The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-14
CITY NEW
BUSINESS ENGLISH
Methods Of Teaching in the Ele-
mentary Public Schools Are
Discussed.
Short Address Of sherwin Cody, the
Author, Before School
| Principals.

Yesterday afternoon Sherwin Cody,
author of THE Art OF Writing and
Speaking the English Language" and
Of a variety Of school text books wide
announcement of the drill work for
teachers in business English which he
expects soon to Organize under the
auspices of Northwestern University in
! Chicago, to a gathering 4of city prin-
cipals at the hers assembly
address on methods Of teaching bust
ness English. s .sss5.rs
Mr.. Cordy5 said in part:
I Whatever the business man wants, it
| is not any more drill in writing those for
NAL business letters,S couehed In that hor-
rible commercial jargon that business men
nearly all affect. Various books Of model
business letters, taken from actual busi-
ness correspondence. have been compiled
| for the use Of shorthand and business col
leges; and every one that I have seen is
| the finest collections Of errors imaginable.
! Illustrating every, point, almost, against
which the educated business man should
| protest. :5E3ss
f. What we really want to do is to train
! the Instincts Of the pupils If you can
I create in a student the habit Of observing
! the formation and peculiarities Of words
as he reads, that habit alone will make
him good speller. 70
KS -l!NeidttOfSIltP OF vVOEQ0s .s-
If you can form in a pupil the habit Of
4 following the y. logical relationships Of
i words in a sentence, that habit will make
him a master of practical grammar. -
If you can form the habit of reading
simple but good literature, standard
models of effective rhetorical expression,
and trying to initiate as Franklin did what
is read, that habit will give even the
dullest something like good style. Mere
rules and formulate shavet little practical
| effect. But the natural instinct of the
youngest child may be cultivated success
fully. =.
1 should like to give you brief outline
not all theory, either, for have spent a
great deal of time In studying the situa-
ton in schools and In the compilation of
several spelling books. ~
should begin in the first grade, and
unite the word method of teaching read
ing with a training of the ear to observe
the fundamental sounds of the language
in detail as well as in complete words.
should do this by contrast-the long sound
of a vowel with the short, with p, etc
I should use no diacritical marks. .rz..
I should continue this in the second
grade still using no dacritical marks, but
combining the work to the voice of thu
teacher. This study of the elementary
sounds Of the language should lead to the
spelling of words regularly formed, ever
in preference to common words that are
not regularly formed, and to the mastery
Of such fundamental principles as. the
relation Of silent e. at the end of a worG
/ to the long vowel sound. ~
In the third grade T should Introduce
only those ~diacritieala marksysrequired t
give each of the fQrty-two sounds of thu
Language simple representa- tive; and THU
] work should be so ccnductedz as to pre-
pare the. way for the regular use of th,
dictionary tn the fourth grade. Also il
! the third grade I should teach one at 1
: time the various irregular substitutes TO
! simple sounds. BY the beginning Of tn
fourth grade a pupil should have "a prett.
= clear idea as to the difference Between
a regularly formed word and one irregu
larly formed; and he should be taught t.
apply the regular principles Of word-for
! nation to any and every strange word h
comes to. It is far more creditable t
spell a strange word regularly than a
random. ..,