this little, because then you are more likely to develop some part of that power which will enable you to keep your mind open to things of beauty everywhere in life and in art — and, by living as much as you can, to win something of the splendor of speech which elegance gives to him who sees. THE FOUR KINDS OF WRITING THERE are four kinds of writing: Narration, description, explanation,1 and argument. Thus far your work has had to do mainly with explanation,2 although nothing has been said about explanation as one of the four kinds of writing. Stated broadly, it may be said that the purpose of narration is to tell a story, that the purpose of description is to tell how persons or things look, that the purpose of explanation is to make more definite the nature of certain thoughts, and that the purpose of argument is to convince others of the truth or falsity of certain thoughts. An account of Lincoln's boyhood, for instance, would be a narrative; a portrayal in words of Lincoln's awkward appearance in opening the debate at Freeport would be a description; a clear statement of Lincoln's views on the emancipation of slaves would be an explanation; an attempt to prove that Lincoln issued his emancipation proclamation at the right time would be an argument. These four kinds of writing, you observe, fall naturally into two groups. Thus, narration and description are alike in so far as they deal mainly with the outer world of acts and events or of persons and things, and explanation and argument are alike in so far as 1 Explanation is sometimes called exposition. 2 Chapters II and III are based on the explanatory paragraph and the explanatory sentence. 3 See Exercise 23 (last selection). There, however, narration is combined with description. |