must precede all writing that is not based on outside sources, is to imagine an auditor, an interviewer, an examiner, who wishes to make an inventory of our mental possessions. The second rule is to put something on paper to look at. It does not much matter what, at first. The brain demands the double stimulus of writing the muscular action helps thought and of seeing something to add to or subtract from, something to agree with or differ from. Let it be a tentative division of the subject, a list of questions, a mere column of indiscriminate catchwords just as they flash across the consciousness. With a large sheet of scratch paper1 and a soft, sharp pencil, one can begin to think. The main point is to get enough gravel out of the pit so that when it is sifted one can throw away the undersized stuff, and still have plenty left to make a good stiff concrete. As a rule, poor freshman writing can be traced to lack of material. Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon this process of selfexamination or mental inventory for the young student of composition. Experienced writers may do without it, as they may do without the written outline which follows it; but as long as poverty of material remains his chief difficulty, the freshman must take the inventory every time. His chief need is to have plenty of ideas to select from and to arrange. The only known way to get them is to dig for them. The truth is that the first The and most difficult step in writing and speaking is choosing a subject, and the second is finding out what one has to say. first of these two difficulties is solved in this elementary course by the assignment of topics and the offering of long lists from which a choice may be made. The other difficulty is one that no textbook or teacher can remove. A man must meet it for himself. There is something very absurd about the plight of a freshman who sits with a blank sheet of theme paper before him, 1 Long sheets of yellow foolscap, ruled, put up in what stationers call a "legal pad," can be had very cheaply, and are excellent for such work. Large sheets, like a blackboard, have the advantage of showing many points side by side for easy comparison. chewing his penholder, and trying in vain to begin an essay in its finished form without preliminary written memoranda. He is like an architect who attempts to make a careful scale drawing for a client without a single rough freehand sketch as a point of departure. Freshman rhetoric involves a study of the means by which we can properly stimulate our own brains, galvanize them into action. Two of these means have been sufficiently illustrated above the imagined party of the second part at whom the whole thing is aimed, and the help which hand and eye can give the brain by writing catchwords and questions as a basis for selection and arrangement. The sixth step: making an outline. - Not until the mind is full of possible material and possible methods of treatment can a good outline be made. The process is as follows: The scratch paper inventory now contains a long list of words, phrases, questions, from which some points have been omitted (canceled by a line drawn through them, not erased) and to which others have been added. It contains also several possible divisions of the subject. The first step in making the outline from the inventory is to select a final division, to supersede the tentative divisions hastily jotted down at the beginning. In the matter of the currency we now see that a practical rather than a formally complete division is needed, because of the fact that the Englishman is not an investigator of our finance, but merely a patron of our railways and hotels. We have our choice of two bases of division, ours and his the dollar, with its fractional parts and its multiples, or the quarter and the $5 bill, chosen to represent his shilling and pound. If the inquiring visitor be a man of any adaptability at all, he will try to think in our units while he is on our shores, though he will need constant mental comparison with his own. Therefore we select that division of the ten coins and the many kinds of bills which will give him the least trouble the division which he will make between his change purse and his wallet, with the dollar as the dividing line. A TRIAL OUTLINE I. The dollar our unit — equals four shillings. A. Silver certificate (paper). B. Silver dollar (not common in Eastern cities). II. Fractional currency : A. Silver: 1. Half-dollar. 2. Quarter-dollar. 3. Dime (tenth dollar, Lat. decimus, Old disme). B. Nickel: five-cent piece. C. Copper cent (hundredth, Lat. centum). III. Multiples of the dollar : A. Paper: French 1. Bills in common use, easily changed, $2, $5, $10, $20. B. Gold, the standard, but not very common in ordinary This division ignores the distinction between the different kinds of bills in circulation, on the ground that a traveler will be satisfied to know that they all rest on the national credit and are received at par anywhere. Another omission is of inore consequence. The division takes no account of the many questions concerning the use of currency in travel which our inventory led us to consider. Therefore we must regard this whole classification of coins and bills as only a part of the complete outline, which after some thought emerges as follows: THE FINAL OUTLINE I. American currency has the advantages of a decimal system : 2. Multiplication, division, and percentage. II. The currency consists of ten coins and various forms of paper money: A. The dollar, unit of the system, either 1. Silver certificate (paper), or 2. Silver dollar (not very common in Eastern cities). B. Fractional currency, of three metals: 1. Silver: a. Half-dollar. b. Quarter-dollar. c. Dime (tenth dollar, Lat. decimus, old French disme). 2. Nickel five-cent piece. 3. Copper cent (hundredth dollar, Lat. centum). C. Multiples of the dollar : 1. Paper: a. Bills in common use and easily changed, $2, $5, $10, $20. b. Larger bills, used chiefly in large payments, not easily changed except in banks, $50, $100, and higher. 2. Gold: the standard, but not very common in ordinary eastern circulation, $2.50, $5, $10, $20. III. Comparison of American with English currency is easy. A. In reckoning small transactions the quarter-dollar may be compared with the shilling; thus 1. An ordinary luncheon costs two to three shillings; 2. A Pullman berth costs eight or ten shillings a night. B. In larger sums, divide dollars by five to get pounds; e.g. a New York policeman receives £280 a year ($1,400). C. Special coins for special purposes differ from the corresponding values in England. 1. The smallest tip is a dime. 2. A hotel waiter or a Pullman porter expects from a quarter- to a half-dollar. 3. But the street-car fare for almost any distance with transfer privileges is only a nickel; and 4. Many newspapers cost only a cent. A fourth division may be added dealing with precautions against mutilated silver, Canadian coins in certain cities, and possibly light gold pieces and counterfeit bills. Such topics Or one may choose to touch on the old and the new designs of the several coins and bills, proposed changes, and the like. are clearly less essential than the three treated. limited, they must be omitted; but they and a dozen other interesting points remain in reserve if time and space permit. The student no longer fears inability to fill four pages or five minutes. He is more likely to overrun the limit. Hence the selection and arrangement, for unity and coherence, as shown in the outline, must be followed by an assignment of space or time to each division for emphasis. Roughly speaking, it may be estimated that I should have not more than one-fifth of the space. II and III may each have two-fifths, or II may have rather more than III. But if the Englishman has already handled our money for a week or two, II will be briefer and III longer. The form of the outline. Such a plan is called an analytical outline, because it represents an analysis of the subject into its logical parts (see Woolley, Rules 293–303). is sometimes written in single words or phrases, sometimes in complete sentences throughout. In dealing with simple, concrete subjects, the phrase is often sufficient, while a phrase outline on such a subject as Intellectual Tolerance" would be vague and useless. In all phrase outlines the implied predicates should be perfectly obvious; if they are not, the phrase is inadequate, and a verb should be supplied. 66 It Note the form in which the outline is written on the page. Its grand divisions are written the full width of the page, and numbered I, II, III. The subdivisions of these are indented These in turn are subdivided into numand the process, if necessary, is carried Divisions of the same order of and lettered A, B, C. bered sections, 1, 2, 3; one step farther to the a, b, c. importance should be equally indented. If a division runs over a line, the second line should begin no farther to the left than the first; in other words, only the grand divisions with Roman numerals are written the full width of the page; every |