EXERCISES

A. About which of the following subjects do you now possess a sufficient knowledge to enable you to write a paragraph?  In which of them are you interested?  Which would you need to “read up” about?

1.  Golf. 2.  Examinations. 3.  Warships. 4.  Wireless telegraphy. 5.  Radium. 6.  Tennis. 7.  Automobiles. 8.  Picnics. 9.  Printing. 10.  Bees. 11.  Birds. 12.  Pyrography. 13.  Photography. 14.  Beavers. 15.  Making calls. 16.  Stamp collecting. 17.  The manufacture of tacks. 18.  The manufacture of cotton. 19.  The smelting of zinc. 20.  The silver-plating process.

B. Make a list of thirty things about which you know something.

C. Bring to class a list of five subjects in which you are interested.

D. Make a list of five subjects about which you now possess a sufficient knowledge to enable you to write a paragraph.

+Theme XXXI.+—­Write a short theme:  Select a suitable subject from the lists in the preceding exercise.

(What method or methods of paragraph development have you used?  Have your paragraphs unity of thought?)

+57.  Subject Adapted to Reader.+—­We may be interested in a subject and possess sufficient knowledge to enable us to treat it successfully, but it may still be unsuitable because it is not adapted to the reader.  Some knowledge of a subject and some interest in it are quite as necessary on the part of the reader as on that of the writer, though in the beginning this knowledge and interest may be meager.  The possibility of developing both knowledge and interest must exist, however, or the writing will be a failure.  It would be difficult to make “Imperialism” interesting to third grade pupils, or “Kant’s Philosophy” to high school pupils.  Even if you know enough to write a valuable “Criticism” of Silas Marner, or a real “Review” of the Vicar of Wakefield, the work is time wasted if your readers do not have a breadth of knowledge sufficient to insure a vital and appreciative interest in the subject.  You must take care to select a subject that is of present, vital interest to your readers.

+58.  Sources of Subjects.+—­Thought goes everywhere, and human interest touches everything.  The sources of subjects are therefore unlimited; for anything about which we think and in which we are interested may become a suitable subject for a paragraph, an essay, or a book.  Such subjects are everywhere—­in what we see and do, in what we think and feel, in what we hear and read.  We relate to our parents what a neighbor said; we discuss for the teacher an event in history, or a character in literature; we show a companion how to make a kite or work a problem in algebra; we consider the advantages of a commercial course or relate the pleasures of a day’s outing,—­in each case we are interested, we think, we express our thoughts, and so are practicing oral composition with subjects that may be used for written exercises.