“’Tis not in mortals to command success.
But we’ll do more, Sempronius; we’ll deserve it.”

Joseph Addison.

I.Assignments

1. Explain the plan of your own house.
2. Explain the plan of some new house that you pass on your way to school.
3. Explain the structure of a new locomotive, railway car, street car, automobile, ship, or aeroplane.
4. Explain the plan of your schoolhouse.
5. The papers contain many descriptions of new houses. These are usually written with a fine disregard of the laws of composition. Find and rewrite one of them. Do the same with a description of a ship such as is common in periodicals.

II.ModelI

The new suburban home of John Doe is located in a ten-acre tract on the northern side of the Seven-Mile Road, midway between Woodward Avenue and the Gratiot E. Turnpike. The material is reinforced concrete; the style, Colonial; the roof of green shingles; the size, 48feet by 36feet.

From a front entrance porch a central hall 7feet wide extends 29feet to the rear of the house, terminating in a flight of stairs broken in the middle by a landing. Above this landing a circular window gives plenty of light and at the same time forms a decorative feature.

On the right, as one enters the hall, is a room 9feet by 14feet, which may be used as a den or a reception room. Back of this is a living-room, 14feet by 20feet, with a fireplace at the rear end, and a French door that leads to a side piazza. This piazza, which is 20feet by 7feet, is covered and is equipped with sliding windows.

On the other side of the hall, in front, is the dining-room, 16feet by 14feet. This room has a fireplace, which faces the street, and a French door, which leads to a side porch 8feet by 10. The latter is enclosed with glass and is used as a breakfast porch. Directly behind this porch is a small sewing-room, and, partly behind the sewing-room and partly behind the dining-room, is the kitchen, which is 12feet square. In the northwest corner of the house, directly north of the sewing-room and west of the kitchen, are a small back porch and an entry large enough for a refrigerator. East of the kitchen, between it and the main hall, are a passage and service stairways leading to the cellar and the upper floors. The kitchen is thus separated from the rest of the house, either way, by two doors, which prevents the odors of the cooking from escaping.

The walls of the first floor are finished in oiled and waxed gumwood. The floors are oak, except in the kitchen, where hard pine is used.

On the second floor the rear of the space above the main hall is occupied by a passage, the front by a bathroom. On the eastern side of this passage, above the den, is a bedroom 16feet by 14feet, and back of this, above the living-room, a bedroom 14feet by 11feet. The latter has a fireplace in the north wall. On the western side of the passage, in front, above the dining-room, is the owner’s chamber, 16feet by 14feet. From its southeast corner a door leads to the bathroom already mentioned; on its southwest side is a porch, and in its northern wall are two closets and a fireplace. In its rear a passage leads to a fourth chamber, 14feet by 10feet, which has an alcove, 9feet by 8feet. This alcove is directly above the sewing-room and the chamber is in the northwest corner of the house. Between it and the service stairway is a second bathroom.

On the third floor are three large chambers, an unfinished room for storage, and a servants’ bath.

The cellar contains a laundry, a vegetable closet, coal-bins, and a hot-water heating-plant.

III.Analytical Discussion

1. Note the framework:
   1. “Four W’s”—Par.1.
   2. First Floor—
      • Par.2. Main Hall.
      • Par.3. Right Side.
      • Par.4. Left Side.
      • Par.5. Floors and Walls.
   3. Second Floor—Par.6.
   4. Third Floor. Par.7.
   5. Cellar—Par.8.
2. Words. Define and explain the etymology of “suburban,” “located,” “reinforced,” “concrete,” “Colonial,” “reception,” “piazza,” “porch,” “refrigerator,” “separated,” “except,” “servant,” “closet,” “effect.”
3. Sentences. (a) Tell whether they are simple, complex, or compound. (b) Do any of them lack unity?
4. Paragraphs. (a) Can you find any violations of paragraph unity? (b) Observe that the following particulars are mentioned in Par.1: location, material, shape, color, size. Is the same plan used in describing each room? In order to determine this, make a list of the items that are mentioned in explaining the construction of each.
5. Transition. Point out all of the transition words in the model.
6. Figures of Speech. Find a metaphor and an antithesis in the model.

IV.ModelII

The Arizona is the latest and greatest addition to the battle fleet of the United States.

Her displacement is 31,400tons, her length over all 600feet, her maximum breadth 97feet, and her draft under normal conditions 28feet, 10inches. Parsons’s turbines of 29,000 horse-power give her a speed of 21knots. Her fuel supply is 2322tons of oil. She carries a crew of 1000men. Her cost was $16,000,000.

Her armament consists of twelve fourteen-inch and twenty-two five-inch guns, four three-pounders for the launches, two three-inch guns for salutes, and four twenty-two-inch torpedo tubes. The big guns are mounted in four turrets, two forward and two aft, each containing three guns. The turrets nearer to the middle of the ship are enough higher than the forward and aft turrets to permit their guns to be fired directly ahead and astern respectively. This arrangement permits the concentration of six guns forward, six aft, and twelve on either broadside.

This vessel is probably armored more heavily than any other warship afloat. Her main belt is sixteen inches thick, while the Iron Duke, one of the latest British dreadnoughts, carries only twelve inches.

V.Notes and Queries

1. Observe the structure:
   • Par.1. General Description.
   • Par.2. Statistics.
   • Par.3. Offensive Power.
   • Par.4. Defensive Arrangements.
2. Could the same structure be used for the description of a freight boat, a passenger steamer, a ferryboat, a schooner, a sloop, a brig, a brigantine, a tugboat, a launch, a locomotive, a railway carriage, an airship, or an automobile?
3. What changes, if any, would you suggest?
4. Explain the terms “displacement,” “draft,” “normal,” “knots,” “pounds,” “turrets.”
5. Explain the metaphor in “belt.” Is it a good one?

VI.Gathering Material

Do not get your material from reading; get it from observation. Don’t steal it; earn it. Catch your fish; don’t buy a string of dead ones at the fish-market, and then lie about the way you obtained them. Few of us can be original, but we can all be honest and industrious.

VII.Organization

Before you write, make a plan. It is as necessary in composition as in building. If the nature of your subject or the kind and quantity of your material render it desirable to deviate from the model, do not hesitate to do so. As a rule, however, it will be best to follow its plan rather closely. At all events, work from some plan. Don’t get the idea that you can dash off a finished exposition in a few minutes.

VIII.Writing

Exposition above everything else should be clear. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

IX.Criticism

The written expositions of house plans may be tested by having the pupils exchange papers, and asking the recipients to draw the plans from the compositions.

X.Suggested Reading

Rudyard Kipling’s The Ship that Found Herself.

XI.Memorize

CHARITY

Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Though they may gang a kennin’ wrang,
To step aside is human.
One point must still be greatly dark,
The moving why they do it,
And just as lamely can ye mark
How far perhaps they rue it.

Who made the heart ’tis he alone
Decidedly can try us;
He knows each chord—its various tone,
Each spring—its various bias.
Then at the balance let’s be mute;
We never can adjust it;
What’s done we partly may compute,
But know not what’s resisted.

Robert Burns.
Contents