Classical Writing - Diogenes now available....

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

Classical Writing - Diogenes: Maxim

is available at
www.classicalwriting.com

It is the third book in our series. The main feature of the book is learning beginning essay writing using classical methods.

It is targeted at students about 7th grade and up through high school. There are 141 lessons in the book, and it should be completed in a school year by a 7th grader, possibly in 6 months for an older high schooler, doing two lessons per day.

Our aim with this volume has been ease of use. The book is written in lesson by lesson form. You start at the beginning of the book and go straight through, one lesson at a time.

The book begins by teaching the ancient outline for writing an essay to show the wisdom of a maxim (proverb). From there we show how the ancient techniques can be used to write a modern essay.

We explain how to write a thesis statement, how to limit it, how to generate support for it, as well as how to write an introduction and how to write a conclusion.

This book integrates grammar, great books analysis, and imitation with rhetoric. We use models from Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Erasmus, Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, and others.

The companion volume Essays, Speeches, and Letters is optional. It is a convenient second copy of all tables and models so student and teacher each have a copy to work with. If you decide to get it, either buy the pdf file and download and make your own copies for each student or order one for each student at our web site.

We pray that this resources will be an asset to the community of classical educators.

Lene

[April]

Yiiiipeeee!! Yahoooo! I know you ladies are ready to take a break from writing. I can not wait to see what you have done.

Thanks for the hard work.
April

[Janice in NJ]

Thanks for this book. Can I assume that because this book is written in a lesson-by-lesson format, that there will not be a student workbook to go with Diogenes? From your description it seems like the workbook wouldn't be necessary.

Thanks.
Janice

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

Janice,

Yes, you can do this without a workbook, and probably easier than you could with the other CW Books where a more significant amount of planning was needed.

We're discussing this workbook issue. One of our aims was to make the core book easier to use because the subject matter is harder.

For younger students (those who do CW from 2-3. grade and up) if CW Diogenes is started in 7th (or perhaps 6th at the earliest) grade, I think that the additional practice and the optional work would be ideal. The more practice you have, the better a writer.

So our idea was to create one workbook for CW Dio for those who want even additional models worked up, or for those who wanted to work through examples different from those in the book.

CW Diogenes does not have the flexibility of the other CW Books in its Core.

It's basically:

1. here is a model passage from literature,

2. here are the lessons on it,

3. here is a suggestion for how to do with this another model piece of literature.

4. And finally, here is how to compose a writing project with the concepts learned.

(5. additional suggestions for writing projects)


The Workbooks would have different models to run you through, they would have every blank table right there in the text where it is needed, even for the optional/additional models, and it would coordinate with our next book of poetry, which will be a Great Books high school poetry course.

Also, some moms would very much like to have the answer key to all the diagramming.

This IS, again, provided in the CW Dio book, we do give answers to all the diagramming and grammar stuff.....but if you want to go beyond and do our extra suggestions, as we very much suggest for all to do, unless you're in the last years of high school, then the Worbooks and IG's would be where that would be laid out conveniently with the answers, the models ready, the blank tables, etc. Kathy is excellent at doing this in a way that minimizes planning and really brings across the concepts we want to teach.

So yes, you can start the book now, it's all in there.

Thanks for your question. I really pray that this book will bridge the gap to high school and beginning essays as so many people have been requesting.

HTH, Lene

[lisany]

Hi Lene,

I have used CW-Aesop and *some* of Homer w/my oldest dd., who is now in 9th gr. (I am continuing to use Homer w/my youngest in 5th gr.)
Can I jump into Diogenes w/my 9th gr. dd, even if she did not complete all levels of Homer?
She is currently in R&S gr. 8 grammar, and we have done progym ex. sporadically this year.

thanks!
Lisa

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

I would think that she could. It sure sounds like she has a good preparation for it.

The grammar in CW Dio is

1. a section on punctuation conventions
2. Noun copia (parsing, declining and using that in analysis and imitation)
3. Pronouns - reviewing all pronoun work, then parsing and declining and A & I work
4. Adjective--- same as above, essentially.


In the next book we will do verbs and adverbs and all remaining grammar concepts, including syntax.

I wrote most of those lessons and they are a complete explanation of each concept you need to work with, but then referring you to your grammar text if you need more practice being comfortable with the any of the concepts.

Lene

[Martha]

Lene and Tracy,

I just read the sample pages from Diogenes and wanted to say that the lesson-by-lesson structure and the tabs will be helpful. The underlying pattern that I like so much is still all there, but having a unique number for each lesson will make life easier. My poor brain needs all the help it can get.

Congratulations, this volume looks great!

Martha

[lisany]

admin said:

I would think that she could. It sure sounds like she has a good preparation for it.

The grammar in CW Dio is

1. a section on punctuation conventions
2. Noun copia (parsing, declining and using that in analysis and imitation)
3. Pronouns - reviewing all pronoun work, then parsing and declining and A & I work
4. Adjective--- same as above, essentially.


In the next book we will do verbs and adverbs and all remaining grammar concepts, including syntax.

I wrote most of those lessons and they are a complete explanation of each concept you need to work with, but then referring you to your grammar text if you need more practice being comfortable with the any of the concepts.

Lene

Great! Thanks so much, Lene!