The journal is a first-class
teacher of penmanship. All boys and girls should take pride in having
the pages of their journals as neat and handsome as possible. Compare
one day's writing with that of the one before, and try to improve every
day. Keeping a journal cultivates habits of observation, correct and
concise expression, and gives capital practice in composition, spelling,
punctuation, and all the little things which go to make up a good
letter-writer. So, one who keeps a journal is all the while learning to
be a better penman, and a better composer, with the advantage of writing
original, historical, and descriptive articles, instead of copying the
printed letters and sentences of a writing-book.
But, best of all, a well-kept journal furnishes a continuous and
complete family history, which is always interesting, and often very
useful. It is sometimes very convenient to have a daily record of the
year, and the young journalist will often have occasion to refer to his
account of things gone by. Perhaps, some evening, when the family are
sitting and talking together, some one will ask, "What kind of weather
did we have last winter?" or, "When was the picnic you were speaking
of?" and the journal is referred to. But the pleasure of keeping a
journal is itself no small reward. It is pleasant to exercise the
faculty of writing history, and to think that you are taking the first
step toward writing newspapers and books.
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