B. Analysis of paragraph structure.

1.  Can a paragraph be analyzed in the same manner as the whole composition?

2.  Can you express the thought of each paragraph in a complete sentence?

3.  Can you find different points presented in the paragraph developing the paragraph topic, as the large groups of the whole composition develop the theme?

4.  Are the paragraphs closely related, and how are they bound together?

5.  Can any of the paragraphs be combined to advantage?

6.  Read from Barrett Wendell’s English Composition the chapter on paragraphs.  Are Huxley’s paragraphs constructed in accordance with the principles given in this chapter?

7.  Is the paragraph type varied?  For paragraph types, see Scott and Denny’s Paragraph Writing.

C. Comparative study of the structure of the essay.

1.  Do you find any difference between Huxley’s earlier and later essays as regards the structure of the whole, or the structure of the paragraph?

2.  Which essay seems to you to be most successful in structure?

3.  Has the character of the audience any influence upon the structure of the essays?

4.  Compare the structure of one of Huxley’s essays with that of some other essay recently studied.

5.  Has the nature of the material any influence upon the structure of the essay?

III.  Suggestions for the Study of Style.

A. Exactly what do you mean by style?

B. Questions on sentence structure.

1.  From any given essay, group together sentences which are long, short, loose, periodic, balanced, simple, compound; note those peculiar, for any reason, to Huxley.

2.  Stevenson says, “The one rule is to be infinitely various; to interest, to disappoint, to surprise and still to gratify; to be ever changing, as it were, the stitch, and yet still to give the effect of ingenious neatness.”

Do Huxley’s sentences conform to Stevenson’s rule?  Compare Huxley’s sentences with Stevenson’s for variety in form.  Is there any reason for the difference between the form of the two writers?

3.  Does this quotation from Pater’s essay on Style describe Huxley’s sentences?  “The blithe, crisp sentence, decisive as a child’s expression of its needs, may alternate with the long-contending, victoriously intricate sentence; the sentence, born with the integrity of a single word, relieving the sort of sentence in which, if you look closely, you can see contrivance, much adjustment, to bring a highly qualified matter into compass at one view.”

4.  How do Huxley’s sentences compare with those of Ruskin, or with those of any author recently studied?

5.  Are Huxley’s sentences musical?  How does an author make his sentences musical?

C. Questions on words.

1.  Do you find evidence of exactness, a quality which Huxley said he labored for?