Manistique Creek, Michigan, in a Fine Fishing Country Football Strategy Indian Camp on Two Medicine Lake, Glacier National Park EFFECTIVE ENGLISH PART ONE ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVENESS CHAPTER I EFFECTIVE EXPRESSION True ease in writing comes by art, not chance. Effective English. The study of English deals with the expression of thought in words. To render English effective, you must make the expression fit the thought. Note the connection between thought and expression. Thought is, and should be, first. But thought and expression react the one upon the other. "I must feel the thing first," says Burroughs, "and then I can say it." On the other hand, if you strive to say a thing well, one of the results will be increased power to think effectively. Talking, Speaking, and Writing. There are three things that you, as a student of effective English, should do. . You should talk clearly, speak persuasively, and write forcibly. Even in conversation, you should use English in such a way as to make yourself easily understood. You are sure to do some speaking, as distinguished from mere talking, in school societies and other organizations. Here you should make your words felt. And finally, you should know how to write so that you will say what you intend to say. You must make your writing forcible. Not to be able to do this, puts you at a disadvantage, without any good excuse on your part. The ability to speak or write is not so much a gift as it is the result of intelligent and painstaking practice, rightly directed. This practice and this direction are furnished by the study of Effective English. Important as Effective English as Preparation for Life. this is to you now, it is still more so in later life, when you come to make your way in the world. One who expects to rise at all above his fellows must know how to talk, speak, and write acceptably. If you cannot do so, you will be seriously handicapped. Rhetoric and Composition. You study rhetoric for two reasons: first, that you may be able to speak and write effectively; and second, that you may be able to know literary beauty when you hear it or read it, and be able to enjoy it.1 The practical side of rhetoric is called composition. It teaches the art of arranging and expressing your thoughts with propriety and good taste, so that they may be understood without undue effort, and may produce the intended effect upon the mind of the hearer or reader. As you are to devote both thought and effort to this 1 The study of English as a training for efficient work should be distinguished from the study of it as a preparation for the wholesome enjoyment of leisure. - From the Report of the National Joint Committee on the Reorganization of High School English. study, it is well to note the following definition of rhetoric, as stated by Blair, a distinguished authority upon this subject. Read it over until you have made it your own. It is so well said that it would be difficult to improve upon it. Rhetoric is the art of expressing thought effectively in words. The study implies an investigation of the principles that underlie the accepted rules of cultured speaking and writing, together with the application of those rules in practical discourse. In other words, it makes known the secrets of literary effect, and teaches us so to present our thoughts as to influence in any desired manner the intellects, the feelings, and the actions of our fellow men. - Lectures on Rhetoric, Hugh Blair. Atalanta's Race. Study the picture, and tell the following story orally as if you had seen the race. Atalanta, a maiden of Arcadia, imposed upon her suitors a strange condition. To have her hand in marriage they must conquer her in a footrace; if they failed, they must forfeit their lives. Hippomenes won by throwing three golden apples, 1 The instructor is free to use or to omit this and the succeeding exercises based on pictures; or he may pass them by now, and come back to them later. Their use is suggested rather than required, in order to afford abundant and varying material for composition work. |