
 question", "My opponent has stated the question", and other 
 meaningless statements ; 
 
 (d) Not be formal or stilted, but talk in an easy, conversa- 
 tional way; 
 
 (e) Not "quibble" over words or advance trivial arguments; 
 
 (f) Not answer trivial arguments; 
 
 (g) Sit down when he has finished, and not keep on after he 
 has nothing to say; 
 
 (h) Be courteous to his opponents; 
 
 (i) Be modest and not too self-assertive. This, together with 
 courtesy to one's opponents, wins the good will of the audience and 
 of the judges. 
 
 Lesson LXI. 
 
 Prepare and then conduct in class an oral debate on one of the 
 following subjects: 
 
 (a) Resolved, That boys should pursue a different course In 
 high school from that pursued by girls.
 
 114 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 (b) Resolved, That our high school should adopt the plan of 
 a single daily session from half past eight to one o'clock, with 
 necessary intermissions, in place of the present plan of two 
 sessions a day. 
 
 (c) Resolved, That if funds were available for only one of the 
 subjects, our high school should appropriate these funds for manual 
 training rather than for domestic science. 
 
 (d) Resolved, That if athletics and gymnastic exercises were 
 to be supported from the school funds, they should be provided for 
 the girls rather than for the boys, if the funds were insufficient 
 for both. 
 
 (e) Resolved, That commercial courses are of more value to 
 a high school student not intending to go to college than courses 
 in foreign language. 
 
 (f) Resolved, That half-yearly examinations should be 
 abolished and that students should be graded on their daily work, 
 supplemented by monthly written "tests". 
 
 (g) Any of the subjects in Lesson LIX.
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 115 
 
 Appendix 
 
 I. A SUGGESTION. 
 
 It is suggested that, for the training it will give them, the 
 students of the composition classes conduct a written newspaper, 
 to be prepared and read in the class once every two weeks. Let 
 there be different managing and city editors, reporters, and 
 miscellaneous writers, for each issue. 
 
 Make this a serious, not a comic, newspaper, imitating in the 
 character of its contents the local newspapers. Do not fill the 
 the paper with the too frequently flat jokes of school papers, or 
 with "hits" on classmates. Your news will, no doubt, be largely 
 imagined, but treat it seriously, as if it were actual news. 
 
 Have (1) a column of short local news items; (2) news 
 accounts of various length about accidents, fires, new buildings, and 
 the like; (3) "society" news; (4) obituary notices; (5) mis- 
 cellaneous matter of one sort or another. 
 
 II. PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 So much of our composition in everyday life Is oral, that it 
 may perhaps be well in closing to call attention to the importance 
 not only of well written, but also of well spoken English. Correct 
 pronunciation is a mark of education and refinement, and is worthy 
 of studious effort. 
 
 We shall consider only a few of the words or classes of words 
 that are most frequently mispronounced in school. Some of the 
 words that are apparently most troublesome to high school students 
 are the following: 
 
 1. Words from the Latin and Greek. 
 
 If you have studied Latin with the Roman pronunciation, as 
 all Latin students of the present day do study it, you are likely to 
 think that Latin words, even when they are found in English 
 sentences, are to have this Roman pronunciation. This is not the 
 case. When Latin proper names or other Latin words are read or 
 spoken in an English sentence, the vowels and all the other letters 
 must have their English sounds. The vowel "i" when long must 
 be pronounced "eye" not "ee", and so on, except that "final "e" is 
 not silent but pronounced like our final "y" in happy". Note the 
 following : 
 
 Niobe pronounced Nigh-o-by, not Nee-oby 
 
 Cleopatra first "a" is long; "pate", not "pat" 
 
 Diana first "a" is long; "ane", not "ann"
 
 116 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 alma mater "a" in "mater" is long; "mate" not "mat" 
 
 data "date-a", not "datta"; long "a" 
 Bearing these points in mind, now pronounce: 
 
 Clio Via Sacra Melpomene 
 
 Divitiacus Via Crucis Thalia 
 
 Catalina Zama La-oc-o-on 
 
 Aeneas Zela pater familias 
 
 Horatius Athena penates 
 
 Eretria Aphrodite strata 
 
 Janus Calliope status 
 
 Lucania Ceres prima facie 
 
 Macenas Hebe gratis 
 
 Messenia lo ultimatum 
 
 Paros Lethe casus belli 
 
 Samos Liber anti 
 
 Scipio Midas finis 
 
 2. Words of Common Use in School. 
 
 Be careful in the pronunciation of the following words. In 
 
 most cases only the troublesome part of the pronunciation is 
 indicated, not the complete pronunciation of the word, 
 
 accept ax, not "ex" 
 
 address Both noun and verb accented on last syllable, 
 
 algebra Sound final "a" like "a" in "comma", not "bry". 
 
 alternate al, not "all"; noun and adj. accented on second 
 syllable, verb on first. 
 
 alternately al, not "all" 
 
 alternative al, not "all" 
 
 alternation al, not "all" 
 
 accent on second syllable, 
 accent on second syllable, 
 accent on third syllable. 
 
 alumni nigh, not "nee". 
 
 amateur tyoor, or turr, not "choor"; accent allowed on 
 
 either first or last syllable, 
 
 apparatus rate, not "rat"; long "a", 
 
 applicable Accent first -syllable, 
 
 arithmetic Do not omit the "a"; not "rithmetic". 
 
 architecture ark, not "artch". 
 
 athlete Only two syllables; not "ath-uh-lete". 
 
 athletics Only three syllables; not "ath-uh-letics". 
 
 auxiliary aux-il-i-ary, or auxil-yary; not "aux-illary". 
 biography, biographical "bye", long "i". 
 
 botany bot-a-ny, not "botny". 
 
 bouquet boo, not "bo" 
 
 candidate cand, not "can-idate"; sound the "d" 
 
 ehildren dren, not "dern" 
 
 chronological kron, not "krone"; short "o"
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 117 
 
 chronology kro, not "kron"; long "o" 
 
 column collum, not "col-yum" 
 
 considerable der-able, not "derble"; do not omit the "a" 
 
 courteous curt, not "cort" 
 
 deaf deff, though some authority for "deef ' 
 
 designate dess, not "dez" 
 
 designation dess, not "dez" 
 
 difference fer-ence, not "frence" or "fernce" 
 
 equation shun, better than "zhun" 
 
 excursion shun, not "zhun" 
 
 experiment pare, not "peer" 
 
 exponent Accent on second syllable. 
 
 extra "a" as in "comma", not "extry" 
 
 favorite it, not "ite"; short "1" 
 
 February ru-ary, not "yu-ary" 
 
 figure fig-yure, not "fig-ger" 
 
 genuine in, not "ine"; short "i" 
 
 geography je-og, not "jog" 
 
 geometry ge-om, not "jom" 
 
 government. goveru-ment, not "gover-ment" ; sound the "n" 
 
 history his-to-ry, not "histry" 
 
 hundred dred, not "derd" 
 
 ignition "nish"; short "i" in second syllable. 
 
 inquiry inquire-y; accent on "quire"; long "i" 
 
 integral Accent on "in" 
 
 interested, interesting in-ter-est-ed or ing, not "trested" or 
 "tresting"; accent on "in", and "est" pro- 
 nounced lightly. 
 
 introduce intro-duce, not "inter" 
 
 Italian it, not "ight"; short "i" 
 
 kept in Sound the "t", not "kep in". 
 
 laboratory lab-o-ra-to-ry, not "labratory"; sound first "o" 
 lightly. 
 
 Latin tin, not "tun" 
 
 length Sound the "g", not "lenth ' 
 
 literature tyure, nearly chure, not "toor" 
 
 manual training man-u-al, not "man-yule" 
 
 measure mezh, not "mazhe"; short "e" not long "a" 
 
 memory mem-o-ry, not "mem-ry" 
 
 mischievous mis-chi-vus, accent on first syllable, not 
 "mischee-vi-us" 
 
 miserable miz-er-able, not "miz-er-ble" 
 
 nominative nom-i-native, not "nom-native" 
 
 object ject, not "jict" 
 
 obligatory Accent the "ob"
 
 118 
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION. 
 
 ordinary ord-i-nary, not "ord-nary" 
 
 parentheses "seez"; distinguish from "parenthe-sis, of 
 
 which it is the plural. 
 
 participle part-i-ciple, not "part-ciple" 
 
 perform per, not "pre" 
 
 physiology zi-ol, not "zol" 
 
 physiography zi-og, not "zog" 
 
 piano Short "i", not "pie-ano". 
 
 pianist Short "i", not "pie-anist; accent on "an" 
 
 preliminary pree-liminary, not "puh-liminary" ; accent "lim" 
 
 presentation prez, not "preez" 
 
 pronunciation nun-ci-ation or nun-shi-ation, not "nounce-iation" 
 
 program gram, not "grum" 
 
 radiator rade, not "rad"; long "a" 
 
 recess Accent on "cess", last syllable, 
 
 recitation res-i-ta-shun, not "res-tashun" 
 
 recognize rek-og-nize, not "rek-kon-nize" ; sound "g" 
 
 regular reg-yu-lar, not "reg-lar" 
 
 relay race Accent on "lay", last syllable, not on "re" 
 
 rhetoric ret-o-rick, not "ret-rick" 
 
 route root or rowt, former probably preferable, but 
 
 latter allowable and more common, 
 
 sewing so-ing, not "soo-ing" 
 
 singular sing-yu-lar, not "sing-lar" 
 
 superintendent super-in-tendent, not "supern-tendent" 
 
 zoology zoh-ology, not "zoo-ology"