Every composition is to be revised carefully and returned to the teacher.1 In most cases there should be no need of rewriting; corrections made on the original paper will show whether the criticisms have been understood. But when a composition has to be rewritten, the original copy should be handed in with the rewritten one.

Never Erase Any Of The Criticisms

There may not be room to recast whole sentences on the original copy, but it is important to make such corrections there as space allows. In a matter like spelling, for example, if the right form is written above the wrong form, the teacher can see at a glance that the correction has been made; whereas it would take much longer to find the corrected word in the rewritten copy.

By keeping much of the written work in a notebook, the pupil can attend to certain matters at once and, as he continues his study of composition, can come back to his early work again and again for the sake of making one improvement after another. For instance, in connection with the study of punctuation, different sentences may be tested by the rules for the use of commas, semicolons, and so on. It will be well always to bring the notebook to class.