Introductory: How to Find Material. "WHAT shall I write about?" is the immediate exclamation of every one who is required to write a composition. It is an important question and cannot be answered briefly. But first let us give a few cautions. In selecting subjects for compositions avoid in general those which are too broad and comprehensive for concise treatment ; those which are difficult and abstruse, requiring the knowledge and accuracy of one long trained in methods of scientific investigation, or the authority of a matured and logical thinker; those which have been worn out by the use and abuse of successive generations of essaywriters; those which can have no living interest for your readers or hearers; those which draw upon no personal experience, or appeal to no knowledge or taste of your own. Thus, avoid abstract subjects, such as Patience, Perseverance, Idleness, Duty, Character, True Manhood and Womanhood, and the old triad, Faith, Hope, and Charity. You can scarcely expect to say anything new upon these topics, or even to say anything old in a new way; all the changes have been rung upon them long ago. Life and the world offer too much that is new and attractive, for us to be wasting our time on these outworn themes. Do not allow yourself to be discouraged by the oft-repeated statement that we can find nothing new to say. That is the cloak which the dullard and the drone use to cover up their own incompetence and indolence. We can say something new. In one sense Nature never repeats herself. Her laws, her methods of operation, may be unchangeable always, but her products are infinitely diversified. Every day brings to light some new form, some hitherto unbeheld combination. The same thing is true in other spheres — of social, political, and religious institutions. Keep your eyes and ears open. See and hear; then think and write. Avoid old maxims and adages. Such are, Honesty is the Best Policy, Time and Tide Wait for No Man, Well Begun is Half Done, A Bird in the Hand, etc. Writing on such themes leads to the habit of making random and sweeping general statements which, because they are founded upon no scientific demonstration, are worse than worthless. Besides, these old sayings often contain more poetry than truth. If you can detect and expose fallacies in them, they may be made to furnish material for argumentative essays. Only be careful that you rightly understand the spirit of the sayings and are competent to grapple with the problem involved. Avoid subjects in which the words must be taken in some figurative or unusual sense. The device is an old one, still cherished by many good writers. But it adds no grace to the composition, while it leads to misconceptions on the part of the reader and fosters in the writer habits of loose and aimless thinking. This form of title too is often only another way of expressing the abstractions which have been objected to above. Familiar examples of this class of subjects are, Crown Jewels, Sowing the Wind, Stemming the Tide, Sunken Reefs, Links, Stepping Stones, Growing toward the Light. If you must preach or moralize, seek more effective methods. It may be doubted whether these fancies and pretty conceits, seeking to draw a moral lesson from every curious fact and phenomenon in nature, ever yet convinced the skeptical or determined the wavering. Then there are whole classes of subjects that have about them a delightful indefiniteness which seems to fascinate young writers. A Pyramid of Vanities; Yesterday, To-day, and To-morrow; Two Builders; Magic; Good Soil; A Little While; etc., etc. There is the wonderfully broad subject, Life: write what you please, it will fit here; though no two thoughts may have a common bearing, though no two sentences may fit together, they will all seem to harmonize with the title and the writer is content. But is the reader content? Read such an essay that has been written by some one else and judge for yourself. Do you ask now what you shall select? Consider a moment. First of all, you want to interest your reader. Your real object may be higher than this—it may be to instruct, or to convince, or to arouse. But whatever be your object, if you do not interest first you will meet with small success. To interest keenly it is absolutely indispensable that you be interested yourself. The slightest weariness or indifference on your part will be detected at once and beget a corresponding weariness or indifference on the part of your reader. What are you interested in most? What is there all about you, in your books, in your school, in your home, |