XVIII. WRITING AN ORIGINAL CON

VERSATION

Write the conversation, giving such brief descriptions or explanations as seem necessary, that you imagine to take place under any one of the following circumstances:

as,

1. A boy is trying to sell another boy something, a knife, a bicycle, a top, a book.

2. A man is trying to buy something from another man, as, a horse, a dog, a cart, an automobile.

3. A clerk in a store is trying to sell something to someone - it may be an article of furniture, or it may be vegetables, groceries, or a piece of meat.

4. A peddler, going from house to house, is trying to sell something to a woman who at first declares that she wants nothing, but finally buys something.

If you prefer, write a conversation that you have really heard, instead of an imaginary one.

Make a complete story, but keep it short. Have no more than eight paragraphs. If you can write it in less than eight paragraphs, do so.

XIX. CHAPTER TEST 1

Your teacher will dictate a short story to you. Try to divide it correctly into paragraphs. Use capitals and marks of punctuation correctly.

1 Note to the teacher: See Manual, page 175.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

DESCRIPTIONS, BOOKS, AND LETTERS; NOUNS, PRONOUNS, AND ADJECTIVES: HOW TO CHOOSE AND USE THEM

Note to the teacher: Always consult your Manual before assigning a lesson. You will often find suggestions there about the assignment as well as the conduct of the lesson.

I. STUDYING A DESCRIPTION

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the following description of Paris as it appeared one night after a heavy snowstorm. Old Paris Stevenson is describing the Paris of the fifteenth century

was built on an island in the River Seine, and was connected by bridges with the mainland.

The whole city was sheeted up. An army might have marched from end to end and not a footfall given the alarm. If there were any belated birds in heaven, they saw the island like a large white patch, and the bridges like slim white spars on the black ground of the river. -From New Arabian Nights

The Writer's Viewpoint

To see the picture properly, you must look at it from the writer's viewpoint. Imagine yourself a belated bird flying over the city, looking down on the island. Now can you see "the whole city sheeted up" covered by the soft

white sheet of snow? Can you see the "white patch" of the island? the "slim white spars of bridges? Can you see the black water "the black ground of the river beneath the slim white spars"? Why does the water seem black?

From this description can you draw an outline picture of the city?

Notice that the writer keeps one viewpoint, that of the bird hovering over the city. He does not describe the city first from the center, then from one of the bridges, then from across the river, then from above. No, indeed; like the painter, he first takes a good position - a position from which he can get a good view; then, from that one position, he paints his picture.

In writing a description, keep the same viewpoint throughout.

II. CHOICE OF WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

In Stevenson's description of Paris, notice how much he tells in a very few words. In the one word "sheeted" he gives us the idea of "covered,' "protected," "tucked away for the night," and the idea of "whiteness."

The word "black," used in describing the river, tells us that the river is not frozen. If it were, the snow would rest on the ice, and the

WHAT MAKES A DESCRIPTION GOOD

219

river, too, would be "sheeted" in snow. When the river is not frozen, the snowflakes rest for but a second on the water and then melt and become part of the blackness of the river.

Notice how the writer conveys the idea of the softness and depth of the snow, producing perfect silence. He does not say that the snow muffled the sound of passing footsteps. His expression is much stronger. The march of an army, the tramp of thousands of feet, is heard at a great distance, and is said, by those who have heard it, to be a sound to strike terror to the heart. So Stevenson makes us see and feel the depth and the softness of the snow-there can be little freezing or the snow would crunch under foot — when he tells us "an army might have marched from end to end and not a footfall given the alarm."

III. WHAT MAKES A DESCRIPTION GOOD' Stevenson's description is good, because he makes us see just what he describes; he succeeds in this because:

1. He had in his own mind a clear, vivid picture. 2. He described his picture from one viewpoint. 3. He selected words and expressions that produce exactly the picture he wanted us to have.

1 Note to the teacher: See Manual, page 181, for illustrative and supplementary exercises.

IV. WRITING A DESCRIPTION

In one of his essays, Robert Louis Stevenson tells us how he learned to write. He says that all through his boyhood and youth he was trying to learn to write. He always carried two books in his pocket, one to read, one to write in. Whenever he read anything that pleased him, he tried to write something as good. He writes:

"Description was the principal field of my exercise; for to any one with senses there is always something worth describing, and town and country are but one continuous subject."

Was not Stevenson's a good way to learn to write finding good models and trying to copy them? And was he not right in practicing on descriptions? As he so truly says, no matter where one lives, he can always find something interesting to describe. Then, too, in all writing we need some kind of description. Read any chapter of almost any book and see how many short descriptions it contains.

Below are given several subjects. Select one. Before describing the one you have selected,

1. Close your eyes and get a good picture in your cwn mind.

2. Think just where you would stand to take a good photograph of what you see in your mind.