6. More Speaking and Writing Oral Exercise. Have you a savings account at the bank? Do you enjoy seeing it grow? Should you have an account if your parents did not insist on it? Why is the habit of saving a valuable habit? How do grown people prepare for old age, the time when they can no longer work for a living? Talk these questions over with your parents; then arrange your ideas in order and give a talk to your class about "Having a Savings Account." It would be interesting for you to tell just how you started yours, who took you to the bank, what you had to do, what the man at the bank said, how you felt. Written Exercise. A savings bank wishes to print a little argument that will persuade people to save their money. This bank thinks that a boy's or a girl's ideas on saving may prove more interesting to readers than what older people have written, and so it asks you to write out your ideas. Do it, and group in paragraphs the sentences that belong together. Make an attractive folder, and arrange on its pages what you have written, so that it can be easily read. But do not call it finished until you have carefully searched every sentence for mistakes. 7. Giving Directions 39 Oral Exercise. I. Just as you are leaving the schoolhouse, a stranger asks you to direct him to the railroad station. Tell him the way so clearly that he can understand it at once, and cannot take the wrong turn. 2. Direct a stranger (1) from the schoolhouse to the post office, (2) from the post office to the schoolhouse, (3) from your home to the schoolhouse, (4) from the railroad station to the leading hotel, (5) from the station to the nearest grocery store. Written Exercise. Write your uncle a letter telling him exactly how to reach your home from the railroad station, if he should decide some day to surprise you and your parents with a visit. Oral Exercise. What have you learned to do that you think your classmates would like to hear about? It may be only a very simple matter, like taking an ink spot out of a white handkerchief, or like the best way of lacing shoes, of currying a horse, of sweeping and dusting a room, of studying a lesson. Whatever it is, explain it so clearly that your classmates cannot fail to understand it. Perhaps the following list will suggest a subject to you: 1. How to Load a Camera 2. How to Take a Picture 3. The Best Kind of Camera for a Boy or Girl to Buy 4. How to Begin a Stamp Collection 6. How to Clean a Bicycle 7. How to Prepare Mashed Potatoes 9. How to Clean Up the Back Yard 12. How to Lay Out a Baseball Diamond Group Exercise. After each explanation the class will point out (1) its good features, and (2) its faults. A list of questions on the board will be useful in these criticisms. It is often useful, too, to have the class divided into committees, one committee watching for too many and's, another for sentences that are incomplete, another for other mistakes. Still another committee could give attention to the clearness of each sentence and of each explanation as a whole. 9. Capitals and Punctuation Marks 1. A capital letter should be used to begin the first and every important word in the title of a book, poem, essay, story, composition. Thus: The name of this book is "Oral and Written English." 2. A capital letter should be used for the word I and the word O. 3. The comma should be used to separate a sentence into parts so that its meaning may be clear to the reader. Thus: When the lion had eaten, John went home. 4. The apostrophe should be used to show where in contractions a letter or letters have been omitted. Thus don't, does n't, he'll, I'll, is n't. Oral Exercise. Find in your reader several illustrations of each of the preceding rules. Dictation Exercise. Explain the use of every capital letter and punctuation mark in the following selection. Then write it from dictation. THE TALKING BIRD Once upon a time there lived a king of Persia whose custom it was to wander about his city at night in disguise, in order that he might obtain a knowledge of affairs. One evening, in company with his vizier, he was walking through the streets where the poorer people lived, when he heard from within a house the voices of women in eager conversation. Going near the house he peeped in at the door and saw three fair sisters who were talking together about what they most longed for. Said the eldest, "I wish I were married to the shah's chief baker, for then I should have the finest and sweetest bread in the whole kingdom to eat." Said the second, "I would rather marry the shah's cook and eat of all the dainty dishes that are served in the palace.” Then said the third, who was by far the loveliest of the three, "O my sisters, I should like to marry the shah himself.” - The Arabian Nights Written Exercise. Copy the following paragraphs, writing capital letters and inserting punctuation marks where they ought to be : the talking bird the shah was amused at all this and determined that he would gratify the three wishes so he said to his vizier mark well what house this is and to-morrow bring these maidens before me to hear is to obey said the vizier and they went back to the palace when morning came the vizier brought the three sisters to the king who said to them kindly o maidens what were you wishing for last evening then the sisters stood silent with shame and embarrassment and for a time could not pluck up courage to speak but at last they told him the whole story when he had heard the wishes repeated he said it shall be as you have desired accordingly the three weddings were arranged for the eldest sister was married to the chief baker the next became the bride of the head cook and the shah took the youngest sister for The Arabian Nights his queen Group Exercise. When all have rewritten this selection, let one of the class read it aloud, telling where he has inserted capital letters and punctuation marks. The class will follow the reading with its own copies and decide whether capital letters and punctuation marks have been placed where they belong. Correction Exercise. Together with a classmate re-read one of your and one of his recent compositions, with capitals and punctuation marks in mind. Can you find any mistakes? Correct these. |