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objection to nearly every composition text-book designed for high-school use is that it presents the subject in a manner too dry or too difficult for the average high-school pupil.

Since the sensible teacher always regards a text-book as a mere instrument, a means not an end, he will feel free to omit, in his use of any book, whatever portions seem either too difficult or otherwise ill adapted for his particular class of pupils. He will, further, in order to meet the needs of his pupils or to make the hard-and-fast plan of a book flexible in use, deviate from its order of exercises or even from its order of contents, as may seem to him wise and good. Thus it would undoubtedly be well to work at some of the chapters in this book two at a time. Work in the sentence-making chapters (Chapters VI, VIII, etc.) might very well go on concurrently with work in description, narration, or paragraphing. In fact, the book will probably yield the best results if used, to some extent, in this way. Nevertheless, the arrangement of the chapters and the progressive system of the exercises are strongly recommended as a guide, in a general way, to the natural development of the subject; and they will, it is hoped, commend themselves, both in theory and in practice, to all who use the book.

CONTENTS

NOTE TO TEACHERS. - Attention is asked to the remarks in the Preface,
regarding the plan of this book. It is to be noted that the subject of compo-
sition is treated here under the following divisions:

(a) Compositions, Chapters I, II, V, VII, XI, XIV.

(b) Paragraphing, Chapters III, IX.

(c) Sentence work, Chapters IV, VI, VIII, X, XII, XIII.

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Narration, Description, etc., explained (Exercises 5-8
and Lists of Subjects).

II. STUDY OF DESCRIPTION

17

The Four Requisites in Good Composition (Exercises
9-12).

Planning and Outlining of Descriptions (Exercises 13-16).

PARAGRAPHING

37

Topics, Indention, Topic Sentences (Exercises 17-20).
Paragraph Making in Description (Exercises 21-25).

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Statement of Effects and of Sense Impressions (Exercises
31-41).

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Lack of Unity; Omissions; Misuse of Pronouns; Misuse
of "which"; Misplaced Modifiers (Exercises 66–71).

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Particulars; Instances; Comparisons; Effects; Reasons
(Exercises 72-85).

PAGE

111

121

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Correctness in Diction and Syntax (Exercises 122-128).
Choice in Diction: Use of Synonyms and of Suggestive
Words (Exercises 129-136).

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III. RULES FOR PUNCTUATION, CAPITALIZATION, AND SPELLING

(Exercises 147-149)

232

IV. VERSES AND VERSE MAKING (Exercises 150-153)

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V.

NOTES ON AUTHORS REFERRED TO OR QUOTED IN THIS BOOK 259

INDEX

267

WRITING IN ENGLISH

CHAPTER I

KINDS OF COMPOSITION

THERE is hardly anything to be learned in school that is more important to us, all our lives, than how to talk and write properly and skillfully. We can see one reason for this, when we think how constantly all of us use language; and another reason occurs to us, when we think why it is that we ever say anything at all. We talk and write to let other people know what we have seen or thought or done, or to tell them what we wish them to do; and it is highly important to us that we accomplish these purposes.

But suppose, as it often happens, that those to whom we express ourselves fail to understand exactly what we are trying to tell them, or that they are not interested in what we have said.

Then, of course,
There is no use

we should better have said nothing. in our writing at all, unless what we write has these two characteristics: First, others must be made to understand our meaning, readily and accurately; second, what we say must be worth taking care to say well; it must be interesting.

Now, in order that other persons may understand exactly what we mean to say, we must study how to form our sentences in the best possible ways, and how to put together our compositions. A good many of the chapters in this book tell about these matters, which, though they must be studied carefully, should nevertheless be interesting. For it is always interesting to learn how to do a thing well, and we should learn to think of our language as a very fine and a very wonderful tool or instrument which we wish to use skillfully. It is certainly worth much trouble to learn that. For think how a carpenter tries to get skill in the use of a chisel, or how the musician practices the playing of his violin. Language is an instrument both of use and of pleasure; we all of us employ it every day of our lives, and we may learn to get much enjoyment both from our own skillful use of it, and in appreciating the skillful use of it by others. Is it not really worth a great deal of study to learn to understand the masterly use of this instrument?

Then, as for interesting others in what we say, we would give this rule: The best way for you to be sure of interesting others is to write about what really interests you. Every one sees things, hears about things, does things that interest himself. These are, for each one of us, the very things we talk about or think about; they are what we should write about.

Exercise 1. Lists of subjects. (a) Make a list of the most interesting things you have ever seen, either near your home (as buildings, places, celebrations, etc.), or in

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