This book is prepared for teachers and pupils who use the Illinois State Course of Study. The outline in Orthography for the Seventh and Eighth Years is the basis of all that is included herein.
Three fifths or more of this work is word analysis which, valuable as it is, teachers as a rule are unable to teach without the aid of a text, never having learned much of it themselves.
What, for example, can the average teacher unaided do toward writing a list of words to be analyzed which contain the root ann, meaning year? He might turn in the dictionary to annual, anniversary, and annuity, but he must fall back on his acquired knowledge for such as, biennial, centennial, millennium, perennial, and superannuate. And having the list, very many teachers, as well as pupils, need help in the analysis.
The aim of this book has been to set down in an orderly and convenient form such facts as are needed by those who follow the State Course of Study. Emphasis has been placed upon word analysis. The author believes that this has more value in education than is generally attributed to it. When Mr. Kennedy named his work on word analysis "What Words Say", he gave it the best possible title.
Composite words have a wealth of meaning; each syllable is significant. And, as a rule, only to those who can read this significance does the word yield its full meaning. Accuracy is the mark of a scholar. Accuracy in speech and in the understanding of speech cannot be attained by those whose knowledge of words is vague and general.
Pupils should early learn how to interpret what words say, and to discriminate carefully in the use of words, for these are the tools which they are to use in all the various departments for acquiring knowledge.