crease our power of expression, and furnish subjects for composition.

Here are some of the reasons.

1. They are well known to us.

2. We can choose our time and place for telling them.

3. We can choose our own audiences.

4. We can express our own thoughts in chosen words. 5. We can take time to think how to arrange our thoughts.

6. We can tell our story before writing it.

7. We can test our written work to make sure whether or not it expresses our thoughts as it should.

44. METHODS OF TESTING OUR WORK.

There are several ways in which it is possible to test the value of subjects and our manner of handling them.

1. By trying them on our friends, and noting the result. It may be just be just as well if our friends are not aware that we are telling our story for a purpose.

2. By telling certain of our experiences as class exercises. In such cases we may, if desired, consult the teacher for aid in our choice.

3. If such telling proves to us that we might have done better, a writing test may reveal the weak points, and enable us to make them stronger at a future trial.

4. In all testing it is well to remember that a discovery of weakness is a hopeful sign, as chances for improvement are thereby made to appear.

5. In all our testing we must not let ourselves be satisfied with doing passably well. We must remember that we are building a style of speech, or of writing, that will stay with us for better or for worse.

6. One of the most important elements of testing is the patience that comes from. making our weaknesses, or near failures, contribute to our future successes.

7. Experiences common to several, as games or holiday tramps, or the same class work, may well be tried out by choosing certain individuals, each to tell the story of such an experience, with a vote from the others on its merits. Or an umpire may be chosen from the group to decide who has put the case in clearest light, and then give reasons for his decision.

Such tests are invaluable when undertaken with a firm purpose to gain language power. If not undertaken in earnest, they may be worse than useless. It is taken for granted that all who are studying English have but one end in view, a wish to succeed in their attempts to become good talkers and clear, ready writers.

45. HELPS IN RECALLING EXPERIENCES.

Notwithstanding the fact that subjects for composition from experiences are always at hand, and comparatively easy to find, because they grow directly out of our everyday lives, we sometimes need suggestions to help us recall them. In our conversations with those who have the power to make us see what they are talking about, we are often reminded of our similar experiences. The same awakening of consciousness may come to us by the reading of events, persons, or places in which something akin to what has happened to us is related. We observe how, in a group of talkers, one story will recall another, until several are told for the pleasure or amusement of all. The mention of a place or a person may carry our thoughts

far away from our surroundings, and give our minds new subjects for thought. For these reasons a list of subjects. is here given with the expectation that our own experiences will be recalled by them. We shall thus be able to talk or write from many of the subjects here given, and also to think of other subjects suggested by them.

46. SUBJECTS FOR COMPOSITION FROM EXPERIENCE.

1. My First Day at School. | 25. 2. Our Yesterday's Game.

3. What Happened Last Saturday.

4. The Broken Window.

5. Why I was Late.

6. A Fishing Trip. 7. A Good Joke.

8. A Jolly Good Time.

9. A Day on the Water. 10. My Trip to the Country. 11. A Dog Worth Having. 12. A Pair of Pigeons.

26.

27.

What Made me Happy. How We lost the Game. What I Saw on the Street. 28. What Father did. 29. How I Lost my Cap. 30. Some Fun in Bathing. 31. How I got Lost.

32. My Visit to Grand-
mother's.

33. My Neighbor and I.
34. How Carlo Helped me.

35.

My Largest Fish.

36.

Who did it ?

How often have we heard the complaint that it is hard to find good subjects for composition. With an appeal to

our experiences, this ought not to be so.

If we take something growing out of our own life that is fresh in memory, that happened yesterday or to-day, several subjects will come to us at once. There are also events in our lives so vividly pictured that nothing is likely to erase them from our memories. It is easy to talk or write about these.

With these facts of experience as starting points, we can make lists of subjects without limit. But that is not to our advantage. We must be able to limit our lists to subjects worth writing about.

48. CHOICE OF SUBJECTS.

In choosing our subjects we will decide first of all to exclude everything in the nature of gossip. We will then refuse to talk or write about things that are too trivial to

be worth mentioning.

Of course it would not be to our

We must

advantage to choose any uninteresting subject, as no audience would care to attend to us a second time. always keep in mind that compositions are for audiences. When we have good news to spread, or valuable information to impart, or an amusing incident to relate, or an account of something that is of real interest, because of its relation to life, we ought not to allow the opportunity to pass without use in composition.

49. SUBJECTS SHOULD BE LIMITED.

With our discussion of subjects for composition in mind, let us make selections that seem to us the most worth writing about.

In making this choice let value to ourselves and others, interest of a right sort, vividness, and clearness of thought be our guides. It is not the ability to say or to write something that we seek. It is the ability to talk and write well.

50. A WISE SELECTION OF TOPICS IS A SURE INDICATION OF CLEAR THINKING.

From the five subjects chosen according to the limits just made, let us take the one that is uppermost in our minds. With this subject before us, we will make a list of topics that will assist in recalling what is to be said, and the order of the arrangement. We must be sure that the topics as placed will bring the thoughts to be expressed in their right order. They will show whether or not all that is desired is provided for by the topics. The topics must make our outline complete.

When we are satisfied that all the points to be made