PDF of a facsimile from a copy in the Yale University Library. Library of Congress number 75-112064. Title page states it was written in 1798 and 1799. The author is credited as an M.D. Title page also states it was printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-Yard. The copied chapter relates to the evaluation and production of "writing, or literary composition." Schultz Archive copy includes pages 50 – 75 (Letter IV: Perfection in Writing), 316 – 317. Highlighting partially or completely obscures some short passages of text.
1889 copyrighted text. The author is credited as Teacher of Rhetoric in the Richmond High Schools, Richmond, VA. A practical treatise on rhetoric for the lower grades of high school. Includes a discussion of simple, complex, and compound sentences, as students still need this review of grammar (in part because their grammar instruction has been analytical rather than synthetical). Lessons include a section of reproduction and a section of development. The Reproductions furnishes material for practice of the discussed principles. The Developments section is a more advanced step, giving play to the imagination by supplying the details of a connected story, while also serving as a test of style. Chapters cover kinds of sentences, paragraphing, variety of expression, style, figures of speech, special properties of style, paraphrasing, kinds of prose composition, prosody and versification, and poetry. The Schultz Archive copy includes the preface, TOC, a few scattered pages, and pages 309 – 335 on prose composition.
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.
1893 printing of 1893 copyrighted text. Raymond is credited with a L.H.D., as Professor of Oratory and Aesthetic Criticism in the College of New Jersey at Princeton, and as the author of several texts. Wheeler is credited with a Litt.D. and as University Fellow in English 1891-2, and in Oratory and Aesthetic Criticism 1892-3, in the College of New Jersey. A textbook designed to combine elocution and rhetoric, as these are often taught together. Preface argues that as elocution is simpler, it can used as an aid to understanding rhetoric. The introduction discusses "Elocution and Rhetoric Correlated." The section on style covers effects corresponding to those of elocutionary time, to those of elocutionary pitch, to those of elocutionary force, and to those of elocutionary quality. The section on theme cover the selection, limitation, a division of subjects, and the treatment of subjects as determined by their aims and readers. The Schultz Archive copy contains the preface, TOC, the introduction, and pages 166 – 203, (the theme section and the index).
1887 copyrighted text. Author is credited with a Master of Arts, a PhD, as Ex-President of Delaware College, and as the author of several educational texts. The preface states to be a treatise on rhetoric and composition that is practical and teachable. It identifies two objectives: teaching ease, grace, fluency and correctness; enabling discernment and appreciation of literary works. Lessons are followed by copious exercises. These exercises include criticism of faulty expressions and construction of sentences, figures, etc. The section headings are: capital letters, punctuation, letter-writing, rhetoric (broken into style, sentences, paragraphing, figurative language, variety of expression, special properties of style and varieties of style), composition (broken into invention, parts of composition, prose composition, poetry, and versification), and rhetoric and literature. The Schultz Archive copy includes the preface, TOC, and pages 54 – 93, and 258 - 285. Some pages are difficult to read due to quality of the copying.
1922 copyrighted text. The author is credited as Formerly Supervisor of English in Charleston, West Virginia and Also Teacher of English in the Lincoln School of Teachers College. Preface states text regards language as a living, growing thing, and follows Dr. Charles Sears Baldwin that the teaching of composition should be promotive and not merely corrective. Aims to stimulate desire to speak and write, and uses children's actual realities and projects and group work. Uses terminology recommended by the Joint Committee on Grammatical Nomenclature (appointed by the NEA), the Modern Language Association of America, and the American Philological Association. Part one includes chapters on organizing a club, the study of pictures, how to become more rapid readers, reading for meaning, use of the dictionary, civic study for the club, outlining a subject for speaking or writing, and as well as chapters on grammar. Part two includes chapters on the paragraph, contributions to the school paper, the sentence, subject and predicate, making ourselves clear, making a booklet, letters and social notes, invitations, telling a story, expression of feeling, words without organic connection with the sentence, idioms, summary of punctuation, the use of capitals, business letters and forms, and more chapters on grammar. Includes examples from well known authors. The Schultz Archive copy includes the preface, TOC, and a selection of pages from throughout the text that relate to composition.
1879 printing of 1879 copyrighted text. The author is credited with a Bachelor of Arts and as Instructor in the St. Louis Central High School. The text is designed to follow instruction in English grammar and analysis. Preface claims there is a danger in making students too critical, therefore leading them to despise their own powers of expression. The work only includes what has been deemed practical. Uses exercises in oral composition. Chapters include: sentences and their parts, rhetorical forms of sentences, words, diction, style, figurative language, meter, characteristics of poetry, metaphrasing, composition (including narration, description, history, biography), imaginative composition, argumentative composition, letter writing, versification, criticism, correction of compositions, and list of subject for composition. The Schultz Archive copy contains the preface, TOC, and the chapters from the second half of the book covering composition.
"A new and improved Edition" of the 1831 work. Advertisement dates it to May, 1840. The author is credited as author of the Analytical Dictionary. Chapters: Of Composition and its divisions into Grammatical and Rhetorical—Distinction between Syntax and Construction—on Accent and Emphasis; Of Punctuation; Of the Construction, or Arrangement, of Sentences; Construction of Sentences continued—Comparison with the Arrangement of other languages; Of Metaphors.—Symbols; Of Figurative language generally.—Different species of Tropes; Figures of Thought; Figures of Thought continued; Of Prosopopecia, or Personification—Genders of Nouns; Of Style; Of Prosody; Of Rhyme and Alliteration; Of the different species of Verse; Of Lyric Poetry; Of Pastoral Poetry; Of the higher species of Poetry; Higher species of Poetry continued. Chapter one begins with three objects of language: to communicate impression, to recall others' knowledge, and to excite sensations in others. Schultz Archive's copy only contain the pages of chapter one and ink has transferred between adjacent pages, making some sections difficult to read.
1887 printing of 1886 copyrighted text. The author is credited with an M.A. and as Professor of Rhetoric in the College of Liberal Arts, Syracuse University. Texts strives to give rhetorical a more practical character, as training has been "impractical and fruitless." Prefaces discusses the perceived failure of education in composition and textbooks' focus on a labyrinth of abstractions, such as invention, taste, deduction, simplicity, partial exposition, feeling, perfection, the sublime, the picturesque, etc. Instead, the author emphasizes imitation and observation as the natural teachers, and that rhetorical training must be largely negative (focusing on detecting errors and revision). The text includes examples of undergraduate essays for criticism and correction. The parts: the form, the style, the thought, and versification. Chapters still use common abstractions and modes of discourse. Schultz Archive copy contains preface, suggestions to teachers, TOC, and pages 240 – 299, covering chapters from part III (the thought) on selection of a subject, the outline, description, narration, exposition, and persuasion.
1891 printing of 1891 copyrighted text. Part of the Indiana State Series. Designed to follow the Elementary English Grammar and to serve as a complete one-book course for more advanced pupils. Teaches that thought is the essential thing and language is secondary to the idea to be expressed. Principles of language are explained and illustrated before rules are given. Examples of chapters: classification of words, properties and modifications, nouns and pronouns, the verb, the preposition, the subject, noun modifiers, analysis of sentences, synthesis, construction of adjective modifiers, punctuation, prosody. Schultz Archive's copy includes preface, TOC, pages 204 – 207 and 220 – 266, which cover prose composition, composition in series, and letter writing.