•The THE MACMILLAN COMPANY MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON. BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO BY CHESTER NOYES GREENOUGH, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND FRANK WILSON CHENEY HERSEY, A.M. INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1917 All rights reserved PREFACE ONE of the fundamental ideas on which this book is planned is that a purpose, not a rule, should guide a student to write well. He must not be made to feel that success in English Composition comes from avoiding something; he should not look forward to being praised just because he doesn't do things. Consequently, we have tried to emphasize a few large, positive, constructive principles and to minimize rules, particularly of the negative sort. Good sense in applying these principles is the means by which the student may succeed in carrying out his purpose. In order that he may not be obliged to subordinate his enthusiasm, his special interest, his intended effect to a rigorous technique, we have tried to make him realize that technique may be molded and modeled to suit his effect. Thus there is no abstract treatment of unity, coherence, and emphasis, and no abstract treatment of the whole composition. But there is specific discussion of the way a particular kind of composition making a particular appeal, either expository, argumentative, descriptive, or narrative, will utilize the principles of Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis for its own peculiar purpose. In the case of description and narration, which are sometimes thought to succeed by mere vividness, the structural principles will be shown to produce a notable gain in effectiveness. Moreover, flexibility in paragraphs and sentences receives special attention. Since the interest of style depends so largely |