B. Name several subjects with the explanation of which you are unfamiliar.

+Theme LXXXV.+—­Select for a subject something that you know how to do.  Write a theme on the subject chosen.

(Have you made use of either general description or general narration?  See Sections 67 and 68.)

Very frequently explanations of how and why anything is done are combined, as in the following:—­

In cases of sunstroke, place the person attacked in a cool, airy place.  Do not allow a crowd to collect closely about him.  Remove his clothing, and lay him flat upon his back.  Dash him all over with cold water—­ice-water, if it can be obtained—­and rub the entire body with pieces of ice.  This treatment is used to reduce the heat of the body, for in all cases of sunstroke the temperature of the body is greatly increased.  When the body has become cooler, wipe it dry and remove the person to a dry locality.  If respiration ceases, or becomes exceedingly slow, practice artificial respiration.  After the patient has apparently recovered, he should be kept quiet in bed for some time.

—­Baldwin:  Essential Lessons in Human Physiology and Hygiene.

Notice that the following selection answers neither the question how? nor why? but explains what journalism is:—­

JOURNALISM

What is a journal?  What is a journalist?  What is journalism?  Is it a trade, a commercial business, or a profession?  Our word journal comes from the French.  It has different forms in the several Romantic languages, and all go back to the Latin diurnalis, daily, from dies, a day.  Diurnal and diary are derived from the same source.  The first journals were in fact diaries, daily records of happenings, compiled often for the pleasure and use of the compiler alone, sometimes for monarchs or statesmen or friends; later to be circulated for the information of a circle of readers, or distributed in copies to subscribers among the public at large.  These were the first newspapers.  While we still in a specific sense speak of daily newspapers as journals, the term is often enlarged to comprise nearly all publications that are issued periodically and distributed to subscribers.

A journalist is one whose business is publishing a journal (or more than one), or editing a journal, or writing for journals, especially a person who is regularly employed in some responsible directing or creative work on a journal, as a publisher, editor, writer, reporter, critic, etc.  This use of the word is comparatively modern, and it is commonly restricted to persons connected with daily or weekly newspapers.  Many older newspaper men scout it, preferring to be known as publishers, editors, writers, or contributors.  Journalism, however, is a word that is needed for its comprehensiveness.  It includes the theory, the business, and the art of producing newspapers in all departments of the work.  Hence, any school of professional journalism must be presumed to comprise in its scope and detail of instruction the knowledge that is essential to the making and conduct of newspapers.  It must have for its aim the ideal newspaper which is ideally perfect in every department.