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because you have forgotten your outline and not because your outline is defective. Even a poor outline is better than none at all.

Take care not to select too big a subject for your composition. Even if you select a big subject at first, you will find that it will begin to break into parts when you fix your mind steadily upon it. Take one of these parts for the subject of your composition and begin at once to block it out into paragraph topics. The following subjects, for example, are too broad to be treated in a brief composition:

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Having chosen your subject, you are now ready to think through it and to jot down the paragraph topics that occur to you. The process is the same whether you are going to

speak or to write. The outline of our first subject will probably be somewhat like this:

A Day's Hunt

1. How I longed for the day to come.

2. The start.

3. My companions.

4. Our dogs.

5. The first game.
6. A bad shot.

7. A shower.

8. Our lunch.

9. An accident.

10. Something funny.

II. What we killed.

12. Our return.

EXERCISES

I

Select any three of the preceding subjects except the first and jot down three paragraph topics for each.

II

Write on the board two of these subjects with the paragraph topics under each. Talk about them, using the paragraph topics as "points."

III

Write a composition of three paragraphs on the third selected subject.

CHAPTER XXXIX

KINDS OF SENTENCES

Write on the board a sentence that states or declares something about The Other Fellow (Chapter XXXVII). Your sentence is a declarative sentence. What punctuation mark should follow a declarative sentence?

Write on the board a sentence which asks a question about Margins (Chapter XXXVII). You have written an interrogative sentence. What have you called the mark placed after questions? A question mark is also called an interrogation point.

Write on the board one of the commands that the teacher gave in Five School Days in Bombarded Rheims (Chapter XXXV). You have written an imperative sentence. What punctuation mark should follow an imperative sentence?

Write on the board a sentence expressing strong feeling from Richard Carvel (Chapter XXXIV). You have written an exclamation or an exclamatory sentence. What mark should follow an exclamatory sentence?

You have on the board four kinds of sentences. What does each one do? What is each one called?

A sentence that states or declares something is a declarative sentence.

A sentence that asks a question is an interrogative sentence.

A sentence that expresses a command or a request is an imperative sentence.

A sentence that expresses strong feeling is an exclamatory sentence.

EXERCISES

I

Each of you may bring to class two declarative sentences; two interrogative sentences; two imperative sentences; two exclamatory sentences. Be careful to use the correct marks of punctuation after each.

II

Copy the four questions asked by Rip in the selection from Rip Van Winkle (Chapter XXXIV).

III

What commands or requests do you find in the three exercises in Chapter XXXIV?

IV

What sentences expressing strong feeling and followed by an exclamation point do you find in The Other Fellow (Chapter XXXVII)?

V

How are quotation marks written at the end of interrogative and exclamatory sentences? Find examples.

CHAPTER XL

PUNCTUATION

Punctuation is of service both in the paragraph and in the sentence. It separates sentences in the paragraph, and single words or groups of words in the sentence. Punctua

tion does for the eye what the voice does for the ear. It is best learned by examples, not by elaborate rules.

The period is used (a) after every assertive sentence not closely connected with what follows and (b) after initials and other abbreviations, as:

(a) The new South is enamored of her new work. Her soul is stirred with the breath of a new life. The light of a grander day is falling fair on her face. She is thrilling with the consciousness of a growing power and prosperity.

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(b) The Hon. M. B. Castle lived in Sandwich, Ill.

Every sentence following a period should begin with a capital letter.

The colon is used after "thus," "as follows," and expressions of similar meaning. It denotes expectation, as:

1. The Declaration of Independence begins as follows: "When in the course of human events," etc.

2. The marks of punctuation are these: the period, the colon, etc.

The semicolon is used (a) between sentences closely connected in a paragraph, and (b) before "and" or "but " in sentences already subdivided by commas, as:

(a) 1. Reunited-one country again and one country forever! Proclaim it from the press and pulpit; teach it in the schools; write it across the skies. The world sees and feels it. - WILLIAM MCKINLEY: Our Country.

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2. Think of the importance of friendship in the education of

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