The Principles of Outlining - For Colleges and Advanced Classes in Secondary Schools #244706

All departments of study unite in demanding the power to analyze thought in its various forms of literary expression. Argumentation and exposition may both be used, as the teacher of English knows, for cultivating this power; and argumentation, since it is as common in the world as simple explanation and in some respects may be analyzed more easily, is particularly available for the purpose.<br><br>Yet there are good reasons why this subject is losing in some of our colleges the place which it held live years ago. Argumentation has necessarily become to some degree a course in general information, or in research, since the students must have material for their work, and must especially be guarded against the habit of forming conclusions on the basis of hasty generalizations. On this account the achievements possible during the hours given to English composition in one semester have been disappointingly meager, even if the whole time is spent in practicing a few general principles. And if any one of the several excellent but voluminous text-books on argumentation is made the basis for work, the result is apt to be the study of more theory than can be assimilated by adequate practice.