research, afterschooling

[Sharon in St Louis]

As my oldest is only 5, I have a few years to go before starting CW-Aesop, but no harm in looking ahead, right? ;D

I teach remedial writing and report writing at a community college, and my background is journalism--none of that is classical, but writing well is important to me.

I don't feel that I really knew how to write a good research paper until I taught it. I just strung together a bunch of quotes and somehow managed to get an A Because students write so many reports for all kinds of topics, I think this is a skill that should be emphasized. Obviously Aesop and Homer are focusing on more basic writing skills, but at what point do you expect to start teaching research skills? How will you teach research skills? How would learning research skills classically differ from more modern teaching methods?

Also, I plan on afterschooling my children. They attend/will attend a high quality public school, which will use a modern style of teaching writing emphasizing portfolios. I will add in grammar as I feel that will probably be lacking. I was wondering if I would be able to use your program in the summers. Would alternating it with a different style be too confusing?

Thanks!

Sharon

[Tracy Gustilo]

Dear Sharon,

Lots of great questions. First off, afterschooling should definitely be an option with Classical Writing, since the program is very flexible. You can pick and choose what you want to emphasize and what you have time for. As to combining classical and modern skills, one would *hope* they would overlap/complement each other, but sometimes I "worry" that classically trained kids will not tend to be stuck in the same formulaic standards of modern writing: the five-paragraph essay, for example, or structuring paragraphs just so. It's not that there aren't some "formulas" in classical writing also (like the pre-set outlines for the progymnasmata), but they're not the same. As students get older you may have a rhetorical job to explain that for some audiences, somewhat different standards of arrangement and style will apply. (But that's always the case and fully expected within a classical approach. Taking account of the audience is always key.)

As to research... this is an interesting question also, because in the classical world "research" was understood quite differently. That is, the type of "research" (invention) one did was usually into the literary, historical, philosophical, and culture tradition of one's own (and one's audience's) background. That is, a shared "paideia" became the basis of most persuasive speaking and writing. Students were equipped with this material, and with the rhetorical tools to draw upon it, from an early age. Today we think of "research" quite differently. We usually start with something we (and our audience) does not know, there are different sorts of standards that apply (statistical and bibliographical, for example), and the purpose of writing is often different. In many cases, as you say, we're not even truly writing to persuade but merely to "report" or "inform". Few ancients looked on the task of rhetoric in such neutral terms.

Still, all that said, one of the chief emphases of classical writing is to focus on invention. Invention is the first of the five "canons" of classical rhetoric. Unfortunately it was the first canon to be lost in the modernization of rhetoric shortly after the Renaissance (along with the transfer of the logical arts to philosophy). Rhetoric was reduced to "style". In recovering ancient rhetoric, we aim to bring back invention. This can only be good news for improving the power of thought and the quality of material that is incorporated in the "research" process.

Lene and I have discussed at great length how we might incorporate some modern elements into Classical Writing. It's an ongoing discussion! I think it's safe to say that where we can draw obvious parallels and give direct applications from classical methods over to modern writing tasks and conventions, we will do that. For things that are "purely modern" with no connection whatsoever to classical writing (things we might tend to find dubious anyway), we will probably let you rely on other sources, of which there are myriads out there. All in all, I think it a fair assessment to say that classical writing education will provide the more inclusive skill set.

Tracy

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

I would like to add to Tracy's excellent post that while our aim is to unearth and employ classical methods of writing, our aim is ever to equip students to survive in the modern world.

With that aim, as we move to the older books, we will incorporate whatever the students would need to be able to write research papers, argumentative papers, and survive on the SAT II. Directly or indirectly our aim is to include all writing skills needed to proceed into college level writing.

Lene