Book II on narration, in Book III on exposition, and in Book IV on

argumentation. Similarly, while stress is laid in Book I on letter-writing, in Book II on journalism, in Book III on literary effect, and in Book IV on the civic aspects of composition, all of these phases of the subject receive attention in each volume.

In every lesson of each book provision is made for oral work: first, because it is an end valuable in itself; second, because it is of incalculable use in preparing the ground for written work; third, because it can be made to give the pupil a proper and powerful motive for writing with care; and, fourth, because, when employed with discretion, it lightens the teacher's burden without impairing his efficiency.

Composition is not writing. Writing is only one step in composition. The gathering of material, the organization of material, criticism, revision, publication, and the reaction that follows publication are therefore in these volumes given due recognition.

The quotation at the head of each chapter and the poem at the end are designed to furnish that stimulus to the will and the imagination without which great practical achievement is impossible. On the other hand, the exercises are all designed on the theory that the sort of idealism which has no practical results is a snare. Indeed, the books might be characterized as an effort to find a useful compromise between those warring types of educational theory which are usually characterized by the words "academic" and "vocational."

The specific subject of this volume is newspaper writing. The author has himself had enough experience in practical newspaper work to appreciate the difficulties and to respect the achievements of the journalist. He knows that editors must print what people will buy. It seems probable, therefore, that instruction in the elementary principles of newspaper writing, in addition to producing good academic results, may lead pupils to read the papers critically, to discriminate between the good and the bad, and to demand a better quality of journalism than it is now possible for editors to offer. If this happens, the papers will improve. The aim of this book is therefore social as well as academic. It is also vocational. Some of the boys and girls who study it will learn from its pages the elements of the arts of proof-reading and reporting well enough to begin, by virtue of the skill thus acquired, to earn their bread and butter.

For the chapters on advertising I am indebted to Mr. Karl Murchey, of the Cass Technical High School of Detroit, Michigan. Mr. John V. Brennan, Miss Grace Albert, and Miss Eva Kinney, of the Detroit Northwestern High School, have rendered me invaluable help by suggestions, by proof-reading, and by trying out the exercises in their classes. Mr. C. C. Certain, of Birmingham, Alabama, and Mr. E. H. Kemper McComb, of the Technical High School, Indianapolis, by hints based on their own wide experience and ripe scholarship, have enabled me to avoid numerous pitfalls. My thanks are due also to Mr. Francis W. Daire, of the _Newark News_, and Mr. C. B. Nicolson, of the _Detroit Free Press_, who have given me the benefit of their experience as practical newspaper men. Above all, I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Henry P. Hetherington, of the _Detroit Journal_, whose untimely death in June, 1914, deprived me of a never-failing source of wisdom and a critic to whose ripe judgment I owe more than I know how to describe.

E. L. M.

CONTENTS

I. THE NEWSPAPER 1 II. NEWS ITEMS 9 III. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES 15 IV. REPORTING ACCIDENTS 19 V. CONSTRUCTIVE NEWSPAPER WRITING 23 VI. HUMOROUS ITEMS 29 VII. THE USE OF CONTRAST 33 VIII. THRILLERS 38 IX. BOOK REVIEWS 45 X. REPORTING GAMES 52 XI. REPORTING SPEECHES 63 XII. DRAMATIC NOTICES 71 XIII. INTERVIEWS 77 XIV. THE EXPOSITION OF MECHANICS 84 XV. THE EXPOSITION OF IDEAS 90 XVI. EDITORIALS--CONSTRUCTIVE 97 XVII. EDITORIALS--DESTRUCTIVE 102 XVIII. ADVERTISEMENTS 108 XIX. ADVERTISEMENTS (_continued_) 114 XX. ADVERTISEMENTS (_concluded_) 118

"Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison." SAMUEL JOHNSON. _Life of Addison._

"Children learn to speak by watching the lips and catching the words of those who know how already; and poets learn in the same way from their elders." JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. _Essay on Chaucer._

"Grammars of rhetoric and grammars of logic are among the most useless furniture of a shelf. Give a boy Robinson Crusoe. That is worth all the grammars of rhetoric and logic in the world.... Who ever reasoned better for having been taught the difference between a syllogism and an enthymeme? Who ever composed with greater spirit and elegance because he could define an oxymoron or an aposiopesis?" THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. _Trevelyan's Life of Lord Macaulay._ Chapter VI.

PRACTICAL ENGLISH COMPOSITION BOOK II