4. Theme Writing
In the first year one or two short themes a week will give sufficient practice in composition. A short theme should consist of one well-rounded paragraph of about 150 words. The one-paragraph theme of this length has several advantages. First, the pupil is taught from the beginning of his high school composition work to regard the paragraph as a unit of some length, which may be complete in itself. Second, the pupil usually has enough ideas for a short theme, and can present them simply and directly without writing to fill space, as he sometimes must do when longer themes are required. Third, a teacher can correct these short single page themes in less time, and yet see clearly the pupil’s faults, for he is likely to make the characteristic errors as evident in one page as in three or four. If the teacher has time to correct carefully two short themes a week, one of these may be prepared outside the class room, and the other may be written during part of one of the recitation periods. This plan gives the pupil practice in carefully prepared written work for the writing of which he has plenty of time, and also in writing rapidly in class when he has time to prepare but a single draft of his theme.
As in all composition work, these themes must be promptly and carefully corrected by the teacher; and the errors, as has already been pointed out, should be indicated by signs and abbreviations so that the pupil may have the benefit of correcting his mistakes. This correction by the pupil may be done either by rewriting the theme or by revising it and making corrections neatly between the lines, or in some other convenient place. In either case, the work should be returned to the teacher so that he may glance over the original and rewritten forms, or the original as revised, and may see whether the errors have been corrected and the changes properly made.
In the first year the conferences of teacher and pupil on composition work are of great importance. By talking over the work, the teacher can do much towards encouraging a pupil who becomes disheartened because of the difficulties in expressing his ideas in writing. In these conferences, also, the teacher can learn much concerning the pupil’s interests and character, and by sympathy and insight can be as helpful to the excellent pupil as to the mediocre or poor one.