801 1235 NO VINU COPYRIGHT, 1800, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. CUNERAL Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co - Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass USA. PREFACE THE recent rapid increase in the study of English in the high school has made it necessary to provide for two years of formal instruction in rhetoric and English composition. The consensus of opinion is that during the first of these courses pupils should be trained in the choice of words and in the structure of sentences and paragraphs, and given as much practice as possible in simple writing, usually in essays consisting of only a paragraph each. As time has gone by, the system of instruction in these matters has become more and more definite. The older methods, with their intricacy of classification and multiplicity of rules and exceptions, have been displaced by a comparatively simple and uniform. method, the essence of which is the conception of the essay as a structure, the building up of an idea by the grouping together of words in sentences and of sentences in paragraphs. This method has the advantages of simplicity and definiteness, and by means of it the part of rhetoric that has been indicated can be taught, and taught thoroughly, in a year. There remains the second course, with regard to which there is growing up a similar consensus of opinion that in it pupils should be trained in the main principles of description, narration, exposition, and, perhaps, argument and per V 108738 suasion. It is for a course of this kind that the present 1 volume is designed. It may follow any good text-book in the elements of rhetoric; but it should be preceded by a year's instruction of some sort in that subject. It will prove, I hope, of special value to the large class of students who do not pursue their education farther than the high school or academy, and are thus often forced to conclude their study of composition before they have obtained from it all the training which they need, both for the development of their powers of expression and for the proper understanding and appreciation of literature. With regard to the particular methods employed, I need only say (1) that I have tried to lay down no principles that were not actually followed, as a rule, by men of letters; and (2) that I have refrained throughout from introducing fine points or subtle distinctions. What the young student needs is the main principles of composition. The lesser or finer points he could not understand at this stage in his instruction, and, if he could understand them, the knowledge would be more of a hindrance than a help. It is unlikely that all the exercises indicated can be taken up in any one school. The teacher is invited to select those exercises or those parts of exercises that are best suited to his purposes. The chapter on composition in verse has been added to meet the needs of schools that include that subject in their course. My special thanks are due to Miss Jeannette B. Gillespy, recently a teacher in the Horace Mann School, and now assistant in English in Barnard College, for help in the selection of illustrative extracts and in the preparation of exercises. I take pleasure also in acknowledging my obligations to the teachers who have kindly informed me of points in the preceding volume which needed correction, or have suggested other ways in which it could be made more serviceable. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK CITY, August, 1900. G. R. CARPENTER. |