CHAPTER II

MINOR FORMS OF COMPOSITION

5. NOTE-BOOKS. EXERCISE 1.-6. EXAMINATION PAPERS. — EXERCISE 2.-7. TRANSLATION. - EXERCISE 3.-8. PARAPHRASE. EXERCISE 4.-9. LETTERS. 10. THE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE. 11. PAPER AND INK.-12. THE ENVELOPE. - EXERCISE 5. — 13. THE BEGINNING OF A LETTER. -14. THE END. EXERCISE 6. 15. LETTERS IN THE THIRD PERSON. EXERCISE 7.-16. THE BODY OF THE LETTER. - EXERCISE 8.-17. LETTERS IN LITERATURE.

5. Note-books. No one will learn to write well who does not regard all pieces of composition as alike worthy of careful attention. We may, of course, jot down addresses or memoranda on the back of an old envelope without much concern as to the form of our expression; and in taking rough notes of a lecture it is sufficient to put down only such words as will best recall to our own minds a few hours later what were the speaker's main ideas. But it is another matter when what we write is intended for the eye of another, or even when it is to be preserved for our own permanent use. In such cases care and skill are necessary. Notice, for example, the following extracts from a student's laboratory note-book in physics, written expressly for the information of his instructors or examiners:

(1) The ivory balls rebounded the greatest distance. Showing that ivory was the most elastic substance of the three. Then the wooden balls rebounded the next longest distance, showing that wood was the second most elastic substance of the three. Then the rubber was the least elastic of the three.

(2) I took a long glass tube and put one end in water and the other in my mouth. By expanding my lungs, the air was rarefied and the water rushed into the tube. If you close one end with your finger, the water will not flow out at the other, because the outside pressure is too great. As soon as the finger is removed, the water will flow out, as on one end there is gravitation and air pressure, while on the other is only air pressure.

[Here the omission of the verb in the second sentence of (1), and the general awkwardness of construction throughout both (1) and (2), produce an impression of ignorance and carelessness, even when the facts are in themselves correct.]

An even worse fault in note-books than that of careless composition is that of careless thinking and the muddled expression dependent thereon. Notice the complete absence of this fault in the following set of notes, made from an interesting article by Mr. Charles Francis Adams, on the battle of Bunker Hill, in the American Historical Review for April, 1896:

The success of the American cause was due to luck. Luck-a "balancing of blunders"- turned the occupation of Breed's Hill to American advantage.

(a) American blunders forces put into a trap. Cut off from mainland by Charlestown Neck. On lower ground

than Bunker Hill. Original plan, to fortify Bunker Hill and high land on mainland side of Charlestown Neck. This would have secured command of Boston and kept communication open with main forces.

(b) British blunders - failure to take advantage. Proper course, occupation of the Neck by the British. Americans must then either fight against heavy odds or surrender. Result of the surrender or defeat, demoralization of the patriot army. Further attack by British on Americans near Cambridge. Both these courses urged by Clinton but disregarded. Actual course - Breed's Hill stormed from the front; Americans driven out of their own trap back to the mainland. General result—just what should have been desired (forestalling of British on Bunker Hill, drawing of fire), but what could not be result of plan and insight.

(c) Luck shown in the American commander. Prescott a fighter; moved to Breed's Hill, thus bringing on the engagement there; kept the militia under control through two charges by British.

(d) Luck shown in the fact that ammunition failed before a third repulse. If the British had been repulsed again, undoubtedly the next day they would have attacked the Americans in the rear and forced a surrender. Prescott wished the next day to return to the trap; no realization of his luck.

EXERCISE I

I. Rewrite extracts (1) and (2) in § 5.

II. Criticise, under the direction of the instructor, your own note-books, or those of your classmates, from the point of view of clear and adequate expression.

III. Write a paragraph, based on your own experience, on the main things to be borne in mind in keeping a good note-book in history, or chemistry, or English literature.

IV. Take rough notes of a sermon, lecture, or address.

Revise them, with the purpose of indicating, in two or three hundred words, the speaker's plan and the substance of what he said.

NOTE. The following references to easily accessible periodical literature will indicate good subjects for exercises in note-taking:

With section headings: The Advantages of the Nicaragua Canal, Capt. A. S. Crowninshield, U.S.N., Century Magazine, January, 1899. -The Paramount Power of the Pacific, John Barrett, North American Review, August, 1899.

Short articles: The Goal in Education, Editor's Table, Popular Science Monthly, November, 1898. -- The Causes of Spain's Decadence, Ibid. —The Cuban as a Labor Problem, W. W. Howard, Century, August, 1899.

Longer Articles: Why We Won at Manila, Lieutenant B. A. Fiske, U.S.N., Century, November, 1898. - The Philippine Islands and American Capital, J. Russell Smith, Popular Science Monthly, January, 1899. — A Trained Colonial Civil Service, Professor E. G. Bourne, North American Review, October, 1899. — Historical Causes of the Present War in South Africa, Right Honorable James Bryce, North American Review, December, 1899. - Some Neglected Aspects of the Revolutionary War, C. K. Adams, Atlantic Monthly, August, 1898. — The Development of our Foreign Policy, Horace W. Fisher, Ibid. - Bismarck as a National Type, Kuno Francke, Ibid. — Our Government of Newly Acquired Territory, Carl Evans Boyd, Atlantic Monthly, December, 1898.

6. Examination Papers. Nowhere is skill in English composition more of service than in a written examination. The pupil has before him blank paper. By marks upon that paper he must convince another

person, frequently one who is not acquainted with his previous work or character, that he understands thoroughly the principles involved in certain questions. Unless the answers consist largely of dates or formulæ, here is a situation that must be faced and conquered by knowledge of facts, united with skill in stating facts. The pupil must write a clear hand; he must spell correctly; his sentences must be fairly short, and always to the point; he must write concisely and definitely. It would obviously be absurd, in most cases, to spend precious time on mere polish of diction, but the writer is usually rewarded for his pains who forms the habit of using, under such circumstances, every device that leads to clearness and accuracy of thought and expression.

Notice, for example, the following answers to the question, "What qualities does Burke, in his Speech on Conciliation, attribute to the American colonists; to what causes were they due?"

(1) Burke said that the colonists were a liberty-loving people, and that they were mostly all lawyers.

He said there were more of Blackstone's books sold in America than in England. These qualities he said were due to their ancestors, the English race. He said that an Eng

lishman was the unfittest person to argue an American into slavery.

Of course this last statement favored Burke immensely in his argument, as another Englishman could not contradict him nor any one else.

[Note, first, that this does not fully answer either part of the question; second, that the points mentioned are not so