English for immediate use

Preface

Most pupils have not the faintest wish to cultivate literary style, or to become writers of books. The great majority of pupils in secondary schools will not even enter college: they will go out at once into the work of the world. Most pupils say frankly that they do not intend to give their days and nights to the study of Addison, and that they would not write like Addison, if they could. They do wish earnestly to make themselves understood, and they would like to talk and to write in a way that commands attention. They have no desire to master periodic structure; they care nothing for balance and antithesis as methods of expression. All that they wish is to make instant appeal to their fellows. It is to aid them in fulfilling the ordinary daily needs and desires that this book has been written.

For all pupils in American schools English is the principal medium of self-expression. Through that medium, every day, they reveal their needs, their desires, their emotions, and all of their numerous reactions in life. They live in the days when they speak and write: they are not waiting to live in some far-off future. They are eager to express themselves; they are talkative, chatter-boxes, whisperers, writers of blackboard satires, composers of diminutive periodicals; they are intensely interested in the unusual, ready to laugh at the ridiculous, quick to resent wrong or injustice, swept by varied emotions; they are keen observers of character

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and ardent in their admiration of honor, truth, and right. In many ways, indeed, school pupils live far more intensely than they will ever live again. The language and the style of speech and writing that they need for the daily expression of their actual living are the language and the style of speech and writing that they should be taught.

Pupils in secondary schools are not at all interested in scholarly classifications or nomenclatures. To them, as a rule, formal rhetoric is a burden and anathema. In their actual living, aside from doing so at the command of teachers, they seldom, if ever, sit down to write ' ' narration, ' ' " description, " ^ " exposition, ' ' or "argument" as such. They try to make known their desires, to tell what they have seen and heard, to utter opinions and to support them, to make recitations, to write answers in examinations, and to express themselves in other ways in actual daily living.

Since the expressional needs of pupils, instead of the customary lines of formal rhetoric, have been followed, the Table of Contents shows an entirely new line of attack. Such subjects as the following appear: Telling the News, Telling a Joke, Writing a Story for the School Paper, Giving Information, Making a Recitation, Writing an Examination Paper, Reporting What Was Said, Giving an Opinion, Making a Request. At the same time the book includes all the types of composition work that are generally taught in secondary schools. It includes grammar, diction, the types of discourse, the methods of paragraph development, figures of speech, punctuation, and all that it is customary to include in books on English composition, — but it uses

PREFACE V

such material in a new way and for an immediate and practical purpose.

English for Immediate Use is exactly what its title indicates — a book designed to give to secondary-school pupils instruction in the speaking and in the writing of English in fulfilment of their immediate expressional needs. The book may be used to advantage in junior high schools or in any grade of the high school.

This book is the product of many years of classroom work with both boys and girls in large city schools. It is the product of work with classes not bound down by college-entrance requirements, by State or city syllabi, or by any set courses of study. The methods emphasized in the book have been surprisingly successful and have produced the best results in a remarkably short time. Without giving pupils the impression that composition work is a burden the methods here set forth have led young writers to the attainment of power in self-expression, and to the development of a high degree of originality both in substance and in style.

One of the notable features of English for Immediate Use is that it gives nearly two hundred and fifty separate and distinct exercises for class work, and nearly three thousand suggestions for composition subjects. Since good oral work usually precedes good written work a great number of exercises call for oral composition.

The suggestions for composition subjects are drawn from all the parts of school life, from the fields of interest close at hand, from the pupils' past experiences, from home and community life, from such business vi PREFACE

experiences as pupils are likely to have had, and from books that pupils may read either in the school or in the home. Many of the suggestions call for the reading of good periodicals, the consulting of works of reference, and for some understanding of such of the great modern problems as secondary-school pupils can appreciate.

The entire book emphasizes actual self-expression, originality, and thought, rather than the memorizing of classifications and rules, or the imitation of style. Purposeful writing creates its own style: it does not need to imitate.

The greater number of quotations given in illustration of the principles taught are from the ordinary written work of school pupils or from the columns of school periodicals. It would have been easy to find illustrative examples in the writings of well-known authors, but classroom practice shows that the exhibition and the reading aloud of good written work done by pupils does more to stimulate good writing than does the exhibition and the reading aloud of quotations from great authors. Pupils are always eager to equal or to surpass the work of one of their own number.

Here and there in the book are extracts from famous writers, given as examples of a more polished and more mature style than most pupils can hope to attain. In nearly every case these extracts are from the familiar English classics studied in all schools.

Many of the exercises suggest group or class criticism of the work done by individuals. They call for the appointment of judges or committees, and for the public exhibition of excellent work. They suggest, in

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some cases, the method of the contest, and the awarding of special honors to those who excel in writing.

The teacher will do well, on every possible occasion, to call for writing in accordance with the suggestions made in the various exercises. Above all, the teacher should insist that all writing be purposeful, and that the pupil try to do one thing, and one thing only, at a time, and to do that well. The writing of many comparatively short and highly purposeful compositions will do more for a pupil than will the writing of a few occasional long compositions.

Immediate classroom criticism, given by both teacher and class, will do away with the temptation to spend many hours in reading long themes or in marking painfully with red ink or blue pencil. Immediate class criticism is far more effective than red ink.

If the book is to fulfil its purpose it must be used in such a way that it will make all composition work not only reflect but also stimulate the lives of the pupils. Its best work will be done if the teacher calls frequently for written work, and if he constantly emphasizes the necessity of making class appeal.