COMPOSITION-RHETORIC BY THOS. C. BLAISDELL, PH. D. PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY NEW YORK: CINCINNATI CHICAGO PLAN AND PURPOSE This book aims to teach young people to write effectively by having them write. It furnishes them with models from the masters, and asks them to use their own experiences as working material. Further, in the second part it develops a plan to teach them to write accurately, by training them to recognize, and thus to avoid, their errors. That his own hours are full of experiences adapted to literary expression is made known to the pupil by the study of literature in its relation to life. Of these experiences he has definite knowledge, and about them he can think clearly; and clear thinking, which comes only from clear knowing, usually results in ready and forceful expression. The book, in addition, lays a foundation for the appreciation of literature. To profit by the master writers the pupil must be able to recognize the value of their works. Accordingly he is here taught that literature is full of suggestion, and he is made to understand the various devices by which an author conveys this suggestion. When these methods have been discovered and sufficiently illustrated, the learner is asked to use them in writing about familiar experiences. Thus he is given a higher standard than a properly punctuated, rhetorical statement of facts, with the result that his theme work becomes a vital thing,a pleasure, not a task. This book at first calls for compositions of only a few paragraphs in length. Later, as the pupil masters the various literary methods, he is given more complex subjects, 5 267349 |