Exercises.

1. Using this description of an iceberg as a model, write descriptions of a lake, a bay, a volcano, a tree, iron, coal.

Study carefully the wording of your descriptions and make them the best you can write.

2. Find in your reader or geography a good description. How many paragraphs in the description? What is the topic of the first paragraph? Of the second? Why is writing put into paragraphs ?

3. Write descriptions of the following objects:

Christopher Columbus was a Genoese navigator, who, sailing westward, discovered the New World in 1492. He made four voyages across the Atlantic. He died in Spain in 1506.

Compare this paragraph with the description of an iceberg given on page 24. Do you see any resemblance?

What?

TO THE TEACHER.

Not more than one of the persons named in the following exercise should be written about on the same day. On one day talk with the class concerning the person about whom the pupils are to write the next day. In this conversation draw out or give the needed information.

Let each exercise be a single, short, well-written paragraph. This will, of course, be only a part of a lesson, and will be done in connection with other work in this book.

Exercise.

Write a short paragraph in answer to each of the following questions:

I. Who was Abraham Lincoln ?

2. Who was Longfellow?

3. Who was Henry Clay?

4. Who was Daniel Webster?

5. Who was Captain John Smith?
6. Who was Napoleon?

7. Who was Peter the Great?

8. Who was Cæsar?

9. Who was Alexander?

III. PARAGRAPH WRITING.

In writing a paragraph upon a given subject, you may first write the thoughts that come to you about it, and then arrange them in correct sentences. Do not include anything that does not properly belong to the subject. Begin your paragraph in the right way.

The subject, A Morning Walk, suggests thoughts about:

I. Pure air.

2. Freshness of everything in nature.
3. A good night's rest.

4. Help for the day.

These thoughts, correctly expressed and arranged in a paragraph, may take the following form:

The morning is a good time to walk. The air is pure, everything is fresh, and every healthy person is rested. A morning walk prepares one for the day's work.

Exercises.

Write paragraphs upon the following subjects:

1. An Evening Walk.
2. The Value of Reading.
3. Why I Admire a Hero.
4. Autumn Leaves.

5. Spring Buds.

6. A Certain Show Window. 7. The Chirp of the Robin. 8. The Chimes.

Select several subjects yourself, and write a paragraph about each.

Bring to class a short, well-written paragraph, and also the same paragraph in which the sentences are disarranged. Exchange the disarranged paragraph for one that some one else has, and rearrange the paragraph you receive. The next day obtain the original paragraph, and compare it with the one which you have written.

Good paragraphs can be found in the writings of Charles Lamb, George William Curtis, James Russell Lowell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

Other paragraphs for this purpose can be found in your readers or histories, or on many pages of this book.

IV. DESCRIPTION OF ANIMALS.

TO THE TEACHER. Your class will enjoy their work better if the exercises in description are taken at intervals between other work rather than consecutively.

Each exercise will probably require a part of each of four recitation periods. On one day read about the animal to be described, talk about it, and agree upon the topics; the second day let the exercise be written; the third day criticise the exercises in class, and suggest improvements; and the fourth day have the exercises rewritten and improved. If the work is not all done in the recitation period, fewer days may suffice for each subject. If the exercises are short and the class write well, the work suggested for the first and second days may be assigned for the first day, and that for the third and fourth days, for the second day.

Such work should be done promptly without waste of time; and, during its progress, lessons from other chapters of the book should be prepared and discussed in the recitation period.

If you were describing the horse, what would you tell first? What next? Write your answers

What then?

as follows:

AN OUTLINE FOR A DESCRIPTION OF THE HORSE.

I. What the horse is.

2. What he is good for.

3. How he is trained.

4. What he eats.

5. What the parts of the horse are, and something about each part.

6. Where the horse was first found.

7. How he looks.

8. A story about a horse, showing his intelligence.

You can think of many other things to say about the horse. Write them all down just as they come into your mind, and then arrange them in the order you think best.

Think what you will say about each item. Say it; then rewrite the whole in good sentences.

Perhaps as you think about it you will decide to leave out some points, or add others.

Below is an improvement in the order of your topics:

1. What is a horse?

2. Description of the parts of a horse.

3. What he eats.

4.

Where the horse is now found, and where it was first found.

5. For what he is used.

6. Comparison of the horse and the ox.

7. Story, etc.

Read the partial description below, and use it in your own language in the description you are to write, together with additions of your own.

A PARTIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE HORSE.

The horse belongs to the class of animals having a solid hoof. His head is long, with short ears. His neck is adorned with a mane. His body is oval. His fore legs are nearly straight; his hind legs bend backwards.

The color of the horse varies. There are white, brown, sorrel, black, and spotted horses.

The horse is found in almost all parts of the earth,