- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: Crappy Old Books, Barry, United KingdomCrappy Old Books
AbeBooks seller since February 6, 2025
Condition: Used - Good
£ 8.50
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
Essentials of Composition (1958) by Peter Fitzpatrick and Thomas Hand Publisher: Collins ISBN: None Condition: Good Before autocorrect quietly fixed our mistakes, before grammar checkers underlined our every misdemeanour in blue, and before artificial intelligence cheerfully offered to rewrite entire paragraphs, there was Essentials of Composition . Published in 1958, this determined little volume belongs to a world in which writing was regarded as a serious craft rather than something dashed off between checking emails and arguing with strangers online. Peter Fitzpatrick and Thomas Hand set out to teach the noble art of composition, which sounds wonderfully grand compared to today?s rather more casual concept of "typing something and hoping for the best." Within these pages lies a carefully organised campaign against muddled thinking, wandering sentences and essays that begin confidently before disappearing into a fog of uncertainty. The authors patiently explain how ideas should be arranged, developed and expressed, operating on the radical assumption that words ought to make sense when placed together. What makes the book particularly charming today is its complete confidence in the written word. This was an age when a well-constructed paragraph was considered evidence of civilisation itself. The authors seem quietly convinced that if students could simply master composition, many of life?s larger problems might somehow resolve themselves in an orderly and grammatical fashion. Our copy remains in Good condition , which is rather fitting for a book devoted to standards. It has survived more than six decades of educational fashion, language change and the gradual decline of public enthusiasm for semicolons. The pages remain clean, sound and perfectly capable of instructing a new generation in the mysteries of introductions, conclusions and coherent argument. Reading it now offers a delightful glimpse into a time when schoolchildren were expected to write essays about industry, citizenship and the changing seasons rather than produce multimedia presentations featuring animated transitions and stock photographs of people pointing at graphs. Collectors of vintage educational books will appreciate its period charm, while writers may find comfort in discovering that many of the challenges of communication have changed remarkably little. Human beings were struggling to organise their thoughts in 1958 just as enthusiastically as they are today. The only difference is that they did it with fountain pens. A wonderfully earnest survivor from an era when composition was considered essential, handwriting was expected to be legible, and nobody imagined that one day a machine might help write a description of a book about writing.…
Seller Inventory # 6584
Bibliographic details
- Title
- Essentials of Composition
- Author
- Peter Fitzpatrick and Thomas Hand
- Publisher
- Collins
- Publication year
- 1958
- Condition
- Good
- Binding
- Hardback
Crappy Old Books
Barry, United Kingdom
AbeBooks seller since February 6, 2025
Shipping rates from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
| Item | 14 to 45 business days | 5 to 10 business days |
|---|---|---|
| First item | £ 20.05 | £ 26.85 |
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Crappy Old Books aims to be the online version of our much endangered high street second hand book stores. Here you will find all sorts of junk that you just couldnt imagine. Crappy Old Books also aims to provide all of these books at great rates. The site was concieved on Monday 23rd Novemeber 2009, and is slowly growing. Hopefully over years it'll have much more to offer and will be a joy to browse through, just like our musty second hand book stores of yore.
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Regular booksSeller's business information
Crappy Old Books
United Kingdom
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