Chapter V: Part I: How to Write a Composition

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Treatment of the Subject 18

Right Choice of Words 19

Obscure Sentences 19

Write Exactly what You Mean 20

What You Should Read 21

Our Great Writers 21

Learning to Think 22

How to Acquire a Captivating Style 23

Make Your Composition Attractive 24

The Choice of Language 25

Faults in Writing 26

Putting Words into Sentences 27

Suit the Word to the Thought 28

An Amusing Exercise 29

Errors to be Avoided 30

Exercises in Composition 32

Subject and Predicate 32

Practice in Simple Sentences 34

Sentences Combined 36

Punctuation 39

The Full Stop 39

The Note of Interrogation 40

The Comma 40

The Semi-colon 42

Quotation Marks 43

The Note of Exclamation 43

Exercises in Easy Narratives 46

Short Stories to be Written from Memory 47

Outlines to be Turned into Narratives 50

Stories in Verse to be Turned into Prose 51

Three Fishers Went Sailing 51

The Sands of Dee 52

The Way to Win 52

Press On 52

The Dying Warrior 52

The Boy that Laughs 53

The Cat’s Bath 53

The Beggar Man 53

The Shower Bath 54

Queen Mary’s Return to Scotland 54

The Eagle and Serpent 54

Ask and Have 55

What Was His Creed? 55

The Old Reaper 55

The Gallant Sailboat 55

Wooing 56

Miss Laugh and Miss Fret 56

Monterey 56

A Woman’s Watch 57

Love Lightens Labor 57

Abou Ben Adhem 57

Essays to be Written from Outlines 58

Easy Subjects for Compositions 61

Use of Illustrations 62

Examples of Apt Illustrations 63

Examples of Faulty Illustrations 63

How to Compose and Write Letters 64

Examples of Letters 65

Notes of Invitation 65

Letters of Congratulation 66

Love Letters 66

Outlines to be Expanded into Letters 66

SPECIMENS OF ELEGANT COMPOSITION.

Getting the Right Start _J. G. Holland_ 67

Dinah, the Methodist _George Eliot_ 69

Godfrey and Dunstan _George Eliot_ 70

Rip Van Winkle _Washington Irving_ 72

Puritans of the Sixteenth Century _Lord Macaulay_ 73

On being in Time _C. H. Spurgeon_ 75

John Ploughman’s Talk on Home _C. H. Spurgeon_ 76

Pearl and her Mother _Nathaniel Hawthorne_ 78

Candace’s Opinions _Mrs. H. B. Stowe_ 80

Midsummer in the Valley of the Rhine _Geo. Meredith_ 81

Power of Natural Beauty _R. W. Emerson_ 82

SUBJECTS FOR COMPOSITIONS.

Historical Subjects 84

Biographical Subjects 85

Subjects for Narration and Description 86

Popular Proverbs 87

Subjects to be Expounded 87

Subjects for Argument 89

Subjects for Comparison 89

Miscellaneous Subjects 90

Synonyms and Antonyms 91

Noms de Plume of Authors 111