Constructive Rhetoric

so that the student may think it over a little, and then give fifteen minutes in which to write a theme of two hundred words or thereabouts.

The exercises are meant to give practical illustration of the points discussed, but they have a further use. The subject of Sentence-structure is not one which can well be presented from a constructive point of view. On the other hand it can be well taught by much correction of written exercises. It is expected, therefore, that in the correction of the exercises in Parts One and Two especial attention will be paid to the structure of the sentence. If this be done the student will be ready to get the good out of Part Five.

One point further, in regard to the correction of the exercises. The teacher should bear in mind that the object of such corrections is not to give the student a perfectly correct-style, but rather to give him the ability to do his correcting for himself. When he comes to work of his own, whatever it may be, that calls for written expression, he will have no one at hand to correct it. The work in college, then, should aim not so much to give him a perfectly correct style, as to give him the instinct for self-correction and improvement. Any one who has got so much can look out for himself, and on looking out will find everywhere means for correcting and improving what he has written, so that it becomes in a measure his own.

After Parts One and Two there are fewer exercises, and what there are do not offer practice in writing. It would be as well, therefore, while the student goes over the latter part of the book and does the exercises there provided, for him also to continue the exercises of Parts One and Two, especially those in 9, 16, 27, 40, 41, 42, at the rate of, perhaps, one a fortnight. It is only in some such way that the ideas of the book can be converted into the unconscious skill and dexterity which marks the good writer.

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