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Subjects for Themes
THE OBJECT OF THEME-WRITING is to make a student observe, to
become aware, to evaluate, to enrich himself. Any phase of
life or literature named or suggested in the foregoing
chapters could be taken as a subject for an essay. The most
immature essay must be more than a summary; a mere summary is
never an essay. The writer must synthesize, make his own
combination of thoughts, facts, incidents, characteristics,
anecdotes, interpretations, illustrations, according to his
own pattern. A writer is a weaver, weaving various threads of
various hues and textures into a design that is his own.
"Look into thy heart and write." "Write what you know about."
All this is good advice in a way--but students have to write
themes whether they have anything to write or not. The way to
get full of a subject, to generate a conveyable interest, is
to fill up on the subject. As clouds are but transient forms
of matter that "change but cannot die," so most writing, even
the best, is but a variation in form of experiences, ideas,
observations, emotions that have been recorded over and over.
In general, the materials a student weaves are derived from
three sources: what he has read, what he has heard, what he
has observed and experienced himself.
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