THE ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH COMPOSITION. A PREPARATION FOR RHETORIC. BY MISS L. A. CHITTENDEN, TEACHER OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN ANN ARBOR EIGHTY THIRD THOUSAND. CHICAGO: S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY. PREFACE. This work is prepared for the lower grades of the High School. The object has been to furnish, with as little theory as possible, such a set of directions and exercises as, even before the pupil has attained the maturity of mind necessary for the formal study of rhetoric, will enable him to become a tolerably correct composer; at least to avoid the blunders, if not to acquire the graces, of composition. By the time the pupil has passed over the exercises in punctuation, transformation of elements, and rhetorical principles, he should have secured a fair degree of accuracy. Whatever additional practice may be necessary will be found in the Reproductions. These Reproductions are of course primarily intended to furnish material for practice upon the principles that are under discussion. Another and hardly less important purpose is to furnish the first step in a graded system of exercises leading to original composition. All writers have learned to write by seeing how others have written. The music pupil learns to execute what others have composed before he is set to composing for himself. In putting into his own words a poem, or a story, or a chapter of history, the pupil learns to select the proper |