THE FORMS OF DISCOURSE WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ON STYLE BY WILLIAM B. CAIRNS, A.M. INSTRUCTOR IN RHETORIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BOSTON, U.S.A., AND LONDON 1896 PREFACE. THIS work is an attempt to present the subject of literary invention in a form suited to the needs of pupils in high schools and colleges. It has been prepared because the author was unable to find, in the many excellent text-books on formal rhetoric, any adequate discussion of this subject that he could use with his own classes. The authors of many recent textbooks have assumed that the study of rhetoric is the study. of style, and nothing more. If they have treated the forms of discourse at all, they have done so by way of literary analysis, and not in a manner that will prove helpful to young writers. The study of style is of the greatest importance. It should come first in a course in English, and it may profitably be continued, even by the greatest writers, throughout life; but it is not a study in which progress can be forced. The reason that so many courses in rhetoric are partial failures is because the pupils have already learned as many rules for style as they can assimilate without further knowledge of invention. The average junior or senior in the high school has been taught the principles of grammar, and something of what is generally known as English composition. He knows what a climax is, and uses it naturally; he knows the names of the figures of speech, the uses of loose and periodic sentences, and much more of the same kind. He ought, in spite of slips and blunders arising from immaturity, to write fairly correct and forcible English, when he knows what he wants to say. When asked to prepare a composition he is most troubled, not by matters of diction, but by such questions as: "What subject shall I choose?" "What shall I say about it? How shall I express my thoughts to suit this particular occasion?" And these perplexities do not, as some have said, come simply from lack of ideas. Every teacher must have noticed that a pupil has a better style when he writes on a well-chosen subject and in accordance with a carefully prepared plan. The study of style should be carried on simultaneously with that of invention. The purpose of the first chapter of this book is to present the essentials of the former subject as briefly as possible. Few illustrations have been given, both because of the limitations of space, and because the author feels that such examples should be chosen by the teacher from the pupil's own work. No matter how full and complete a text-book may be, the errors that it illustrates will often be just those that the pupil does not commit. If the blackboard and modern copying devices are wisely used, the presentation of examples from the written exercises of the class need not add greatly to the work of the teacher. It has seemed in keeping with the general plan of this book to give reasons and explanations as far as possible. The rules for style have therefore been grouped under the general principles on which they depend. The obvious disadvantage of this plan is that it scatters under different headings the figures of speech and other groups of subjects that are usually treated together. It is believed, however, that the advantages gained will more than compensate for the loss of the traditional classification. As a review exercise students may be asked to group these scattered topics in different ways. In the last five chapters especial attention is given to those forms of composition that may be required as practice exercises, or that young writers have most occasion to use. Thus, in the chapter on exposition, the short essay and the thesis are discussed more fully than are the treatise and the textbook. The selections that follow each chapter have been chosen, not as examples of English classics, but as illustrations of the principles that have been discussed. Some of them are models of style, and may be studied as such; others have serious faults, which the student should point out. In these selections the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation of the respective authors have been followed. Although the author believes that this text-book differs, in scope and general plan, from any other now before the public, he owns his indebtedness to many writers for matters of detail. An attempt has been made to give credit in all cases of direct borrowing; but many ideas and expressions not credited are obviously derived, in a greater or less degree, from other works. This is especially true throughout the chapter on style. In the succeeding chapters more suggestions have been obtained from Professor Genung's Practical Rhetoric" than from any other one source. ee |