structive, whether they reveal necessary clefts of separation between the experiences of different sorts of people, or reveal simply the narrowness and bounded view of those who judge. But the systematic judgment is altogether unprofitable. Its author has not really his eye upon the professed object of his criticism at all, but upon something else which he wants to prove by means of that object. He neither really tells us, therefore, anything about the object, nor anything about his own ignorance of the object. He never fairly looks at it, he is looking at something else. Perhaps if he looked at it straight and full, looked at it simply, he might be able to pass a good judgment on it. As it is, all he tells us is that he is no genuine critic, but a man with a system, an advocate. - ARNOLD: Mixed Essays. The Arnold's custom of reiterating an idea is well illustrated here. list of judgments is clear, and some variety is introduced by grouping the least profitable judgments in a summary before discussing them in detail. The most unprofitable judgment is put last and receives most space (Proportion). Subjects Enumerate in a paragraph: Views of students about a study. The Presidents who were the best statesmen. PART TWO PROCESSES OF COMPOSITION 31. There are five processes of composition: narration, description, exposition, argumentation, and persuasion. Narration recounts events; description portrays objects; exposition explains things; argumentation proves the truth or falsity of a proposition; persuasion induces to action. The first three result in giving the reader an understanding of what they treat; argumentation results in a judgment by which the reader affirms or denies that a given predicate belongs to a given subject; persuasion results in a resolve of the will to act. Narration and description like mirrors are simply reproductive, presenting to the mind happenings in time or objects of experience. Exposition does not simply mirror; it unfolds and interprets the nature of a thing. In one and the same composition or even paragraph all five processes may be found. Sometimes all five may have to do with the same subject matter. You tell the story of your symptoms to the doctor; you describe them; he explains their nature and argues that his diagnosis is true, and you resolve under his persuasion to follow his treatment. The processes may be even more closely connected, as when narration and description were used in the parable of the Good Samaritan to give an exposition of what was meant by "neighbor." Again, simple exposition of the terms of a proposition is often sufficient to show its truth, although argumentation more commonly includes reasoning, that is, the use of one truth to prove another. Should students be puzzled about designating the process, it will be more profitable for them to write than to discuss names and definitions. CHAPTER IV NARRATION I. Clearness 32. For clearness in narration put the events in apt words, arrange them as they occur in time (historical order) and keep to one series of facts (unity). Poor narrators, not taking in the story as a whole, often interrupt themselves to retail earlier events, or to repeat needlessly, or to go off on irrelevant circumstances. Their faults have often been exemplified through characters in stories and plays - Nestor in the Iliad (XI-656), the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet are types. Miss Bates is a garrulous character in Austen's Emma, and this is the way she tells a simple story: "But where could you hear it?" cried Miss Bates. "Where could you possibly hear it, Mr. Knightley? For it is not five minutes since I received Mrs. Coles' note - no, it cannot be more than five or at least ten - for I had got my bonnet and spencer on, just ready to come out I was only gone down to speak to Patty again about the pork. Jane was standing in the passage you not, Jane? for my mother was so afraid that we had not any salting-pan large enough. So I said I would go down and see, and Jane said, Shall I go down instead? for I think you have a little cold and Patty has been washing in the kitchen. O my dear, said I well, and just then came the note." were - Quoted by PROFESSOR GENUNG. II. Force 33. For forceful narration dwell upon the important events, adding circumstances, effects, and comparisons (slow movement) to accentuate the good or evil. Arrange the events according to their importance, the most affecting last (order of climax). III. Interest 34. For interesting narration choose novel, humorous, or beautiful events. Take an arresting event out of its historical order and put it first, telling afterwards what preceded (inverted order). Fiction makes use of all possible sources of force and interest. In newspaper narrations figurative language and descriptive adjectives, found in fiction, are out of place. The facts selected for the press should be in themselves of sufficient importance to merit attention with little assistance from the language beyond clearness. In the arrangement of events, however, newspaper stories often attract attention by the inverted order, putting an important feature at the beginning, or help the hurried reader by giving a summary before the detailed narrative. Find instances in the better newspapers of inverted order and of summary. EXERCISE 10 1. Tell the story of Macbeth in single paragraphs, as history, as an item of news, as part of a speech or of an essay intending to show the evil of unlawful ambition. (So of any other play or story.) 2. I was born free as Cæsar; so were you: We both have fed as well, and we can both For once, upon a raw and gusty day, The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, And bade him follow; so indeed he did. And stemming it with hearts of controversy; Cæsar cried, "Help me, Cassius, or I sink!" Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder Is now become a god, and Cassius is A wretched creature and must bend his body, SHAKESPEARE: Julius Cæsar. What changes would be made if this narrative were written for a newspaper or in history? What is Cassius proving by his story and how does he present the facts for force? The story in its simplest form is Cæsar challenged Cassius to swim the Tiber. In the attempt Cæsar exhausted came near drowning and had to be brought ashore by his companion. Imagine some one else telling the story to praise Cassius. 3. The army had marched, and the negotiations with Berar were in progress, when a letter from the English consul at Cairo brought the news that war had been proclaimed both in London and Paris. All the measures which the crisis required were adopted by Hastings without a moment's delay. The French factories in Bengal were seized. Orders were sent to Madras that Pondicherry should instantly be occupied. Near Calcutta, works were thrown up which were thought to render the approach of a hostile force impossible. A maritime establishment was formed for the defence of the river. Nine new battalions of sepoys were raised, and a corps of native artillery was formed out of the hardy Lascars of the Bay of Bengal. Having made these arrangements, the Governor-General with calm confidence pronounced his presidency secure from all attack, unless the Mahrattas should march against it in conjunction with the French. Macaulay is a master of rapid, that is, very clear narrative, and one effective means of rapidity is illustrated here. In the second sentence a proposition summing up many events is introduced, which permits a swift enumeration of the particulars to follow in short sentences without connectives. In the fifth and last sentences, there are inversions. Would it be an improvement to use an inversion in the second sentence and begin “without a moment's delay"? The connection might be closer, but the prominence of the paragraph subject, "all the measures," would not be so marked. In what order are the events enumerated? |