1893 printing of 1892 copyrighted text. The author is credited as the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory in Harvard University. Preface begins with Swift's definition of good style: proper words in proper places. The author adds a third aim of style: to use no more words than necessary. He calls these three objectives the foundations of rhetoric. Part one is about words and contains two books: words and not words (covering grammar); and words to choose. Part two is about sentences. Book one, sentences good and bad, covers clearness, force, ease, and unity. Book two, sentences to choose, covers long of short sentences, periodic or loose sentences, and principals of choice. Part three is about paragraphs covers characteristics of a good paragraph, sentences in a paragraph, and paragraphs by themselves and in succession. Each lesson begins with an example or examples for the students to use to try and discover the rule. The Schultz Archive copy contain the preface, TOC, and a few pages from part three.
1880 printing of the 1878 copyrighted text. The author is credited as the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory in Harvard College. This treatise defines rhetoric as the art of efficient communication by language, communication implying both a speaker or writer and the audience. Part one, Composition in General, discusses and illustrates the general principles of written or spoken discourse. Its sections are: grammatical purity (including good use, barbarisms, solecisms, and improprieties), choice and use of words (including clearness, force, elegance, number of words, and arrangement of words). Part two, Kinds of Composition, covers principles of narrative and argumentative composition. The appendix cover rules of punctuation. The Schultz Archive's copy is roughly the complete text.