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 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.
1844 printing of 1844 copyrighted text. The author has a Master of Arts degree and is principal of Black River L. and R. Institute. As indicated by the title, Boyd's compilation is a comprehensive examination of English composition as well as rhetoric, criticism, linguistic history and English literature. Each of the aforementioned sections is covered in great detail; for example, there are sections on spelling, composition style, kinds of composition, the origins of the English language and excerpts from American and British literature. Boyd's introduction indicates that his vast teaching experience has proven to him that there is not a comparable text that is so varied and comprehensive available to the typical English teacher and that such a text was necessary to avoid compiling numerous books for a single class. Some of works included in the compilation: Reid's Rudiments of English Composition, Connel's Catechism of Composition, Beattie's rhetoric, Blair's rhetoric, Montgomery's lectures on poetry and literature, Lacon, Dr. Spring's lectures, Dr. Cheever's lectures. Exercises are included throughout. The Schultz Archive includes the text in its entirety with only pages 242-43 missing. Otherwise, the text is in very good condition.
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"
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.
1869 printing of the 1869 copyrighted text. The author is credited as a Doctor of Divinity, a Doctor of the Laws of English, and the President of the University of Michigan. Based on the experiences of the author's teaching, this text in an orderly presentation of the theory of the science and art of rhetoric with illustrations and directions on how to profit from it. Includes examples for imitation and disapproval from modern and ancient, obscure and celebrated authors. Divided into five parts: words and the material of expression, figures of speech and thought, composition and style, invention, and elocution. Part one includes sections on how to acquire the knowledge of words and how to obtain a good vocabulary. Part two includes sections on dialogue, vision, and wit. Part three includes sections on taste and different genres (epistolary, historical, fiction). Part four includes sections on description, narration, abstract subjects, and discussions. Part five includes a section on the intellectual and moral elements of elocution. The Schultz Archive is roughly the complete text.
1865 printing of the copyrighted 1865 text. The author is credited as the author of two other works on teaching. A guide on how to teach developing children with the "things around them." A presentation on the abilities and strengths of youth that might otherwise be ignored. The author of this text advocates education through the observation of familiar objects. His claim is that young children would learn all things more effectively if they were to learn by doing as opposed to learning through rote memorization and drilling of mechanics. It advocates for parents taking up the roll of aiding in children's intellectual development. The text offers a variety of potential learning experiences with familiar objects such as grocery shelves or animals and advances on to adult subject such as newspaper reform and partisan calumnies. The Schultz Archive includes the complete text (except pages 132-33, which are missing). The text is legible, but some of the scans are low quality, which makes them difficult to read.