Do you think the picture
gains, or loses, by representing the door as "ajar" instead of wide open?
Why? Can you see any similar effect from introducing _their covert_ in the
tenth sentence? What does the expression _knowingly left open_ suggest to
you? This selection from Irving illustrates the +Descriptive+ style of
writing.
SUGGESTIONS FOR COMPOSITION WORK.
In the description above we have taken some liberties with the original,
for we have broken it up into single sentences. The parts of this picture
as made by Irving were smoothly and delicately blended together.
You may rewrite this description; and, where it can be done to advantage,
you may join the sentences neatly together. Perhaps some of these sentences
may be changed to become parts of other sentences,
TO THE TEACHER.--It will be found profitable for pupils to break up for
themselves into short sentences model selections from classic English, and,
after examining the structure and style as suggested above, to note and, so
far as possible, explain how these were blended together in the original. A
written reproduction of the selection may then be made from memory.
This study of the thought, the structure, and the style of the great
masters in language must lead to a discriminating taste for literature; and
the effect upon the pupil's own habits of thought and expression will
necessarily be to lift him above the insipid, commonplace matter and
language that characterize much of the so-called "original" composition
work.
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