Middletown transcript., 1898-01-22
DELAWARE ooLLEen PArERs.
pYA MrMprn or rnr rAcuLrY.

By MEMBER OF THE FACULTY.
Many students who are able to make mic
distinctions as to details of English speecl
and writing are, oddly enough, quite unabl,
to say their minds on paper with clearness
directness and simplicity. Indeed many
youth who knows to a nicely the exac
form of addressing and closing q letter
seems quite unable to discover where one
sentence ends and another begins. Thi
condition is doubtless the result, first, O
! the fact that young minds grasp and keel
more easily concrete facts and details thar
| abstract principles, and secondly, Of the
fact that English composition as ordinarily
taught seems to be concerned less witt
general principles than with minute details
For example young men come to college
filled to the brim with nice notions as tc
the propriety of writing, I'd and Sd rathel
than End and 3rd. and with critical opinion
as to other details, but with no true skill in
even the simplest form of English compost
ton.
Now valuable and necessary as is Q
knowledge of nice details, student will
never learn to write English by mastery Of
such things, nor is he likely to acquire
such skill by memorizing a multitude Of
rules. If the rules of composition are to be
practically useful to young writer be
must first master the principles that lie be.
hind the rules, and learn to assign each
rule to its underlying principle.
One of the best recent books on the art Of
writing the the English tongue is Prof Bar
rett Wendelps English Composition" and
its chief merit lies in its clear and sim
pie statement of few broad principles.
Prof WendeIlrecognizes three principles OF
style, unity, mass, and eoherence, and three
qualities of style, clearness, force and ele-
gance. Now it would, of course. be vain
for teachers in most of our public and other
preparatory schools to attempt in teaching
composition to deal with all these princi-
pies and all these qualities. It is possible,
however to single out what is Immediately
essential in these principles aud qualities
and to teach those essentials to fairly intel
ligent boys of fourteen, fifteen or sixteen.
Leaving aside all the principles but CO.
herence, and all the qualities but clearness,
the teacher should explain that clearness
is such mode of expression as shall make
plain the meaning of the writer, and that
conference, the most important principle
for the promotion of clearness, means such
an arrangement of words in sentences,
sentences in paragraphs and paragraphs in
whole compositions, as shall make it i'm
possible for any reader to mistake the rela-
tion of the parts. 1t is well to teach the
subject of coherehce, because it is much
more easily grasped than either unity or
mass, and because it underlies very many
of those perplexing rules of composition
that bewilder the student. Once make a
student understand that a sentence Is CO.
herent when every part is in its right place,
and the student, if he be fairly well trained
in English Grammar, and:especially in that
part of English Grammar which has to do
with the analysis of sentences, will soon
learn to recognize and correct in his own
work and that of others, incoherent SEN
tences.
Any boy that knows his English Gram
mar, knows for example, that adverbs and
adverbial phrases qualify verbs, adjectives
and other adverbs. When he learns that
the principle of conference requires that a
word or phrase be placed as near as pos
sible to the word or phrase it qualities or
relates to, he has the key to the proper
management OF adverbs and their equiVa-
lent phrases, and his sentences need not
lack clearness from the misplaeing OF such
parts of speech. Knowing what adjeetives
and adjective phrases qualify, and what
conference requires as to the placing Of all
words and phrases, he has also the key to
the management of the adjective and
equivalent phrases. GGsneralizing he knows
the principle that must govern in the man
agement of pronouns, propositions and all
such parts of speach as are closely depen-
dent upon or related to other parts Of speech
in composition.
The student who has learned thus. much
Of conference and its relation to clearness
will be able to tell at glance wherein lies
The error in such senten ces as, II only paid
three dollars for all those books" and can
correct it by putting the adverb ''on-
"" where it belongs. When half dozen
of the kind have been presented
to the criticism of the class, sentences con-
taining less Obvious errors may be present.
ID, and the teacher can soon develop in the
pupils critical faculty equal to the detec-
ion of extremely elusive errors. If along
With incorrect sentences are presented SEN
.ences conspicuous for excellence in the
matter of conference, not only is the stud
'nfs critical faculty sharpened, but bis taste |
s educated, and his constructive powers
IRE developed.