CHAPTER SIXTEEN PARAGRAPHS; TOPICAL OUTLINES; ORIGINAL STORIES; LETTERS; PUNCTUATION; DICTIONARY STUDY Note to the teacher: With some exercises the teachers' Manual is indispensable; with every lesson it is helpful. I. WHAT PARAGRAPHS ARE The Bird Room When I began to be interested in birds, I lived in a city where not many besides English sparrows were to be seen. I wanted to know something about our common birds; moreover, I never looked into a bird store without longing to set every poor little captive free. So I set up a Bird Room. Every fall, for several years, I went around to the bird stores in New York and Brooklyn, and bought all the stray American birds I could find. The dealers did not make a business of keeping our common birds, and now it is against the law to do so. They usually kept only such birds as canaries, parrots, and other regular cage birds; but occasionally they would have a robin or bluebird or oriole tucked off in a corner, and these birds were the ones I bought. In one store I would find a catbird, moping on a high shelf or in a dark back room; in another a bluebird scared half to death, and dumb in the midst of squawking parrots and singing canaries. ten WHAT PARAGRAPHS ARE 197 In this way I collected in my Bird Room eight or usually of our native birds, and always in pairs when I could get them. I put each one in a big cage, and left the doors open all day; so that they had the freedom of a large room with three big windows and plenty of perches all about. Then I gave almost the whole of my time to taking care of them, and studying their ways through the winter; and as soon as spring came and birds began to come back from the south I took my little captives those which were able to fly and I thought could take care of themselves carried them out into the country or a big park, and set them free. From True Bird Stories by OLIVE THORNE MILLER In this account of her bird room, note that the author does not write all her sentences in one She groups them into paragraphs. mass. How many paragraphs are there? How can you tell? Read again the first paragraph. In this paragraph the writer groups all the sentences that tell of her interest in the birds. How many sentences are in this paragraph? Read the second paragraph. In this paragraph the writer groups all the sentences that tell how she collected the birds for her bird room. How many sentences are in this paragraph? Read the third paragraph. In this paragraph the writer groups all the sentences that tell of the birds in the bird room. How many sentences are in this paragraph? Read the fourth paragraph. In this paragraph the writer tells how she cared for the birds. How many sentences are in this paragraph? A paragraph may contain one or any number of sentences; but all the sentences in a paragraph must be about the same topic. This grouping of sentences into paragraphs helps to make the meaning clear easy to understand what is written. to make it The word "paragraph" comes from a Greek word, meaning a line or stroke in the margin. The paragraph mark is generally made like this, T. Formerly this mark was used to call the reader's attention to a change of topic. Now, instead of making this mark, the writer or printer generally indents the first line beginning a new topic, as in the selection above. The word "paragraph" has now come to mean, not the mark ¶, but a group of sentences about a topic. The sign is still used, however, to show where a line should be indented to mark a new paragraph. So if you find this mark on the USING THE DICTIONARY 199 margin of your paper, you will know that you should make another paragraph at that place. If you were to write the topics of the paragraphs in The Bird Room, your paper should be arranged as follows: The Bird Room (1) My interest in birds (2) How I collected the birds (4) How I cared for the birds A paragraph is one or more sentences relating to one topic. II. USING THE DICTIONARY The following words are used in The Bird Room. Are you sure that you pronounce all the above words correctly? Remember that your dictionary will tell you how to pronounce any or all of them. Look up any of them about which you are doubtful. Copy the nine words above, and after each write its meaning. If you are not sure of the meaning, find it in the dictionary. After you have written the meaning, find the sentence in The Bird Room, in which each word occurs. Read the sentence, putting in place of the word used by the author, the meaning you have written. Is the sense the same? If not, you have not the right meaning. Try again. III. MAKING PARAGRAPH TOPICS Read carefully the following paragraphs. Write the topic of each paragraph. Give a title to the whole. Arrange your work like the topics of The Bird Room (page 199). Rivers, lakes, and the ocean present many beautiful views. You may have observed that in cities, where people plan for fine parks, they arrange, if possible, to have a lake or stream as part of the scenery. A body of water, even if but a brook, greatly improves a view. A brook is a beautiful object. How pleasant to see its green banks, to listen to its rippling waters, and to watch its tiny rapids, whirlpools, and falls, as it travels onward to the ocean! Rivers are not less attractive; like the brooks, their rushing waters seem to tell a story, and one loves to linger by them, to listen and to look. At times, when swollen by floods, they are wild and savage; again, they are quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. They wind in and out among the steep and wooded hills; now they |