Proofs from Antecedent Probability, Proofs from Signs or Consequences, Proofs from Instances or Examples, A MANUAL OF THE ART OF PROSE COMPOSITION. GENERAL DIRECTIONS TO THE TEACHER. THERE are two things indispensable to the attainment of excellence in the use of language; originality in all the didactic exercises enjoined, and the actual correction of all errors in those exercises. Never accept an exercise or a composition from a pupil that you have reason to suspect is not original. If the pupil needs direction or assistance, let it be afforded by yourself, and no one else. The most effectual method to secure this originality is to require every exercise to be written by the class in the presence of the teacher-coram præceptore. When the time assigned for the exercise arrives, require the class to be seated, and all ready to write. Whatever explanations and exemplifications may be needed should then be given, so that all the class may get the benefit. Then allow a brief space for questions from those who want further information; after which, command and enforce silence, and let the writing begin. While this is going on, no distracting noises, such as conversation or audible recitation, should be allowed. After the requisite time has elapsed, the teacher requires all the performances to be closed, names signed, and exercises handed to him for revision. It is acknowledged that this plan is open to the objec tion that many pupils find it impossible, at first, to thin in the school-room or recitation-room. But it has been found that this inability will yield to honest and repeated effort. Pupils must learn to think and write in the schoolroom, just as men have learned to think in every conceiv able situation in which thinking is necessary. No other exercise than those thus prepared, coram præceptore, should be accepted by the teacher during all the novitiate of the pupil in this art. After he has acquired some facility in composition, and some confidence in his own powers, then, if the exercises demand more time than the teacher can devote to presiding over the class while writing them, the pupil may be permitted to prepare them elsewhere. The pleasure derived from originality and the moral repugnance to deception will be very effective in preventing plagiarism. But whenever there is any suspicion of plagiarism, or of having received undue help, there should be a prompt return to the coram præceptore system. Another essential condition to the highest improvement in this art is the rigid and faithful correction of every error, and the repeated transcribing of every production, until it is faultless, or nearly so. This, it is granted, imposes a heavy labor upon the teacher-at first. But let every teacher be assured that the most economical expenditure of time and pains upon a pupil is that which requires on each effort the best that he can do at the time, and permits him not to leave it until all its faults have been corrected. As a means both of improving the pupil and lessening the labors of the teacher, it is recommended that the first draughts of each exercise be exchanged among the members of the class for mutual criticism, and then handed back, each one to its author, to be re-written and corrected. Let these second draughts be handed to the teacher for his revision. This work should be done by him very thoroughly. All those violations of rules that have been the subject of previous study may be corrected by a simple reference to the number of the paragraph or article containing the rule. As to all others, the teacher should carefully indicate what phraseology or form is proper; and then require another transcription by the pupil, with all these errors amended. And it should be understood, in every case, that no exercise or production is to be passed by until it is fully or very nearly correct. Perseverance in this course will bring abundant reward. |