PREFA THE principles embodied in and put in practice by its aut Michigan several years ago. W room work and its results becam inquiries from teachers in prepar in regard to the methods employ inquiries a small pamphlet (no lished and circulated. The pre: ited sense a revision of that par book. In the earlier work the a exercise in writing English. Th aim is to make the paragraph composition, to present all the i in their application to the parag view which is assumed is in so words of explanation will not be Learning to write well in one large part learning to give unit ideas. It means learning to co which have order and symmetr It means learning theoretically and practically how to put them they turn out badly the first tim and put them together again in The making and e-making The task of the teacher of those who discourse, it follows, is in great part se construct such units, explaining the prin the units are made, arousing a sense th and not mere heaps or nebulous masse hic labor est) correcting departures from coherence when such departures occur. 1 Work of this kind on the part of wri presupposes a unit of discourse. Of thes three, the sentence, the paragraph, a whole composition. Which of these thre psychologically and pedagogically, to th The sentence may be rejected at the outs simple and too fragmentary. Practice in disconnected sentences is not of much se of composition. This remark applies to as to the higher grades. Moreover, as Wendell has pointed out (English Compos sentence is properly a subject of revision, -good sentences are produced by critic they are written rather than by planning Putting the sentence aside, then, what sha paragraph and the essay? Of the two t retically the more proper unit of disco always so in practice? Is it not true tha a certain stage of their progress the essay and too cumbersome to be appreciated as totle long ago laid down the psychological should govern the selection of a structur the limit fixt by the nature of the case, 1 A series of experiments conducted by Miss H. N face. f those who produce written reat part setting students to ng the principles upon which a sense that they are units lous masses, and (hoc opus, rtures from unity, order, and es occur. part of writer or of teacher e. Of these units there are aragraph, and the essay or f these three is best adapted, cally, to the end proposed? at the outset as at once too Practice in the composing of of much service to students applies to the lower as well oreover, as Professor Barrett lish Composition, p. 117), the of revision, not of prevision, ed by criticising them after y planning them beforehand. en, what shall be said of the f the two the essay is theonit of discourse. But is it not true that for students at ess the essay is too complex preciated as a whole? Arissychological principle which f a structural unit: "As for the case, the greatest conPrincipal of 1 sistent with simultaneous comp best." If students who have wr with all their labor developed bu ural unity, may the reason not li of discourse employed has been that it could not be grasped w mind? If there is a measure of tru urged, it would appear that for dent's development the paragrap ural unity, offers peculiar advant advantages has already been sug as follows: The paragraph, bein identical with the essay, exempli structure. It exemplifies these convenient compass so that they the beginner. Further, while th exercises the student in the sa which would be brought to his a the writing of essays, he can w he can write essays in the same character of the work may be r progressive, and interesting. If the needs of the student, it ha from the point of view of the tea teacher of Rhetoric is the cor the compositions are long and the burden sometimes become: many cases it is a necessary b with patience, but this is not alw within the limits of the paragra] which he commits in the writi in the greater part of the com |