ercises have been incorporated at frequent
intervals throughout the text. So far as was practicable the exercises
have been kept constructive in their nature, and upon critical
points have been made very extensive.

The author claims little credit except for the plan of the book
and for the labor that he has expended in developing the details of
that plan and in devising the various exercises. In the statement
of principles and in the working out of details great originality
would have been as undesirable as it was impossible. Therefore,
for these details the author has drawn from the great common stores
of learning upon the subjects discussed. No doubt many traces of
the books that he has used in study and in teaching may be found
in this volume. He has, at times, consciously adapted matter from
other texts; but, for the most part, such slight borrowings as
may be discovered have been made wholly unconsciously. Among the
books to which he is aware of heavy literary obligations are the
following excellent texts: Lockwood and Emerson's Composition and
Rhetoric, Sherwin Cody's Errors in Composition, A. H. Espenshade's
Composition and Rhetoric, Edwin C. Woolley's Handbook of Composition,
McLean, Blaisdell and Morrow's Steps in English, Huber Gray Buehler's
Practical Exercises in English, and Carl C. Marshall's Business
English.

To Messrs. Ginn and Company, publishers of Lockwood and Emerson's
Composition and Rhetoric, and to the Goodyear-Marshall Publishing
Company, publishers of Marshall's Business English, the author is
indebted for their kind permission to make a rather free adaptation
of certain parts of their texts.

Not a little gratitude does the author owe to those of his friends
who have encouraged and aided him in the preparation of his manuscript,
and to the careful criticisms and suggestions made by those persons
who examined the completed manuscript in behalf of his publishers.
Above all, a great debt of gratitude is owed to Mr. Grant Norris,
Superintendent of Schools, Braddock, Pennsylvania, for the encouragement
and painstaking aid he has given both in preparation of the manuscript
and in reading the proof of the book.

T.W.

BRADDOCK, PENNSYLVANIA.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I.--SENTENCES--PARTS OF SPEECH--ELEMENTS OF SENTENCE--PHRASES AND CLAUSES

II.--NOUNS
Common and Proper
Inflection Defined
Number
The Formation of Plurals
Com