EXERCISE 7

FINDING SENTENCE ENDS IN COPYING A DESCRIPTION FULL OF WELL-CHOSEN DETAILS (COPYING)

What is the general effect of the room described below? What details did Stevenson choose to mention for the purpose of bringing out this effect? Compare this room with the one at the Red Lion in Leyden (p. 81) as to the feeling that each would give you on entering it. What is a sanded floor? Do you know how an inn differed from a modern hotel? If not, find out, for you will meet many inns in storybooks.

Copy this description exactly, except that you must supply capitals and periods. There are three troublesome little words in this paragraph: enough, which, and there. Be sure that you spell all three of them correctly. See if you can find the three pronouns in this paragraph.

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AT THE SIGN OF THE SPY-GLASS" IN BRISTOL

it was a bright enough little place of entertainment the sign was newly painted the windows had neat red curtains the floor was cleanly sanded there was a street on each side, and an open door on both, which made the large, low room pretty clear to see in, in spite of clouds of tobacco smoke. STEVENSON, Treasure Island." (Adapted)

EXERCISE 8

LISTING CHARACTERISTICS CHOSEN BY GOOD WRITERS Make lists of the things mentioned in each of the three rooms described in this problem and of the characteristics of each that are mentioned. Does each characteristic help in giving the general effect? In what form will you put

your lists? If you do this exercise well it will help you in several others that are to follow. Example:

room -large; low; pretty clear to see in, in spite of clouds of tobacco smoke

You might make lists of characteristics of rooms that you know, pleasant or unpleasant, and let your classmates write out their imagined pictures of these rooms from the lists which you put on the board.

PROBLEM IX

DESCRIBING ACCURATELY

In all your study of the world around you, in school or out of it, and in many situations that may arise in everyday life, you will find it a great advantage to be able to describe things accurately. Can you shut your eyes and picture the breakfast table at home this morning or the room where you were studying or visiting last evening? Can you describe, without looking, the different habits of growth of maple and oak branches, or the way a horse lies down, or the movements of a robin on the lawn? Look around the room for one minute and then see whether you can tell the colors of dress or coat or blouse and of ribbons or ties that your classmates are wearing. To describe accurately requires keen, wide-awake senses; attention; a good memory; and skill in the use of language. It is an accomplishment worth working for.

Of course scientific accuracy, which weighs and measures things with milligrams and millimeters, is not necessary except for scientific purposes. But the opposite habit of mind, which says carelessly, "I did n't notice," or "Something of that sort," or "I know, but I can't say it," is all too common. You will always be glad if you form early the habit of expecting yourself to get things right and to tell things straight. There is a good deal of character as well as brains in this mental attitude. Of course the large,

loose, haphazard statements about all sorts of things, which people often make without knowing any facts, are not only insincere English but also proofs of bad thinking and of mental laziness.

EXERCISE 1

ILLUSTRATING THE VALUE OF ACCURACY

If you have ever seen or heard of or experienced the sad results of some inaccuracy in thinking, doing, or saying, tell the class about it. The idea that at least sometimes a slight inaccuracy is of great importance has been expressed in the old proverb "A miss is as good as a mile." Perhaps you might take this proverb as your title, but if it does not quite fit your story, find a better one.

In telling your story to the class remember to look at your audience and to talk as if you mean what you say. Remember also to speak distinctly. Some people are lazy with their mouths. They have never taught the delicate muscles of their speaking apparatus to work properly. The sounds they make are anything but accurate. Perhaps they say "guvment" and "kep" and "jogerphy." Some vigorous exercise will be good for those muscles. Try the following prescription for accuracy: Pronounce vigorously but delicately for one minute the words wept, kept, swept, crept, leaped, heaped, reaped.1

1 For drill exercises see Appendix B.

EXERCISE 2

SEEING THE VALUE OF ACCURATE OBSERVATIONS FOR ACCURATE REPORTS (COPYING)

If you like the out of doors and have not yet discovered John Burroughs's accounts of things there, read "Sharp Eyes" and "Birds and Bees" and other essays, of his as soon as you can find them. Burroughs is one of the keenest observers who have ever put observations down for us to read, and he has many interesting stories to tell about animals and plants and weather and sky. You will find him a delightful guide.

He has some things to say about accurate and inaccurate observation which are worth noticing. Read the two paragraphs below. Can you recall and tell the class any other false or only half-true ideas which people have because they only half see or hear? Copy both these paragraphs and prepare to read them aloud in class. Do any of the words used occur on your spelling lists? Notice especially the spelling of the following troublesome words—again a matter of accuracy, you see:

Be sure to pronounce quarter and toward correctly. The latter is pronounced toward, not to ward'.

Nature is all things to all men; she has whole truths, halftruths, and quarter-truths, if not still smaller fractions. The careful observer finds this out sooner or later. Old fox-hunters will tell you, on the evidence of their own eyes, that there is a black fox and a silver-gray fox, two species, but there are not; the black fox is black when coming toward you or running from you, and