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CORRECTNESS AND PERSPICUITY IN WRITING,
AND TO THE STUDY OF CRITICISM:

WITH COPIOUS EXERCISES.

For the Use of Schools.

BY ALEXANDER REID, LL.D.,

Late Head Master of the Edinburgh Institution; Author of Rudiments of
English Grammar, A Dictionary of the English Language, etc.

EIGHTEENTH EDITION, THOROUGHLY REVISED AND

ENLARGED.

EDINBURGH:

OLIVER AND BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.

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DR REID'S EDUCATIONAL WORKS.

RUDIMENTS of ENGLISH GRAMMAR, 18mo, 6d.

RUDIMENTS of ENGLISH COMPOSITION, 2s. [KEY 2s. 6d.]
DICTIONARY of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE, 12mo, 5s.

RUDIMENTS of MODERN GEOGRAPHY, 18mo, 1s.; or with five
Maps, 1s. 3d.

An ABRIDGMENT of DR REID'S RUDIMENTS; being a FIRST BOOK of GEOGRAPHY; 18mo, 72 pages, 6d.

OUTLINE of SACRED GEOGRAPHY, 18mo, 6d.

INTRODUCTORY ATLAS of MODERN GEOGRAPHY, 4to, 2s. 6d. full coloured.

SCHOOL ATLAS of MODELN GEOGRAPHY, 4to, 5s. full coloured.

PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGIT.

PREFACE.

In the following Work, the Author has attempted to supply a want, which he has himself long felt in the course of his professional labours, namely, a Practical Introduction to Composition in the English Language. It is designed as a Sequel to the ordinary text-books on Grammar; while it is, at the same time, so arranged that it may be studied with advantage, even by those who have been but imperfectly instructed in that department of education. Part I. is meant to guide to correctness in Spelling and Punctuation; Part II., to correctness in the Structure and Arrangement of Sentences, and in the Use of Words; Part III., to clearness in the Structure of Paragraphs; Part IV., to correctness and perspicuity in Style, and to a tasteful use of ornament in writing; and Part V., to the practice of the preceding Rules and Exercises in various kinds of Original Composition. If the Author has at all succeeded in realizing his own intentions, the book will be found useful in teaching such as are their own instructors, or have time only for a school education, to express their ideas with sufficient perspicuity and taste for their purposes in life; while to those who are to have the advantage of making higher attainments in learning, it will serve as a practical initiation into the critical study of the English Language and Literature.

The Exercises, which form the largest and most important portion of the Work, have generally been selected from books of classical authority; and no small labour and care have been spent in adapting them to the purposes for which they are intended. With regard to the mode of teaching them, the Author begs to suggest, that they should all be written by the Pupils ; when convenient, the short sentences in the class, and the longer passages at home, to be afterwards examined and corrected by the Teacher. The Author has been

careful to intimate when the Exercises may be multiplied from the ordinary lessons of the Pupils; and he would only suggest further, that Teachers should prescribe none but the best models in the language.

NOTE TO THE EIGHTEENTH EDITION.

IN the present Edition, the Work has been entirely remodelled, so as to bring it abreast of the present improved style of teaching. Those sections which were of the nature of Grammatical Exercises have been omitted; and their place has been supplied by systematic Exercises in Sentence-making. A distinct division has been devoted to the structure of Paragraphs. The sections on Descriptive and Narrative Essays have been entirely re-written.

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