Exercises in Easy Narratives.
In the preceding pages you have been advised to practice the writing of compositions by reading the productions of authors, and then writing from memory what you have read. This may not be easy at first. You will, however, find it less difficult as you proceed. You could not become an expert typewriter or pianist without faithful practice, yet we have expert typewriters and pianists.
It is so with learning to express your thoughts in writing. What is hard at first becomes “second nature” afterward. I have prepared some helpful rules and examples to aid you.
When writing a Story which you have read or heard, observe the following directions:—
1. Before beginning to write, think over the whole story, to make sure that you remember all the points, and the order in which they come.
Neglect of this direction may cause you to omit something or to put something in the wrong place.
2. Before beginning to write each sentence, arrange the whole of it in your mind.
If you neglect this direction you may find that the second part of a sentence goes badly with the first, or that you cannot finish at all a sentence such as you have begun. Here is an example:—