External Form of the Paragraph. 3 of Emerson's face looks like the profile of a Yankee and that the other side looks like the profile of a Greek. If now he sits down to write to a friend a brief account of his visit to the studio, he will not think merely, "I saw to-day a fine bust of Emerson," or, "I went to-day to a sculptor's studio," but something like the following: "Visited a studio Saw fine bust of Emerson Sculptor said sides of face different... One side Talked with sculptor Yankee, the other side Greek . . . Said Emerson combined two natures, the modern and the classical." first illustration, these skeletons of sentences, or pictures Just as in the that answer to them, will race through his mind, before he writes a single word. If his mind works as it should, they will pass in just the order in which he wants to write them. Written in the manner suggested by these illustrations, a composition will consist of a group, or of groups, of closely connected sentences. A good writer thinks a group of sentences upon one topic before he writes the separate sentences which go to make up the group.1 Such sentence-groups we shall call paragraphs. A paragraph may be a whole composition, or it may be a part of a whole composition. It is these groups of sentences that we purpose studying in this book. EXERCISE 1. Select one of the following questions. Think about it until you know just how you will answer it. Write the 1 This view is corroborated by the recent researches of Dr. E. H. Lewis, set forth in the pamphlet entitled History of the English Paragraph (Chicago: 1894); see especially p. 172: "There has been, from the earliest days of our prose, a unit of invention much larger than the modern sentence, and always separated, in the mind of the writer, from the sentenceunit, of whatever length. In other words, English writers have thought roughly in long stages before they have analyzed such stages into smaller steps." LESSON 2. Indention. To indicate to the reader's eye the sentence-groups of a composition, a device is employed known as indention. The nature of this device may be illustrated by printing side by side two arrangements of the same matter, as in the parallel columns below. The column on the left is indented at three points, that on the right has no indentions. 1. It was delightful in the country, for Summer was in the height of its splendor. 2. The corn was yellow, the oats green, the hay, heaped into cocks in the meadow below, looked like little grass hillocks; and the stork strutted about on its long, red legs, chattering Egyptian, for that was the language it had learned from its mother. 3. The fields and meadows were surrounded by more or less thickly wooded forests, which also enclosed deep lakes, the smooth waters of which were sometimes ruffled by a gentle breeze. 4. It was, indeed, delightful in the country. 5. In the bright sunshine stood an old mansion surrounded by a moat and wall, strong and proud almost as in the feudal times. 6. From the wall all the way down to the water grew a complete forest of burdock leaves, which were so high that a 1. It was delightful in the country, for Summer was in the height of its splendor. 2. The corn was yellow, the oats green, the hay, heaped into cocks in the meadow below, looked like little grass hillocks; and the stork strutted about on its long, red legs, chattering Egyptian, for that was the language it had learned from its mother. 3. The fields and meadows were surrounded by more or less thickly wooded forests, which also enclosed deep lakes, the smooth waters of which were sometimes ruffled by a gentle breeze. 4. It was, indeed, delightful in the country. 5. In the bright sunshine stood an old mansion surrounded by a moat and wall, strong and proud almost as in the feudal times. 6. From the wall all the way down to the water grew a complete forest of burdock leaves, which were so high that a little child could stand 1 right among them. 7. It wa real wilderness, so quiet a sombre, and here sat a Du upon her nest hatching a qua tity of eggs; but she was almo tired of her tedious though in portant occupation, for it laste so very long, and she seldor had any visitors. 8. The othe ducks preferred swimming about on the moat, and the canals tha ran through the garden, to vis iting her in her solitude. The term "indention" refers to the position of the first word in a sentence. If such a word begins at the left margin like the word "It" in sentence 1, on the right, or if it follows directly after the close of a preceding sentence, like the word "The" at the beginning of sentences 2 and 8 in the same column, the word and the sentence it begins are said not to be indented. But if the first word of a sentence begins a little way to the right of the margin, as the word "It" (sentence 1), the word "The " (sentence 3), and the word "In" (sentence 5), in the left-hand column, the word and the sentence it begins are said to be indented. A group of related sentences making up a paragraph is marked as such, and is separated from other similar groups by an indention of the first word. In the foregoing selection the sentences in the left-hand column are by indention made into three groups. The first paragraph consists of sentences 1 and 2; the second of sentences 3 and 4; the third of sentences 5-8. Note the appearance of each paragraph: it seems to be a solid block of type; the various sentences of which it is composed look as if they belonged together. A word is indented when it is begun to the right of the margin. The first word of a paragraph should always be indented. In printed matter, the indention is usually slight. It is of the width of the letter m of the type in which the matter is set, or of the letters m and n put together. In manuscript the indention should be wider. The beginner should make a practice of indenting at least one inch. In printed books the first word of a chapter is frequently unindented. LESSON 3. Faults of Indention: Indenting Every Sentence. A common fault in the use of indention may be illustrated by again putting side by side two arrangements of the same selection: Once upon a time, a notion was started, that if all the people in the world would shout at once, it might be heard in the moon. So the projectors agreed it should be done in just ten years. Some thousand shiploads of chronometers were distributed to the selectmen and other great folks of all the different nations. For a year beforehand, nothing else was talked about but the awful noise that was to be made on the great occasion. When the time came, everybody had his ears so wide open, to hear the universal ejaculation of Boo,the word agreed upon,· - that Once upon a time, a notion was started, that if all the people in the world would shout at once, it might be heard in the moon. So the projectors agreed it should be done in just ten years. Some thousand shiploads of chronometers were distributed to the selectmen and other great folks of all the different nations. For a year beforehand, nothing else was talked about but the awful noise that was to be made on the great occasion. When the time came, everybody had his ears so wide open |