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Post by Colleen on Apr 7, 2003 19:09:24 GMT -5
Is it comparable, at all, to Harvey's, or are we talking apples and oranges? I would like to own a good reference book for writing. All I have now - other than the venerable Strunk & White - is Write Source, which leaves something to be desired. (But as even my 3 year old enjoys thumbing through Write Source, it remains on my shelf...) Thanks for posting, Michelle! Colleen
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Martha
Junior Member
Posts: 91
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Post by Martha on Apr 8, 2003 8:04:49 GMT -5
Hi Colleen,
I think I can answer part of your question: Harvey's does not have anything on writing research papers. The elementary book has a brief introduction to letter writing.
Martha
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Post by Valinbc on Apr 29, 2003 13:43:02 GMT -5
These posts are quite intimidating. I know that moms need to learn this stuff in order to teach it. Even so, I have so welcomed curriculum that supplied keys. When taking logic, for instance, it was the keys that saved us when doing difficult work. I could not have done it otherwise. From the keys I learn, can teach, am confirmed and encouraged that we are on the right track. Not every homeschooler parent is a natural scholar, yet learning to write, think, and argue well is so, so important to our future as a society (just look around!) that I think everyone needs to participate. But it's just us, these same products of our society (and educational system), that are trying to learn and teach all this difficult stuff. Won't you reconsider a key for the grammatical anaylisis part of your program and help bring this down alittle for us 'common folk'?
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Post by Tracy Gustilo on Apr 30, 2003 13:12:31 GMT -5
Hi,
Thanks for the suggestion to include keys with Classical Writing. Actually, we have included a sort of "solutions manual" with our upcoming poetry book. When will it ever be out!? =)
I understand very well the desire to have some sort of solid touchstone for all this difficult stuff, and I'd love to be super-accommodating. Unfortunately, without making Classical Writing quite rigid and inflexible, we won't be able to pin down the exact needs of folks using the program closely enough to offer exact keys. If we asked ten questions, numbered 1 to 10, we could provide answers to them. If we give flexibility in choosing models and allow parents to progress at the children's pace, working on some skills with this model, some skills with that model, mixing and matching, it's impossible to cover every possibility. There is a tradeoff there, and we have opted for flexibility.
However, that said, Lene and I will take your concerns under advisement and see what we can do in the future, especially for things that we know are apt to be especially confusing or difficult. What we can do is to provide plenty of examples that do have well-worked out answers and solutions.
In the meantime, please know that learning the liberal arts is not an exact science. "Arts" being "sciences" is something of a contradiction in terms. Today we are exacting folks. We like there to be clear right and wrong answers. We are scientists by nature! =) I sympathize with that, and, luckily, the "theory" books (such as Harvey's grammars or Traditional Logic), which are recommended as standard outside courses to go along with Classical Writing (in which that theory is to be applied), will in fact be "scientific" in nature, and those books can and should provide keys. When it comes time to apply the theory in an artistic way, however, it is very often the case that there simply is no one right answer. We think it is the process of doing itself that teaches more than any final arriving at one correct destination. What we are trying to encourage in Classical Writing is the doing itself, even when that is risky and somewhat uncertain.
Not to leave you without any assurances, however, I do expect this discussion board will be a place where everyone who uses Classical Writing -- as well as any who are simply interested in how to apply the classical liberal arts to writing in any shape or form -- can come and support each other. Please feel free to bring all grammar, logic and other quandaries here. I can't guarantee we'll always have "the" answer, but if we put enough heads together, I'm sure we can all learn as we go.
Thanks very much for expressing your concern. It is an entirely legitimate one.
Tracy
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