"comma fault":
"As Baucis had said there was but a scanty supper
for two hungry travelers in the middle of the table was
the remnant of a brown loaf with a piece of cheese on
one side of it and a dish of honeycomb on the other
there was a pretty good bunch of grapes for each of the
guests a moderately sized earthen pitcher nearly full of
milk stood at a corner of the board "
Exercises
I. How many statements are there in the passage
quoted above? Name the verb in each statement.
Name the subject in each statement. Punctuate
this paragraph correctly, beginning each sentence
with a capital and ending it with a period. Prove
that this paragpraph is a situation by finding the
four w's.
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II. How many statements are there in each of
the situations quoted in section 9? Find the sub-
ject and the predicate in each statement. Under-
score the predicate verbs as before. Do not give as
a reason for your knowing that a given group of
words is a sentence, "It begfins with a capital."
Consider the thought.
III. Punctuate the following quotations for capi-
tals and periods :
I.
"One evening in times long ago old Philemon and his
old wife Baucis sat at their cottage-door enjo3dng the
calm and beautiful sunset they had already eaten their
frugal supper and intended now to spend a quiet hour
or two before bedtime so they talked together about
their garden and their cow and their bees and their
grapevine which clambered over the cottage-wall and
on which the grapes were beginning to turn purple
but the rude shouts of children and the fierce barking
of dogs in the village near at hand grew louder and
louder until at last it was hardly possible for Baucis
and Philemon to hear each other speak "
II.
" From far-off hills the panting team for us is toiling
near for us the raftsmen down the stream their island
barges steer rings out for us the axe-man's stroke in
forests old and still for us the century-circled oak falls
crashing down his hill "
III.
"With these words of cheer they arose and continued
their journey softly the evening came the sun from the
western horizon like a magician extended his golden
wand o'er the landscape twinklinsf vapors arose and sky
and water and forest seemed all on fire at the touch
and melted and mingled together hanging between
two skies a cloud with edges of silver floated the boat
with its dripping oars on the motionless water "
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34 Composition and Rhetoric
IV.
" Near to the bank of the river overshadowed by oaks
from whose branches garlands of Spanish moss and of
mystic mistletoe flaunted such as the Druids cut down
with golden hatchets at Yule-tide stood secluded and
still the house of the herdsman a garden girded it
round about with a belt of luxuriant blossoms filling
the air with fragrance the house itself was of timbers
hewn from the cypress-tree and carefully fitted together
large and low was the roof and on slender columns sup-
ported rose-wreathed vine-encircled a broad and spa-
cious veranda haunt of the humming-bird and the bee
extended around it **
V.
"The night is falling comrades mine our footsore
beasts are weary and through yon elms the tavern sign
looks out upon us cheery the landlord beckons from his
door his beechen fire is glowing these ample bams
with feed in store are filled to overflowing "
VI.
" She sat beneath the broad-armed elms that skirt the
mowing-meadow and watched the gentle west wind
weave the grass with shine and shadow beside her
from the summer heat to share her grateful screening
with forehead bared the farmer stood upon his pitch-
fork leaning"
VII.
" Nearer ever nearer among the numberless islands
darted a light swift boat that sped away o'er the water
urged on its course by the sinewy arms of hunters and
trappers northward its prow was turned to the land of
the bison and beaver at the helm sat a youth with coun-
tenance thoughtful and careworn dark and neglected
locks overshadowed his brow and a sadness somewhat
beyond his years on his face was legibly written "
IV. Punctuate the above quotations for commas
and semicolons. (See Appendix I. for rules.)
V. Determine which ones are situations.
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Sentence Studies 35
18. Sentence Study IL— A Series of Independ-
ent Statements. The following paragrapli is
made up of short, independent statements :
The autumn day died. The little houses on either
side the road were dark. The dwellers in them dared
not show any light. It might allure to them the foot-
steps of their foes. Bemadon sat with his arms on the
table. He was weeping. Margot held her little son.
Margot was Bemadon's wife. The child had fallen
asleep. It was helpless and weary. Its sleep was
peaceful.
Exercises
I. Prove that the above paragraph is a situation ;
that is, show that it contains the essential elements
of the situation.
II. The four w*s in the above situation are
given in independent statements, each expressing
a single fact. Which sentences give the time?
which the place? which the occasion? which the
characters ?
Independent statements render the thoughts
they express of equal value, and indicate that there
is no connection between these thoughts. In the
situation given above, time, place, occasion, and
characters, as expressed in separate sentences, are
like separate mountain peaks, all of the same
height, standing isolated against the horizon.
The sentences in a paragraph should be like a
mountain chain, not like isolated peaks separated
so that the horizon line can be seen between them.
Caution. — Avoid the excessive use of a series of
independent statements^ each expressing one and only one
fact.
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36 Composition and Rhetoric
19. Sentence Study III. — Coordination. By
the term coordination, as applied to the sentence, we
mean the connecting of a series of statements by
the word and. In the following paragraph the same
statements are used as in the. illustration of the
preceding section, but they are here coordinated.
The autumn day died and the little houses on either
side the road were dark and the dwellers in them
dared not show any light to allure to them the foot-
steps of their foes and Bemadon sat with his arms on
the table and wept bitterly and Margot held her little
son and he had fallen asleep and his sleep was peace-
ful and he looked helpless and weary.
The statements are still of equal value grammat-
ically. All the word and does here is to connect
the isolated peaks of thought into a chain whose
peaks are made all of the same height. If you
were painting a picture you would subordinate some
of these peaks to others.
Caution. — Avoid the excessive use of a series of
statements connected by '^attd.*'
20. Instances where Statements may be Con-
nected by " and." A series of statements connected
by and is sometimes designedly used by writers
to give an impression of naivet6, or to express the
thought as a child or a person of immature mind
would present it. James Whitcomb Riley's The
Bear Story illustrates this use :
W*y, wunst they wuz a Little Boy went out
In the woods to shoot a Bear. So, he went out
'Way in the grea'-big woods — he did. — An* he
Wuz goin* along — an' goin* along, you know.
An* purty soon he heerd somepin' go " Wooh J " —
1st thataway — " Woo-ooh J " An* he wuz skeered,
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Sentence Studies 37
He wuz. An* so he runned an* climbed a tree —
A grea'-big tree, he did, — a sick a more tree.
An* nen he heerd it ag*in: an' he looked round,
An' fuz a Bear ! — A grea'-big shore' -nuff Bear ! —
Another use of the word and is to produce
slowness of motion and dignity, as in the following
from St. Mark's Gospel, Chapter IV. :
(i) And he began again to teach by the seaside:
and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so
that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the
whole multitude was by the sea on the land. (2) And
he taugtft them many things by parables, and said unto
them in his doctrine, (3) Hearken; Behold, there went
out a sower to sow: (4) And it came to pass, as he
sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the
air came and devoured it up. (5) And some fell on
stony ground, where it had not much earth; and
immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of.
earth : (6) But when the sun was up, it was scorched ;
and because it had no root, it withered away.
21. Sentence Study IV.— Subordination. Note
in the following how the emended expressions
reduce statements to words, phrases, or clauses ; i, e,,
serve to make some statements subordinate to others,
in form as well as in thought. .
Original paragraph with emendations: The autumn day
died. (At the close of the autumn day — preposi-
tional phrase,) The little houses on either side the
road were dark. The dwellers in them dared not
show any light (for the dwellers in them dared not
show any light — adverbial clause). It might allure
to them the footsteps of their foes (to allure to them
the footsteps of their foes — infinitive phrase), Ber-
nadon sat with his arms on the table. He was weep-
ing bitterly (weeping bitterly — participle), Margot
held her little son. Margot was Bemadon's wife
(while Margot, his wife — appositive — held her little
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38 Composition and Rhetoric
son — adverbial clause^. The child had fallen asleep
(who had fallen peacefully — adverb — asleep — rela-
tive clause). It was helpless and weary (helpless and
weary — adjectives).
Rewritten: At the close of the autumn day {^preposi-
tional phrase) the little houses on either side the
road were dark (statement)^ for the dwellers in them
dared not show any light (adverbial clause) to allure
to them the footsteps of their foes {infinitive phrase),
Bernadon sat weeping bitterly {participle)^ with his
arms on the table (statement), while Mareot, his wife
(appositive), held her little son (adverbial clause),
who had peacefully (adverb) fallen asleep (relative
clause), helpless and weary (adjectives).
There are but two statements in this situation as
rewritten — two high mountain-peaks of thought.
Find these leading thoughts. The other statements
of Sentence Study II. have now been reduced to
foothills grouped around these two peaks. They
have been reduced to subordination by the use of
the following grammatical units:
1. An appositive, " his wife.**
2. A participial phrase, "weeping bitterly."
3. A relative clause, "who had fallen asleep."
4. An adverbial cjlause, "while Margot held her
little son."
5. A prepositional phrase, "at the close of the
autumn day."
6. An adjective, " helpless."
7. An adverb, "peacefully."
8. An infinitive, "to allure."
Exercise
Find in Sentence Study II. (§ 18) the statement
which has been reduced in Sentence Study IV. to an
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Sentence Studies 39
appo6itive; to a participial phrase; to a relative clause;
to an adverbial clause ; to a prepositional phrase ; to
an adjective ; to an adverb ; to an infinitive.
22. Examples of the Situation for Reproduction.
The following exercises on the situation are given
with the object of securing subordination in the
minor elements of the sentence, and variety in the
order and expression of the situation elements.
Exercise
Write reproductions of the following situations,
subordinating some of the statements and thus vary-
ing the length and structure of the sentence. Put
a different element first each time: Time first in
one situation, place first in the next, and so on.
Compare the reproduction in each case with the
original, and see that it is as different as possible
from the original in expression.
A hundred years ago three children played on this
beach. Their names were Annie Lee, Enoch Arden,
and Philip Ray. Annie was the prettiest little damsel
in the port. Philip was the miller's only son. Enoch
was the orphan of a sailor who had been shipwrecked.
These children were accustomed to play among the
waste and lumber of the shore.
II.
At ten o'clock on Christmas-eve, Conway and Bron-
son sat in the local room of a newspaper office. It was
a very cold night. All the other twenty and odd
reporters were out on assignments. Christmas eve is
always a very-much-occupied evening everywhere, and
especially so in a newspaper office. Bronson and Con-
way were the very best of friends in the office and out
of it, but this night th^ir relations w^r© strained. Th^
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40 Composition and Rhetoric
city editor had given Conway the Christmas-eve story
to write. This had made Bronson jealous.
III.
The birds were fluttering from bush to bush. They
were reveling. They were taking their farewell ban-
quets. Cock robin and the blackbirds, the cedar bird
and the woodpecker, were there. Cock robin is an
honest bird. He is the favorite game of the stripling.
The woodpecker has golden wings and a crimson crest.
The blackbirds were twittering and flying in sable
clouds. The cedar bird has red-tipt wings and a yel-
low-tipt tail.
IV.
Guido had a row of plaster casts drawn up on the
sidewalk beside him. He had plaster figures of St.
ioseph and Diana and Night and Morning, Mars and
linerva. A man stood next to him. He had hideous
monkeys. These monkeys danced from a string. Some
ladies bought the monkeys but did not look at the
casts. This happened in Fourteenth Street between
Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was growing dark
while Guido stood there.
V.
Mr. Plateas was a professor of Greek. He taught
in the gymnasium of Lyra. It was afternoon. Mr.
Plateas was returning from a walk. He took a walk
regularly every afternoon.
VI.
The reign of rest and affection and stillness now
recommenced. Day had departed. It took with it its
burden of heat and dust. Twilight descended. The
evening star appeared in the sky. The herds returned
to the homestead. The farmer sat by his fireside.
He was idle. The fireplace was wide-mouthed. He
watched the flames and the smoke-wreaths. They
were struggling together. They reminded the farmer
of foes struggling in a burning city. Evangeline was
the farmer's daughter. She was a gentle girl. She
sat close to her father's side. She was spinning flax
for the loom. The loom stood in the comer.
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XT.
^
>
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I/'
Sentence Studies 41
Directions for Sentence Revision
[The student should set apart in his notebook a few pages to
be used for a summary of directions and cautions, to which he
can turn when revising his theme.]
1. Underscore in the first situations you write every
^^and*' which connects two statements.
2. See whether you can reduce any of these statements
to a different gratnmatical form^ modifying some word
in another part of the sentence. Statements ^nay be
reduced to any of the following grammatical elements:
a. appositive,
b. relative clause,
c. participial clause,
d. adverbial clause,
e. prepositional clause,
f. adjective,
g. adverb, or
h. infinitive.
3. After you have made some of your statements sub-
ordinate^ try to condense them by means of the following
suggestions:
a. Can you use a prepositional instead of a participial phrase ?
**With these words he left the room," instead of:
** Having said these words he left the room."
h. Can you reduce any adverbial clause to a prepositional
phrase ? ^
* ' At the close of the autumn day," instead of : *' When
the autumn day closed."
c. Can you reduce any relative clause or phrase to an ad j ect i ve ?
'* A sad-faced man," instead of : *' A man who had a
sad face," or *• A man with a sad face."
//. Can you reduce any clause to an infinitive or an appositive ?
** A light to allure," instead of : •* A light which would
allure."
** He came to inquire," instead of : ** He came that he
might inquire."
e. Can you reduce any adverbial clause or phrase to an
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42 Composition and Rhetoric
adverb without leaving out part of the picture which the phrase
or clause gives ?
4. Be careful in this condensation not to sacrifice to
mere brevity the concrete elements which give life to a
picture,
*• He walked with weary step and anxious glance'* is
more vivid than : *' He walked wearily and anxiously,"
even if it is not so l?rief .
5. When you reduce a phrase or clause to smaller
measure y ask yourself ^ " Have I left out any concrete ele-
ments of the picture in this condensation ? "
•' A boy who had dark eyes " means no more than ** A
boy with dark eyes, "
The shorter form is therefore better here, but it is so
because it is briefer and yet no concrete element of the
picture is left out in the condensation. "
6. Be careful in subordinating and condensing not
to put incongruous elements into a sentence. In other
words^ observe the principle of sentence-unity; that is,
the principle which forbids our putting into one sentence
thoughts that have no connection with one another,
" With these traits and his body clothed very simply,
he had the appearance of a strong man."
What are the incongruous elements in this sentence ?
7. In condensing, consider carefully which stateinent
should be subordinated,
**Tritemius lived at Herbipolis. He was an abbot."
Shall it be : ** Tritemius, an abbot, lived at Herbipolis,"
or '• Tritemius of Herbipolis was an abbot " ?
The answer to this question will depend upon which of
these thoughts is developed in the sentences that follow.
Caution. — Do not permit these directions to inter-
fere with your thought in the first writing of a para-
graph or a theme. They are intended to enable the
student to make an intelligent revision of his work.
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Sentence Studies 43
23. Difficulty of Seeking the Phrase. You may
have found it diflRcult in the exercises you have
just written to vary the expression for a given
thought.
The following selection will show that this task
of " seeking the phrase *' has not been found easy,
even by some of the most gifted writers. It will
also show how patient and persistent we should be
in the search for words that will best express our
meaning :
I have been working for some hours at my article on
Mme. de Stael, but with what labor, what painful
eflFort ! When I write for publication every word is
misery, and my pen stumbles at every line, so anxious
am I to find the ideally best expression, and so great is
the number of possibilities which open before me at
every step.
Composition demands a concentration, decision, and
pliancy which I no longer possess. I cannot fuse
tQ|^ether materials and ideas. If we are to give any-
thmg a form, we must, so to speak, be the tyrants of it.
We must treat our subject brutally, and not be always
trembling lest we are doing it a wrong. We must be
able to transmute and absorb it into our own sub-
stance. This sort of confident affrontery is beyond me:
my whole nature tends to that impersonality which
respects and subordinates itself to the object ; it is love
of truth which holds me back from concluding and
deciding. — And then I am always retracing my steps :
instead of going forwards I work in a circle: I am
afraid of having forgotten a point, of having exagger-
ated an expression, of having used a word out of place,
while all the time I ought to have been thinking of
essentials and aiming at breadth of treatment. I do
not know how to sacrifice anything, how to give up
anything whatever
In reality I have never given much thought to the
art of writing, to the best way of making an article, an
essay, a book, nor have I ever methodically undergone
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44 Composition and Rhetoric
the writer's apprenticeship ; it would have been useful
to me, and I was always ashamed of what was useful.
Practice and routine would have given
me that ease, lightness, and assurance, without which
the natural gift and impulse dies away
But it would be well to practice oneself in the use of
the single word — of the shaft delivered promptly and
once for all. I should have indeed to cure myself of
hesitation first.
I see too many ways of sajdng things ;....!
am conscious indeed that at bottom there is but one
right expression , but in order to find it I wish to make
my choice among all that are like it; and my mind
instinctively goes through a series of verbal modula-
tions in search of that shade which may most accu-
rately render the idea. Or sometimes it is the idea
itself which has to be turned over and over, that I may
know it and apprehend it better. I think, pen in hand ;
it is like the disentanglement, the winding-oflF of a
skein ^
— Henri FRiDfiRic Amiel, Journal Intime,
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CHAPTER IIL
SITUATION-TYPES I. AND 11.
24. The Situation Elaborated. The next step
we shall take in the study of narration is to become
acquainted with a more elaborate form of the situa-
tion than that which we have been studying — one
that involves more details in regard to the four ele-
ments, and serves to introduce narrative in dialogue.
The exercises that follow on this new type are
similar to those we have already had upon the situa-
tion ; that is, they furnish drill in the principle of
variety in sentence structure, order of the situation
elements, and choice of words.
25. Model for Situation-type I. A situation-
type is a situation that may be used as a model or
pattern in our composition. Type I. aims at teach-
ing us how to handle the situation elements with
a little more precision than the previous exercise
on that motive required. Ruskin, in explaining
how painful too much liberty of choice sometimes
is to our minds, tells us that a child who will shudder
if left alone in an open plain, will be happy playing
in a walled garden. This new situation-type which
we are about to study is like the garden wall in that
it will narrow our liberty in the use of the four w*s.
It will, however, make the writing of the situation
paragraph easier because more definite than it has
hitherto been.
(45)
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46 Composition and Rhetoric
" The sun was shining bright and clear after squalls,
and the straits showed violet, green, red, and bronze
lines, melting and intermingling each changing second.
Jnles McCartney, the best blacksmith on the island,
stood at the door of his cottage, noting this change in
the weather. He was keeping melancholy holida]^ in
his best clothes. His neighbor, Simon Griggs, paused
at the gate in passing. He was evidently in distress."
Analysis of the Model
1. The time element (here day time) may be told in an indirect
way — *• The sun was shining bright and clear after squalls."
Caution. — In giving the time element avoid trite expres-
sions such as ** The last rays of the sun."
2. '^he place element may be gfiven both indirectly— ** straits,"
and directly — *' island," ** cottage door."
3. The characters we shaU designate as A and B, A being
the one first mentioned in any situation.
a. In writing a situation on this model, the student
should mention the name of each character, unless one of
them is a stranger whose name we are to learn in the
narrative which follows. ** Jules McCartney," *' Simon
Griggs."
d, A is to be described by an appositive, a phrase, or
a clause, which will tell his occupation or other relation to
society—" The best blacksmith on the island."
c. B is to be described by an appositive, a phrase, or
a clause, which will tell the relation of B to A — ** His
neighbor." Use **a stranger," or **a traveler," or some
other general characterization, if B is unknown to A.
d. A and B are each to be located — ''door of his cot-
tage," **gate."
e. B is to be placed at some distance from A.
f. The reason why each is in a particular place is
g^ven — A is ''noting the change in the weather." B
paused ** in passing" and ** was evidently in distress."
g. In addition to / (/*. ^., the reason why each is in a
particular place), A and B may each be represented in
action. In the above situation, Simon Griggs might have
been represented as coming down the street shouting.
4. In telling a story in the form of a series of three situations,
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Situation-types L and 11. 47
the appositive should be dropped in the second and third situ-
ations. Students will see the need of this dogmatic statement
when they attempt to write such a theme.