Turn over the guide cards showing subdivisions, and a few of the title cards. Write a paragraph explaining how the shelf list differs from the author-subject catalogue.

14. Look up in the class catalogue under the head of bibliography the list of special bibliographies and other publications of the Library of Congress. Find out where these books are shelved, and note the location in the notebook.

15. Consult the A. L. A. Catalogue to find the best books on the Philippine Islands, or gas engines, or English cathedrals. Look first in the dictionary catalogue (latter half of the 1904 volume), then in the class catalogue (first half). Consult the supplement (1904-1911, class catalogue only) for the latest books on aëronautics (Dewey section 629).

16. Examine the A. L. A. Index and note the character of the books and articles which it lists. Look up a subject, such as international arbitration, or copyright, or Tolstoy. Write a note explaining how this book supplements the card catalogue.

17. Look up in the card catalogue the series of bulletins and reports published by the Department of Agriculture, and note five interesting titles. Consult the Checklist of the United States Public Documents, 1789-1909, for five other publications of the same department having general value.

18. Look at the current number of ten different periodicals, running through the table of contents of each, in order to see its general character. Give special attention to the Atlantic Monthly, the North American Review, the Forum, the Review of Reviews, the Outlook, the Independent, and the Survey. Notice the summary of the events of the week in the Outlook and the Independent. This is the principal source for accurate information on the events of the current year. The only other way to look up something that happened three or six months ago is to search the files of the daily papers, which, even with the aid of the Index to Dates of Current Events, is slow and tedious work.

19. Look at the current monthly number and the latest quarterly number of The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. Consult the list of periodicals indexed. Glance at the titles of articles published from January to date on some topic, such as the Panama Canal, or good roads. Write a note explaining how to use the guide.

20. Find on the shelves the sets of Poole's Index and the Readers' Guide. Look into one volume of each under the title Rail

roads, or Forestry, or Drama. Write a note stating how many articles the volume contains on that subject.

21. Choose a subject of some interest to yourself, such as municipal government, the history of music, American essayists, contemporary drama, birds, or any special hobby. Find in the reading room the shelves devoted to that subject, and look over the titles of the books. In most college libraries the best books in some of the sciences are kept in special department libraries. The freshman should get acquainted with the parts of the library that are open to him. This is a good time to inquire as to the rules regarding circulation, and to draw out a book to read at home.

CHAPTER VIII

THE STRUCTURE OF DETAILED EXPOSITION

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. - BACON.

AFTER sufficient practice in the use of a reference library, the college student should be able to find library material upon almost any subject. He is no longer limited to the condensation or paraphrase of a single source. His method of study is rather based on the comparison of at least two principal sources, selected because of their differences. Hence he is ready to undertake a new task, the study of a historical or literary or artistic subject involving comparative study of books preparatory to a somewhat detailed written exposition. In place of a three- or four-paragraph theme of six to seven hundred words, he is to collect material for a ten- or twelve-paragraph theme of two thousand words.

Selection of subject for a long exposition. The subject for this important essay should be carefully selected from topics similar to those in the following list, with these limitations.

1. It must not deal with events of the past ten years, for such events must be studied chiefly in a few books of general reference and in the periodicals.

2. It must not deal with a technical subject in pure or applied science, for the freshman has not yet the scientific knowledge to use such material to advantage.

3. It must not be primarily a controversial subject, for the freshman has not yet studied argumentation.

4. It must not be a one-book subject. The resources of the college library must be investigated on this point.

5. It should not be biographical, nor primarily narrative; the interpretation of events, rather than events themselves, should be the central thing.

Limitation of Subject. Good exposition is not possible when a writer chooses a broad subject of which neither his time nor his space will permit him to treat more than a small part. Thus, to propose to oneself the subject "Ancient Architecture" or "Modern Music " means certain failure. Often, however, the starting-point of an excellent essay is the choice of such a topic as the field within which the real subject may be found during preliminary reading. Ancient architecture is a subject for many volumes; but a little investigation of it will yield many topics that can be dealt with in a chapter, such as "The Doric Style," "The Lighting of Greek Temples," "Proportions of Greek Columns," "The Development of Arch Construction by the Romans," and many others.

One who starts with the phrase "modern music" may begin to narrow it down as soon as he learns a little about it. He may divide it roughly into three periods — anything can be divided into three parts as a mere aid to further analysis beginnings, period of classic perfection, recent phases. Or he may consider music as instrumental and vocal, dividing instrumental music into orchestral and solo music, and the solo music into organ, piano, violin music, etc.; dividing vocal music into songs, choruses, oratorios, operas, etc. Such a mental process of division and subdivision, aided by written memoranda to stimulate the brain through the eye, soon suggests a variety of definite and interesting essay topics such as "The Development of the Symphony," "The History of the Orchestra," "Origin of the Pianoforte," ," "Italian Opera since Verdi," "French Orchestral Composers," "Syncopated Rhythms in Folk Music," "History of Reed Instruments," etc.

Divide and conquer. One of the most valuable powers that a college student can acquire is this faculty of getting something out of nothing by analysis. By the method of

persistent division and mental inventory-written, always written we have been able in the earlier chapters to decide on the best method of treating an assigned topic. By the same method we can equally well solve the vexed problem of finding subjects to write about. The secret of choosing good essay subjects is really the same as the secret of all good thinking and good writing, from sermons to advertising: concreteness. Sweep the field, and focus on one detail after another until the right thing appears. It is only Cicero and Bacon and Emerson that can write essays on "Friendship" or "Books and Reading." Most of us can write passably on "Keeping One's Friends," or "Bedtime Books," or "Railroad Reading."

"The

Doubtless this sort of thing can be carried too far; one would not advise a freshman essay of 2000 words on Battle of Chapultepec." "The War with Mexico" would make a better subject, for it was relatively an unimportant war. Nor would "The Battle of Lake Erie" make so good a subject as "Naval Battles of the War of 1812." A great battle, a single campaign of a great war, the whole of a minor war; a period or style in architecture, rather than a single building; social conditions of an age like Chaucer's, rather than the condition of agricultural labor in that age these are examples that illustrate the proper balance between extreme generalization and extreme specialization. Topics of the sort named below may be varied to suit the needs of the class :

SUBJECTS FOR DETAILED EXPOSITION (2000 WORDS)
1. Oliver Cromwell's Army.

2. The Jacobite Plots in Song and Story.
3. London Streets in Queen Anne's Reign.
4. English Guilds in the Fifteenth Century.
5. Early Italian Printers.

6. Landscape Painting before Raphael.
7. Early English Newspapers.

8. The Elizabethan Stage.

9. Old Irish Literature.

10. Greek Music.