English Composition I-II. [antikvár]

PREFACE The widespread favor with which the Brooks andHubbard Composition-Rhetoric has been received would seem to argue against the need for a new book. This book, however, has been prepared to meet the requirements of many high schools that prefer a smaller book for the first two years' work. The aim ôf the book is to enable every pupil to express in wrîting freely, clearly, and forcibly whatever he may find vnthin himself worthy of expression. To this end, exercises are provided for training the pupil how to think as a condition of progress in writing. Spécial attention, there-fore, is given to the thought side of composition, and over-emphasis of form, which restricts freedom in thinking, is avoided. The three fundamental principles considered in the préparation of the Brooks and Hubbard Composition-Rhetoric are equally applicable to this book, namely: — First, improvement in the performance of an act is at-tained through répétition of that act with conscious effort to avoid the imperfections of the former attempt. There-fore the writing of a new theme in which the pupil attempts to avoid the errors that occurred in his former theme is of much greater educational value than the copying of the old theme for the purpose of correcting the errors in it. To copy the old theme is to correct a resuit, to write a new theme correctly is to improve a process; and it is this improvement of process which is the real aim of the teach-ing of composition. PREFACE English Composition, Book Two, complétés the work begun in the first two years of the high school by treat-ing the four forms of discourse, as well as Grammar and Diction, from the more advanced point of view of the third and fourth years. It furthermore présents work on the Draina, the Novel, the Short Story, the Essay, and Poetry, designed mainly to cultivate a discriminating appréciation of these forms of literature. The aim of the book is not merely to develop skill in expressing thought with clearness, ease, and force, but also to lead the pupil to draw, from his inner conscious-ness, ideas of which he is but dimly aware, and to find in his own experience the ricliest store of rnaterial for composition. The purpose, in other words, is to encourage invention and to develop orderly habits of thought, as well as to teach the principles of good style. The text is intended not as material for recitation, but rather for discussion between teacher and pupil, in préparation for the practical work of composition. The real test of the pupil's grasp of a principle will be found in his ability to put it into practice in his own theme writing. In connection with the themes, the chief effort of the teacher should be directed toward cultivating the pupil's power to criticize his own themes before they are sub-mitted in their finished form. The correction that the pupil does for himself counts for far more in his develop- 3