1874 printing of 1874 copyrighted text. Author is credited with a Master of Arts and as the author of several language texts. A manual for school work for students ages 12 to 15 made with reference to the recent remodeling of language-training in the public schools. Students are given exercise in actual composition at the same time they taught the details of rhetorical theory, based on the idea that pupils must be taught how to write at all, before they can be shown how to write well. The text is divided into five parts. Part one covers the construction and combination of sentences. Part two: the variation of arrangement, structure, and phraseology. Part three: simple composition exercises, including descriptive and narrative subjects. Part four: Style, including word choice, construction, figures of language, and analysis of style. Part five: practical composition of themes and essays. The preface credits the influence of English Prose Composition by James Currie, Cornwall's Young Composer, Dalgleish's English Composition, and Armstrong's English Composition. The Schultz Archive copy includes the preface, TOC, introduction, all of part three, pages 82 – 87 of part four, and all of part five.
A manual aimed at teaching language through objective methods of practice and habit rather than rules and definitions.[return]Excerpt only includes preface and "miscellaneous exercises in composition"