His simple invention has shown thousands how to break bad habits in English How Sherwin Cody has been able, by means of a remark able invention, to improve the speech and writing of thousands of persons in fifteen minutes a day. P RACTICALLY all the many for mulas for success can be summed up in this simple principle: You
Suppose you could hear Mr. Cody correct your m istakes in English every tim e you make them ? In a short time you would acquire the habit of using the correct form and the right word in speaking and writing there would be no bugbear of punctuation to handicap us in our writing. Finally, he discovered that twenty-five typical errors in grammar constitute nine- tenths of our everyday mistakes. When one has learned to avoid these twenty-five pitfalls, how readily one can obtain that facility of speech which denotes the per son of breeding and education! When the,study of English is made so simple, it becomes clear that progress can be made in a very short time. No more than fifteen minutes- a day are required. Fifteen minutes, not of study, but of fas cinating practice! Mr. Cody’s students do their work in any spare moment they can snatch. They do it riding to work or at home. They take fifteen minutes from the time usually spent in profitless read ing or amusement. And the results are really phenomenal. FREE Book on English and 15-Minute Test It is impossible, in this brief review, to give more than a suggestion of the range of sub jects covered by Mr. Cody’s new method and of what his practice exercises consist. But those who are interested can find a detailed description in a fascinating little book called “How to Speak and W rite Masterly English.’* This is published by the Sherwin Cody School of English, in Rochester. It can be had by any one, free, upon request. There is no obli gation involved in writing for it. The book is more than a prospectus. Unquestionably it tells the m ost interesting story about educa tion in English that has ever been written. In addition to the book, Mr. Cody has prepared a 15 minute test which you can take in your own home. The correct answers are given so you can tell at once where you stand. If you are efficient in English it will give you greater confidence; if you are deficient you surely want to know it. If you are interested in hearing more in detail what Sherwin Cody can do for you, send for the book “How to Speak and Write Masterly English,’’ and the 15-m inute test. Merely mail the coupon, a letter, or a postal card. Sherwin Cody School of English 739 Searle Building Rochester, New York SHERWIN CODY SCHOOL OF ENGLISH 739 Searle Building, Rochester, N. Y. Please send me your new Free book “How to Speak and W rite Masterly English’’ and the 15-m inute test.
must be able to make other persons do what you want. And how can you suc cessfully command others .to do what you want, how can you move others by inspira tion, how can you persuade and convince —when your vocabulary is sadly limited and you cannot speak either fluently or correctly? In every field of endeavor, the outstanding men are those who speak and write with clarity and force. They may be known as “silent men,” but when they must talk they can do so ! Their words then bite like chisels into the brains of other people, and their will is carried outl Why Most Persons Make Mistakes What is the reason so many persons are deficient in the use of English and find their careers stunted in consequence? Why is it some cannot spell correctly, and others cannot punctuate? Why do so many persons find themselves at a loss for words to express their meaning ade quately? The reason for the deficiency is clear. Sherwin Cody discovered it in sci entific tests, which he personally gave to tens of thousands of persons. Most per sons do not write and speak good English, simply because they never formed the habit o f doing so. What Cody Did at Gary The formation of any habit comes only from constant practice. Shakespeare, you may be sure, never studied rules. No one who writes and speaks correctly thinks of rules when he is doing so. For years it has been a crying disgrace! Here is our mother-tongue, a language that has built up our civilization, and without which we should all still be muttering savages! Yet our schools, by wrong methods, have made it a study to be avoided—the hardest of tasks instead of the most fascinating of games 1 In that point lies the real difference between Sherwin Cody and the schools 1 Here is an illustration: Some years ago, Mr. Cody was invited by William Wirt, author of the famous Gary System of Education, to teach English to all upper grade pupils in Gary, Indiana. By means of unique practice exercises, Mr. Cody secured more improvement in these pupils in five weeks than had previously been obtained by similar pupils in two years under old methodA There was no guess work about these results. They were proved by scientific comparisons. Amaz ing as this improvement was, more inter esting still was the fact that the children were “wild” about the study. It was like playing a game!
100% Self-Correcting Device The basic principle of Mr. Cody’s new method is habit-forming. Any one can learn to write and speak fluently by con stantly using the correct forms. But how is one to know in each case what is cor rect? Mr. Cody solves this problem in a simple, unique sensible way. Suppose he himself were standing for ever at your elbow. Every time you mis pronounced or misspelled a word, every time you violated -correct grammatical Usage, every time you used the wrong word to express what you meant, suppose you could hear him whisper: “That is wrong, it should be thus and so.” In a short time you would habitually use the correct form and the right words in speaking and writing. If you continued to make the same mis takes over and over again, each time patiently he would tell you what was right. He would, as it were, be an everlasting mentor beside you—a mentor who would not laugh at you, but who would, on the contrary, support and help you. Tbe 100% Self-Correcting Device does exactly this thing. It is Mr. Cody’s silent voice behind you, ready to speak out whenever you commit an error. It finds your mis takes and concentrates on them. You do not need to learn anything you already know. There are no rules to memorize. Only 15 Minutes A Day Nor is there very much to learn. In Mr. Cody’s years of experiment he brought to light some highly astonishing facts about English. He had spent years tabulating common errors, and he found, for instance, that a list of one hundred words (with their repetitions) make up more than half o f all our speech and letter writing. Ob viously, if one could learn to spell, use, and pronounce these words correctly, one would go far toward eliminating incorrect spelling and pronunciation. Similarly, he proved that there were no more than one dozen fundamental principles of punc tuation. If we mastered these principles,
Name.
Address.
City.
State.
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs