2. In the lower right-hand corner of the card put a letter or abbreviation to show where you found your information. This often enables you to trace and correct an error which you have made in copying. Use L.C. for Library Catalogue; P. for Poole's Index; E.B. for Encyclopædia Britannica,

etc.

3. Write on the back of the card any note about the book which will be of assistance to you in your work; e.g., "not in University Library, March 1913"; "out of date"; "good illustrations"; "Note p. 273-286"; "useless"; "in Public Library; call number "; etc. 4. Arrange alphabetically by author the cards for books or articles which you have already examined. This is necessary in order to save time in finding a card when you have a large number. Use a filing box and alphabetical guide cards if you have two or three hundred cards.

V

FORMS OF DISCOURSE

1. DESCRIPTION

I. Definition.

Description is the name given to writing which has as its main purpose to produce in the mind of the reader a picture of some thing, person, or place which has been seen or imagined by the writer.

With regard to these materials, description may give the reader an idea of (1) their appearance, (2) their movements, actions, or changes, (3) the influence which sight of them has upon the mind of the spectator.

Description is used in books of travel, in magazine sketches, and in some kinds of poetry, for its own sake, and for the pleasure and the suggestions which it gives.

2. Description and other forms of writing.

The descriptive process of writing is used as a subordinate method in writing that is called

(a) Expository, whenever it is necessary for the reader to have a clear idea or picture of an object, machine, piece of apparatus, building, place, or plan, before he can fully understand the explanation which is connected with it.

(b) Narrative, whenever it is necessary to give the reader a vivid or definite picture of the scene, the characters, and their actions.

(c) Dramatic, in the stage directions when it is necessary to indicate the appearance of a character or the stage setting; or in the play itself, in connection with explanations or accounts of actions.

3. Description and other arts of expression.

Description, on account of the great variety of the materials with which it deals, and because of the wide range of effects which it produces, is related to:1. Painting, which uses color, and light and shade as its means of expression.

2. Sculpture, which uses form.

3. Music, which uses sound.

4. The technical and constructive arts, which make use of physical materials.

Description differs from all of these arts in not being able to convey its impressions directly to the senses, but only through the symbols of language. Its appeal is, therefore, not so immediate and not so vivid.

Description, however, like these other arts, makes use of the fundamental processes of selection and rejection, arrangement and proportion, emphasis and subordination, unity, coherence, and variety.

4. Description and painting.

Description has a closer relation to painting than to any other one of the arts of expression. The following points should be noted and verified by the student's own observation:

1. Just as painting is less vivid than nature, so description is in turn less vivid than painting in the impression produced.

2. Description has a wider range than painting, which is confined:

(a) To one instant of time, whereas description,

by means of the variable or progressive point of view (q.v.) may give successive scenes. (b) To the sense of sight (color, size, shape, contour, light and shade, perspective), whereas description uses, in addition to these, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations of touch, heat, comfort, and the various physical and emotional effects which the material described may produce upon the observer.

3. Description sometimes makes use of material which is either unsuited for (e.g., horrible or disagreeable objects, and complicated scenes), or impossible of (e.g., moving objects, impressions on observer, progressive action, or scenes in darkness), treatment in painting.

4. The student should avoid "word-painting," or the attempt, by an exaggerated use of color words, to do what can be satisfactorily done only with paint. This literary temptation is akin to that known as "fine writing."

5. Fundamental factors in description.

1. The external object or raw material, which is the subject of the description, and which is generally independent of the observer. It usually affords an amount of detail or of suggestion in excess of that which will be used by the writer. 2. The writer's perception of the object to be described. The accuracy and quality of this image will depend largely upon the keenness of the writer's senses, upon his memory, his interests, and his previous training. Ability to perceive accurately and to remember completely can be developed by training. When the opportunity for observation and examination is limited to a very

short time, an effort should be made to concentrate the attention and to get the clearest possible impression. It should be noted that the material exists now in the form of ideas, that it is therefore independent of its original source, and that it is in a form which makes it possible for the writer to supplement it by ideas drawn either from his memory or from his imagination.

3. The written description. In this stage the ideas in the mind of the writer are transformed into the symbols of written speech. They are now in an external form which, unlike a painted picture, bears no resemblance to their original, but which secures their preservation and their transmission to any number of readers. This step involves on the part of the writer a command over his ideas on the one hand, and a facility in the use of a well-supplied descriptive vocabulary on the other hand.

4. The reader's reconstruction or reproduction of the original object or scene as a picture or idea in his own mind. This reproduction can be made only through some medium, and hence the success of the transferring of an idea to the mind of the reader will depend largely upon the quality of the description. The completeness, accuracy, and vividness of this picture will depend also upon the reader's interest, upon his previous training, and upon his imagination.

6. Four methods of description.

The following general distinctions in method may be made for purposes of clearness and convenience, if the student will remember that these methods shade into one another and in practice are frequently