The mining of copper in Michigan is of prehistoric origin, the metal having been used by the North American Indians before the advent of the white man. The records since 1810, or for a little more than 100 years, show that the total production of copper in Michigan from that date to the close of 1912 has amounted to over 5,200,000,000 pounds, which is about 30 per cent of the total output of the United States. III. Oral Composition All three of these items are evidently condensations of longer articles. The writers have boiled down a vast amount of material into the form in which it here appears. The student will find similar material in abundance in _The Literary Digest_, in _The Scientific American_, in _The National Geographical Magazine_, in many government reports, and in almost any daily newspaper. In preparing for this exercise he should observe the following steps: 1. Find his material. 2. Boil it down, to the size desired, which is a most useful exercise of the judgment. 3. Make a careful framework, in doing which the models will be useful. 4. Get the whole so well in mind that he can present it fluently. Hesitation should not be tolerated. IV. Suggested Time Schedule _Monday_--Dictation. _Tuesday_--Notes and Queries. _Wednesday_--Oral Composition. _Thursday_--Written Composition. _Friday_--Public Speaking. V. Notes, Queries, and Exercises. 1. Write an appropriate heading for each item. 2. Point out the "Four W's" in each. 3. Tell whether each sentence is simple, compound, or complex. 4. Explain the syntax of the nouns in Model I, the pronouns in II, the verbs in III. 5. Explain the location of St. Louis, Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Bay of Fundy, Washington, Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, and Montana. 6. Where is the copper country of Michigan? The salt, bromine, calcium, chloride, graphite, and brick regions? 7. Explain the etymological signification of "demonstration," "extraordinary," "accumulated," "Nova Scotia," "annually," "geological," "Arizona," "Montana," "advent." 8. How many words does Model I contain? II? III? 9. Discover and write out the framework of each model. 10. Find one subject on which you could make an item like Model I. Do the same for II and III. VI. Written Composition Remember that you are writing for the compositor. Every letter must be right. If you do a good piece of work it is altogether probable that your composition will get into one of the local papers. VII. Suggested Reading Mark Twain's _Tom Sawyer_, _Huckleberry Finn_, _Pudd'nhead Wilson_, or _Roughing It_. VIII. Memorize GOETHALS, THE PROPHET ENGINEER A man went down to Panama Where many a man had died To slit the sliding mountains And lift the eternal tide: A man stood up in Panama, And the mountains stood aside.