•The Co THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON CHICAGO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO IN THEORY AND PRACTICE BY HENRY SEIDEL CANBY, PH.D. OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH COMPOSITION IN THE UNIVERSITY NEW AND REVISED EDITION New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1915 All rights reserved 517 755 COPYRIGHT, 1909, 1912, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1909. Reprinted New edition May, September, twice, October, 1912; January, EDUCATION DEPT. Norwood Press PREFACE THE purpose of the authors of this volume has been to combine, in one book, a set of directions for good writing, based upon sound principles and written, primarily, for the student, with a varied and extensive collection of examples drawn from all the forms of discourse, and inclusive of both brief excerpts and complete essays, arguments, and stories. We have added supplementary material in the several Appendices, and a selected list of books, which may be used with this manual, or consulted for parallel discussions of the topics here taken up. Exposition, Argument, Description, and Narrative present differing problems in the teaching of English Composition, and vary in their degree of usefulness with the individual, the course, and the institution. We have endeavored to give to each the proportionate space and the kind of treatment which the average student requires. The whole composition, the paragraph, the sentence, and the word have been discussed in their relation to Exposition, because, for the average student, it is the power to explain clearly which is of primary importance. Thus Exposition has been given a predominant space. The chapter on the Sentence goes into minute detail because the average student, at present, does not understand the structure of the sentence; the chapter on Narrative deals with constructive problems mainly, because it is in learning to construct a story that he can best make Narrative increase his powers of expression; the chapter on Description includes literary and esthetic problems, because one variety of Description can only thus be taught. An order of succession for these various topics has been chosen after experiment with many classes. Nevertheless, except that Exposition must come first, the teacher will find that the plan of this book permits any arrangement of subjects which his own experience may have led him to desire. Acknowledgments of M187511 |