A Book of Exposition

EDITED BY
HOMER HEATH NUGENT
LAFLIN INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH AT THE RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
1922
It is a pleasure to acknowledge indebtedness to my wife for assistance in editing and to Dr. Ray Palmer Baker, Head of the Department of English at the Institute, for suggestions and advice without which this collection would hardly have been made.
The articles here presented are modern and unhackneyed. Selected primarily as models for teaching the methods of exposition employed in the explanation of mechanisms, processes, and ideas, they are nevertheless sufficiently representative of certain tendencies in science to be of intrinsic value. Indeed, each author is a recognized authority.
Another feature is worthy of mention. Although the material covers so wide a field—anatomy, zoölogy, physics, psychology, and applied science—that the collection will appeal to instructors in every type of college and technical school, the selections are related in such a way as to produce an impression of unity. This relation is apparent between the first selection, which deals with the student's body, and the third, which deals with another organism in nature. The second and fourth selections deal with kindred aspects of modern industry—the manufacture of paper and the Linotype machine, by which it is used. The fifth selection is a protest against certain developments of the industrial regime; the last, an attempt to reconcile the spirit of science with that of religion. While monotony has been avoided, the essays form a distinct unit.
In most cases, selections are longer than usual, long enough in fact to introduce a student to each field. As a result, he can be made to feel that every subject is of importance and to realize that every chapter contains a fund of valuable information. Instead of confusing him by having him read twenty selections in, let us say, six weeks, it is possible by assigning but six in the same period, to impress him definitely with each.