writing and grammar

What Is the Bigger Purpose of English?

December 19, 2017 by Jenna

At times, it’s easy to start thinking that English is all about getting your kids to recite endless lists of grammatical rules or marking up their essays with red ink. But we should remember that, just as there’s a bigger purpose in science, there’s also a bigger purpose in studying writing and grammar.

At its heart, English is the study of written communication. And as followers of Christ, we believe that clear and effective communication best demonstrates Christlike character.

When your children are studying English, they should always know that they’re getting ready to share their testimony. Anything they write can either help or harm their testimony for Christ.

Veterans of the letter-writing generation may believe that the growth of technology means the death of the written word. On the contrary, written communication has exploded as more and more social media channels have appeared. Facebook users rely heavily on writing as they post status updates and comments on their friends’ updates. Even highly visual channels like Instagram and YouTube add written messages to pictures and videos.

Whenever your children enter the world of social media, whether they’re still at home or if they create accounts as adults on their own, they will be communicating their testimony in every status update and comment. It will not only come across in what they’re saying but also in how and how well they say it. Clear and effective communication can improve a believer’s testimony in two ways.

• Showing an appreciation and respect for truth

Clear communicators don’t want a small grammatical mistake to accidentally mislead the person they are communicating with. But in writing, grammatical correctness isn’t the only thing that matters. It’s also about being factual. Clear communicators double-check their facts and choose the best words for what they’re trying to say so that they’re understood. So long as your children are being careful in how they say things, people will value their honesty.

• Recognizing the value of people

The difference in today’s written word is that it’s highly condensed. If you want to share something online, you have to consider how much space you have to do it in and how much anyone will read. Those who learn to communicate effectively also communicate concisely because they believe that their messages have value and that people need to hear them. Today, many people may ignore a good message because it’s too long or too difficult to understand. Your children can show value for their friends’ time and energy by keeping messages clear and short.

This is what your children are working towards as they study grammar concepts or write essays in their English courses. They’re working to be able to communicate messages that matter, like sharing the gospel or encouraging a friend, so that no one will misunderstand or ignore them.

6 Ways to Combat the Blank Page

August 29, 2017 by Jenna

Your homeschool year is about to get underway again, and with it, exciting new writing assignments. Whether your writer looks forward to learning more about writing or tries to stay as far away from it as he can, there’s one aspect of writing that he will most likely struggle with.

The blank page.

Looking at the whiteness of a computer document or the empty lines of a notebook page can be overwhelming, as if the blank page asks “Where do you even start?” How do you teach your writer to overcome his blank pages? Here are some tips for encouraging elementary and secondary students to conquer one of the most daunting phases of a writing assignment.

Elementary Writing Assignments

1. Take dictation.

A young writer often has more to overcome than just the blank page itself. He may get hung up on vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and even handwriting. You can bypass much of his hesitation by having him explain what he wants to write about and writing his explanation down for him. From there, he can revise what you wrote until it matches the assignment’s requirements.

2. Add a visual goal.

In English 2, the textbook explains how to write a paragraph by laying out the various parts of a paragraph and underlining those parts in different colors—green for the topic sentence, orange for details, and red for the ending. By highlighting blank lines in these colors and having your young writer write in the missing parts, you can give him visual cues and goals to work toward. The different colors break up the blankness into manageable pieces.

3. Use writing prompts.

One of the simplest ways to overcome the blank page is to never let it be completely blank. You can give your writer a prompt to put at the top of his page. The prompt you give can be the first sentence of a story, a topic sentence for a paragraph, or even a question for him to answer. This works the same way as the “Apply and Write” sections in BJU Press elementary English textbooks.

Secondary Writing Assignments

1. Fill in the outline.

Papers for secondary writers often involve writing outlines. Your writer can skip the blank page entirely simply by expanding directly from his outline. Even a simple outline will give him something to work with. Directions for creating outlines may be found in Chapter 13 of Writing and Grammar 10.

2. Keep the thesis at the top.

Almost every secondary paper will involve a thesis of some kind—a thesis gives the writer’s point of view for the paper. Even a simple paragraph essay is often based on one. Instructions for crafting a thesis statement may also be found in Chapter 13 of Writing and Grammar 10. Once your writer has decided on a thesis, have him write it at the top of each page. Keeping it there will help him focus on his purpose as well as eliminate the blank page.

3. Take a walk.

Sometimes, if your writer really gets stuck, getting him away from the accusing stare of the blank page can be the perfect cure. Once his legs fall into the regular rhythm of walking, his mind will be free to come up with the words that will best begin his writing project—provided that he remembers them long enough to write them down.

Other times, overcoming the blank page is a simple matter of putting down words—any words. The words your writer chooses may be changed many times in the drafting process, and that’s OK. Their real function is to get him over that first hurdle so he can write the rest of the paper. The page only stays blank as long as there are no words on it.

3 Benefits of Writing Thank-You Notes

December 27, 2016 by Jenna

After every special occasion involving gifts, there’s the inevitable round of thank-you cards. And while you do want to show gratefulness, they probably aren’t something you look forward to writing. After all, who has the time?

But, for your children, writing thank-you notes has a lot of value. They give your children a chance to. . .

1. Practice Composition Skills

Thank-you cards give your children an opportunity to apply composition skills outside of their studies. If they follow the traditional “thank-you-for-your-gift-I-will-use-it-for . . .” format of thank-you notes, they’ll need to consider what the item is, how it’s typically used and for what, and who they’re writing to. All these considerations involve important writing skills. For instance, they might change their tone if they’re addressing a jovial uncle as opposed to an affectionate grandma.

2. Practice Writing and Grammar Skills

Thank-you notes also give your children an opportunity to practice handwriting and grammar skills. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a thank-you card on college-ruled card stock. Writing cards encourages them to practice writing in a straight line, rather than letting their writing curve up or down. And since they won’t want to ruin the card by making too many mistakes, they’ll need to recall what they’ve learned about grammar and spelling to get it right the first time.

3. Practice Gratitude

But most importantly, thank-you notes are an opportunity to teach your children how to have a spirit of gratitude for the things they’ve been given. It’s a time to pause and appreciate the value of not only the gift but also the relationship with the giver. Even if they may not fully appreciate the gift itself, they can appreciate how much the giver means to them. After all, we as believers may never be able to fully comprehend the sacrifice Christ made for us, but we can love Christ because of the love He has shown us.

So encourage your children to take the time and write handwritten thank-you notes this year! At the very least, you can count them as extra credit later.

A Hands-on Approach to the Planning Stage

September 29, 2016 by Jenna

Helping your children master writing skills presents a challenge when working with different learning styles. When I taught freshman English, my students were allowed to choose their own approach for planning. Some just made lists of questions while others constructed graphic organizers like bubble charts or word webs. They usually found ways to adapt the process to their own learning styles. But I often wondered how I could adapt the planning stage for hands-on learners.

Maybe you’ve asked a similar question. Here’s one way you can help your child get a literal feel for the planning stage.

First, he’ll need a lot of notecards—3×5 cards cut in halves or fourths work best—and a pencil.

We’ll use the comparison-and-contrast essay and the sample brainstorming from chapter 3 of Writing & Grammar 12 as a foundation for this activity. (Example is from Student Worktext, page 64.)

Next, instead of making an ordinary list, have your child write each new idea he has about roller coasters (or whatever other topic he chooses) on a notecard.

Once he has a good number of cards (fifteen to twenty would be a good start), have him sort through his cards, putting all the items of a similar nature together in the same pile. For example, we can categorize items such as height, speed, rough, and smooth from the list above as physical characteristics.

After sorting the cards into piles according to categories, he should label the back of each card according to the category it belongs to.

He may find that one of his ideas can act like a category itself, like kinds of seats with our roller coaster brainstorming. Or he might realize that some ideas don’t fit into any of his categories. Suggest that he spend more time thinking through these cards, just in case there are other ideas that he could connect the loose cards to. If there’s nothing else, let him return to his larger categories.

With a comparison-and-contrast essay, as in our example, your child would need to sort his cards down further into the categories of the two items he’s comparing—in this case, wooden roller coasters and steel roller coasters. In a different kind of essay, these larger categories could represent different major points in the argument and would be separated into sub-points.

From here, your child needs to make sure of the purpose of his essay. If he’s decided to prove that steel roller coasters are more fun than wooden ones, then he should look through his cards to see which of his categories support his position.

Finally, it’s time to organize the cards according to their strength. In writing, we often conclude with the strongest point because information given last is what readers remember best. If he’s decided that his strongest argument rests on a physical characteristic, he should put his cards from that category at the bottom of the stack.

When brainstorming on notecards, it’s easy for your child to handle the information in a more literal sense. He can rearrange and recategorize his ideas as he needs to, without the hassle and mess of crossing out and erasing. He can also add additional notes or pictures to his cards, or whatever helps him manipulate the information.

All our Writing & Grammar textbooks include detailed explanations for the planning stage of each writing assignment, and many of them have varying suggestions for different kinds of learners. Check out our complete line here!