LE ROY D. BROWN. SCHOOL COMPOSITION: BEING ADVANCED LANGUAGE-LESSONS FOR BY WILLIAM SWINTON, A. M., 66 LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1874. Pr Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washi PREFACE. THIS little book is not an addition to the already large number of Rhetorics and other works on the theory and mysteries of style. It is strictly a manual for schoolwork, and has been made with special reference to the rational remodeling recently accomplished, or now in the way of being accomplished, in the Courses of Study in our public schools, a remodeling in which Languagetraining for the first time receives the attention that is its due. The writer trusts that inquiring teachers will find it in harmony with their views and aims. In the plan here adopted, composition is begun with the very commencement of the study, and is carried on pari passu with the development of rules and principles. It is a matter of common experience that children's power of producing, in an empirical way, is much in advance of their knowledge of the rationale of writing; hence, in the present work, pupils are not kept back from the improving exercise of actual composition until they have mastered the complicated details of rhetorical theory. It should be added, however, that the demands made on the scholar will not be found beyond his powers. He is provided with the material to work on, and his attention is limited to the process of building this material into shape, author's conviction being that training in the ART OF EXPRESSION is as much as can wisely be aimed at in school composition. Pupils must first be taught how to write at all, before they can be shown how to write well, maxim that has never been out of mind in the making of this book. the a |