A dry writer uses no ornament of any kind, and, content with being understood, aims not to please the fancy or the ear. A plain writer employs very little ornament; he observes perspicuity, propriety, purity, and precision in his language, but attempts none of the graces of composition. A dry writer is incapable of ornament, —a plain writer goes not in pursuit of it. A neat writer is careful in the choice of his words, and the graceful collocation of them. His sentences are free from the encumbrances of superfluous words, and his figures are short and accurate, rather than bold and glowing. An elegant writer possesses all the graces of ornament, — polished periods, figurative language, harmonious expressions, and a great degree of purity in the choice of his words, all characterized by perspicuity and propriety. He is one, in short, who delights the fancy and the ear, while he informs the understanding. A florid or flowery writer is characterized by excess of ornament; and seems to be more intent on beauty of language than solidity of thought. A simple or natural writer is distinguished by simplicity of plan; he makes his thoughts appear to rise naturally from his subject; he has no marks of art in his expressions, and although he may be characterized by great richness both of language and imagination, he appears to write in that way not because he had studied it, but because it is the mode of expression most natural to him. An affected writer is the very reverse of a simple one. He uses words in uncommon meanings — employs pompous expressions—and his whole manner is characterized by singularity rather than by beauty. - A vehement writer uses strong expressions-is characterized by considerable warmth of manner- and presents his ideas clearly and fully before us. * The following directions are given by Dr. Blair for attaining a good style: The first direction is, study clear ideas of the subject on which you are to write or speak. What we conceive clearly and feel strongly, we naturally express with clearness and strength. Secondly, to the acquisition of a good style, frequency of composing is indispensably necessary. But it is not every kind of composition that will improve style. By a careless and hasty habit of writing, a bad style will be acquired. In the beginning, therefore, we ought to write slowly and with much care. Facility and speed are the fruit of experience. Thirdly, acquaintance with the style of the best authors is peculiarly requisite. Hence a just taste will be formed, and a copious fund of words supplied on every subject. No exercise, perhaps, will be found more useful for acquiring a proper style, than translating some passage from an eminent author in our own words, and then comparing what we have written with the style of the author. Such an exercise will show us our defects. will teach us to correct them, and, from the variety of expression which it will exhibit, will conduct us to that which is most beautiful. Fourthly, caution must be used against servile imitation of any author whatever. Desire of imitating hampers genius, and generally produces stiffness of expression. They who copy an author closely, commonly copy his faults as well as his beauties. It is much better to have something of our own, though of moderate beauty, than to shine in borrowed ornaments, which will at last betray the poverty of our genius. The student who would see the subject of style treated with great clearness and beauty, will find it treated with much elegance and ability in Newman's Rhetorick." His remarks on vivacity of style are particularly recommended to the careful study of the learner. * Fifthly, always adapt your style to the subject, and likewise to the capacity of your hearers or readers. When we are to write or to speak, we should previously fix in our minds a clear idea of the end aimed at ; keep this steadily in view, and adapt our style to it. † Lastly, let not attention to style engross us so much, as to prevent a higher degree of attention to the thoughts. He is a contemptible writer, who looks not beyond the dress of language; who lays not the chief stress upon his matter, and employs not such ornaments of style as are manly, not foppish. LXXXI. DIRECTIONS TO STUDENTS IN REVISING AND CORRECTING THEIR COMPOSITIONS, BEFORE THEY ARE PRESENTED TO THE TEACHER. Read over your exercise to ascertain, 1. whether the words are correctly spelled; 2. the pauses and capital letters are properly used; 3. that the possessive case is correctly written with the apostrophe and the letters; 4. the hyphen placed between the parts of a compound word, and also used at the end of the line when part of the word is in one line and another part in the succeeding line (recollecting, in this case, that the letters of the same syllable must all be written in the same line); 5. that the marks of quotation are inserted when you have borrowed a sentence or an expression from any one else; 6. whether the pronouns are all of the same number with their antecedents, and the verbs of the same number with their nominatives; 7. whether you can get rid of some of the "ands' in your exercise, by means of the rules laid down in Lesson XX., and whether some other words may not be omitted without weakening the expression, and also The change of persons in these rules, if not absolutely faulty, is certainly inelegant. The language is literally taken from the abridgment of Dr. Blair's Rhetorick. Two of the greatest faults that can be committed in writing consist in degrading a subject naturally elevated, by low expressions; - and the expressing a mean or trivial idea by high sounding epithets. The former is called Bathos; - and the latter Bombast. The student who wishes for specimens of the various kinds of style mentioned above, will find quite a collection of them arranged under their appropriate neads, for examples in rhetoric, in a volume recently prepared by Mrs. L. C. Tuthill, and printed and published by S. Babcock, of New Haven, called The Young Ladies' Reader." It was the author's design to insert such specimens in this volume, but he finds it necessary to reserve the space which they would occupy for other matter which he deems more important to the completion of his plan. For the same reason, he has omitted the specimens which he intended to present in the respective departments of Narrative, Descriptive, Didactic, Pathetic, and Argumentative writing. whether you have introduced all the words necessary for the full expression of your ideas; 8. whether you have repeated the same word in the same sentence, or in any sentence near it, and have thus been betrayed into a tautology (See Lesson XXII.); 9. whether you cannot divide some of your long sentences into shorter ones, and thereby better preserve the unity of the sentence (See Lesson XXXI.); and lastly, whether part or parts of your exercise may not be divided into separate paragraphs. The following rules must also be observed. 1. No abbreviations are allowable in prose, and numbers (except in dates) must be expressed in words, not in figures. 2. In all cases, excepting where despatch is absolutely necessary, the character &, and others of a similar nature, must not be used, but the whole word must be written out. 3. The letters of the same syllable must always be written in the same line. When there is not room in a line for all the letters of a syllable, they must all be carried into the next line; and when a word is divided by placing one or more of the syllables in one line, and the remainder in the following line, the hyphen must always be placed at the end of the former line. 4. The title of the piece must always be in a line by itself, and should be written in larger letters than the exercise itself. 5. The exercise should be commenced not at the extreme left hand of the line, but a little towards the right. Every separate paragraph should also commence in the same way. 6. The crotchets or brackets which enclose a parenthesis should be used as sparingly as possible. Their place may often be supplied by commas. Suggestions to Teachers with regard to the written exercises of Students. 1. Examine the exercise in reference to all those points laid down in the directions for students in reviewing and correcting their compositions. (See page 303.) 2. Merits for composition should be predicated on their neatness, correctness, (in the particulars stated in the direc tions to pupils, page 303), length, style, &c.; but the highest merits should be given for the strongest evidence of intellect in the production of ideas, and original sentiments and forms of expression. 3. Words that are misspelt, should be spelled by the whole class, and those words which are frequently misspelt should be recorded in a book kept for that purpose, and occasionally spelt on the slate by the class. 4. Keep a book in which the student may have the privilege to record such compositions as are of superior merit. This book should be kept in the hands of the teacher, and remain the permanent property of the institution. This will have an excellent effect, especially if additional merits are given for the recording of a composition. 5. A short lecture on the subject of the composition assigned to a class, showing its bearings, its divisions, and the manner in which it should be treated, will greatly facilitate their progress, and interest them in the exercise. 6. Have a set of arbitrary marks, which should be explained and understood by the class, by which the exercise should be corrected. This is, in fact, nothing less than a method of short hand, and will save the trouble of much writing. 7. Insist upon the point, that the exercise should be written in the student's best hand, with care, and without haste. For this purpose, ample time should always be allowed for the production of the exercise. A week at least, if not a fortnight, should intervene between the assigning and the requiring of the exercise. Negligence in the mechanical execution, will induce the neglect of the more important qualities. 8. Require the compositions to be written on alternate pages, leaving one page blank, for such remarks as may be suggested by the exercise, or for supplying such words or sentences as may have accidentally been omitted. 9. In correcting the exercises, care should be taken to preserve as much as possible the ideas which the pupil intended to express, making such alterations only as are necessary to give them clearness, unity, strength, and harmony, and a proper connexion with the subject, for it is the student's own idea which ought to be "taught how to shoot." An idea thus humored will thrive better than one which is not a native of the soil. 10. It is recommended that a uniformity be required in the size and quality of the paper of the exercises of the class that the name (real or fictitious) of the writer, together with the date and number of the composition, be placed conspicuously on the back of the exercise. The writing should be plain and without ornament, so that, no room being left for flourish or display, the principal attention of each student may be devoted to the language and the sentiments of his performances. It is also recommended, that the paper on which the exercise is written be a letter sheet folded once, or in quarto form, making four leaves or eight pages. This form is of use, especially in the earlier stages of his progress, because it enables him more easily to fill a page, and encourages him with the idea that he is making progress in his exercise. In the writing of compositions, a task to which all students address themselves with reluctance, nothing should be omitted by the teacher, however trivial it may at first appear, by which he may stimulate the student to exertion. 11. Accommodate the corrections to the style of the student's own production. An aim at too great correctness may possibly cramp the genius too much, by rendering the student timid and diffident; or perhaps discourage him altogether, by producing absolute despair of arriving at any degree of perfection. For this reason, the teacher should show the student where he has erred, either in the thought, the structure of the sentence, the syntax, or the choice of words. Every alteration, as has already been observed, should differ as little as possible from what the student has written; as giving an entire new cast to the thought and expression will lead him into an unknown path not easy to follow, and divert his mind from that original line of thinking which is natural to him. 12. In large institutions, where a class in composition is numerous, the teacher may avail himself of the assistance of the more advanced students, by requiring them to inspect the exercises of the younger. This must be managed with great delicacy; and no allusion be allowed to be made out of the recitation room, by the inspector, to the errors or mistakes which he has discovered. He should be required to note in pencil, his corrections and remarks, and sign his own name (also in pencil) to the exercise under that of the writer, to show that he is responsible for the corrections.* * Instead of a written exercise, the teacher may, with advantage, occasionally present to the student a piece selected from some good writer; requiring him to present a rhetorical analysis of the same. This analysis should comprehend the following operations: Parsing. Punctuation. |