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PREFACE v
INTRODUCTORY EXPLANATIONS 1
INDEX 283
INTRODUCTORY EXPLANATIONS
Richard Doe.
First year English.
A Dialogue on Politics.
Oct. 1, 189-.
Each student's papers will be filed and kept. He will often be asked to consult with the instructor concerning his own progress, as shown by his bundle of themes.
The following suggestive signs may be used in the margin of themes, indicating the presence of errors, the actual errors to be discovered by the pupil for himself. Some teachers will prefer a simpler system of symbols, some a more elaborate system. The suggested list can easily be modified or supplanted.
MS. Bad manuscript.
?. Some obvious fault--a mark which will be used more and more frequently as the student's knowledge increases. The check-mark will frequently indicate bad spelling or punctuation, or fault in capitalizing.
SP. Bad spelling .
HY. Fault in use of hyphen.
P. Fault in punctuation .
CAP. Fault in the use of a capital letter .
L. Too loose; structure rambling.
S. Solecism.
C. Structure incoherent.
E. Lack of emphasis in sentence.
U. Lack of unity in sentence.
TR. Transpose order of words.
A. Ambiguous.
?U. Lack of unity in paragraph.
?. Proper place for a paragraph.
In all your writing, join distinctly syllables that you wish to have go together. Notice the absurd and misleading effect of such careless writing as this: "He was a glass maker and worked down at the glass house; his gal lant moust ache and his loud voice trai ned by blow ing glass mad e him wel come at the harvest home celebrations."
What are the singulars--if singulars there are--of data, errata, magi, strata, vertebrae?
Accompany; advisability; all right; anniversary; appearance; associated; bargained; buried; carriage; catarrh; cemetery; characteristic; commander; commotion; conceive; condescension; confidants; confidence; deceive; describe; descriptions; despair; difficulty; dilapidate; disappointed; disappeared; ecstasy; enemies; enemy; exaggerate; excrescence; existence; fascination; fatiguing; finally; further; grammar; handkerchief; hating; hemorrhage; immature; indispensable; irresistible; lightning; literary; living; loathsome; lose ; manoeuvre; melancholy; minister; ministry; misshapen; necessary; niece; occurrence; offered; opportunity; outrageous; parallel; paralysis; peaceable; persuade; planned; poniard; primitive; principal ; principle ; privilege; promenading; pursuit; received; recommend; redoubtable; referred; representatives; rhythm; sacrilegious; secretary; seize; seized; separate; shoeing; siege; simile; stopped; striking; studied; superintendent; supposing; tenants; theatre; their ; transferred; until; veil ; vengeance; very; village; wasn't; whether; Roger de Coverley; George Eliot; Lord Macaulay; Michigan; Thackeray.
Abdomen, abject, absinthe, abstruse, acacia, accessory, acclimate, acoustics, actor, adagio, adult, advertisement, a?ronaut, again, aged, aggrandize, aide-de-camp, allopathy, ally, alma mater, alternate , amenable, apricot, arbutus, aroma, aspirant, bade, bellows, biography, bitumen, boatswain, bravado, bronchitis, canine, cant, can't, cement , cemetery, cerebrum, clematis, coadjutor, daunt, decade, devil, diphtheria, disdain, dislike, drama, duke, dynasty, enervate, evil, exhale, exhaust, extant, extempore, finale, finance, financier, garrulous, gaunt, genuine, gibber, gibbet, glacier, gratis, grimace, half, hegira, heinous, impious, jugular, lamentable, learned , legend, lever, literature, nape, nomad, opponent, pageant, patriot, patron, petal, precedence, precedent, quay, revolt, rise , sacrifice, squalor, subtile, subtle, vagary, water, wrath, zo?logy.
Ab?lard, Abernethy, About , Abydos, Acheron, Achitophel, Adonis, AEgean, AEolus, AEschylus, Afghanistan, Agincourt, Agnes, Aguilar , A?da, Aix-la-Chapelle, Alaric, Alcantara, Alcuin, Aldebaran, Alighieri, Amphion, Andronicus, Antinous, Aquinas, Arab, Aral, Arundel, Athos, Avon, Aytoun, Bajazet, Balliol , Balmoral, Czerny, Latin, Laoco?n, Medici, Mivart, , Orion, Paderewski, Pepys, Proserpine, Sienkiewicz, Southey, Thalia, Tschaikowsky, Volap?k, Wagner, Ygdrasil.
A REVIEW OF PUNCTUATION
Punctuation is a system of disjunctive marks by which the eye and ear are helped to understand the sense of what is written. It is desirable to regard the subject as governed to a great extent by a few principles of common sense. The present chapter reviews those matters of capitalization and punctuation which seem to give most trouble to secondary school students.
MANUSCRIPTSWEREWRITTENSOLID.
The mean appearance of the houses, in old Boston, was, to some extent, relieved by the rich display, of painted, and sculptured signs, which adorned the front of taverns, and stores.... They served sometimes, as advertisements of the business, sometimes merely as designations, of the shops which were indicated popularly, and, in the newspapers, by their signs.
If this passage be read aloud, a pause being made wherever a comma is placed, it will sound unnatural, disconnected. Revised, it will read somewhat as follows:--
The mean appearance of the houses in old Boston was, to some extent, relieved by the rich display of painted and sculptured signs which adorned the front of taverns and stores.... They served sometimes as advertisements of the business, sometimes merely as designations of the shops, which were indicated popularly and in the newspapers by their signs.
A rapid series of independent propositions, very closely related in sense, may be punctuated by commas. Thus: "I came, I saw, I conquered." This is the only structure in which an independent statement, not introduced by a conjunction, is ever pointed with the comma. If there is any doubt whether or not the series is rapid enough to admit commas, semicolons should be used instead.
An enormous smoke-stack blocks my view; built of brick, and massive; blue in the cold winter mist; glowing like a pillar of fire as soon as the sunlight reaches it; the most changing, the most stable, thing is this landscape.
The following sentences were written by a pupil in the first year of the high school. If there are mistakes in punctuation, explain what principle is violated:--
Brackets indicate that the included matter is inserted by another person than the original author; that is, by a person who is quoting or editing the passage. Thus: "He tells us that character is developed in the busy world, though intellect is developed in solitude."
It is better still to avoid an excess of exclamatory sentences, however correctly punctuated.
"O thou that rollest above, Round as the shield of my fathers,"
and to express a wish:
"O that I had wings like a dove."
Mr. Higginbotham Mr. Higginbotham tell us the particulars about old Mr. Higginbotham bawled the mob what is the coroner's verdict are the murderers apprehended is Mr. Higginbotham's niece come out of her fainting fits Mr. Higginbotham Mr. Higginbotham
The coachman said not a word except to swear awfully at the ostler for not bringing him a fresh team of horses the lawyer inside had generally his wits about him even when asleep the first thing he did after learning the cause of the excitement was to produce a large red pocket-book meantime Dominicus Pike being an extremely polite young man and also suspecting that a female tongue would tell the story as glibly as a lawyer's had handed the lady out of the coach she was a fine smart girl now wide awake and bright as a button and had such a sweet pretty mouth that Dominicus would almost as lieves have heard a love tale from it as a tale of murder
Gentleman and ladies said the lawyer to the shopkeepers the mill men and the factory girls I can assure you that some unaccountable mistake or more probably a wilful falsehood maliciously contrived to injure Mr Higginbotham's credit has excited this singular uproar we passed through Kimballton at three o'clock this morning and most certainly should have been informed of the murder had any been perpetrated but I have proof nearly as strong as Mr. Higginbotham's own oral testimony in the negative here is a note relating to a suit of his in the Connecticut courts which was delivered me from that gentleman himself I find it dated at ten o'clock last evening
So saying the lawyer exhibited the date and signature of the note which irrefragably proved either that this perverse Mr. Higginbotham was alive when he wrote it or as some deemed the more probable case of two doubtful ones that he was so absorbed in worldly business as to continue to transact it even after his death but unexpected evidence was forthcoming the young lady after listening to the pedlers explanation merely seized a moment to smooth her gown and put her curls in order, and then appeared at the tavern-door making a modest signal to be heard
Good people said she I am Mr. Higginbotham's niece
The following list of abbreviations should be learned, Latin words and all.
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