THI THE PREFACE HIS is primarily a book of technique, which aims. at stimulating an interest in good workmanship and at preventing the purposeless wandering characteristic of much of the work in secondary English. It applies to the study of composition the studio method familiar to students of other arts. An explanation of this method as developed in this book is given in the Introduction. Another distinctive feature is its plan for correlating literature, rhetoric, and composition by deriving from particular masterpieces a number of typical forms for various kinds of themes. In this way literature is made to furnish not only the subject-matter but the form of some of the student's themes. The authors hope thus to secure in the study of rhetoric and composition a breadth of treatment otherwise impossible and to keep the study from becoming a matter of abstract science on the one hand or mere mechanical detail on the other. The book is intended to furnish a complete course in high schools and for beginning courses in academies, seminaries, and normal schools. It is recommended that high school students master first the lessons on narration and description, paying especial attention to devices for ornamentation and to description in the short story; then take up exposition and its combination with narration and description, emphasizing the work on the book review, the historical or biographical essay, and the nature sketch; and complete the course with argumentation and persuasion as found in combination with the other three forms of discourse in the debate and the oration. To Mr. George B. Aiton, State Inspector of High Schools for Minnesota, and to Mr. R. W. Bruère, of the Department of English, The University of Chicago, the authors are indebted for the reading of the work in proof and for many valuable suggestions. R. M. K. October 1, 1902. 250767 |