A SHORTER COURSE IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION. BY W. H. WELLS, A.M., AUTHOR OF "SCHOOL GRAMMAR" AND "Graded SCHOOL." NEW YORK AND CHICAGO: The Shorter Course is intended to furnish all the aid that is needed by the ordinary student in learning to speak and write well. English Grammar, in its application, when properly taught, is always interesting and attractive to pupils, and there is no branch of school instruction that is more valuable or important than the study of our mother tongue. The present work commences with the knowledge which the pupil already possesses, and carries him directly forward in the practical study and use of the language. Most of the common principles of grammar are acquired by pupils when they learn to talk, and read, and write, before they commence the study of grammar in school. An opportunity to tell what they know is a source of continual gratification to them, and fresh interest is constantly awakened in their minds as they are called on to make an application of the knowledge which they already possess. See § 23. The ability to speak well and write well is acquired by listening to good speakers and reading good authors, and by actual practice in speaking and writing, with a careful observance of the principles and rules by which the language is governed. In the Shorter Course, the rules of grammar are nowhere taught as abstract principles, but everywhere in their practical application. The object sought in every lesson is to cultivate the power of expression, and the rules of grammar are made to take their appropriate place as collateral aids. The principles of grammar are in most cases applied as follows: 1. When a principle or rule is presented, it is first illustrated by one or more examples. The pupils are then called on, 2. To give oral examples of their own construction. 3. To select illustrative examples from their readers, or from other printed matter. 4. To write sentences that embody and illustrate the principle or rule presented. In addition to the spoken and written exercises wn.ch accompany all the important principles and rules, and which render it impossible that they should be passed over without being thoroughly understood and applied, there is also a complete parallel Course of Lessons in Speaking and Writing interspersed throughout the work. The Art of Conversation, which is the great art of oral intercourse in every-day life, is as dependent upon cultivation as any branch of school instruction; and any course of grammatical study that does not include lessons in conversation is radically defective. A systematic course of exercises in conversation forms one of the special features of the present work. The Exercises in Written Composition are so shaped and arranged as to furnish constant aid to pupils in enlarging their vocabulary of words, and to teach them how to use in the best manner the words which they have at command. The Shorter Course may properly be defined A Book of Progressive Exercises in Speaking and Writing Eng |