I

SUMMARY OF TECHNICAL POINTS IN WRITING

IN BOOK ONE, FOR REFERENCE

The first words of all lines of poetry.

Direct quotations that are of some length, or that make

sentences.

All names of God and the Bible.

O and I.

All names of persons and places.
All names of things personified.
All names of months and days.
Headings and titles.

Punctuation and Word Marks

The period (.) is used after:

Declarative sentences.

Imperative sentences.

Abbreviations.

Dates.

The question mark (?) is used after direct questions.

The exclamation point (!) is used after exclamatory sentences or

words.

The comma (,) is used:

To separate the name of a person addressed from the thing

said.

To separate the different parts of a letter's heading and closing.

To separate the parts of a sentence, when needed to make the meaning clear.

To separate words used in series.

Quotation marks (" ") are used to show a direct quotation.

Double quotation marks ("'") are used to show a quotation within a quotation.

The hyphen (-) is used to separate the parts of a compound word; also, at the end of a line, to show that a word is divided between syllables and that one or more of the syllables are placed at the beginning of the following line. The apostrophe (') is used:

To show possession.

To show contraction.

We express our thoughts in many ways, sometimes by gestures, sometimes by our faces, sometimes by exclamations, by sighs, by groans, by laughter, by tears. But chiefly we use words to express thought. This use of words we call language. The word language comes from a word that means the tongue. Do you see how it gets its meaning?

Very young children use at first merely single words, as papa, mamma, dolly, drink, me, up, down. Foreigners learning our language first use singly the few words they know to express their thoughts. But neither the baby nor the foreigner can express thoughts very clearly or fully by single words. They help out the words by the use of gestures, and even then those to whom they are speaking must guess a great deal and supply in their own minds other words to

make sense. he means "I want water" or "Give me some water." Doubtless the earliest men and women in the world first made their thoughts known to one another by gestures and cries. Then they came to use certain sounds as names for things, and other sounds for qualities and still others for actions and feelings. In time they learned to use the same sounds or words always for the same things or qualities or actions. Later they used these words in groups to express whole thoughts of which each word expressed a part. This made it easier for people to understand one another. And now to express thought clearly we always use certain kinds of words and use them arranged in certain groups.

When the baby says "water," we know that

These groups of words we call sentences. In all our talking and writing we use sentences. The sentence is not the thought. It is an expression of the thought. By its use we make our thoughts known to others. The thought always comes before the sentence. We have many thoughts that we do not express. But when we do fully and clearly

express thoughts in words, we use sentences.

Name all the ways you can in which people express thoughts without words. Tell of instances that you have seen.

Tell of babies and foreigners using single words to express thoughts.

Make the sentences that they would have used if they had been able.

Talk over in class how the first people in the world probably began to use words.

What words do you think they would naturally use first?

Name some words that when used alone may be understood quite well.

What do we call the combinations of words that are used to express our thoughts fully?

III

THE PRIZE CALF

Study and discuss the picture.

Do you think it beautiful? Why?

What do you admire most in it?

What shows that the calf has won a prize?

Write a story of "The Prize Calf," telling how it was raised and how it won the prize.

One day a man was walking along the street, and he was sad at heart. Business was dull; he had set his desire upon a horse that cost a thousand dollars, and he had only eight hundred to buy it with. There were other things, to

be sure, that might be bought with eight hundred dollars, but he did not want those; so he was sorrowful, and thought the world a bad place.

As he walked, he saw a child running toward him; it was a strange child, but when he looked at it, its face lighted like sunshine, and broke into smiles.

The child held out its closed hands. have!" it cried gleefully.

"Guess what I

Something fine, I am sure," said the man.