University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1913-09-30
CoHeg1aus Gan t W11te

The sins and shortcomings of the
college boy in his struggles with Eng
lish composition have so long been
almost matter of scandal that the
results of Mr.. Bok's recent question
naire given in The Outlook are only
an added grief. Mr.. Bok's article lis
devoted to showing that college men
and women of America, if they have
anything to say, can not say it in
decent English nor with any distinc-
ton" Their sentences are 'involv-
ed, incoherent, and perplexing." And
they are so, declares Frederick Lynch,
of The Christian Work and Evange-
list New York;, because the whole
tendency of our colleges is directly
away from those studies that give
one the epower to express himself
in correct and classic style" Mr..
Lynch cites the more fortunate state
of the average English graduate
who can write both correct and lucid
English"
"One has only to compare the ed
itorials in the English papers with
those in American papers to see what
| mean. We simply have no edieors
in America-with one or two eXcep-
tions-who can write such editorials
as appear weekly on the London
Spectator, The Saturday Review, The
Nation, The Economist, The British
Weekly, The Christian World, to say
nothing of the daily papers. Why,
Mr. Brierly's and Sir Robertson
Nicoll's editorials are bound into
books year by year and take their
place among the classics of the day.
When Tolstoy died the editorial on
his death in The Spectator was copied
all over the world. Every sentence
in it arrested one The letters from
educated people to the English papers
show capacity to write clearly and
Interestingly. 1t would be interest
ing if Mr. Box could get 400 letters
from Oxford and Cambridge seniors.
imagine he would get vastly differ
ent results. The simple reason that
English college graduates can write
is that they have been trained in the
classics. They began back in Rugby
Eton, Repton, and Winchester, trans
lating the Latin and Greek poets into
blank verse. Day by day this English
verse is corrected and criticised, that
| 1t may be perfected. The prizes in
these universities encourage the writ
| ing of poetry; and there is nothing
| gives one such command of forceful
terse, and happy English as the COM
position of verse or its translation
But the drift is all away from the
classics in our colleges. We are sub,
stituting courses in life-insurance fol
! philosophy, and lectures on commerce
and banking for the translation OF
Homer and Horace into English. We
turn out good engineers, but one Of
them-quite eminent, too-from one
of our great universities asked me
myself, once, Who was Shelley
Nothing can replace this stric
classic training in teaching boys tC
write correct English. Its revival il
America, with our disdain of culture
and our acclamation of the hustline
qualities, is far off The two thing.
we could do in our colleges are
these: First, require a weekly com
position from every student for foul
years; these compositions to be care
fully corrected by competent instruc
tors in rhetoric. Extemporaneou:
writing would greatly help. Let sub
jects be announced beforehand, bu
compel the students to write for al
hour on the subject with no assistance
from books-The Literary Digest.
In A