1890 printing (83rd 1000) of the 1884 copyrighted text. The author is credited as Teacher of English Language and Literature in Ann Arbor High School. Chittenden's text seeks to provide young high school students with a primer of knowledge for the study of rhetoric. The author claims that the intention is to use as little theory as possible to teach the beginnings of correct writing. She details a fairly precise method that begins with the principles of English grammar and works through examples of literature, style, expression, letter-writing and more. Exercises in reproduction are designed to have students put good writing examples in their own words. Exercises in development provide students with detail, which they must then weave into a composition. Exercises in summary teach student to condense. Exercises in paraphrase teach students to rephrase with style. The Schultz Archive includes the complete text, except pages 122-23, and the scans are in good condition.
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.
1907 copyrighted text. Author is credited with a PhD and as Assistant Professor of English in the University of Wisconsin. A practical manual for students of composition for reference in case of errors in themes and for independent reference by those who want information on good usage, grammar, spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, manuscript-arrangement, and letter-writing. Preface argues the text is purposefully dogmatic, as it is necessary for most students to observe rigidly and invariably rules to which masters of the art make exceptions. The author credits the influence of Professors Adams Sherman Hill, William Dwight Whitney, Alphonso G. Newcomer, John Duncan Quackenbos, Fred Newton Scott, and Joseph Villier Denney. Section one, the Composition of Discourse, includes: introductory on the standard of good usage, diction, the structure of sentences, and the structure of larger units of discourse. Section two, Putting Discourse on Paper, covers: spelling, legibility, arrangement of manuscript, alterations in manuscript, punctuation, syllabication, abbreviations, etc. Section three is Analytical Outlines; section four, Letter-Writing; section five, a Glossary of Miscellaneous faulty expressions. The appendices cover: exercises for breaking certain bad habits in writing and speaking, a grammatical vocabulary, and a list of words that are often mispronounced. The Schultz Archive is roughly the complete 239 page text.
1894 printing of 1890 copyrighted text. Revised and enlarged edition. Author is credited with a B.A. and as editor of Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," Cowper's "Task," etc. Preface (dated 1891) states text addresses lack of texts that ably deal with the theoretical part of composition and offer a sufficient amount of practice. It proceeds on the simple method of laying down a few principles at a time and then illustrating them with a variety of exercises. Chapters cover: the sentence, punctuation, style (diction, formation of sentences, construction of paragraphs), variety of expression, figures of speech, qualities of style (perspicuity, picturesqueness, force, pathos, the ludicrous, the aesthetic), letters, the plan, kinds of discourse, versification, correcting compositions, and proof-reading and marking. The Schultz Archive copy is roughly the complete 338 page text.
