Pilot Book for Sentence and Theme (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1918 Excerpt: ... 4" ': ...pilot Book Foe published standards for the sixth grade are higher than the achievement of entering college freshmen, more than one-third of whom cannot distinguish between a phrase and a sentence. The University of Illinois has taught a large proportion of its freshmen sixth-grade rudiments; Wisconsin has had to do the same; Minnesota and Michigan have testified their despair; Williams has taught freshmen the rudiments of punctuation; and Dartmouth has received certificated candidates who do not know the beginnings of composition. If this has been the condition of that part of high-school graduates who go to college, what must have been the truth about the rest Only a small part of the blame can be laid upon us teachers; we have done about what our easy-going society demanded. Those "ultimate aims" have caused our weakness; now we have a revelation of the humble and essential duties from which we can never be exempt henceforth. High schools have already perceived that slouching sentences, myopic spelling, and ataxic commas are in a very real and practical sense a cause of national weakness; our pretty theory of "artistry first' stands revealed as a peril of democracy. Of course we are not going to abandon attempts at simple artistry, any more than we have cast aside our belief in good will toward men. Our work in the coming years will be more beautiful because it will be more in accord with reality. We shall continue to aim--this book aims--as high as ever. But just as we have been wakened to see that democracy can be permanent only after we have learned the value of corn and the nobility of conscription, so in composition we now realize that beauty can come only after we have learned the value of semicolons and the nobility of a good sentence. Tho...