Practical English Composition: Book II by Edwin L. Miller (best books to read fiction .txt) 📕
III. Class Organization
For the present the teacher of the class studying this book may act as city editor and the pupils as reporters. Later, perhaps, a more formal organization may be effected, with pupils as managing editor, assistant managing editor, city editor, etc.
IV. Newspaper Coöperation
The editor of the local paper will probably be willing to print any really good material that the class produces. If possible, an arrangement for this purpose should be made with him
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On the right, as one enters the hall, is a room 9 feet by 14 feet, which may be used as a den or a reception room. Back of this is a living-room, 14 feet by 20 feet, with a fireplace at the rear end, and a French door that leads to a side piazza. This piazza, which is 20 feet by 7 feet, is covered and is equipped with sliding windows.
On the other side of the hall, in front, is the dining-room, 16 feet by 14 feet. This room has a fireplace, which faces the street, and a French door, which leads to a side porch 8 feet by 10. The latter is enclosed with glass and is used as a breakfast porch. Directly behind this porch is a small sewing-room, and, partly behind the sewing-room and partly behind the dining-room, is the kitchen, which is 12 feet square. In the northwest corner of the house, directly north of the sewing-room and west of the kitchen, are a small back porch and an entry large enough for a refrigerator. East of the kitchen, between it and the main hall, are a passage and service stairways leading to the cellar and the upper floors. The kitchen is thus separated from the rest of the house, either way, by two doors, which prevents the odors of the cooking from escaping.
The walls of the first floor are finished in oiled and waxed gumwood. The floors are oak, except in the kitchen, where hard pine is used.
On the second floor the rear of the space above the main hall is occupied by a passage, the front by a bathroom. On the eastern side of this passage, above the den, is a bedroom 16 feet by 14 feet, and back of this, above the living-room, a bedroom 14 feet by 11 feet. The latter has a fireplace in the north wall. On the western side of the passage, in front, above the dining-room, is the owner’s chamber, 16 feet by 14 feet. From its southeast corner a door leads to the bathroom already mentioned; on its southwest side is a porch, and in its northern wall are two closets and a fireplace. In its rear a passage leads to a fourth chamber, 14 feet by 10 feet, which has an alcove, 9 feet by 8 feet. This alcove is directly above the sewing-room and the chamber is in the northwest corner of the house. Between it and the service stairway is a second bathroom.
On the third floor are three large chambers, an unfinished room for storage, and a servants’ bath.
The cellar contains a laundry, a vegetable closet, coal-bins, and a hot-water heating-plant.
III. Analytical Discussion Note the framework: “Four W’s”—Par. 1. First Floor— Par. 2. Main Hall. Par. 3. Right Side. Par. 4. Left Side. Par. 5. Floors and Walls. Second Floor—Par. 6. Third Floor. Par. 7. Cellar—Par. 8. Words. Define and explain the etymology of “suburban,” “located,” “reinforced,” “concrete,” “Colonial,” “reception,” “piazza,” “porch,” “refrigerator,” “separated,” “except,” “servant,” “closet,” “effect.” Sentences. (a) Tell whether they are simple, complex, or compound. (b) Do any of them lack unity? Paragraphs. (a) Can you find any violations of paragraph unity? (b) Observe that the following particulars are mentioned in Par. 1: location, material, shape, color, size. Is the same plan used in describing each room? In order to determine this, make a list of the items that are mentioned in explaining the construction of each. Transition. Point out all of the transition words in the model. Figures of Speech. Find a metaphor and an antithesis in the model. IV. Model IIThe Arizona is the latest and greatest addition to the battle fleet of the United States.
Her displacement is 31,400 tons, her length over all 600 feet, her maximum breadth 97 feet, and her draft under normal conditions 28 feet, 10 inches. Parsons’s turbines of 29,000 horse-power give her a speed of 21 knots. Her fuel supply is 2322 tons of oil. She carries a crew of 1000 men. Her cost was $16,000,000.
Her armament consists of twelve fourteen-inch and twenty-two five-inch guns, four three-pounders for the launches, two three-inch guns for salutes, and four twenty-two-inch torpedo tubes. The big guns are mounted in four turrets, two forward and two aft, each containing three guns. The turrets nearer to the middle of the ship are enough higher than the forward and aft turrets to permit their guns to be fired directly ahead and astern respectively. This arrangement permits the concentration of six guns forward, six aft, and twelve on either broadside.
This vessel is probably armored more heavily than any other warship afloat. Her main belt is sixteen inches thick, while the Iron Duke, one of the latest British dreadnoughts, carries only twelve inches.
V. Notes and Queries Observe the structure: Par. 1. General Description. Par. 2. Statistics. Par. 3. Offensive Power. Par. 4. Defensive Arrangements. Could the same structure be used for the description of a freight boat, a passenger steamer, a ferryboat, a schooner, a sloop, a brig, a brigantine, a tugboat, a launch, a locomotive, a railway carriage, an airship, or an automobile? What changes, if any, would you suggest? Explain the terms “displacement,” “draft,” “normal,” “knots,” “pounds,” “turrets.” Explain the metaphor in “belt.” Is it a good one? VI. Gathering MaterialDo not get your material from reading; get it from observation. Don’t steal it; earn it. Catch your fish; don’t buy a string of dead ones at the fish-market, and then lie about the way you obtained them. Few of us can be original, but we can all be honest and industrious.
VII. OrganizationBefore you write, make a plan. It is as necessary in composition as in building. If the nature of your subject or the kind and quantity of your material render it desirable to deviate from the model, do not hesitate to do so. As a rule, however, it will be best to follow its plan rather closely. At all events, work from some plan. Don’t get the idea that you can dash off a finished exposition in a few minutes.
VIII. WritingExposition above everything else should be clear. Say what you mean and mean what you say.
IX. CriticismThe written expositions of house plans may be tested by having the pupils exchange papers, and asking the recipients to draw the plans from the compositions.
X. Suggested ReadingRudyard Kipling’s The Ship that Found Herself.
XI. MemorizeStill gentler sister woman;
Though they may gang a kennin’ wrang,
To step aside is human.
One point must still be greatly dark,
The moving why they do it,
And just as lamely can ye mark
How far perhaps they rue it.
Decidedly can try us;
He knows each chord—its various tone,
Each spring—its various bias.
Then at the balance let’s be mute;
We never can adjust it;
What’s done we partly may compute,
But know not what’s resisted.
Robert Burns.
←Contents
THE EXPOSITION OF IDEAS
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.”
Lord Byron.
I. IntroductionThe exposition of ideas is difficult and important. It takes many forms, but only three can be noticed in this chapter: (1) Exposition through Narration; (2) Exposition through Condensation; (3) Exposition through Comparison. The three following models illustrate these three forms, respectively.
II. Model IThe wise men of antiquity loved to convey instruction under the covering of apologue; and, though this practice is generally thought childish, we shall make no apology for adopting it on the present occasion. A generation which has bought eleven editions of a poem by Mr. Robert Montgomery may well condescend to listen to a fable of Pilpay.
A pious Brahmin, it is written, made a vow that on a certain day he would sacrifice a sheep, and on the appointed morning he went forth to buy one. There lived in his neighborhood three rogues who knew of his vow, and laid a scheme for profiting by it. The first met him and said, “Oh Brahmin, wilt thou buy a sheep? I have one fit for sacrifice.” “It is for that very purpose,” said the holy man, “that I came forth this day.” Then the impostor opened a bag, and brought out of it an unclean beast, an ugly dog, lame and blind. Thereon the Brahmin cried out, “Wretch, who touchest things impure, and utterest things untrue, callest thou that cur a sheep?” “Truly,” answered the other, “it is a sheep of the finest fleece and of the sweetest flesh. O Brahmin, it will be an offering most acceptable to the gods.” “Friend,” said the Brahmin, “either thou or I must be blind.”
Just then one of the accomplices came up. “Praised be the gods,” said this second rogue, “that I have been saved the trouble of going to the market for a sheep! This is such a sheep as I wanted. For how much wilt thou sell it?” When the Brahmin heard this his mind waved to and fro, like one swinging in the air at a holy festival. “Sir,” said he to the newcomer, “take heed what thou dost; this is no sheep, but an unclean cur.” “O Brahmin,” said the newcomer, “thou art drunk or mad!”
At this time the third confederate drew near. “Let us ask this man,” said the Brahmin, “what the creature is, and I will stand by what he shall say.” To this the others agreed, and the Brahmin called out, “O stranger, what dost thou call this beast?” “Surely, O Brahmin,” said the knave, “it is a fine sheep.” Then the Brahmin said, “Surely the gods have taken away my senses”; and he asked pardon of him who carried the dog, and bought it for a measure of rice and a pot of ghee, and offered it up to the gods, who, being wroth at this unclean sacrifice, smote him with a sore disease in all his joints.
Thus, or nearly thus, if we remember rightly, runs the story of the Sanscrit Æsop. The moral, like the moral of every fable that is worth the telling, lies on the surface. The writer evidently means to caution us against the practices of puffers, a class of people who have more than once talked the public into the most absurd errors, but who surely never played a more curious or a more difficult trick than when they passed Mr. Robert Montgomery off upon the world as a great poet.—Thomas Babington Macaulay, Essay on Mr. Robert Montgomery’s Poems.
III. Topics for Discussion The Fable, which is here illustrated, is a simple story told to point a moral or to make clear a complicated situation. Æsop and George Ade are perhaps the most interesting authors of fables—at least to twentieth-century Americans. An entertaining program may be arranged by assigning each member of the class a fable of one of these writers for oral reporting. The model illustrates well the value of the fable form in newspaper exposition. Note the paragraph structure: (1) Introduction; (2) “Four W’s,” or Situation 1; (3) Climax, or Situation 2; (4) Dénouement, Result, or Situation 3; (5) Moral, or Point. Define and discuss the etymology of “antiquity,” “apologue,” “apology,” “edition,” “fable,” “impostor,” “accomplice,” “confederate,” “knave,” “ghee,” “caution,” “puffers.” What proportion of Macaulay’s words in Paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 are monosyllables and dissyllables? Does he here use more or fewer big words in proportion than in Paragraphs 1 and 5? What is the effect on his style? What proportion of his sentences are simple? Compound? Complex? Topics for reports or speeches: Mr. Robert Montgomery; Pilpay; The Brahmins; Æsop; Sanscrit. Explain the allusion in the phrase, “the Sanscrit Æsop.” Explain some episode in American history by means of a
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