Review: Scott and Denney's THE NEW COMPOSITION-RHETORIC
Review of Scott and Denney THE NEW COMPOSITION-RHETORIC
Scott, Fred N. and Joseph V. Denney. THE NEW RHETORIC-COMPOSITION. Norwood MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1911.
Scott and Denny’s text does not a grammar. The student in this text will not find a list of grammatical rules. Rather as the title suggests, the text focuses on Rhetoric as the theory of argument, and composition the practice of effectively applying rhetoric. The book fully engages the idea of the students putting the theory of rhetoric into practice. What is particularly valuable about this book is its extensive collection of rhetorical examples from 19th century American Literature and British Literature, and from mock student essays. Rhetorical examples are provided as used by writers such as Thoreau, Hawthorne, Emerson, in addition to Dickens and Shakespeare. The student of Scott and Denney’s text will be exposed to great literary works and historical essays. Also humorous are a few of the mock student essays dated subject matter. One such model essay, argues the future of airplanes from the 1911 perspective. This essay in serving as an effective demonstration of grouping arguments by cause and effect contains an argument, which states that:
A. Airplanes cannot take the place of passenger trains.
1. Their are too fragile.
2. Their are too many accidents.
3. Their carrying capacity is too limited.
4. There schedule would be too much disturbed by storms.
B. Airplanes would be of little use in war.
1. They cannot carry large guns.
2. They are easily destroyed by explosive shells.
These dated examples surprisingly may be more valuable as teaching tools today, because in the modern context they are quite humorous, and thus are perhaps more memorable. As a composition-rhetoric text, I would highly rank and recommend this almost century old text, as a source of support material for the teaching of advanced composition. ---Samuel Gordon Paley
Scott, Fred N. and Joseph V. Denney. THE NEW RHETORIC-COMPOSITION. Norwood MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1911.
Scott and Denny’s text does not a grammar. The student in this text will not find a list of grammatical rules. Rather as the title suggests, the text focuses on Rhetoric as the theory of argument, and composition the practice of effectively applying rhetoric. The book fully engages the idea of the students putting the theory of rhetoric into practice. What is particularly valuable about this book is its extensive collection of rhetorical examples from 19th century American Literature and British Literature, and from mock student essays. Rhetorical examples are provided as used by writers such as Thoreau, Hawthorne, Emerson, in addition to Dickens and Shakespeare. The student of Scott and Denney’s text will be exposed to great literary works and historical essays. Also humorous are a few of the mock student essays dated subject matter. One such model essay, argues the future of airplanes from the 1911 perspective. This essay in serving as an effective demonstration of grouping arguments by cause and effect contains an argument, which states that:
A. Airplanes cannot take the place of passenger trains.
1. Their are too fragile.
2. Their are too many accidents.
3. Their carrying capacity is too limited.
4. There schedule would be too much disturbed by storms.
B. Airplanes would be of little use in war.
1. They cannot carry large guns.
2. They are easily destroyed by explosive shells.
These dated examples surprisingly may be more valuable as teaching tools today, because in the modern context they are quite humorous, and thus are perhaps more memorable. As a composition-rhetoric text, I would highly rank and recommend this almost century old text, as a source of support material for the teaching of advanced composition. ---Samuel Gordon Paley
posted by Samuel Gordon Paley at 6:14 AM
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