Again, the fact that college composition is greater in amount and is on the whole done in larger units than school composition, necessitates learning two more lessons, in which it is the special function of teachers of English composition to help, though the benefits of those lessons are not wholly or even chiefly to appear in the work done for the Department of English. These two lessons are: first, learning not merely to write well, but to write well rapidly; and, secondly, learning not merely to write respectable short compositions in which the structure is simple and obvious, but also to plan and to sustain compositions of a hundred pages or more which shall not only be satisfactory in point of knowledge, but which shall be so carefully mapped out and so well supplied with guide posts that the reader has no excuse for losing his way.

Specifically applied to English composition, all this means that the college student must work under a large and sensible definition of that subject. Though few if any would acknowledge that they suppose English composition to include only "that part of my written work which I do in order to satisfy the Department of English," many seem to have quietly adopted this definition as a working principle. Yet it is manifestly a luxury which no one in search of a real education can possibly afford, for it leaves out of account not only the larger number of opportunities for practicing English composition, but precisely those forms of composition by which we are most likely to be judged both in college and afterwards. · For example, it leaves out of account all conversation, all letters, and all written work in courses other than English. If we regard some of our writing as English

composition and the rest as something else, we shall certainly injure both the naturalness of our work in English composition and the correctness of our other writing and our speech. Professor Palmer's words apply to every one of us: "If he is slovenly in his ninety-nine cases of talking, he can seldom pull himself up to strength and exactitude in the hundredth case of writing." Even if he does succeed in pulling himself up, the effort shows and the style at best is stiffly correct.

A few years ago a certain professor of English read an examination book in which the spelling and punctuation were so bad that the grade had to be extremely low. The result was a four-page letter from the writer of the examination book, protesting vigorously against the injustice that had been done him. But unfortunately the letter betrayed the same lapses in spelling and punctuation that had characterized the examination book, and so the professor felt obliged to reply that the letter helped to prove the case against the writer. The student was sure that he had been badly treated. His letter had been judged, he said, as if it were a theme. it was merely a personal letter. His ability to write, he urged, was good, as had been proved in more than one course in English composition. To consider the letter as a piece of English composition, he seemed to think, was to break all rules of civilized warfare by firing upon a flag of truce. In every such case the reply is that if it is worth while to write well at all it is worth while to write well all the time.

66

It was not a theme;

What we have been saying really means that this word course must not be allowed to hypnotize us. With time parceled out as our days in college are, it is easy to

forget the relation of courses to each other and to the sum total of what we are trying to accomplish. From ten until eleven, perhaps, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we go into a certain room in order to study English composition. It is easy to allow ourselves to think that our duty to English composition is fulfilled if during those three hours we attend to what is told us. But presently the bell rings; we go across the hall to another room; and soon find ourselves writing a paper in History or Economics. What are those papers? Surely not English composition, because English composition ended several moments ago. So we permit ourselves to spell and punctuate in our own way, and in general to ignore what has just been told us.

If this is a good way to master English composition, it ought to be a good way to master other things. How would it work in the case of a game like golf? Suppose that a young man really wishes to learn to play golf. He engages a professional, and for some time takes lessons, let us say on three mornings of every week. In return for the very considerable amount of his money or his father's money which he thus spends, the beginner receives certain very valuable advice. Let us suppose that, after attending to all of this teaching, our apprentice at golf forms the habit of going each afternoon to some distant golf course, and, safe from the eye of the professional, breaking every rule that he has learned during the morning. How many prizes will he win?

PART I

GATHERING AND WEIGHING MATERIAL

CHAPTER I

1. The Sources of Material. The sources of what we write about are many and various. We read books, magazines, newspapers, and manuscript. We hear conversation, college lectures, public lectures, music, and all the sounds, significant and insignificant, lovely and unlovely, which help to make the world both vivid and confusing. We see people, nature, pictures, millions of things

some fixed, some flashing past us their meaning sometimes lost in their number. As all of these experiences pass through our minds, many of them are forgotten and others are modified by our reason and our imagination. Thus we constantly make over our impressions, and wisely forget many of them.

2. The Use of Libraries. A great deal of this material from without, however, is entitled to the most respectful attention, because it proceeds from those who, though they may now and then make mistakes, are on the whole wiser than ourselves. Such are the authors of the better books and other written materials which fill great libraries. This means that we must learn our way about the one or