have its own full effect. The most substantial rewards will come to us only when we subordinate ourselves to our cause by standing aside and modestly pointing out the course that will lead to an approximation of truth.

READINGS AND EXERCISES

1. Bring to class a newspaper editorial that produces the effect of argument because it is carefully made exposition.

2. Find argument in the stories you have read during the past year. Who argues, the author or the characters in the story?

3. Have you good reason to believe as you do about the following ?

a. The recall of judges.

b. Intercollegiate athletics.
c. Coeducation.

d. Woman suffrage.

e. Labor unions.

4. Can you recall a sound argumentative article that did not sooner or later modify your views on the matter discussed?

5. If you chance to be in a grocery store when a traveling salesman is trying to take an order, notice the persuasive skill which he employs.

6. Do you read argumentative articles when you find that the author takes a view different from yours? Why?

7. How much of the so-called argument that you hear on the street, at the boarding house, or on the campus is really argument ?

8. Could you define to the satisfaction of a hostile audience of readers the terms progressive, liberal arts, initiative and referendum, student democracy, feminine, and the interests?

9. In which college study do you most frequently employ simple induction ? reasoning from cause to effect?

10. Test the reasoning in the following paragraphs:

a. A man can always afford to give his money to a good cause. Just as exercise increases his ability to do more work, so giving increases his ability to give still more.

b. I do not have much faith in the Christian religion. Seven years ago I joined the church, and within a month I fell off the barn and broke my arm; three years afterwards I joined again and in two months my wife had

typhoid fever; last year I tried joining once more, and this time my father, who had never been sick a day in the seventy years of his life, took sick and

Will be given to the person who finds a case

of rheumatism that we cannot cure.

Mr. Sick Man, isn't this offer enough to con

vince you that our remedy will cure your
rheumatism?

d. My grandmother would say, for example: "Whatever sin is committed against an infinite being is an infinite evil. Every infinite evil deserves infinite punishment; therefore every sin of man deserves an infinite punishment." My Uncle Bill, on the other side, would say: "No act of a finite being can be infinite. Man is a finite being; therefore no sin of man can be infinite. No finite evil deserves infinite punishment. Man's sins are finite evils; therefore man's sins do not deserve infinite punishment." When the combatants had got thus far, they generally looked at each other in silence. H. B. STOWE, Old Town Folks. Houghton Mifflin Company. 11. Examine Ruskin's argument in favor of war in A Crown of Wild Olive. Is his reasoning sound?

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12. Make a brief of some argument that has just appeared in a magazine or newspaper. Will the argument stand this test for organization?

13. Are the following points well arranged? Why?

I. The recall of judges would create a spirit of confidence among the people, for

A. The opportunity to test decisions would

1. Make partisan decisions risky.

2. Disarm criticism.

14. Note that the "for" must always express causal relation. The following use of the word is wrong:

A. The land surrounding the city is owned by private citizens who do not permit trespassing, for

1. The vegetation would be injured.

2. The fences and other improvements would be damaged.

15. Why is this double marking faulty?

I. A. The proposed remedy would not be adequate.

B. Other remedies are more completely satisfactory.

16. Read Stevenson's Father Damien. Why is it effective persuasion ?

17. Study the magazines for a month or two in order to learn what type of argumentative article each publishes. For example, how do the arguments published in the Atlantic Monthly differ from those in McClure's Magazine?

18. Read the opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in the case of Gibbons vs. Ogden. It is an exceptionally good argument of its kind. It is printed in Wheaton's Reports, IX, p. 1, and Professor Baldwin's College Manual of Rhetoric, p. 402.

19. You will find a significant article on Teaching Argumentation in the Nation for May 9, 1912 (Vol. 94, p. 456). It not only deals with the subject interestingly, but is itself a good specimen of the less formal kind of argument.

20. Write a petition to your college faculty asking for the privilege of changing your course of study. Give your reasons clearly and briefly.

21. Do you know how to write a letter of application for a business position? Can you write letters that will make prospective employers want to have a personal interview with you?

22. Apply the following tests to your completed argument:

INTRODUCTION

a. Is the introduction well designed to arouse interest? Is it likely to create antagonism?

b. Are the definitions clear? Do they represent a fair view of the question? Are any terms that ought to be defined left undefined?

c. Are the issues clearly stated? Do they overlap? Do they include everything essential in reaching a conclusion concerning the proposition? Do they exclude all irrelevant matter? Have you studied very carefully the arguments which tend to prove the other side of the question?

ARGUMENT PROPER

a. Does every one of your points support unmistakably the proposition set for proof?

b. Are the main points presented in the best possible order?

c. Are your points really supported by convincing evidence? Have you led your reader to see clearly the force of this evidence?

d. Do you overestimate the importance of any of your arguments? Do you underestimate the mental opposition that you must overcome? Do you ignore any arguments that are likely to be in the minds of your readers? e. Have you avoided error in all the inferences you have drawn?

f. Does the skeleton of the argument show through unnecessarily ?

g. Are the transitions from point to point skillful ?

h. Is the language of the argument forceful?

i. Is the argument interesting enough to hold the readers' attention ? Is it vivified with concrete examples?

j. Is the proportion of the argument good? What ought to determine proportion in an argument?

k. Have you proved what you set out to prove?

CONCLUSION

a. Does the conclusion suffer because it contains matter not included in the argument?

b. Is the summary complete? Does it show that the argument is a unit?

c. Does the conclusion make a definite appeal?

CHAPTER IX-DESCRIPTION

I. THE FIELD OF DESCRIPTION

A. THE NATURE OF DESCRIPTION

PERHAPS no other terms connected with composition are so loosely used as "describe" and "description." It is common to hear one person ask another to describe how a thing is done, when he really wants some general process explained; it is still more common to hear some one request a description of what happened, when a mere recounting of events is desired. In fact, the word "describe" is often used carelessly to mean no more than "give an account of" or "tell about," a meaning which is plainly too inclusive and too vague to permit any discrimination between the explanation of something general and the picturing of something particular, between the transcript of mental images and the recording of occurrences.

Even when carefully restricted in accordance with rhetorical usage, description shows a wide and somewhat baffling variety. A description may be less than a line long or it may fill many pages. It may reproduce still life, or it may show objects in motion. It may record how things look to the eye, or it may go beyond color and form and record sensations of sound, taste, smell, and touch. It may be done with all possible exactness to serve as a means of identification, or it may be intended simply to suggest a passing impression. On the one hand is the scientist's matter-of-fact memorandum, and on the other the poet's rapturous picture. And yet in it all there is one common purpose: to reproduce mental images of things sensed. Unlike exposition, description deals with particular objects or scenes, and appeals largely to the imagination; unlike narration, it is concerned with recording sense impressions rather than with recounting events.