as he ran. Atalanta stooped to gather them one after another, and thus lost the race.

Motivation or Incentive. Expressing thought effectively in words is greatly aided by what is called motivation 1 or incentive, which includes three things,

(1) the purpose you have in mind-for instance, to tell a good story.

(2) your point of view - that is, the reason why you desire to tell it; and

(3) your audience—that is, those to whom you wish to tell it.

Some high school girls are on their way to school. One of the number recalls a laughable incident which happened at church the day before. Her purpose is to tell how a well-dressed gentleman in the pew just in front of her accidentally sat down on his new silk hat. Her point of view is the pure fun of the thing, and her audience is the group of laughing girls who hear the story.

Was her story told effectively? The only way to answer that would be to know how her schoolmates enjoyed her picture of the man's dismay.

1 Motivation. To be understood is the primary purpose of all writing; to be interesting is a close second. Since either purpose presupposes something to convey and some one to receive, an adequate motive should be created or imagined for every assignment; for example,

OUR CITY STREETS

Purpose to show why the streets should be improved.

Point of view that of a resident.

Audience- the taxpayer.

Without incentive, writing is strained and unnatural. A real incentive is best; an imagined incentive is better than none.

- From the new English Syllabus, Board of Regents, New York,

Reading from Homer. This might be called effective Greek! With the open scroll before him, one of the group is reading a tale from Homer, while his listeners hang on every word of the story. Does he tell of the deeds of Grecian Achilles or Trojan Hector? Or does he trace the wanderings of Ulysses?

Describe the picture and weave into your description some Homeric story. You may do this orally, or in writing.

Important Cautions. Before beginning work on the following exercises, let the class name three members, chosen for their fitness, as a permanent editorial committee, whose duty it shall be to enforce correctness as to the following seven items.1 The instructor in English will be a member, ex officio, of the editorial committee, and will see to it that the members are not overcrowded by this extra work. Let the work be done a little at a time.

I. See that there is a period at the end of each sentence, except in a direct question, where the question mark is to be used. II. See that there is a period after all abbreviations. III. See that each sentence begins with a capital.

1 From Requirements in Form, Illinois Association of Teachers of English.

IV. See that all proper names begin with a capital.

V. See that the names of the months, and of the days of the week, begin with a capital.

VI. See that the names of the seasons, when personified, and the points of the compass, when referring to sections of the country, begin with a capital.

VII. See that each paragraph is properly indented.

Spelling List. This editorial committee should keep a list of words misspelled by pupils in their daily exercises. When the number of words reaches fifty, the list should be used in spelling drill.

The Boyhood of Raleigh. The picture above is a copy of a painting by the English painter, Millais. His two sons were models for the boys in the picture. It represents Sir Walter

Raleigh and his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, two of England's most famous navigators and explorers, in their boyhood, listening to tales of the sea. The two young dreamers are far away on the wings of their fancy, as the sailor tells of deeds upon the Spanish Main.

1. What story is he telling? Put your imagination to work, and think out some tale. You may give it as if told by this seaman, or you may tell it as happening to yourself.

2. Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth. Refer to Sir Walter Scott's Kenilworth, and relate the romantic deed by which Raleigh won the favor of his Queen.

/ EXERCISES IN EFFECTIVE EXPRESSION 1

Ida M. Tarbell gives the following account in Abraham Lincoln's own words, of how he earned his first dollar, and of the impression this made upon his boyish heart. In 1826 he was engaged as a ferryman on the Ohio, and that put it into his head to go as a flatboatman to New Orleans, as the custom then was among the farmers along the Ohio River in order to dispose of products raised on their farms. It is told as he gave it to Mr. Seward.

LINCOLN'S FIRST DOLLAR

"Seward," he said, "you never heard, did you, how I earned my first dollar?"

"No," said Mr. Seward.

"Well," replied he, "I was about eighteen years of age. We had succeeded in raising, chiefly by my labor, sufficient produce, as I thought, to justify me in taking it down the river to sell. After much persuasion I had got the consent of my mother to go, and had constructed a flatboat large enough to take the few barrels of things we had gathered, down to New Orleans.

A steamer was going down the river, and the custom was, if passengers were at any of the landings, they were to go out in

1 The abundance of exercises provided here and throughout the book is for the sake of variety of choice on the part of the pupils. Pupils should be encouraged to write or speak on what most appeals to each. No one student is expected to attempt all or even a large part of these exercises.

a boat, the steamer stopping and taking them on board. I was contemplating my new boat, and wondering whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any part, when two men with trunks came down to the shore in carriages, and looking at the different boats, singled out mine and asked: 'Who owns this?' I answered modestly, 'I do.' 'Will you,' said one of them, 'take us and our trunks out to the steamer?' 'Certainly,' said I.

I was very glad to have the chance of earning something, and supposed that each of them would give me a couple of bits. The trunks were put in my boat, the passengers seated themselves on them, and I sculled them out to the steamer. They got on board, and I lifted the trunks and put them on the deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called out, You have forgotten to pay me.' Each of them took from his pocket a silver half-dollar, and threw it on the bottom of my boat. I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money.

You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work I had earned a dollar. The world seemed wider and fairer before I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time." - Slightly adapted from Ida M. Tarbell.

me.

(a) Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis. - For your first effort in expressing thought effectively in words, you are to try the story told above. Before you start to write this story, let us ask three questions about it.

First. Is everything else subordinated to the development of one leading idea, that of telling how Lincoln earned his first dollar? Does Lincoln stick to his subject? If so, the story has unity.

Second. - Does he tell things in the right order, or does he get the cart before the horse? Is there a proper sequence in his relation of this story? Does his use of words, of sentences,