1. The Teacher’s Desk.
  2. Write a letter to a carpenter giving details for the construction of a small bookcase.
  3. By telling how you made it, describe a camp, a kite, a dress, or a cake. Narration may be employed for the purpose of description. A good example may be found in “Robinson Crusoe” in the chapter describing his home after the shipwreck.
  4. Describe an unfurnished room. Shape, size, position, and number of windows, the fireplace, etc., should be definite. Be sure to give the point of view. To say “On my right hand,” “In front of me,” or any similar phrases means nothing unless the reader knows where you are.

In these exercises the pupil will doubtless employ the paragraph of particulars. This is the most common in description. Other forms are valuable.

  1. Using a paragraph telling what it was not, finish this: [86] I followed the great singer to her home. Imagine my surprise in finding that the house in which this lady lived was not a home of luxury and splendor,—not even a home of comfort. Go on with the details of a home of luxury which were not there. Finish with what you did see. This is really a description of two houses set in artistic contrast to heighten the effect. Remember you are outside.
  2. By the use of comparison finish this: The home of my poor little friend was but little better than a barn. Choose only such details as emphasize the barn-like appearance of the home. There is but one room. Remember where you are standing; and keep in mind the effect you wish to produce.
  3. Using a moving point of view, describe an interior. Do not have too many rooms.
  4. Furnish the room described in number four to suit your taste. Tell how it looks. Remember that a few things give character to a room.
  5. Describe your childhood’s home as it would look to you after years of absence.
  6. Using a paragraph of the obverse, describe the appearance of the house from which you were driven by the cruelty of a drunken father.
  7. Describe a single tree standing alone in a field. It will be well for the teacher to read to the class some descriptions of trees,—Lowell’s “Birch” and “Oak,” “Under the Willows,” and some stanzas from “An Indian Summer Reverie.” Holmes has some good paragraphs on trees in “The Autocrat.” Any good tree descriptions will help pupils to do it better than they can without suggestion. They should describe their own tree, however.
  8. Describe some single flower growing wild. Read Lowell’s “Dandelion,” “Violet, Sweet Violet,” Wordsworth’s “Daisy,” “The Daffodils,” “The Small Celandine,” and Burns’s “Daisy.” These do not so much describe as they arouse a feeling of love for the flowers which will show itself in the composition.
  9. Describe a view of a lake. If possible, have your [87] point of view above the lake and use the paragraph of comparison.
  10. Describe a landscape from a single point of view. Read Curtis’s “My Castles in Spain” from “Prue and I,” many descriptions in “An Inland Voyage” by Stevenson, and “Bay Street” by Bliss Carman in “The Atlantic Monthly.”
  11. Describe your first view of a small cluster of houses or a small town.
  12. Approach the town, describing its principal features. Keep the reader informed as to where you are.
  13. Describe a dog of your own.
  14. Describe a dog of your neighbor’s. Before the description is undertaken read “Our Dogs” and “Rab” by Dr. Brown; “A Dog of Flanders” by Ouida. Scott has some noble fellows in his novels.
  15. Describe a flock of chickens. There are good descriptions of chickens in “The House of the Seven Gables” and in “Sketches” by Dickens.
  16. Describe the burning of your own home. Be careful not to narrate.
  17. Describe a stranger you met on the street to-day. It is easier to describe a person if you and the person you describe move toward each other. Remember that you begin the description at a distance. Details should be mentioned as they actually come into view.
  18. Describe your father in his favorite corner at home.
  19. Describe a person you do not like, by telling what he is not.
  20. Describe a person you admire, but are not acquainted with, using the paragraph of comparisons.
  21. Describe a picture.

It would be well to have at the end of this year four or five stories written, in which description plays a part. Its principal use is to give the setting to the story, to give concreteness to the characters, and to accent the mood of the story.

Most passages of description are short. Rarely will any [88] pupil write over three hundred words. One hundred are often better. The short composition gives an opportunity for the study of accuracy of expression. What details to include; in what order to arrange them that they produce the best effect, both of vividness and naturalness; and the influence of the point of view and the purpose of the author on the unity of description should be kept constantly present in the exercises. Careful attention should be paid to choice of words, for on right words depends in a large degree the vividness of a description. Right words in well-massed paragraphs of vivid description should be the object this term.

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CHAPTER V

EXPOSITION

So far we have studied discourse which deals with things,—things active, doing something, considered under the head of narration; and things at rest, and pictured, considered in description. Now we come to exposition, which deals with ideas either separately or in combinations. Instead of Mr. Smith’s horse, exposition treats of the general term, horse. “The Great Stone Face” may have taught a lesson by its story, but the discussion of the value of lofty ideals is a subject for exposition.