June 16, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



937 



of the water with the sunshine are so attractive 

 in the sunshine I wonder do other people love to 

 watch the water like I do. I don't know as there 

 is anything as lovely as the water waves in the 

 sunlight of the glorious orb. 



570. DESCRIPTION OP SCHOOL BOOM 



Our school room is on the side of the school 

 house and it is a awfully nice room and I like it 

 because it is so nice and all the boys like it, there 

 is a good many pictures on the wall and there is 

 a clock on the wall. We like this school room and 

 come to school most all the time. 



603. A CHABACTEK SKETCH 



The man I am describing is a white man and 

 he has nice hair and wears a hat, and his horse is 

 black, I like this man and he has two eyes and 

 his nose is red. 



In this way it would be possible to discover 

 specimens of English writing ranging from 

 Specimen 607 (which may roughly represent 

 zero merit in English writing by young people 

 in their teens) up to the best writing known, 

 by equal steps, so that Specimens 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 

 and so on, would have in part, the significance 

 for merit in English writing that inch, 1 

 inch, 2 inches, 3 inches, and so on have for 

 length. 



607. SKETCH 



I words four and two caine go billa guni sing 

 hay cows and horses he done it good he died it 

 goon I want yes sir yes sir oxes and sheeps he 

 come yes sir camed and goes billum gumun 

 oomunn goodum. 



Such a series of specimens representing de- 

 fined degrees of merit in composition would 

 be of service to civil service examiners, col- 

 lege entrance examination-boards, high-school 

 teachers of English, and any others who were 

 concerned with measuring ability to write 

 English, the changes produced in that ability 

 by various forms of training, or the difFerences 

 in it that distinguish certain groups. 



An investigation designed to establish such 

 a scale is now being made by Mr. M. B. Hille- 

 gas and myself. We should be very glad if 

 any of the readers of Science would cooperate 

 to the extent of sending us their ratings of the 

 ten specimens printed below. All that is re- 



quired is that the reader consider these as 

 specimens of English writing by young 

 people, choose the one that seems to him to 

 have the least merit, number it 1, choose the 

 one that has next least merit, number it 2, 

 and so on, and send the record to M. B. Hille- 

 gas, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C, 

 or E. L. Thorndike, Teachers College, Co- 

 lumbia University, New York. For this pur- 

 pose the following slip may be used: 



I rank speei 



;imen 94 as 

 " 196 

 " 200 

 " 300 

 " 323 

 " 434 

 " 519 

 " 520 

 " 534 

 " 627 



Signed. 



94. SULLA AS A TYRANT 



When Sulla came back from his conquest Marius 

 had put himself consul so suUa with the army he 

 had with him in his conquest siezed the govern- 

 ment from Marius and put himself in consul and 

 had a list of his enemys printy and the men whoes 

 names were on this list we beheaded. 



196. ICHABOD CRANE 



Ichabod Crane was a schoolmaster in a place 

 called Sleepy Hollow. He was tall and slim with 

 broad shoulders, long arms that dangled far 

 below his coat sleeves. His feet looked as if they 

 might easily have been used for shovels. His nose 

 was long and his entire frame was most loosely 

 hung to-gether. 



200 

 My dear Fred, — 



I will tell you of my journey to Delphi Falls, 

 N. Y. There is nice scenery along this route. 

 The prettiest scene is in the gulf which is quite 

 narrow, a small creek flows down it and the road 

 follows along near its banks. 



There are woods on either side, these trees look 

 very pretty when they are white with snow. 



In summer it is always shady and cool in them 

 and the small fish may be seen darting back and 

 forth in the water. 



I hope I will have the pleasure of taking you 

 over the route some time. 



Yours sincerely. 



