Practical English Composition Part 4

4. Point out the "Four W's."

5. State why each capital and each mark of punctuation in the model is used.

6. Tell whether each sentence is simple, complex, or compound.

7. Find in the model an adverbial phrase, an adverb, a noun used adverbially, a noun in apposition, a clause modifying a verb, a participle modifying the subject of a verb, a non-restrictive clause, and a clause used as an adjective.

8. Point out four words or phrases that give color to the story.

9. Write an appropriate heading for the model.

V. Oral Composition

Prepare a report of some accident which you have yourself seen or which has been described to you by an eye-witness. Be sure to get into the report in the proper order the "Four W's," the cause, and the result.

Note that a good story usually consists of three parts:

1. The Previous Situation.

2. What Happened = The Climax.

3. The Result = The Denouement.

These are all in the model, but 2 is put first because it is most important. Observe the order of the model. Each member of the cla.s.s will have a chance to make his report orally, and it will be subjected to the a.n.a.lysis of the cla.s.s and teacher, who will blame or praise it according to its deserts. The reporter must defend himself, if attacked. Each pupil will therefore in turn play the role of a reporter, telephoning a story to headquarters while the cla.s.s and teacher enact the part of the city editor.

VI. Written Composition

After the process outlined in Section IV of this chapter has shown the reporter how to go about the job, the report is to be written, proof-read by the teacher, corrected by the reporter, and rewritten until it is letter-perfect.

VII. Suggested Reading

Kipling's _007_ in _The Day's Work_.

VIII. Memorize

SUNs.h.i.+NE

Think every morning when the sun peeps through The dim leaf-latticed windows of the grove How jubilant the happy birds renew Their long melodious madrigals of love; And, when you think of this, remember too 'Tis always morning somewhere, and above The awakening continents from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e Somewhere the birds are singing evermore.

LONGFELLOW, _The Birds of Killingworth_.

CHAPTER V

CONSTRUCTIVE NEWSPAPER WRITING

"The drying up a single tear has more Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore."

LORD BYRON.

I. Introduction

The worst thing about most news articles is that they tell of destruction, failure, and tragedy instead of construction, success, and happiness. If one were to judge from the papers, one would be forced to conclude that the world is rapidly advancing from civilization to barbarism. To test the truth of this a.s.sertion, you have only to examine almost any current newspaper. A man may labor honorably and usefully for a generation without being mentioned; but if he does or says a foolish thing, the reporters flock to him as do cats to a plate of cream. The reason is obvious. Tragedy is more exciting than any other form of literature; it contains thrills; it sells papers. However, aside from the fact that the publication of details concerning human folly and misfortune is often cruel and unjust to the sufferers, its influence upon the public is debasing in the same way, if not in the same degree, as public executions were debasing.

Newspaper writing should, therefore, deal with progress rather than with retrogression. Most newspaper men admit that this is true, but declare that the public will not buy the kind of papers which all sensible people approve. Just as soon as such papers can be made to pay, they say, we shall have them. One of the objects of this course is to create a taste for constructive rather than destructive newspapers.

As an exercise tending to produce this result, the student should each day examine the local paper for the purpose of ascertaining how many columns of destruction and how many of construction it contains. The result should be reported to the cla.s.s and thence to the papers as news.

There are three kinds of items which boys and girls can write and which are constructive. These are:

1. Items dealing with progress.

2. Humorous stories.

3. Items based on contrast.

The work this week will be on the first of these.

II. Models

I

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 22.--L. C. Phillips will plant 1,000 acres of his southeast Missouri land in sunflowers this year as a further demonstration that this plant can be cultivated with profit on land where other crops may not thrive so well. Phillips has been experimenting for several years in the culture of sunflowers, whose seed, when mixed with other seed, makes excellent chicken and hog feed. Last year he planted nearly 100 acres in sunflowers. The cost of planting and harvesting is about $6 an acre, he says, and the returns from $35 to $48.

II

HALIFAX, N.S., Dec. 25.--One of the most extraordinary endowments bestowed by nature on any land is enjoyed by the fortunate group of counties round the head of the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.

Along the sh.o.r.es of this bay there are great stretches of meadow land covered with rich gra.s.s and dotted with barns. These meadows have been brought into existence by the power of the tides in the Bay of Fundy, which have no parallel elsewhere on the globe. There is sometimes a difference of sixty feet between the levels of the water at low and at high tide. The tide sweeps in with a rush, carrying with it a vast amount of solid material scoured out of its channel.

The acc.u.mulated deposits of the ages have produced a soil seventy or eighty feet deep. Owing to its peculiarities, this meadow land retains its fertility in a marvelous way, producing heavy crops of hay annually without diminution and without renewal for an indefinite number of years.

When renewal is desired it is only necessary to open a dike, which allows the tide to flood the land again and leave a fresh deposit of soil.

III

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, Dec. 25.--Michigan holds sixth place among the States in the value of its mineral production, with an output in 1912 valued at $180,062,486, according to the United States Geological Survey, its prominence being due to its great wealth in copper and iron. Ranking second only to Minnesota in the production of iron ore, it is third in the production of copper, being exceeded only by Arizona and Montana. It also stands first in the production of salt, bromine, calcium chloride, graphite, and sand lime brick.

In 1911 Michigan's production of iron ore was 8,945,103 long tons, valued at $23,810,710, and in 1912 it increased to 12,717,468 long tons, valued at $28,003,163.

The production of copper in Michigan, the value of which in the last two years has exceeded that of the output of iron ore, amounted in 1912 to 218,138,408 pounds, valued at $135,992,837, a decrease in quant.i.ty, but an increase in value of over $8,000,000.

The mining of copper in Michigan is of prehistoric origin, the metal having been used by the North American Indians before the advent of the white man. The records since 1810, or for a little more than 100 years, show that the total production of copper in Michigan from that date to the close of 1912 has amounted to over 5,200,000,000 pounds, which is about 30 per cent of the total output of the United States.

III. Oral Composition