Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
Writing has always been an important subject in our homeschool. I love to write and I enjoy teaching grammar and literature. Teaching someone to write has been a bumpy road for me, but I have managed to get through it. It would have been much easier if I would have had this wonderful resource from Everyday Education. The PDF version of Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers, which was given to us to review, is an amazing curriculum to teach writing skills to middle and high school students. Even some college students would benefit from this handbook.
This 420-page book is written by Janice Campbell, an incredible homeschooling mom who is influenced by the classical education method and Charlotte Mason method, and Ian Johnston, a retired college professor. Campbell was able to use Johnston's handbooks to come up with this curriculum that will help you and your child learn how to write with excellence.
This book is broken into 2 sections. The first section will provide samples and instructions on how to create arguments and essays. The second section will cover the mechanics of writing. Your student will learn skills such as:
1. How to create essays, debates, and research papers that will stand out.
2. How to structure essays paragraph by paragraph
3. How to use deductive reasoning along with inductive reasoning.
4. How to read and comprehend writings so you can tell about them in your own words you write.
5. How to create well-thought-out outlines.
6. How to write a great topic sentence.
7. Uses of punctuation
8. Capitalization
9. Abbreviations
10. How to know which frequently misused words, such as accept and except, are correct to use in your writing.
AND MUCH MUCH MORE!!!
In our homeschool, we decided to dig right into the handbook. We printed out the handbook section by section as we completed them. The Table of Contents alone is 22 pages. You see there is so much packed into this handbook, it takes that many pages to tell you about it.
Our 13-year-old daughter is the one working through the handbook right now and she said it is teaching her a lot of new skills she hadn't been taught in previous writing classes. The first exercise after reading many pages/samples on argument writing was to figure out if some scenarios were deductive or inductive reasoning. Some of the examples were pretty deep for her mind, but she got through them.
I had her write an argument of her own on a separate sheet of paper to see if she was understanding the curriculum well and I feel she did very well for her grade level. That is another thing this resource will teach you as a parent. You will learn how to grade your student more efficiently. I love that!! I learned that as the "teacher" I was being a little too critical and I have now learned to be more encouraging as she writes.
There are so many ways you can use this resource in your homeschool. I encourage you to check it out for yourself on their website Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers or you can connect with them on their social media pages listed below:
We also have more reviews of this handbook over on the Homeschool Review Crew site. Just click on the image below.
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