SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. In order to adapt the work to the needs of those teachers in our intermediate schools who prefer to take up the simpler rules for punctuating, gaining clearness, etc., before dealing with essay outlines and with the more complex principles governing the different kinds of composition, it has been thought best, in arranging the parts, to deviate slightly from a strict logical order, by placing the discussion of the thought after that of form and style. It has been the custom of the author to begin with the first three chapters of Part III., assigning for the first essay a description of some object or collection of objects that has actually been seen; then, after the first essay has been presented, to take up Parts I. and II., successively, by placing the marginal numbers upon the essay according to the suggestions on pages 2 and 55. So much of the time of the class as is not employed in discussing the errors in the essays is then devoted to fixing the principles of form and style by means of the exercises under the various heads. The second essay assigned is a narrative, and Chapter IV., Part III., on narration, is taken up before the class begins writing, and so on; taking the remaining chapters of Part III., from time to time, as a preparation for the corresponding essays, and rereturning meanwhile to the practice of applying the principles of form and style. In view of results obtained by this method, the author feels warranted in urging its use with all students of college, or even of advanced high-school grade. With younger pupils, where the chapters are taken consecutively from the beginning, the same method of studying the principles will be found most satisfactory. Let every exercise under both form and style be placed upon a slip of paper or a card, without the numbers in parentheses. Let each member of the class draw one of these slips or cards as his name is called, and let him place upon the board his cor rected rendering of the sentence. After the sentences assigned for the recitation are all corrected, with such review slips as may be used, let each pupil give (1) the original form of his sentence, (2) the corrected form, (3) his reason (the rule) for every change made. Then throw the corrected version open to the entire class for criticism, if any be necessary. In this way every member of a large class may be set at work as promptly as in a recitation in mathematics, and the attention of every member may easily be held throughout the hour. By taking, successively, the three steps just enumerated, quibbling and useless discussion over different versions may be avoided. By this use of cards or slips the principles of form and style will become fixed more easily and more thoroughly than by assigning them to be arbitrarily memorized. The exercises are published separately, printed only on one side, in pamphlet form, so that by cutting these pages into slips the teacher may be saved the labor of copying the exercises. The reference numbers can be obliterated if the teacher prefers. |