criticism. Impromptu composition with a time limit should often be required. Compositions that contain many errors and are carelessly written should be rewritten. Full directions as to the proper conduct of the written work are given in the discussion of the subject in the preceding grade.

Where a school paper is maintained, eighth-grade children should be allowed to submit to it their written compositions. This will furnish a strong incentive for the work. If the high school has a paper, the eighth-grade teacher should strive to bring the work of her children to such a standard that some of it will be accepted by this paper.

The following are the suggested forms of discourse for this year's written composition work. In this grade the teacher may use, as a preparation for the high school, such technical terms as 'exposition,' 'unity,' etc. in directing the work.

1. Letter-Writing. The work of this year should round out and complete the pupil's acquaintance with all ordinary kinds of letters, and it should be made very practical. To this end much practice in writing various kinds of business letters should be given. Good models of all kinds of letters may be studied with profit. The teacher should ask the children to allow her to criticize some of their real letters, in order that the knowledge gained in school work may be correctly applied in outside life. The children should be taught to remember that in social letters the smallest details are appropriate, but that in

business letters statements should be short and to the point. A coöperative-grade letter, which was suggested in the three preceding grades, may be sent to the eighth grade of another school. In some schools much interest and profit have been derived from having a little make-believe post office in the schoolroom. The teacher should strive to make each child who leaves this grade an adept in writing neat and correct letters, for a letter is the evidence by which the receiver judges the writer's education and culture.

2. Narration. The directions given for this work in the preceding grade may be followed equally well here. Emphasis should be placed on the writing of short stories and of personal experiences. A good preparation for the work is the criticism, as to plot, dialogue, climax, setting, interest, etc., of stories from the pens of masters such as Irving, Hawthorne, O. Henry, Bret Harte, and others. Supplementary and regular readers will furnish suitable material for this purpose. The story work in the eight grades should discover in every school a few pupils who may later be able to write short stories of merit, and such talent should be encouraged and directed by the teacher. A motive should be given to the work whenever possible.

3. Description. The work of the preceding grades will be continued here. Children in this grade are better prepared than are those in the seventh grade to study good models of description, many of which are found in George Eliot's "Mill on the Floss,"

Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Tennyson's "Enoch Arden," etc. The chief points of excellence in a description are logical arrangement of details in passing from wholes to parts, vividness, and preservation

of a constant point

of view. The written composition should be illustrated by original drawings whenever possible.

4. Exposition. The discussions of exposition in the preceding grade and of oral exposition in this grade will give directions for the work here. The oral work may lead to the writ

ing of essays on

GIRL TO ILLUSTRATE HER OWN WRITTEN subjects already

DESCRIPTION

outlined for talks.

Similar essays may follow extended observations, investigations, and reading. Interpretation of short poems, memory gems, or prose selections should also form a part of the work. Exposition is difficult, and the teacher should not expect too much of her pupils.

5. Argument and Debate. The chief emphasis in this work is to be placed on the oral work. It may be well, however, to have pupils occasionally write out in full the argument on one side of a question. This written composition may be memorized and given as a part of a regular debate before the class or in the literary society if one is maintained. Special emphasis should be placed on the preparation of outlines of subjects for debate.

6. Verse-Writing. This work should be encouraged and directed as indicated in preceding grades. Pupils who show special ability along this line should be given individual help and encouragement. Much memorizing and study of poetry in all the lower grades may reveal in some pupils a decided talent for writing verse.

7. Diary. As suggested in the three preceding grades, the teacher may with great profit to the children direct the keeping of a diary by each child. Directions for the work are given in those grades.

8. Preparation of Outlines. In all the forms of discourse an outline of the line of thought to be followed may profitably be prepared before the actual work of composition is begun. This exercise was suggested in the two preceding grades, but it is more important and profitable here. It is hardly possible to get logical compositions in any other way. The work may be enlarged to embrace outlines and summaries of the matter in history, geography, and reading lessons, or in magazine and newspaper articles.