Better Compositions [antikvár]

This book has been specially written to provide the foreign student of English with the means for tackling the difficult problem of composition in a language that is not his own. The method followed is the same as in our previous book in this series, Better Letters, i.e. it is one of imitation and assimilation. Model extracts drawn from the essential types of composition are placed before the student for examination and assimilation, for as Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch points out in his book The Art of Writing, the advice given to young painters by Sir Joshua Reynolds: 'The more extensive therefore your acquaintance is with the works of those who have excelled, the more extensive will be your powers of invention and the more originál will be your conceptions', is equally applicable to young writers. Bearing this in mind, the author has shown by examples the different stages that lead up to the finished article or composition: the choice of the single word, the arrangement of words into sentences, the grouping of sentences into paragraphs and finally the combining of these paragraphs into a complete whole. It will be observed that the word and not the sentence has been made the starting-point; this is because the author is convinced that this method is better for non-English students. All the model extracts have been chosen with due regard to their brevity and suitability, as in a small book of this kind it is not possible to tackle the writing of