CHOOSING SUBJECTS
IN Chapter X definite subjects were assigned for talks. Getting a
subject for yourself sometimes seems difficult; you are likely to think
that there is no topic upon which you can say more than a few sentences.
Isn't it true that when you are talking to your friends you seldom are
at a loss for something to say? Of course, what your companion says
often suggests an idea on which you give your opinion. You speak about
things that interest you, and the words come fairly easily. Why not
apply the same principle to more formal composition, whether oral or
written? Unless a subject interests you, do not use it. But be careful
that you do not reject it as uninteresting until you have thought about
it carefully, considering it from all sides. Often one subject will
suggest another akin to it, but more interesting to you because you know
more about it. For this reason choose very simple subjects, and become
thoroughly familiar with them by thinking or reading about them, before
you attempt to explain them.
Sometimes, again, you will find that the subject you have chosen is not
good because it is not definite enough. You hardly know where or how to
begin to explain it, because it suggests no definite ideas. Perhaps, for
instance, you have decided to write on the automobile and can think of
nothing to say until you remember that you once saw an automobile race
about which you can tell several interesting details; or you have seen
an automobile accident and can write on the topic _A Runaway Electric_.
If you can speak or write on a topic taken from your own observation,
your composition will probably be good. You know the facts, you have an
interest in the subject, and you will very likely say something of
interest to others. Subjects taken from school life or neighborhood
happenings, especially such things as you yourself have seen, are
excellent. Perhaps on your way to school you noticed that several old
houses are being torn down. You remember that you heard that a candy
factory is to be erected. At once several suggestions for themes will
come to you; as, _Why the Factory is Being Erected in this
Neighborhood_, _How Neighborhoods Change in a Large City_, _The Work the
Wrecking Company Carries on_. Perhaps your father owns property in the
neighborhood, and you could write on _How Real Estate Values have
Changed in this Neighborhood_.
Next to your own experience, the best source from which to draw subjects
is your reading. This may be divided into (1) books, (2) magazines and
newspapers. Recall one of the books that you read in the grammar grades,
perhaps _The Courtship of Miles Standish_. Drawing your material from
this source, you can write _A Picture of Early Plymouth Days_, or a
sketch of Miles Standish's character, using the title _Practice What You
Preach_. But to try to tell the whole story to any one in two or three
minutes would result in failure, for it would be a subject entirely too
big to treat in so short a time. All the interesting details would have
to be omitted, and, if the details are omitted, the story loses its
vitality.
It is the newspaper or the magazine, however, that offers us the most
available source of subjects. Practically all that we know of the modern
world and of the wonderful progress being made in invention and
discovery, as well as of the accidents and disasters that take place, we
have learned first from the newspaper and have verified later by the
articles in magazines. Every issue of a newspaper or of a magazine
contains suggestions for many subjects. Such magazines as _The World's
Work_, _System_, _The Outlook_, _The Technical World_, and other
magazines that deal with technical subjects in a popular way are
excellent for this work.
A third important source of subjects is the studies that you are now
pursuing. Every new study affords a new point of view, which should
suggest many topics for oral and written themes. Sometimes a good
subject is the comparison of two of your studies by which you try to
show, perhaps, how the one depends on the other.
The subject, of course, is but the beginning of the composition.
Developing the subject is fully as important as having a subject to
develop. The ability to develop a subject clearly is very important in
the business world. A business man sells his goods either by talking or
by writing; by the salesman or by the letter and the advertisement.
Unless the salesman talks in a convincing way, he probably will sell few
goods. He must know not only what to say, but how to say it.
=Exercise 154--The Subject as a Whole=
First, you must see your subject in its entirety, as one thing. Ask
yourself, "Just what does my title mean?" and if you have not as yet
selected a title, study your subject from all sides until you can see
how to narrow it to certain definite dimensions. Now you have set a sort
of fence around your subject. Nothing outside must enter, but nothing
inside must escape. The length of the composition you are to write
usually helps you decide on the limits of your subject. If you are
writing a book on Africa, you might include all that the title suggests
to you of exploration, colonization, civilization, and Christianization.
But if you are writing a very short theme--not over three pages--it is
evident that the subject must be narrowed. Would _The Transvaal_ be
good? _The Jungles of Africa?_ _Roosevelt in Africa?_ _African Mission
Stations?_ _When I think of Africa I think of Stanley?_
* * * * *
Which of the following subjects would be good for short compositions,
either oral or written? The oral theme should occupy two or three
minutes, the written perhaps three pages. What is the objection to a one
word subject?