Year: 1874




If we were to assert that net one col
lege student In four could write half a
dozen pages of his own compositions in
such a manner that any well known print
ing establishment would be willing to
publish them without alteration, it
would doubtless seem to many persons
like very strange statement. We do
not make this assertion. Perhaps it
would not be true. But if twere made
by any one else, we should by no means
feel sure enough OF its incorrectness to
contradict it. It is certain that a very
large part of our educated youth
of both sexes are unable ito put their
thoughts on paper without numerous
inaccuracies. = ~


Perhaps the most frequent errors of
educated people in writing are those
connected with punctuation. That
many mistakes Of this kind are made is
not at all wonderful. There is q good
deal of difference Of opinion as to What
constitutes correctness IL this respect.
But the circumstance that 1t is not al-
ways easy to determine what point
should be used in a particular place is
no reason for writing as if punctuation
had never been invented. If a man is
in doubt whether to wear light coat or
a heavy one on a September day, it does
not necessarily follow that he should go
IN his shirt-sleeves. The diversity of
theories in regard TO punctuation does
not render, for instance, letter on sew.
eral independent subjects without a
single full stop, except the one at the
end, creditable either to the education
of the individual who writes it, or to.
the institution at which he or she has
been taught.


Another class of errors which must be
mentioned is that of mistakes in gram
mar. These, it is true, are much less
frequent among young people of educa-
ton than deficiencies in respect to
punctuation. Yet there are thousands
of such persons, who would be highly
indignant at the charge of writing IN
grammatical English, to whom a gentle
hint that, for instance, the objective
case of the pronoun Z" who always
ends with an m, or little instruction
in regard to the proper use of the aux
iliaries a" shall and "will, =" might be of
material service. -.as


If the more advanced students in
some of our colleges or female semina-
ries were each to be required 90 write,
without assistance, letter or a compo-
sition of any kind, and if then what
had been written should he printed
without alteration, and distributed
among the parents and friends of the
authors, it would constitute a species of
examination of which, we venture TO
say, few institutions wonld he proud.
We by no means recommend such a test.
On the contrary, we should denounce
an attempt of the kind as utterly heart
| less and cruel. No instructor could TOR
a moment be justified in thus exposing
to ridicule his students. But it would
be, in some respects, an excellent critic
rion if professors and teachers in our
higher educational institutions, on PEE
rusing the compositions submitted to
their inspection, were to ask themselves
how these productions would look in
print. And here we would make sug-
/ gestion which may be valuable to some
of our college students who are indulg-
| ing hopes of distinguishing themselves
| in literature. Tt is often the case that
( if these young meU were to submit
/ their experiments in writing to the ex-
animation of some good compositor in
a printing Office, he would be able to
give them valuable instruction which
/ their professor of English literature
would not, and perhaps could not, i'm
part. At all events, if instruction of
this kind is furnished by the professors
in our colleges, many of the students
appear TO profit remarkably little by it.
N Y Times