Practical English Composition Part 5

All three of these items are evidently condensations of longer articles.

The writers have boiled down a vast amount of material into the form in which it here appears. The student will find similar material in abundance in _The Literary Digest_, in _The Scientific American_, in _The National Geographical Magazine_, in many government reports, and in almost any daily newspaper. In preparing for this exercise he should observe the following steps:

1. Find his material.

2. Boil it down, to the size desired, which is a most useful exercise of the judgment.

3. Make a careful framework, in doing which the models will be useful.

4. Get the whole so well in mind that he can present it fluently.

Hesitation should not be tolerated.

IV. Suggested Time Schedule

_Monday_--Dictation.

_Tuesday_--Notes and Queries.

_Wednesday_--Oral Composition.

_Thursday_--Written Composition.

_Friday_--Public Speaking.

V. Notes, Queries, and Exercises.

1. Write an appropriate heading for each item.

2. Point out the "Four W's" in each.

3. Tell whether each sentence is simple, compound, or complex.

4. Explain the syntax of the nouns in Model I, the p.r.o.nouns in II, the verbs in III.

5. Explain the location of St. Louis, Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Bay of Fundy, Was.h.i.+ngton, Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, and Montana.

6. Where is the copper country of Michigan? The salt, bromine, calcium, chloride, graphite, and brick regions?

7. Explain the etymological signification of "demonstration,"

"extraordinary," "acc.u.mulated," "Nova Scotia," "annually,"

"geological," "Arizona," "Montana," "advent."

8. How many words does Model I contain? II? III?

9. Discover and write out the framework of each model.

10. Find one subject on which you could make an item like Model I.

Do the same for II and III.

VI. Written Composition

Remember that you are writing for the compositor. Every letter must be right. If you do a good piece of work it is altogether probable that your composition will get into one of the local papers.

VII. Suggested Reading

Mark Twain's _Tom Sawyer_, _Huckleberry Finn_, _Pudd'nhead Wilson_, or _Roughing It_.

VIII. Memorize

GOETHALS, THE PROPHET ENGINEER

A man went down to Panama Where many a man had died To slit the sliding mountains And lift the eternal tide: A man stood up in Panama, And the mountains stood aside.

For a poet wrought in Panama With a continent for his theme, And he wrote with flood and fire To forge a planet's dream, And the derricks rang his dithyrambs And his stanzas roared in steam.

Where old Balboa bent his gaze He leads the liners through, And the Horn that tossed Magellan Bellows a far halloo, For where the navies never sailed Steamed Goethals and his crew;

So nevermore the tropic routes Need poleward warp and veer, But on through the Gates of Goethals The steady keels shall steer, Where the tribes of man are led toward peace By the prophet-engineer.

PERCY MACKAYE.[1]

[1] "He [Goethals] received last week three medals--one at Was.h.i.+ngton, at the hands of President Wilson, from the National Geographical Society; another in New York, at the hands of Dr. John H. Finley, head of the New York State Educational System, from the _Civic Forum_; and a third, also in New York, at the hands of Hamilton W. Mabie, from the National Inst.i.tute of Social Sciences. At the presentation of the _Civic Forum_ medal, a poem written for the occasion was read by its author, Mr. Percy MacKaye." (_The Outlook_. March 14, 1914.) This poem is here quoted, by permission, from Mr. MacKaye's volume, _The Present Hour_.

Published by The Macmillan Company, New York.

CHAPTER VI

HUMOROUS ITEMS

"To laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to man before the fortieth day from his birth."--PLINY.

I. Introduction

Laughter, when it hurts n.o.body, is wholesome. It is the handmaid of happiness. It enriches life. Pleasant but not silly humor and wit are therefore altogether desirable in a paper. Few days in anybody's life are devoid of incidents that tickle the fancy. Material for good humorous stories is abundant everywhere. The faculty of recognizing it when it is seen, and the ability to present it effectively, however, need a little training. To make a beginning in these directions is the object of the exercises that follow.

II. a.s.signment

Find, but not in a book or a paper, a humorous story, and tell it, first orally, then in writing.

III. Models

I

Called on to decide the owners.h.i.+p of a hen claimed by George Ba.s.s and Joseph Nedrow, of Arnold City, Justice of the Peace John Reisinger hit upon a "Solomonesque" solution. "Take this fowl to Arnold City," he directed his constable, "and release it near the poultry yards of these two men. In whose hen house it goes to roost, to him it belongs." The constable, accompanied by Ba.s.s and Nedrow, did as directed. When liberated, the bird promptly flew into the chicken yard of Charles Black, where the constable decided it would have to stay under the justice's ruling. The costs in the case amount to ten times the value of the hen.