Words Matter: How to Use Good Essay Models to Become a Better Writer

It’s Words Matter Week with its accompanying blog challenge and word-related reading, so I’ve been reflecting on the power and importance of words. One of the best ways you can teach writing is to share good models. I especially like working with excellent essays, as they tend to expand not only vocabulary and usage skills, but also because they expand thought.

I have an essay by Steve McClure bookmarked as a good model, and since the topic is the use of buzzwords, I thought it would be appropriate for Words Matter Week. The post, On the Rapscallions Who Misuse Word appears on the blog of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

“As journalists we have a special responsibility to watch out for this sort of thing. Forgive the hyperbole, but we should think of ourselves as being in the front line of the unending struggle to preserve the English language from the tide of cant, jargon and buzzwords that constantly threatens to drown the language in a sea of obfuscation and bafflegab.”

Bravo! McClure not only makes an excellent point about a journalist’s responsibility to the English language, but he also demonstrates that there is beauty and delight in a vast, vivid vocabulary. This isn’t the first time a writer has complained about buzzwords, but McClure has done so in a particularly memorable way.

Share Steve McClure’s post with your teenage writer and suggest he or she use the Benjamin Franklin method* for working with it. This should result in not only an expanded vocabulary, but also a deeper understanding of the art of writing. Enjoy!

A mind, once expanded by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

*If you haven’t encountered the Ben Franklin method, here’s a short excerpt from a longer article on the Everyday Education website:

“There are many textbooks available for teaching composition, but it is possible for a motivated student to become an excellent writer using what I call the ‘Ben Franklin method.’ In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Franklin relates how, after his father pointed out his lack of “elegance of expression,” he taught himself to write more elegantly and expressively:

‘About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator – I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, try’d to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come hand. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them.

But I found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and using them. Therefore I took some of the tales and turned then into verse; and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes jumbled my collections of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order, before I began to form the full sentences and compleat the paper. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts. By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and amended them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve the method or the language.’

Wintery Mix: The Carnival of Homeschooling

Wintery mix in Times Square As your posts were coming in over the past weekend, the weather seemed busy trying to decide what it wanted to be when it grew up. Friday was clear and chilly, but I woke the next morning to the beep-beep of snowplows. From my 40th floor hotel room, I could see snow blowing sideways, nearly obscuring the bright screens wrapping Times Square just a few blocks south. By the time I boarded a train for home on Monday, we had seen sun, snow, rain, fog, and wind, and the trip home held more of the same.

Looking through your posts, I see a similar variety (though more pleasant, of course), so like the forecasters who opted to predict “wintery mix” instead of trying to be specific from hour to hour, I offer you the Wintery Mix Carnival of Homeschooling. I hope you’ll enjoy it! Thanks to all who contributed.

The Map that Inspired Treasure Island by Celia Blue Johnson

Today’s guest post is a gift from Celia Blue Johnson, the author of a delightful new book, Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway: Stories of the Inspiration Behind Great Works of Literature. It’s a book I enjoyed reading as both a lover of literature and a writer.

If you’re a book lover or writer, you’ll especially enjoy seeing how small things such a raven, a map, or even a blank sheet of paper inspired enduring literary works. The book looks at fifty well-known works, ranging from the very old (Don Quixote) the the relatively new (To Kill a Mockingbird), and includes many books you’ll study in Excellence in Literature. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Literature Connects Disciplines

Why study literature in the context of art, music, history, and worldview?

Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers

“Developing intelligent comparisons between different works is one of the great tools of criticism, informed discussion, and cultural enrichment. Learning to develop such comparisons will also help to remind us that just because we have finished with one work and are moving on to another, that is no reason for setting the first one aside. As we progress through Liberal Studies, English, and Philosophy courses, we are continuing and enriching a life-long conversation with and about our culture, a process which will include more and more material for comparison and argumentative discussions.”

(From the Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers* by Johnston and Campbell, Section 10.2)

*It’s in the proofreading stage right now, and should be available soon. At 400+/- pages, it includes detailed instructions for writing essays as well as a basic style and usage guide. I think it will be immensely useful for both high school and college.

For a short while, you’ll be able to order a beta version of the e-book. Read more about it on the Handbook for Writers page.

Biographical Approach Paper Format

If you’re working with Excellence in Literature and would like to use the approach paper format to write about authors or other significant people, I’ve created a format model for you. Approach papers help students think through the things they study in a deeper way, so this can be useful with people they read about in any of their studies. Enjoy!

Person:
When they lived:
Where they lived:

Life Summary
Write an interesting one-two-paragraph summary of the person’s life.

Key Players
Choose 3-4 key people involved in the person’s life and list 4-5 vividly descriptive words
for each person. Words may not be used to describe more than one person

Discussion Questions
Think carefully about the person and his or her life and write three analytical discussion questions that would help to reveal more about his or her character and achievements.

Significant Event or Achievement
Choose an event or achievement that seems to be the most significant point or climax in the
person’s life and write a one paragraph description.

Significant Point Explanation
Why do you believe this was a significant point in the person’s life? How is this person and his or her achievement remembered today?
Write a fully-developed paragraph in response to these two questions. Support your argument with quotes from the text or other sources, if appropriate.

Organize Essays with the Keyhole Method

The Keyhole Essay Organizer appears in many forms across the Web. I haven’t been able to discover who originally created it,* but it can be a very helpful visual reminder of what goes into a basic essay. I hope you enjoy it.

Suggestions for essay introduction:

Discuss related history
Use an anecdote
Use a provocative quotation
Ask a rhetorical question
Relate a dramatic episode
Use wit, humor (if appropriate)

Does your title capture your reader’s interest?

Does it hint at the direction of your subject matter?

Suggestions for essay conclusion:

Suggest a larger pattern
Use a “clinching” quotation
Draw inferences from your presentation of ideas
Look forward and make predictions
Suggest solutions, resolutions

Reminders:

A thesis sets forth the main idea of your paper; a topic sentence sets forth the main idea of your paragraph.
An effective thesis has an “edge” to it, one that arouses your reader’s interest.
Tailor it to the scope of your issue, not to a multi-volume set

*Because it appears in a Wiki and other places, I believe it is in the public domain. If anyone knows who originally, I’d like to give them credit.

Blog Carnival: Summer Isn’t Over Yet

Welcome to the August 9, 2011 edition of Carnival of Homeschooling. Although a few of you are ready to
jump back into school or have already done so, others seem to be stretching those happy summer moments for as long as possible.

I suggest that you pour a frosty glass of lemonade, find a cool spot, and enjoy the delightful posts that have been submitted.

Summer fun isn’t over yet

Not quite ready for “regular school?” Tiana Krenz shares a delightful idea in Plan a Vacation, Learn Geography (Awesome FREE project!) posted at God Made Home Grown – Tiana Krenz.

Nikki Olivier invites you to journey along on an interesting family outing in I can officially call them kids! posted at Our Journey in Him, commenting, “spending time together as a family out in nature….there’s so much to learn!”

AnnieKate shares beautiful photos along with many great reasons why a garden can be a wonderful addition to homeschooling at The Gardening Homeschooler posted at Tea Time with Annie Kate.

Can you tell the difference between a plant and a weed? How about in your children’s lives? Joan Girkins presents ~Thoughts from My Garden~ (Part 4) posted at I Love Truth!.

Is it learning or is it just plain fun? Lisa Nehring offers a bit of both Summer School Shop Class posted at Golden Grasses.

Tasty treats from the garden.

In her evocative post, “Degrees of Separation” or “Your Child’s Future Sanity” posted at Sage Parnassus, Nancy reminds us to make time to touch, taste, and smell the reality around us.

Robin Phillips offers nine creative ways to connect real experiences with real learning in How To Homeschool At the Zoo: A Mini Unit Study – Crack the Egg posted at Crack the Egg Blog.

Preparing to take the plunge

Adam Faughn shared Homeschool week #3: Some of Our Preparation Steps posted at The Faughn Family of Four, saying, “We started our first week of home schooling this week, and this post shares some of the memorable steps we took to prepare for this change in our life.”

It’s awfully hard to homeschool in chaos, and it’s really not necessary when you have a built-in team of helpers. Carol J. Alexander talks about how to make it work in Getting Your Kids to Do Chores posted at Everything Home with Carol.

In This Year’s Homeschool Curriculum at her blog, MrsMamaHen.com, Conni Smith shared a rundown of the core subject curriculum her family will be using this year.

The longer you homeschool, the more likely it is that you’ll forget what you’ve taught to which child. If you do, it’s easily remedied. Elena LaVictoire presents helpful tips on Making sure they get it all covered academically and otherwise! posted at My Domestic Church.

The veterans offer tips

Is it ever too early to start reading to your child? Read Aloud … Dad presents When To Start Reading Aloud To a Child? posted at Read Aloud Dad.

It's never too early to start reading to your child.

Denise shares a great visual tool in Do You Mix Up These Words? posted at Blogging 2 Learn.

Billy Hart presents Danbury Baptist Association to Thomas Jefferson, Separation of Church and State posted at HistoricWords | American History | Founding Fathers | Politics | Faith | Quotes, saying, “The Danbury Baptist Association wrote this letter to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson‚Äôs reply is where the phrase Separation of Church and State comes from. The Danbury Baptist Association said, ‚ÄúThe legitimate power of civil government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor.‚Äù”

Denise presents The (Mathematical) Trouble with Pizza posted at Let’s Play Math!, saying, “My daughter thinks her way through a challenging middle-school math problem.”

Laura O muses about learning a foreign language as a high school homeschooler.Tackle a foreign language? Which one? posted at Day By Day in Our World.

What’s it like to be the graduate of a Charlotte Mason education? Kaley Struble shares what she’s learned in Starting in the Right Direction on the ChildLightUSA blog.

Kaye Swain shared Bible Memory Verses Fun-Teaching The Ten Commandments to Our Children & Grandchildren-1 | SandwichINK for the Sandwich Generation posted at SandwichINK.com, saying, “The 10 Commandment Bible memory verses for children and grand kids was a fun summer project for my grandkids and me, but it’s also great for a homeschooling project any time in the year.”

HomeGrownKids presents Through the Bible overview (Week 1-4) posted at Kerugma, saying, “Kerugma Family Bible reading guide for use with young children. This guide is a no-fuss, easy to implement, overview of the Bible for the whole family. Preschool to highschool, homeschool, family bible reading.”

Technology might make it easier . . .

Does technology have something valuable to contribute?

Merit K presents Back to School with Tech? posted at Mission Possible!, saying, “Modern technology has some drawbacks and dangers, but there are ways to make technology work for us as parents and educators too!”

Angela Gray presents On Digital Media in Education – Team Gray! posted at team Gray!, saying, “While public education has come to mean crowd control and classroom management, digital media could mark the return of true learning–if the teachers would just get out of the way.”

Henry shares some thoughts about the nature of education and the benefit of homeschooling in Can education be automated? Should it? on Why Homeschool.

Heartfelt reminders

Trisha Poff reminds us of the importance of taking the time to give good words to those we love in Letters Never Written posted at A Multitude of Mercies.

Remember to take time for things that matter . . .

Are you at a difficult place in life? Learn more about Homeschooling Through Sicknesses, Pregnancies and Other Distressing Times at Beyond The Silver and The Gold – A Filipino Family’s Homeschool Journey.

If you’re in the early years of homeschooling, and juggling many children of different ages, don’t worry–it won’t always be this hard. Nebby offers encouragement in Homeschooling: Some Parts Get Easier posted at Letters from Nebby.

My contribution for this carnival will be the Of Daffodils and Diesels Revisited post from the archive. It was hard to choose– there are articles on everything from literature to caregiving to learning styles to homeschooling boys– but Daffodils and Diesels is especially worth reading at the beginning of a school year. It’s important to teach the student we have, rather than teaching a particular curriculum. Enjoy!

That’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed the carnival!

Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of homeschooling using the official carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.

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The Stages of Learning Language Arts

Here’s a graphic version of the learning stages for language arts. Remember that the ages given are approximate, and students usually pass from one stage to the next in order. Some begin early and pass quickly through the stages, while others take much longer. As long as you keep pouring in good literature, they’ll eventually make it through all the stages.

How to Hold a Pen or Pencil

I wrote last week the importance of holding a pen or pencil properly. Writing fatigue and writers cramp are the inevitable result of holding the pen too tightly or in an awkward grip, and often students don’t even realize why writing is so hard. The physical act of penmanship is such a necessary part of school, it just seems wise to make it as painless as possible.
A picture is worth a thousand words, so I thought I’d offer you this excellent image of the Tripod Grip for the left or right hand. It was developed by Marie Hablitzel & Kim Stitzer, the creators of Draw Your World, who may be even more passionate than I am about the importance of holding a pencil correctly. They offer not only this helpful graphic, but also an entire page of detailed instructions to help you work with your students.

Tripod Pencil Grip from Draw Your World by Marie Hablitzel & Kim Stitzer If you have a student who has learned an incorrect hold, Draw Your World offers useful training tools such as pencil grips that can help make a difference. Another thing that sometimes helps a student who needs to learn a better pencil hold is to start learning another skill such as calligraphy or drawing in which correct pen hold also matters. It makes learning how to hold a pencil seem more interesting, rather than a tedious chore.

It can be hard to relearn something as basic as how to hold a pen, but it can make a big difference in how easily your student writes, and how pleasant the experience is. And we all know it’s more fun to do something pleasant than something hard!

Charlotte Mason on Copywork

Painting of Boy with Mother by Bernt Groenvold 1859-1923

What is copywork? It’s a simple way to begin teaching language arts to young children. Copywork provides practice in writing correctly formed letters, as well as experience in using correct spacing and punctuation. Now that penmanship is an issue on the SAT essay, copywork can be useful even for high school students.

19th-century British educator Charlotte Mason recommended copywork, which she called “transcription,” as an early step in teaching language arts. In Home Education, the first volume of her classic series on education, she wrote about the value of copywork, as well as what and how to copy. I have indented Mis Mason’s words, Americanized some of the spelling, bolded a few especially important points, and inserted a few notes.

Value of Transcription–The earliest practice in writing proper for children of seven or eight should be, not letter writing or dictation, but transcription, slow and beautiful work, for which the New Handwriting [a simple italic style] is to be preferred, though perhaps some of the more ornate characters may be omitted with advantage. [See a sample of this handwriting style at the end of this post.]

Transcription should be an introduction to spelling. Children should be encouraged to look at the word, see a picture of it with their eyes shut, and then write from memory.

Children should Transcribe favorite Passages.–A certain sense of possession and delight may be added to this exercise if children are allowed to choose for transcription their favorite verse in one poem and another. This is better than to write a favorite poem, an exercise which stales on the little people before it is finished. But a book of their own, made up of their own chosen verses, should give them pleasure. [As the child begins to master penmanship, you may want to provide a blank journal, like the commonplace books of years gone by, so that favorite verses and quotes can have a permanent home.]

JPC: Copying is one of the oldest of methods of teaching, not just writing, but also art, music, and many other occupations. There’s a reason art students spend time at museums, copying masterworks. Copying helps the student pay close attention, and this in turn allows them to absorb the details of how beautiful art or writing is created.

Small Text-Hand–Double-ruled Lines–Double ruled lines, small text-hand, should be used at first, as children are eager to write very minute ‘small hand,’ and once they have fallen into this habit it is not easy to get good writing. A sense of beauty in their writing and in the lines they copy should carry them over this stage of their work with pleasure. Not more than ten minutes or a quarter of an hour should be given to the early writing-lessons. If they are longer the children get tired and slovenly.

JPC: When the boys were young, I made copy sheets for them in careful Italic penmanship. I wrote the chosen text on alternate lines, so that the child could copy directly beneath my writing. This helped them with accurate letterforms and spacing, and made it more likely that they’d put the punctuation where it belonged. Eventually, I discovered Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting, a time-saving program which allowed me to type in the text I wanted the boys to copy, and print it off the computer in a perfect italic font in exactly the size and line spacing that I wanted.

Position in Writing.–For the writing position children should sit so that light reaches them from the left, and desk or table should be at a comfortable height.

[How to Hold a Pen--] It would be a great gain if children were taught from the first to hold the pen between the first and second fingers, steadying it with the thumb. This position avoids the uncomfortable strain on the muscles produced by the usual way of holding a pen–a strain which causes writer’s cramp in later days when there is much writing to be done. The pen should be held in a comfortable position, rather near the point, fingers and thumb somewhat bent, and the hand resting on the paper.

JPC: I taught calligraphy to adult students for several years, and observed that incorrect pen hold was the single biggest obstacle to beautiful and legible writing. It is far easier to teach correct pen hold early than to correct poor habits in later life. Most of my calligraphy students were able to change to a correct pen hold, but it took a lot of practice.

The writer should also be allowed to support himself with the left hand on the paper, and should write in an easy position, with bent head but not with stooping figure. . . . In all writing lessons, free use should be made of the blackboard by both teacher and children by way of model and practice.

(From Home Education: Training and Educating Children Under Nine, by Charlotte Mason. Pages 238-239)

Here’s a post on Copywork for Teens, and a post on The Power of Copying a Text.

Here’s what a simple italic handwriting style, as well as a cursive italic) looks like (samples from Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting):