An adjunct should be so placed that its use in expressing the thought is clear. Usually it should be placed as near as possible to the word of which it is an adjunct.

Exercise 96. Composition

Find adjuncts that are incorrectly placed. Rewrite the sentence, making the meaning clear. If you can make a better sentence by changing the form of the adjunct, do so.

1. She looked at the bad boy as she spoke very severely.

2. A bird fluttered along the ground with a broken wing.

3. Mr. William Henry Young gave a lecture at St. Joseph's Academy last evening on the ballad, which was very interesting.

4. He threw down the book he had been reading with a bang.

5. A drug clerk is wanted in a country town with little experience.

6. We hunted all day for wild grapes in the woods.

7. In laundering black or dark goods, use gum arabic to stiffen instead of starch.

8. My feeling is one of the warmest friendship towards her.

9. Next month we expect to print an article by H. J. Brown, already known to our readers, on forcing hyacinth bulbs.

10. He promised to reform over and over again.

11. Hard wood can be finished in fifteen or twenty different ways, especially pine.

12. Force the fruit through a colander, add the juice of one half lemon and sugar to taste to pulp.

13. The ingredients should be put into a bowl that is set in a pan of hot water to soften.

Exercise 97. Composition

Write the following exercises as if they were to appear in a newspaper. Examine your work carefully and see that adjuncts are well placed and that the items are clear in every way. They should also be perfect in all matters of form.

1. A "Lost" or "Found" notice.

2. A "Want" or a "For Sale" notice.

3. A very brief notice of some social event.

4. A longer and more interesting account of the same event.

5. A letter to the newspaper, expressing your approval or disapproval of some public work that is under consideration.

Topics For Composition

If you find yourself writing in short simple sentences only, try to combine some of these into longer ones. But do not try to use very long sentences at first, since it takes much skill to construct them so they are entirely clear. After you have finished a composition, and made it as interesting as you can, it will be well to go over it again sentence by sentence and see that each is well "composed."

1. What some clock saw.

2. The caring for milk.

3. A visit to a dairy or creamery or factory.

4. How to make cottage cheese, salad dressing, or some other article of food.

5. An explanation of an arithmetic example.

6. Description of an incubator.

7. How to operate an incubator.

8. The history (or autobiography) of some article on the breakfast table.

9. Advantages of being a boy scout.

10. Advantages of being a campfire girl.

11. Something that I could buy for a dollar and that would give me lasting pleasure.

Topics And Topic Sentences For Short Talks Before The Class

See if you can talk as well as you can write.

1. Some topic of current interest, - local, national, or foreign.

2. My favorite study. Explain.

3. A favorite book. Explain.

4. How the nurseryman produces his stock of some variety of fruit tree.

5. Every boy (girl) ought to own a flock of bantams.

6. Every girl (boy) ought to own a pony.

7. The advantages of a course in manual training.

8. The advantages of a course in domestic science.

9. The right kind of tools makes tedious jobs easier.

10. We pupils can do more than any one else for the improvement of our school.