4.  A description may also have for its purpose the giving of an
     impression.
       a. The writer must select details which will aid in conveying
              the impression he desires his readers to receive.
       b. The writer must observe his own impressions accurately,
              because he cannot convey to others that which he has not
              himself experienced.
       c. The impression received is affected by the mood of the person.
       d. Impression and image are never entirely separated.

IX.  NARRATION

+141.  Kinds of Narration.+—­Narration consists of an account of happenings, and, for this reason, it is, without doubt, the most interesting of all forms of discourse.  It is natural for us all to be interested in life, movement, action; hence we enjoy reading and talking about them.  To be convinced that there is everywhere a great interest in narration we need only to listen to conversations, notice what constitutes the subject-matter of letters of friendship, read newspapers and magazines, and observe what classes of books are most frequently drawn from our libraries.

Narration assumes a variety of forms.  Since it relates happenings, it must include anecdotes, incidents, short stories, letters, novels, dramas, histories, biographies, and stories of travel and exploration.  It also includes many newspaper articles such as those that give accounts of accidents and games and reports of various kinds of meetings.  Evidently the field of narration is a broad one, for wherever life or action may be found or imagined, a subject for a narrative exists.

EXERCISES

1.  Name four different events that have actually taken place in your school in which you think your classmates are interested.

2.  Name three events that have taken place in other schools that may be of interest to members of your school.

3.  Name four events of general interest that have occurred in your city during the last two or three years.

4.  From a daily paper, pick out a narrative that is interesting to you.

5.  Select one that you think ought to interest the most of your classmates.

6.  Name three national events of recent occurrence.

7.  Name three or four strange or mysterious events of which you have heard.

8.  Name an actual occurrence that interested you because you wanted to see how it turned out.

9.  Would an ordinary account of a bicycle or automobile trip be interesting?  If not, why not?

+Theme LXX.+—._Write a letter to a pupil in a neighboring high school, telling about something interesting that has happened in your own school_.

(Review forms of letter writing.  Consider your use of paragraphs.)

+142.  Plot.+—­By plot we mean the outline of the story told in a few words.  All narratives consist of accounts of connected happenings, in which action on the part of the characters is naturally implied.  The principal action briefly told constitutes the plot.  The simple plot of Tennyson’s Princess is as follows:—­