VI. Gathering Material
Do not get your material from reading; get it from observation. Don’t steal it; earn it. Catch your fish; don’t buy a string of dead ones at the fish-market, and then lie about the way you obtained them. Few of us can be original, but we can all be honest and industrious.
VII. Organization
Before you write, make a plan. It is as necessary in composition as in building. If the nature of your subject or the kind and quantity of your material render it desirable to deviate from the model, do not hesitate to do so. As a rule, however, it will be best to follow its plan rather closely. At all events, work from some plan. Don’t get the idea that you can dash off a finished exposition in a few minutes.
VIII. Writing
Exposition above everything else should be clear. Say what you mean and mean what you say.
IX. Criticism
The written expositions of house plans may be tested by having the pupils exchange papers, and asking the recipients to draw the plans from the compositions.
X. Suggested Reading
Rudyard Kipling’s The Ship that Found Herself.