PRACTICAL COMPOSITION AND RHETORIC BY WILLIAM EDWARD MEAD, PH.D. (Leipsic) Professor of the English Language in Wesleyan University WITH THE COOPERATION OF WILBUR FISK GORDY Principal of the North School, Hartford, Conn. SIBLEY AND DUCKER BOSTON AND CHICAGO HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY CIFE OF MRS. ROBERT E. RAYMOND SEP 26 1939 Copyright, 1900, by WILLIAM EDWARD MEAD. Norwood Press: PREFACE. Aim of the present book Why use a text-book? THE present book aims to meet the wants of teachers who hold that practice is the most essential thing in the teaching of composition, but it aims also to supply as much theory as will be really useful to the beginner, and to lead him by progressive stages through the entire process of the construction of a piece of composition. Some teachers of composition are tempted to dispense altogether with a text-book. Yet, as I have shown more at length in the Suggestions to Teachers, a certain amount of theory must be supplied if the young writer is to make rapid progress. The theory may, of course, be presented by the teacher; but if so, there is danger that the time of the class will be consumed in listening to explanations no more systematic or practical than may be found in a text-book, and that the information thus imparted will be forgotten by the pupil just when he needs it most. The recitation period can surely be devoted more advantageously to practical criticism of themes than to lectures on composition or the theory of rhetoric. On the other hand, there is not time in most schools for the study of a detailed treatise on rhetoric. My chief concern, therefore, has been to discover what could be omitted rather than what could be included. The proper aim of the teacher of composition. The aim of the teacher of composition should be to bring his pupils into such an attitude of mind that a subject may be to them a genuine question to be answered, and not a mere occasion for combining words into sentences without regard to the thought. I have, accordingly, laid especial emphasis on the choice and treatment of themes, and have thrown in a large number of incidental hints to the pupil, showing how he may treat the specific topic before him. If a young writer can form the habit of choosing one sharply defined topic and of telling exactly what he thinks, the imperfect details of his composition can be corrected by reading and practice. I need scarcely remark, however, that no book of instructions will make a finished writer. Only constant practice and merciless |