was, it taught me (so far as I have learned them at all) only the lower and less intellectual elements of the art, the choice of the essential note and the right word — things that to a happier constitution had perhaps come by nature. And regarded as training, it had one grave defect; for it set me no standard of achievement. So that there was perhaps more profit, as there was certainly more effort, in my secret labors at home. Whenever I read a book or a passage that particularly pleased me, in which a thing was said or an effect rendered with propriety, in which there was either some conspicuous force or some happy distinction in the style, I must sit down at once and set myself to ape that quality. I was unsuccessful, and I knew it; and tried again, and was again unsuccessful and always unsuccessful; but at least in these vain bouts, I got some practice in rhythm, in harmony, in construction and the coördination of parts. That, like it or not, is the way to learn to write; whether I have profited or not, that is the way.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, A College Magazine1

STUDY AND PRACTICE

1. These paragraphs are intended to answer the question, How did Stevenson learn to write? What is the answer? Sum it up in one or two sentences and compare your summary with those made by your classmates.

2. In what other ways may one learn to write?

3. If Stevenson had been trying to learn to speak well, what would he probably have done? Does writing help speaking? Does speaking help writing? In what ways? How do you know?

4. Note the steps in this selection. What point did the writer make first? What second? Why should there be two paragraphs?

5. What do you regard as the most striking or memorable statement in the selection? Why?

'Reprinted by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons.

6. What has helped you most in learning to speak and to write? Discuss this question with your classmates.

7. Consider the title of this chapter, “Building a Composition." How does one build a house? A piece of furniture? A bridge? A boat? What likenesses to composition do you find in these? What guidance for your work in this course?

Occasions for Composition

Where does a composition actually begin? Does a speaker or writer first get a subject, or a topic, or a title? Does he jot down some notes, or begin to search through his books? What starts him speaking or writing in the first place? There is no one way of getting started. Some Some persons become so much interested in composition that they work at it for pure enjoyment, not writing for any special occasion, but always on the lookout for a subject or for material. Such persons are comparatively rare. They often make speaking or writing their profession. It becomes their means of making a living and of adding to human knowledge and happiness.

Aside from everyday conversation and perhaps the writing of letters, however, composition is not a constant occupation of most of us. We speak or write when there is a particular occasion. That occasion may be one of buying, selling, adjusting claims, collecting information, making reports, giving instruction, social conversation, conference, or of many other such types. In every case we have in mind a certain audience to which we desire to appeal. We wish to inform that audience, or persuade it, or entertain it, or inspire it. Sometimes the subject is assigned to us and even the amount of time we may occupy. Then we must adapt what we say to the circumstances, trying to produce as skillfully as possible a certain effect on that particular audience.

PRACTICE

I. Arrange a list of occasions for speaking and another of occasions for writing, placing first the cases that are most frequently met.

II. Which of these occasions are most difficult to meet? Which are easiest? Why?

Finding Something to Speak or Write About

The first step in building a composition is the selection of a subject. Choose subjects about which you already know a good deal or on which you can surely gather a wealth of information. Most people talk or write best about their own experience. The events that you have lived through are comparatively real and vivid to you. The ideas that you have gained from them are likely to be of interest and value to others. A girl whose father was a blacksmith learned to her surprise that she could interest her classmates intensely in the shoeing of horses. A boy got on very poorly in oral composition until he began to relate his experiences on a large ranch in Montana. Then the class was unwilling to have him stop. Value your own experience.

Reading, however, may very greatly enlarge and enrich that experience. Your own limited contact with some industry may lay the foundation upon which by reading you can build a knowledge of how lumbering is carried on, how a steel mill is run, or how automobiles are built. You must think and imagine as you read, and you must learn to remember not simply the words but the ideas that are expressed. You must do something with what you read, not simply record it like a phonograph.

Not least of all, you must consider your audience. What do the members of your audience already know? What would

they like to know? A subject that might interest one group of persons very much will fall flat with another. In general, people like best to hear about experiences or ideas already familiar to them, provided what is said has something novel in it. The main thing is to connect what you have to say with what your audience already knows. Choose subjects in which you can do this.

Remember that most persons have five sorts of relationships: those (1) of their homes, (2) of their occupations, (3) of their civic duties, (4) of their recreations, and (5) of their charitable and religious interests. They are surrounded by the world of nature and by the handiwork of men. They also live in an unseen world of the imagination. Subjects for composition may, therefore, be found in all of these fields.

Such subjects can be made interesting (1) if they are limited and specific, and (2) if the writer or speaker will see and hear the details that make each experience different from every other. In this way Irving found the materials for his famous Sketch Book, Stevenson for his Travels with a Donkey, and Mark Twain for Roughing It and Innocents Abroad. O. Henry's stories of the city of New York are a good example. So are Arthur Pound's The Iron Man, Leacock's humorous sketches, John Burrough's essays on nature, and H. A. Franck's accounts of his travels. As you may see from a study of any of these, the really good subjects for composition are usually those of which you have first-hand knowledge. Here is an example of what a pupil can do with a subject drawn from everyday experience:

MY VERY LAST EXPERIENCE AS A COLLECTOR

"So you've come after all!"

"Yes," I answered in a hushed tone, "I've come after all."

It seemed that I had known the shop for years, although it was but yesterday that I had seen it first. I must have passed through that narrow street a hundred times before, yet too hurriedly each other time to stop and look. But this day was warm, and time was mine hours of it. I had nothing to do but wander, nothing to do but wait for evening to come. I stopped to see the bright array of curious necklaces and rings that littered the window.

How long I stood there I do not know. Suddenly I looked up and caught the eye of the shopkeeper, and between us there seemed to exist a mutual understanding an understanding such as can exist between two who have discovered Beauty. For there in the cluttered window of the shop, on a teak-wood tray, lay two coral rosebuds. They seemed mellowed and worn with the gentle handling of generations of beauty-lovers, shaded from pale pink to deepest rose and set in gold. What ancient carver of sacred temple-gods had formed those earrings out of hard shell and beaten gold! What dark, exotic woman had first known the coolness of their carved petals against the ear! Exotic

I laughed at my thoughts for in my sudden happiness I had longed to see them closely, even to touch them! I dared not think, or long to own them. As near my reach were they as any priceless jade or crystal in the art galleries of a museum! For all my thoughts I could not summon up the courage to enter the shop. On the second day I had not the strength to resist.

I dared not ask the price, and the man, too, seemed to know; we seemed to understand as two can understand, two who have discovered Beauty.

"Those in the window?" he said in a soft, halting voice.

"Yes."

"We have them also in green if you would rather. Either color for fifty cents. Shall I wrap them for you?"

A Pupil's Theme

Choose for composition a specific subject with which you are very familiar and which you can make interesting to the persons to whom you speak or for whom you write.