IN ENGLISH COMPOSITION. BY R. G. PARKER, A. M. ROBINSON, PRATT, AND COMPANY. AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES. The School Committee of the city of Boston have authorized the introduction of this work into the public schools of the city. RVARD COLLEG JUN 15 1935 LIBRARY Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1832, by in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. NOTICE TO THE SIXTEENTH EDITION. Ar the suggestion of several respectable teachers, the author of this work has appended to this edition (pp. 104 and 105) some general directions for its use, in addition to those already found in other parts of the book; which it is hoped will supply any deficiency heretofore existing, and meet the wishes of every teacher, or learner, in this important branch of education. Boston, March, 1838. PREFACE. Two great obstacles beset the pupil in his first attempts at composition. The first is the difficulty of obtaining ideas, (or learning to think ;) the second is that of expressing them properly when obtained. In this volume, the author has endeavoured to afford some assistance to the pupil in overcoming both these difficulties. It is not unfrequently the case that the scholar is discouraged in the very onset, and the teacher, from the want of a regular and progressive system, finds his labours unsuccessful, and his requisitions met with reluctance, if not with opposition. The simplicity of the plan here proposed, requires no laboured explanation. The first exercise or lesson consists in giving the pupil a word, or a number of words, and instead of asking for a definition of them, requiring him to use them in a sentence or idea of his own." From this simple exercise he is led onward through a series of Lessons in easy and regular progression, from the simplest principles to the most difficult practice. After the principle of each lesson is stated, (and, when necessary, explained,) a "MODEL is presented, which is designed to show the pupil how the exercise is to be performed. The EXAMPLES FOR PRACTICE furnish him with the materials with which he is expected to perform his exercise. The teacher will find no difficulty in supplying the deficiency, if the EXAMPLES are not sufficiently numerous in some cases, or in omitting what may be superfluous in others. If, on the first inspection, any of the Lessons appear too difficult, the Author respectfully requests the tests of trial and experience before they are condemned. They have been performed, and the Models of some of those apparently the most difficult, were written by pupils in the school of which he has the charge. *The pupil may be permitted to write simply or familiarly at first: but the teacher should in all cases require that the sentence be the unassisted production of the pupil himself. Although a decided preference is expressed for a written exercise, yet several of the early lessons may be read from the book, at the discretion of the teacher. For some suggestions on the mechanical execution of written exercises, and the mode of correcting them, the teacher is referred to the close of the volume. |