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PART I

I. EXPRESSION OF IDEAS ARISING FROM

EXPERIENCE

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1. Pleasure in Expressing Ideas. Though we all enjoy talking, we cannot write as we talk, nor do we find the same pleasure in it. We seldom talk about topics in which we are not interested and concerning which we know little or nothing, but we often have such topics assigned to us as subjects for compositions. Under such conditions it is no wonder that there is little pleasure in writing. The ideas that we express orally are those with which we are familiar and in which we are interested, and we tell them because we wish to tell them to some one who is likewise interested and who desires to hear what we have to say. Such expression of ideas is enjoyed by all. If we but choose to express the same kinds of ideas and for the same reason, there is an equal or even greater pleasure to be derived from the expression of ideas in writing. It is the purpose of this book to show you how to express ideas clearly and effectively and at the same time to enjoy doing it.

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2. Sources of Ideas. We must have ideas before we can express them. There are three sources from which they arise. We may gain them from experience; we may recombine them into new forms by the imagination; and

we may receive them from others through the medium of language, either by conversation or reading.

Every day we add to our knowledge through our senses. We see and hear and do, and so acquire ideas about things. These are the ones that we gain through experience, and by far the greater part of expression has to do with such ideas. The first chapter is concerned with the expression of ideas that come to us because of our experience.

We may, however, think about things that have not actually occurred. We may allow our minds to picture a football game that we have not seen or to plan a story about a boy who never existed. Nearly every one takes pleasure in such an exercise of the imagination. The second chapter will have to do with the expression of ideas of this kind.

We also add to our knowledge through the medium of language. Through conversation and reading we learn what others think, and it is often of value to restate these ideas. The expression of ideas so acquired is treated in the third chapter.

3. Advantages of Expressing Ideas Gained from Experience. Young people sometimes find difficulty in writing because they "have nothing to say." Such a reason will not hold in regard to ideas gained from experience. Every one has a multitude of experiences every day, at least one of which is of sufficient interest to cause him to wish to tell it. Much of that which happens to you or to your friends, especially that which occurs outside of the regular routine of school work, is interesting and worth telling. Experience furnishes an abundance of material suitable for composition purposes, but a greater advantage comes from the fact that the ideas are sure to be

your own. This is the first requisite of successful composition. To express ideas that are not your own is mere copy work, and seldom worth doing.

In the third place, the ideas are not only your own, but they are likely to be clear and definite. You know what you do and what you see; or, if you do not, the effort to express it so that it will be clear to others will make you observe closely for yourself.

Still another advantage comes from the fact that your experiences are not presented to you through the medium of language. The experience furnishes the ideas, but you are left free to choose for yourself the words that best set forth what you wish to tell. Because the things of your experience are the ones with which you are most familiar, the words that best apply to them are the ones that you most often use and whose meanings are best known to you.

Because experience supplies an abundance of interesting, clear, and definite ideas, which are your own and which may be expressed in familiar language, it furnishes better material for training in expression than does either imagination or reading.

There are two essentials first, to say what you Without these, what

4. Essentials of Expression. of the proper expression of ideas: mean; and second, to say it clearly. you say may be not only valueless, but positively misleading. If you wish your hearer to understand what has occurred at a certain time and place, you must first of all know yourself exactly what did occur. You must then express it in language that shall make him understand clearly the situation as you understand it. You will learn much about clearness, later, but even now you can tell whether you know what is meant by a sentence which

you hear. It is not so easy to tell whether what you say will convey clearly to another the meaning you intend to convey, but it will help in this if you ask yourself the questions: "Do I know exactly what happened?” “Have I said what I intended to say?" "Have I said it so that it will be clear to the listener?"

Oral Composition I.-Report orally on one of the following:

1. Were you so interested in anything yesterday that you told it to your parents or friends? Tell the class about it.

2. Tell about something that you have done this week, so that the class may know exactly what you did.

3. Name some things in which you have been interested within the last two or three months. Tell the class about one of them.

4. Tell the class about something that happened during vacation. Have you told the event exactly as it occurred?

5. Interest.—In order to enjoy listening to a story we must take an interest in it, and the story should be so told as to arouse and maintain this interest. As you have listened to the reports of your classmates you have been more pleased with some than with others. Even though the meaning of each was clear, yet the interest aroused was in each case different. Since the purpose of a story is to entertain, it falls short of the purpose when it ceases to be interesting. We must at all times say what we mean and say it clearly; but in story telling especially it is desirable to give some attention to saying it so that it may arouse and maintain interest.

6. The Introduction. - Clearness has an important bearing upon interest. The interest aroused by a story will depend upon the hearers' knowing enough of the circumstances to enable them to understand clearly what occurred; therefore, the introduction should include these circumstances. In order to render our account of an event clear it will be desirable to tell the hearers when and where it occurred and who were present. Their further understanding of it may be helped by telling some of the attendant circumstances. These usually answer the question, Why? If I begin my story by saying, "Last summer John Anderson and I were on a camping trip in the Adirondacks," I have told when, where, and who; and the addition of the words "on a camping trip" tells why we were in the Adirondacks, and may serve to explain some of the events that are to follow. Even the statement of the place indicates in some degree the trend of the story, for many things that might occur "in the Adirondacks" could not occur in a country where there were no mountains. Certainly the story that would follow such an introduction would be expected to differ from one beginning with the words, "Last summer John Anderson and I went to visit a friend in New York."

While it is not always necessary to include these four elements in the introduction, yet it is desirable to do so in most cases of oral story telling. Incidents taken from books may not have them stated because the reader is already familiar with them from the preceding portions of the book. The title of a printed or written story may serve as an introduction and give us all needed information. In relating personal incidents the time element is seldom omitted, though it may be indirectly stated or indefinitely designated by such expressions as 'once' or

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