A grammar handbook aimed at meeting popular demand through emphasis on exercises and practical lessons and the removal of overly technical terms. Missing appendices.
No printing date given. Copyrighted in 1859. The author is credited as having Master of Arts degree. Burtt professes that his grammar will be practical and clear for high school and college students who need to learn the basic principles of English grammar. The text begins with basic orthography and etymology and progress through syntax, among other principles, to arrive at the application of English grammar principles to prosody. Burtt's text offers numerous examples for students that he claims will make learning the principles of English grammar simple for any student. Questions and exercises are used throughout, including exercising in parsing. The syntax section has examples of false syntax to be corrected and samples for syntax analysis. The Schultz Archive includes the complete text (although the cover page repeats and page 65 is partly blanked out). Aside from the previously mentioned issues, the text is in good condition.
1859 printing of 1859 copyrighted work. The author is credited as Professor of English Literature in the University of Pennsylvania, Late Principal-Assistant Professor of "Ethics and English Studies" in the United States Military Academy at West Point. A textbook designed to be a complete overview of rhetoric, putting an emphasis the application of rhetorical philosophy to the practice of writing. The author credits the influence of Whately, Campbell, and Aristotle. The text discusses the history of rhetoric, Campbell's four divisions, the relations of rhetoric to aesthetics, division of poetry, oratorical discourses, other genres (history, biography, fiction, epistles), invention, argument, persuasion, arrangement, style, and qualities of style. The author uses illustrative examples from the bible and from modern English and American writers. The Schultz Archive's copy is the complete text.
The second edition, printed 1859, copyrighted 1858. The work begins with twenty pages of certificates: words of praise from various people. A grammar handbook aimed at a wide audience of readers who wish to become "grammarians." Based on Lindley Murray's Grammar and the work of Samuel Kirkham, the author seeks to establish a more effective and systematic method of teaching students to parse and correct. For each grammatical principle Caldwell offers a number of questions and answers to elucidate the system of grammar. Students are expected to memorize the answers (the rules). Examples of false orthography, false syntax, and false punctuation are used to teach correcting. The Schultz Archive only includes a brief excerpt, but the scans are good quality. However, some highlighter obscures text throughout.