V. THE WHOLE COMPOSITION

+80.  General Principles of Composition.+—­There are three important principles to be considered in every composition:  unity, coherence, and emphasis.  Though not always named, each of these has been considered and used in our writing of paragraphs.  The consideration of methods of securing unity, coherence, and emphasis in the composition as a whole is the purpose of this chapter.  It will serve also as a review and especially as an enlarged view of paragraph development as treated in Chapter III, for the methods discussed with regard to the whole composition are the same that are used in applying the three principles to single paragraphs.

+81.  Unity.+—­A composition possesses unity if all that it contains bears directly upon the subject.  It is evident that the title of the theme determines in a large degree the matter that should be included.  Much that is appropriate to a theme on “Bass Fishing” will be found unnecessary in a theme entitled “How I caught a Bass.”  It is easier to secure unity in a theme treating of a narrow, limited subject than in one treating of a broad, general subject.  The first step toward unity is, therefore, the selection of a limited subject and a suitable title (see Sections 58-61); the second is the collection of all facts, illustrations, and other material which may appropriately be used in a theme having the chosen title.

+82.  Coherence.+—­A composition is given coherence by placing the ideas in such an order that each naturally suggests the one which follows.  If the last paragraph is more closely related in thought to the first paragraph than it is to the intervening ones, the composition lacks coherence.  Similarly, that paragraph is coherent in which the thought moves forward in an orderly way with each sentence growing out of the preceding one.

In describing the capture of a large trout a boy might state that he broke his pole.  Then he might tell what kind of pole he had, why he did not have a better one, what poles are best adapted to trout fishing, etc.  Though each of these ideas is suggested by the preceding, the story still lacks coherence because the boy will need later to go back and tell us what happened to him or to the trout when the pole broke.  If a description of the kind of pole is necessary in order to make the point of the story clear, it should have been introduced earlier.  Stopping at the moment of vital interest to discuss fishing poles, spoils the effect of the story.  Good writers are very skillful in the early introducing of details that will enable the reader to appreciate the events as they happen, and they are equally skillful in omitting unnecessary details.  The proper selection of these details gives unity, and their introduction at the proper place gives coherence to a narrative.  By saying, “I am getting ahead of my story,” the narrator confesses that coherence is lacking.  Read again the selection on page 106.