PART III.-THE SENTENCE AND ITS CLAUSES. I. RELATION TO THOUGHT. 56. Idiomatic Usage.. 219 223 ... ELEMENTS OF THE WHOLE COMPOSITION. I. INTRODUCTORY. PRACTICAL or Applied Rhetoric and the Art of Composition are convertible terms. While this treatise is called a rhetoric, in conformity with established practice, the word composition will be more frequently used, as serving to convey more directly its chief aim, which is constructive rather than critical or scientific. 1. Composition is the act of putting together, of arranging. Specifically, it is the act of putting together ideas. A composition is a number of ideas on one subject, so grouped and connected as to give a clear understanding of the subject. The primary aim is to get something said; to get it said well is secondary. We must begin, therefore, with invention, with the determination of a subject and the selection and organization of material. The Art of Composition should not be conceived of as something existing solely for itself, to be acquired or not as one pleases. It is not for any ornamental character it may possess that it is included in the curricula of schools and colleges. Indeed, English Composition, as now understood, has risen into prominence just in proportion as our schools have grown more practical in their aims. It is an art, but it is an eminently practical one—the organization and presentation of our ideas as a means to the fulfilment of our common needs and desires. To speak to friends or strangers |