(b) To set off a geographical name explaining a preceding

name:

Ottawa, Canada; Washington, District of Columbia; Columbia, S. C.

(c) To set off an appositive:

Washington, the first president of the United States, was a native of Virginia.

(d) To separate the words of a series:

That fellow can not read, write, or figure.

XIX. Let the editorial committee guard against the use of dangling participles. Where a participle is used without the noun which it should modify, it is called a dangling participle. Such use tends to produce confusion. Note the following instances.

1. Before using machinery, shoes were made by hand. (Can shoes use machinery?)

2 After taking our seats, the secretary read the minutes of the previous meeting. (How could the secretary take our seats?)

3. While standing on our front porch, the procession marched by. (Could the procession stand on the porch and march by, at one and the same time?)

Spelling List. Let the editorial committee, after consulting with the instructor in English, prepare a list of one hundred words that are habitually misspelled by the class, or by members of the class. This list is to be copied into the notebooks, and special drill is to be given on this list. It may include words already noted.

CHAPTER VI

GETTING EFFECTIVE MATERIAL

Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.

- SWIFT.

Invention. Invention is that part of the study of rhetoric and composition which tries to answer the question, "What shall I say?"

The International Dictionary defines invention as the exercise of the imagination in selecting a theme, or more commonly in contriving the arrangement of a piece, or the method of presenting the parts of a composition.

While you may sometimes be able to express yourself in a satisfactory manner without effort and without much preparation, yet it is not wise to rely upon what is termed the spur of the moment. Nothing can take the place of preparation.

Collecting Materials. — There is a right way and there is a wrong way of beginning to write. To sit pen in hand, cudgeling your brain for what to write next, is not the right way. What Sir Joshua Reynolds says of the art of painting applies with equal force to writing. He says:

"A great part of every man's life must be employed in collecting materials. Invention is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory. Nothing can be made of nothing. He who has laid up no materials can produce no combination."

EXERCISES BASED ON PICTURES

Dr. Samuel Johnson. Catch the spirit of this story as told by the picture, and tell it as you see it. A summary of your material is given below.

Lord Chesterfield, a wealthy patron of literature, encouraged Samuel Johnson to expect his assistance when Johnson undertook the colossal task of writing a "Dictionary of the English Language." Johnson waited in vain for the expected aid. For seven years he struggled unassisted. Then when the work was about to appear, Chesterfield wrote a flattering notice of the Dictionary, willing enough now to be known as its patron. Johnson refused his patronage in what is rightly considered one of the great letters of all literature. The picture by Ward shows the wrathful Doctor, staff in hand, just about reaching the limit of his patience.

The Notebook. A notebook is indispensable. Thoughts will come to you to-day which may never come to you again. These should be saved. The plan or scheme of a

paragraph or theme, the plot or outline of a sketch or of a story, the suggestion of an interesting article, will flash upon your mind, and this, if not instantly seized and written down, may, and most probably will, flash away from you and be lost.

Write it down. An apt expression in your own peculiar phrase, or a bright saying of some one else, if not written down at once, is often lost. Some sentence or quotation, some excellent paragraph, or some article that puts the case better than it may ever be put again, is either saved now or perhaps lost forever. Put such things down.

The Scrapbook. You should own a scrapbook. Not a large one of the old-fashioned kind, but one that you can carry with you. The same memorandum may serve both as notebook and scrapbook. Clip whatever impresses you at the time, but do not paste all your clippings into your scrapbook. Keep them awhile in an envelope or loose in your scrapbook, sort them over from time to time, and paste in only those which seem worth while.

Use library paste, but not too much of it. Touch the top of the clipping with the paste. This facilitates the drying of the clipping and enables you to discard the clipping when you are through with it. Some of the clippings you may desire to keep permanently.

Where space is important, five- or six-column articles may, by folding them back, be included on a single page of a small memorandum book. In case of shorter clippings, several may be pasted on a page, being folded back when not in use, to be unfolded as occasion may require.

What to Keep. In this way fugitive poems, good stories and anecdotes, bits of description, well written accounts of scenes and events, quotations from favorite authors, important speeches and addresses, and informa

tion of interest may be saved. Your scrapbook will prove a treasure-house of suggestion and illustration.

Preserve Your Own Work. - If you are writing on some topic, preserve every scrap of your writing bearing in any way upon it. A page of matter otherwise useless, may contain one excellent sentence, or one good usable paragraph. Until the article you are at work on is finished, all you attempt on that theme should be kept.

Your own thought is your best source of material. Experience, observation, and imagination are your servants and may be trained to obey the call of your mind. As a general thing, those thoughts that come unbidden when the subject is first presented to you are valuable. Set such thoughts down, but not before the mind has had time to develop as fully as possible the manner in which you are to handle the theme.

Be Resolute. You must learn to acquire a certain resoluteness of thought, refusing to be dismayed if at first you may seem to have no ideas at all upon the proposed theme. Your mind will do what you compel it to do, and will suggest something ere long, if held to the task.

When Thoughts Come. As suggestions present themselves, jot them down on paper. As soon as possible, make an outline by the card plan, as this admits of a greater flexibility in the arrangement of the items.

The Public Library. Learn to take advantage of what is offered by the public library. Use the dictionaries, encyclopedias, works of reference, and helps of all kinds. The trained attendants are at your service and glad to be of use. Yet the sooner you learn to find your own way the better.

Important Note. One caution is to be observed. Do not take the material found in the public library or