ELEMENTS OF COMPOSITION PART I THE MEANS OF COMPOSITION CHAPTER I COMPOSITION What Composition Is. You and I are constantly being called upon to tell our thoughts and sensations and experiences to others. Communication is necessary for us; so necessary, indeed, that those who are deprived of the power of speaking and writing are taught unusual methods for making their wants and wishes known. We have seen that even dogs, horses, and other animals devise means of expression, which, however crude, are nevertheless easily understood. Nature has been kinder to us than to these creatures, however. She has given us two distinct methods by means of which we may express ourselves - speech and writing; yet with both of these means at our command we sometimes communicate with one another almost as awkwardly as our dog or our horse communicates with us. However brief and of whatever form communication among us may be, it requires Composition. When we are talking to one another we are composing-putting our thoughts together, and voicing them in order to make them understood. When we are writing, we are again composing, but expressing ourselves in another way. Expression by means of the voice is called Oral Composition. Expression by means of writing is called Written Composition. The Necessity for Composition. There are certain things that you and I are obliged to talk or write about almost every day of our lives. If we lose our way in a country road or a city street, we ask for information. Sometimes the request involves a somewhat lengthy conversation; sometimes it consists of only question and answer. We are constantly wanting to know about this or that or the other. We inquire the why and the wherefore, the where and the what, or the who and the how of things, and the process of inquiry and of informing is oral composition. But if we make our requests in writing, or if we give our information in writing, we are then making use of written composition. Perhaps it is a letter we have to write in order to find out something. Perhaps we are called upon to write an advertisement or a telegram. Again, perhaps we have been asked to give information in writing regarding our work or our place of residence. Or it may be that the information gathered from a textbook the night before must be composed into intelligible form and expressed in class the next morning. In all these and many other cases, we find it most necessary to be able to put together our thoughts and express ourselves, either by speech or pen, clearly and concisely. We could not get along without this power of dual expression. It is part and parcel of our very lives. So common and universal is it, indeed, that we take it too much for granted, and often fail to realize how much more difficult is our daily work when slipshod methods of speech or writing make it hard for us to speak quickly or write clearly. There is a famous mining engineer, now practising his profession, who says that one third of his great income is due to what he knows, two thirds to his ability to tell what he knows. The power of expression is equally important for us all. The Desire for Composition. But aside from these facts of everyday life which necessitate composition among us, we are daily confronted with experiences which are interesting and which, as a result of their interest, we desire to record. or to tell others about. If presented in good oral or written form, they will prove entertaining, informing, or valuable to others as well as to ourselves. In other words, there are many daily experiences which it may not be necessary to write about, but of which we are sure to wish to write or speak. We may have seen a baseball game of which our friend Dick would like to hear; we may have seen a runaway that would interest father; there may have been a school entertainment of which mother would enjoy reading or hearing. To be sure, it is not necessary that we give an account of any of these affairs. But it will be agreeable and worth while to do so, and, if we are normally constituted individuals, we shall desire it. Therefore, we must know how to compose our account in order that it may be true, intelligible, and interesting. THE MATERIAL Experience and Observation.-The first thing to consider, of course, is the substance, that is, the thoughts, or experiences, or information about which we write or talk. There is little use in keeping a cash account if the figures do not represent real money and real expenditures. And there is little value in a written or spoken account unless thoughts, experiences, facts worth telling of, are waiting to be expressed. But the boy or girl with nothing worth expressing does not exist outside of the asylums for the feeble-minded. Walking to and from school every day, going here and there on Saturdays, conversing with schoolmates and parents, you and I daily have a sufficient wealth of experiences to supply us with almost an infinite necessity for oral or written composition. If we go about our daily round with observant eyes and alert minds, we shall be almost overburdened with material for talking and writing, so that any deficiency in the means of expression will be quickly brought home. We have five senses which are extraordinarily keen to record impressions upon our minds. Of these, sight is probably the busiest and therefore the most fruitful. But education and life itself should be constantly cultivating a close acquaintance with the workings of all our senses. To be able to tell in words accurately how a thing smells or tastes, to express vividly what our sense of touch experiences when we handle different kinds of wood or cloth, to point out the differences between the robin's call and the thrush's song, - all of these are important for us as well as for those to whom we speak or write. Moreover, our reading and our general knowledge of the things about us endlessly call upon our powers of expression. To write down our belief as to the value of a certain study, to sum up, mentally or in writing, what we have learned from a certain book, to voice our convictions about the rules of football, to express our satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the progress of certain public affairs, is in each case to combine our reading with our knowledge and to produce composition of one kind or another. Active, well-ordered thought, keen, observant senses, and a memory that keeps the useful and drops the useless, are the first requirements for good composition; for it is these faculties which provide the material worth expressing. There was once a boy whose sister had been an invalid for the sixteen years of her life. She was confined to her bed in a dingy, miserable room in a crowded city. She had never seen a tree, never heard a bird sing, never understood about the city whose noises she heard around her. The brother tried so earnestly to speak and write about all of these and many other things that he was soon able to tell her vividly |