The titles given under the preceding section (_Oral Lessons_) will lead to many excellent exercises for this purpose. Insist on perfect accuracy of copy. Spelling, capitalization and punctuation must be correct. If the original is prose, insist upon proper paragraphing; if poetry, upon exactness in the arrangement of the lines, especially in the matter of indentation. Children will quickly see the relation that indentation bears to rhymes. By following with exactness, the child learns unconsciously to observe the general rules. By occasionally calling attention to the reasons for forms, children are taught to act intelligently and to decide for themselves when they come to original composition. Rhythm is as natural as breathing, and rhyming is easy for children with quick ears and quick thought. You will be surprised the first time you try the exercise to see how quickly they will imitate a rhythm with which they are familiar, and the skill they show in making rhymes. Try it first as an oral exercise, and later ask for written lines. Much of such work may not be profitable, but it serves well to give variety. Making simple parodies is amusing and stimulating to thought. Sometimes you will help by suggesting rhymes or by giving hints as to the subject to be parodied. Take the nursery rhyme _There Was an Old Woman_ (Volume I, page 36) for a model. Suggest _bird_ and _nest_ as ideas for new rhymes and keep helping until you get something like this: There was a sweet birdie Who built a fine nest, A beautiful birdie With a very red breast. Use the same meter many times over till all become familiar with it. Similar exercises prove highly interesting to children of all ages. Although this is not a treatise on written language lessons, a few general suggestions may not be out of place: 1. Be sure that the children have something interesting about which to write. 2. Be sure that they have a good stock of ideas on the subject, or that they know how and where to get information and can get it without great difficulty. 3. Be sure that they write an outline of their composition or have one thoroughly in mind before they begin on the essay itself. 4. Give plenty of time for the writing. 5. Show a decided interest in their preparation and in their compositions. 6. Do not be severe in your criticisms. Give encouragement. Concentrate your efforts on one or two errors at a time. Let other mistakes pass till a more convenient time. 7. _a._ Watch for errors: (1) In the use of capital letters. (2) In the use of punctuation marks; first of terminal marks, then of the marks within a sentence. _b._ See that every sentence is complete, with subject and predicate. _c._ See that verbs agree with subjects, and pronouns with antecedents. _d._ Insist that the work be paragraphed. _e._ Watch for errors in case among the pronouns. The objective case is troublesome.