Project Gutenberg's Practical Exercises in English, by Huber Gray Buehler

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Title: Practical Exercises in English

Author: Huber Gray Buehler

Release Date: May 24, 2004 [EBook #12421]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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PRACTICAL EXERCISES IN ENGLISH

BY

HUBER GRAY BUEHLER

MASTER IN ENGLISH IN THE HOTCHKISS SCHOOL

ARRANGED FOR USE WITH
ADAMS SHERMAN HILL'S
"FOUNDATIONS OF RHETORIC"

NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

Copyright, 1895, by Harper & Brothers
All rights reserved.
W.P. 17

PREFACE

The art of using one's native tongue correctly and forcibly is acquired
for the most part through imitation and practice, and is not so much a
matter of knowledge as of habit. As regards English, then, the first duty
of our schools is to set before pupils excellent models, and, in all
departments of school-work, to keep a watchful eye on the innumerable acts
of expression, oral and written, which go to form habit. Since, however,
pupils come to school with many of their habits of expression already
formed on bad models, our schools must give some attention to the special
work of pointing out common errors of speech, and of leading pupils to
convert knowledge of these errors into new and correct habits of
expression. This is the branch of English teaching in which this little
book hopes to be useful.

All the "Exercises in English" with which I am acquainted consist chiefly
of "sentences to be corrected." To such exercises there are grave
objections. If, on the one hand, the fault in the given sentence is not
seen at a glance, the pupil is likely, as experience has shown, to pass it
by and to change something that is not wrong. If, on the other hand, the
fault is obvious, the exercise has no value in the formation of habit.
Take, for example, two "sentences for correction" which I select at random
from one of the most widely used books of its class: "I knew it was him,"
and "Sit the plates on the table." A pupil of any wit will at onc