Composition-Rhetoric | Page 9

great commotion. They had rigged themselves out in hired suits which
might be described as an average fit, for that of the mother was as much
too small as those of the children were too large. They trotted gingerly
out into the surf, wholly unconscious that the crowd of beach loungers
had, for the time, turned their attention from each other to the quartet in
the water. By degrees the four worked out farther and farther until a
wave larger than usual washed the smallest child entirely off his feet,
and caused the mother to scream lustily for help. The people on the
beach started up, and two or three men hastened to the rescue, but their
progress was impeded by the crowd of frightened girls and women who
were scrambling and splashing towards the shore. The mother's frantic
efforts to reach the little boy were rendered ineffectual by the two girls,
who at the moment of the first alarm had been strangled by the salt
water and were now clinging desperately to her arms and attempting to
climb up to her shoulders. Meanwhile, the lifeboat man was rowing
rapidly towards the scene, but it seemed to the onlookers who had
rushed to the platform railing that he would never arrive. At the same
time a young man, who had started from the diving raft some time
before, was swimming towards shore with powerful strokes. He now

reached the spot, caught hold of the boy, and lifted him into the lifeboat,
which had at last arrived.
Such expressions as _meanwhile, in the meantime, during, at last,
while_, etc., are regularly used to denote the kind of time relations now
under discussion. They should be used when they avoid confusion, but
often a direct transition from one set of actions to another can be made
without their use. Notice also the use of the relative clause to indicate
time relations.
+Theme V.+-_Write a short theme, using some one of the subjects
named under the preceding themes or one suggested by them. Select
one which you have not already used._
(Have you told enough to enable the reader to follow easily the thread
of the story and to understand what you meant to tell? If your theme is
concerned with more than one set of activities, have you made the
transition from one to another in such a way as to be clear to the reader?
Have you expressed the transitions with the proper time relations?
What other questions should you ask yourself while correcting this
theme?)
SUMMARY
1. There is a pleasure to be derived from the expression of ideas.
2. There are three sources of ideas: experience, imagination, language.
3. Ideas gained from experience may be advantageously used for
composition purposes because-- _a._ They are interesting. _b._ They
are your own. _c._ They are likely to be clear and definite. _d._ They
offer free choice of language.
4. The two essentials of expression are-- _a._ To say what you mean.
_b._ To say it clearly. 5. A story should be told so as to arouse and
maintain interest. Therefore,-- _a._ The introduction usually tells when,
where, who, and why. _b._ Every story worth telling has a point. _c._
Only such details are included as are essential to the development of
the point. _d._ The conclusion is brief. The story comes to an end
shortly after the point is told.
6. Care must be taken to indicate the time order, especially when two or
more events occur at the same time.
7. The correction of one's own theme is the most valuable form of
correction.

II. EXPRESSION OF IDEAS FURNISHED BY IMAGINATION
+13. Relation of Imagination to Experience.+--All ideas are based upon
and spring from experience, and the imagination merely places them in
new combinations. For the purpose of this book, however, it is
convenient to distinguish those themes that relate real events as they
actually occurred from those themes that relate events that did not
happen. That body of writing which we call literature is largely
composed of works of an imaginative character, and for this reason it
has sometimes been carelessly assumed that in order to write one must
be possessed of an excellent imagination. Such an assumption loses
sight of the fact that imaginative writings cover but one small part of
the whole field. The production of literature is the business of a few,
while every one has occasion every day to express ideas. It is evident
that by far the greater part of the ideas we are called upon to express do
not require the use of the imagination, but exercises in writing themes
of an imaginative character are given here because there is pleasure in
writing such themes and because practice in writing them will aid us in