In the second year, as in the first, the subjects for composition should be drawn largely if not entirely, from the pupil’s own experiences. In narrative and descriptive themes the pupil, after his practice in the first year, will find little difficulty in choosing the right kind of subjects. In exposition he can be encouraged to write explanations of those subjects with which he is thoroughly familiar. Simple manufacturing processes, the operation of machinery or of mechanical devices generally, methods of doing any kind of work, directions for playing games, and many other similar subjects that the pupil understands thoroughly, furnish excellent material for simpler expository themes. If argumentation is undertaken, the pupil may be led to discuss questions constantly arising in connection with the life of the school and the community, and thus he can obtain most of his material from his own experiences. The plan of having one or two paragraph themes of from 150 to 200 words each week should be continued throughout the second year. Every month or six weeks pupils should write a longer theme of from 600 to 800 words, that is, a theme of four or five paragraphs. Both the short and the long theme should be promptly and carefully corrected by the teacher and revised or rewritten by the pupil. In the second year a careful revision of the corrected themes by the pupils is usually sufficient, but all themes that can be sufficiently improved to make rewriting worth while, should be rewritten. 2. Reading The general purpose and the character of the reading in the second year are the same as in the first. During the first part of the year narrative and descriptive material should be read, and during the second semester some of the simpler types of essays may be used as a basis of a study of exposition. As has already been indicated in connection with the composition, the pupils’ attention should be directed to the use of words and figures of speech in the masterpieces. The plot and its development, and the form in which the story is told can be studied in more detail than in the first year. Methods of describing persons and places and of delineating character, taken up in connection with description, will frequently be exemplified in the reading. Direction may be given to the study of essays by considering them as examples of exposition. All this analytical work ought to be carried on with a view not only to developing inductively or illustrating the principles of composition which it is desired to have the pupils apply in their own writing, but also to having the pupils understand the author’s purpose and the methods which he uses to accomplish it; that is, to understand fully what they are reading.