+Theme XXX.+—­Write a theme showing which one of the five methods of paragraph development proceeds most nearly in accordance with the way the mind usually acts.

(This theme will furnish a review of the methods of paragraph development treated in Chapter III.  If possible, write your theme without consulting the chapter.  “Think it out” for yourself.  After the theme has been written, review paragraph development treated in Chapter III.  Can you improve your theme?  What methods of development have you used?)

+56.  Selecting a Subject.+—­Sometimes our theme subjects are chosen for us, but usually we shall need to choose our own subjects.  What we should choose depends both upon ourselves and upon those for whom we write.  The elements which make a subject suitable for the reader will be considered later.  In so far as the writer is concerned, two things determine the suitableness of a subject:—­

First, the writer’s knowledge of the subject.  We cannot make ideas clear to others unless they are clear to us.  Our information must be clearly and definitely our own before we can hope to present it effectively.  This is one of the advantages possessed by subjects arising from experience.  Any subject about which we know little or nothing, should be rejected.  We must not, however, reject a subject too soon.  When it is first thought of we may find that we have but few ideas about it, but by thinking we may discover that our information is greater than it at first seemed.  We may be able to assign reasons or to give instances or to originate comparisons or to add details, and by these processes to amplify our knowledge.  Even if we find that we know but little about the subject from our own experience, we may still be able to use it for a composition subject by getting our information from others.  We may from conversation or from reading gain ideas that we can make our own and consequently be able to write intelligently.  Care must be taken that this “reading up” on a subject does not fill our minds with smatterings of ideas that we think we understand because we can remember the language in which they were expressed; but reading, supplemented by thinking, may enable us to write well about a subject concerning which on first thought we seem to know but little.

Second, the writer’s interest in the subject.  It will be found difficult for the writer to present vividly a subject in which he himself has no special interest.  Enthusiasm is contagious, and if the writer has a real interest in his subject, he is likely to present his material in such a manner as to arouse interest in others.  In our earlier years we are more interested in the material presented by experience and imagination than in that presented by reading, but as we grow older our interest in thoughts conveyed to us by language increases.  As we enlarge our knowledge of a subject by reading and by conversation, so we are likely to increase our interest in that subject.  A boy may know but little about Napoleon, but the effort to inform himself may cause him to become greatly interested.  This interest will lead him to a further search for information about Napoleon, and will at the same time aid in making what he writes entertaining to others.