This "New and Improved Edition" was published in 1894 and copyrighted in 1892. The author is credited as Professor of Language and Literature in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and as the author of several other books. The text claims it is responding to teachers' need for work for pupils to do in illustration of what they have learned. The first section on invention covers sentence structure, forming paragraphs, analysis of subjects, and preparation of frameworks. The second section on qualities of style discusses perspicuity, imagery, energy, wit, pathos, and elegance. The third section on productions breaks up prose into oral (conversation, debates, sermons, etc.) and written (biographies, histories, fiction, letters, etc.). It also discusses poetry by focusing on mission, style, form, and kinds (satiric, epic, dramatic, etc.). Exercises include specific directions for altering or analyzing examples. Excerpts from the work of well known authors are used throughout. The Schultz Archive's copy is roughly the complete text.
No edition or printing information is given in the copy. The author has a Bachelor of Arts from Smith College. As indicated by the subtitle, the work is intended for secondary and college students. Includes topics historical, imaginative, argumentative and subsequent brief chapters on: plan, or analysis; elaboration of points; criticism of one's own work; form of finished composition; composition an essential factor in the study of rhetoric; and figures of speech. The work seems addressed more to the teacher of the students than the students themselves. It attempts to explain how to students should mentally approach the act of writing but its language suggests a teacher thinking about the student’s mental habits rather than the student working though his own thoughts.
1844 printing of the 1844 copyrighted text. The title page says the book is designed as a sequel to Progressive Exercises in English Composition. As with its predecessor, this text seeks to address two primary obstacles for student writers: obtaining ideas and expressing ideas. The author's approach to obtaining ideas is based on what he terms the principle of association. The exercises herein are not presented as a progressive course, but rather are meant to be selected by teachers as they deem useful. The material varies from sample sentences for punctuation practice, to models of the various kinds of compositions, to long lists of subjects for different kinds of compositions. There are seventy-five lessons in all. The Schultz Archive's copy is roughly the complete text.
This 60th edition is a 1862 printing of the 1834? (date unreadable) copyrighted text. The author is credited as Professor of Rhetoric in Bowdoin College.
The author states that while instruction should be provided through familiar talking lectures, a textbook should contain a mere outline--some general principles plainly stated and well illustrated. The author provides five objectives: some acquaintance with the philosophy of rhetoric, cultivation of taste and the exercise of the imagination, skill in the use of language, skill in literary criticism, and the formation of a good style. The chapters are: on thought as the foundation of good writing, on taste, on literary taste, on skill in the use of language (verbal criticism, composition of sentences), and on style. These chapters are followed by a sections of exercises that correspond to each chapter. After the exercises the author provides a historical dissertation on English style. The Schultz Archive's copy is roughly the complete text.
1893 printing of the 1893 copyrighted text. The author is credited as Assistant Professor of English in the Leland Stanford Junior University. Designed to be a supplement to a more technical grammatical and rhetorical treatise, this text shows students how to find material and work that material into good, interesting compositions. Seventy-three exercises deal with particular kinds of composition, specimen subjects and themes are given with observations and suggestions for treatment, and models of various kinds of composition are provided (but these models are of student work or writing of a similar level of accomplishment). The work is divided into two parts. Part one, Composition Based on Experience and Observation, has sections on finding material, narration, description, and narration and description combined. Part two, Composition Based on Reading and Thought has sections on principles of composition, exposition, argumentation, persuasion, and miscellaneous forms (such as news, book reviews, letter, dialogue, as humor). John Genung's Rhetoric is listed as an influence. The Schultz Archive's copy is roughly the complete text.
1894 printing of the 1893 copyrighted text. It is apparently identical to the Schultz Archive's 1893 printing, with the exception of a few pages of advertisements at the end. The author is credited as Assistant Professor of English in the Leland Stanford Junior University. Designed to be a supplement to a more technical grammatical and rhetorical treatise, this text shows students how to find material and work that material into good, interesting compositions. Seventy-three exercises deal with particular kinds of composition, specimen subjects and themes are given with observations and suggestions for treatment, and models of various kinds of composition are provided (but these models are of student work or writing of a similar level of accomplishment). The work is divided into two parts. Part one, Composition Based on Experience and Observation, has sections on finding material, narration, description, and narration and description combined. Part two, Composition Based on Reading and Thought has sections on principles of composition, exposition, argumentation, persuasion, and miscellaneous forms (such as news, book reviews, letter, dialogue, as humor). John Genung's Rhetoric is listed as an influence. The Schultz Archive's copy is roughly the complete text.
1894 copyrighted text. The author is credited as having a Ph.D. from Leipsic and as Professor of the English Language in Wesleyan University. The preface explains the book is the result of teaching composition in secondary schools and college and aims to give brief practical suggestions to young writers (and is not a guide to English criticism). It puts special emphasis on the choice and treatment of themes, and the author argues that the study of composition should be combined with the study of literature, as the best models of English prose provide a standard for students to measure their writing against. The book is in two sections: theory and practice. Theory chapters cover words, sententences, paragraphs, the theme, the plan, kinds of composition (description, narration, exposition, argument, persuasion), composition and revision, and style. Practice chapters cover words, sententences, paragraphs, the theme, the plan, kinds of composition (description, narration, exposition, argument, persuasion), studies in literature, and punctuation. Excerpts from celebrated writers are used as illustrative examples. The Schultz Archive's copy is roughly the complete text.
Fourth edition of the 1885 copyrighted text. The author is credited as having a Master of Arts degree and as Professor of Rhetoric and the English Lanugage in the University of Pennsylvania, member of MLA, and author of a book on English etymology. The preface from the third edition (1889) explains the added Analysis, which is meant to help map the contents and aid the student in studying. The preface to the original edition explains the author has tried to properly balance principles of the art of rhetoric with their practical application, as well as treat both style and invention. The book is focused on the study of prose, but illustrative examples from poets and novelists are occasionally used. The introduction explains rhetoric and composition, laws of rhetoric, and kinds of discourse. The book's first part, Style, covers grammatical purity, elements of style, and qualities of style (significance, naturalness, pathos, humor, satire, harmony, etc.). The second part, Invention, covers the theme and the discussion (modes of discussion, definition, division, comparison and contrast, excitation). The preface also credits the influence of Henry Day. The Schultz Archive's copy is not the complete text. It includes the Analysis and selections from the Introduction and parts one and two.
No information on edition or printing is given on the copy. The author, Charles Sears Baldwin, is a Ph.D. and an instructor in rhetoric in Yale University. This manual for first term college students is divided into three parts: the composition as a whole, the paragraph, and the sentence. Intended to prepare and supplement writing knowledge before more special courses, Baldwin's college composition text is intended only to provide students with a structural system for composition. Baldwin advocates not writing strictly by rules; rather, he suggests a basic understanding of the principles of composition. In the introduction he states there are four kinds of writing: description, narration, persuasion, and exposition. This book focuses on applying its principles exclusively to exposition. It further advocates that its rules of construction be applied in the process of revision. It uses familiar terms such as unity, coherence, clearness, and emphasis. The Schultz Archive includes the text in its entirety, and the quality of the text is high.
1899 printing of the 1899 copyrighted work. Both authors are credited as Instructors in English at Vassar College. Buck has a Ph.D. from Michigan. Woodbridge has a Ph.D. from Yale. The preface emphasizes that students need a sense of a real audience for their writing as well as a subject they're interested in. The prefaces says the work includes few explicit directions on sentences and paragraphs. It offers Scott and Denney's Composition-Rhetoric as a guide for those. The work is organized in four chapters: the basis of exposition, the process of description, description in its relation to exposition, and definition in its relation to exposition. The text itself is quite discursive, providing lengthy discussions of the writing processes with analyzed examples. The lessons posit different subjects, writing situations, or audiences, while also usually asking students to observe and comment upon examples by distinguished authors that treat similar situations, subjects, audience, etc. The Schultz Archive's copy is the complete text.
