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248. Subjects for Expository Themes. following subjects are drawn from history, science, and morals, the great sources of material for composition of an expository nature. The subjects must be narrowed to some special phase, and it should be borne in mind that narration and description are not to enter into this theme. When one is told to write an expository theme on the American navy, for instance, a history of it should not be given, but one should speak of its methods, departments, and other topics of this nature.

Exercise

Write upon any of the following subjects, using Theme-models XII., XIII., or XIV. Some of these topics will require reading and others personal investigation. The student should first make a detailed outline of the subject-matter he intends to use.

I. How to entertain a number of small children on a rainy afternoon.

2. Why some people enjoy fishing.

3. The training of a soldier at West Point.

4.

5.

The Weather Bureau.

Amateur photography as a recreation.

6. What I should do with an acre of ground.

7.

How to furnish a house tastefully on small means.

8. The management of a department store.

9. Ways in which a girl may earn a living.
10. How one may work his way through college.
II. What one may learn about lacemaking.
12. Ways of wasting time.

13. Old-time sports.

14. Some things which I dislike about vacations.

15. How etchings, wood cuts, and half tones are made.

16. The methods of some industry in which you are interested.

17.

The work of the college settlement or some other philanthropic movement.

18. The game of golf or other out-of-door sport. 19. Explain how to make a box, how to make hay, how chocolate is made, the cantilever bridge, the game of football, how sugar is made.

20. Explain the following things: An island, the wheelbarrow, the refrigerator car, the threshing machine, the steam engine.

It is suggested that the student choose subjects of his own, the material for which he may get from his own observation and experience rather than from books.

Very often diagrams and pictures are useful in making the meaning clear. Look in your text-books on physics, botany, and geography for examples.

PART V.

NARRATION, DESCRIPTION, AND EXPOSITION COMBINED

CHAPTER XV.

THE TRAVELER'S SKETCH, THE CHARACTER SKETCH, THE NATURE STUDY, AND THE BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

249. Outline of the Chapter. We shall find in this chapter various theme-models that combine Narration, Description, and Exposition. These are the traveler's sketch, the character sketch, the nature study, and the biographical essay. Each of the first three models contains but one paragraph of Exposition the general reflection; the last theme contains several.

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TRAVELER'S

250. Theme-model XV. THE SKETCH. Theme-model XV. is to serve for accounts of visits to places of interest. It may also be used to reproduce portions of books of travel, such as Hawthorne's Our Old Home, Winter's Shakspere's England, or for imaginary visits to historic places. Theme-model XV. is derived from Hawthorne's Old Ticonderoga. The student should become familiar with this selection before he attempts to see how the outline is deduced from it.

251.

Theme-model XV. in Outline. It will be noticed that the outline below deviates slightly from the selection used as a model for it. Reread Old Ticonderoga with the following motives in mind: Chapter I.

Situation the first visit to the place described. (One of the characters is the narrator, "I." This type of story, in which the narrator is one of the actors, is called the "I story.") Use Situation-type I. Description of place-in a dialogue between the two visitors mentioned in the situation, these visitors feeling different interests in the place. (See §§ 99 and 144.) Chapter II.

Situation — the second visit to the place described. (The characters are “I” and a different person from the one appearing in the first situation one who is familiar with the history of the place). Use Situation-type I.

Retrospective narrative-giving the history of the place in a dialogue between "I" and the other visitor or an occupant who is conversant with the history of the place, and who is character B of the second situation. (See § 50.)

Chapter III.

Situation-a third visit to the place. Mention but one character, the narrator. Use Situation-type I. with character B omitted.

Mood of the narrator, "I." (See § 114.)

Retrospective narrative-in the form of vision by the narrator - dealing with the more remote history of the place. (See § 79.)

General reflection-suggested by the place or the narrator's experience in it. (See §§ 173 and 178.)

Point out the narrative, descriptive, and expository motives in the above outline.

252. Theme-model XV. in Reproduction. Before attempting original sketches of travel, we shall reproduce Old Ticonderoga in order that we may master the form of this kind of theme before we are obliged to seek for material of our own.

Exercises

I. Reproduce Hawthorne's Old Ticonderoga according to the outline below. Use Situation-type I. Chapter I.

Situation—the first visit to the place described. Find material in paragraphs 1 and 2.

Description of place—in a dialogue between two persons whose interests in the place differ. Find material in paragraph 2.

Chapter II.

Situation - the second visit to the place described. Find material in paragraph 3.

Find

Retrospective narrative—in a dialogue between the person who is telling the story and an old soldier. material in paragraph 3.

Chapter III.

Situation - the third visit to the place described. Find material in paragraphs 4 and 5.

Mood of the narrator· - dreaminess. Find material in

paragraph 5.

Retrospective narrative

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in the form of vision. Find material in paragraphs 6-8.

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General reflection - Find material in paragraph 9. Use as the thought of the general reflection, "Nature returns, but man returns not Show that the grass and flowers renew themselves yearly, but that the men who once were there have forever passed away.

II. Reproduce according to the directions in Appendix II., section 6, Hawthorne's The Old Manse.

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