Cosmos and Classical Conversations Essentials (Writing)

Previous posts in this series:

• Introduction
• Math
• Grammar

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“[S]ome artists look at the world around them and see chaos, and instead of discovering cosmos, they reproduce chaos, on canvas, in music, in words. As far as I can see, the reproduction of chaos is neither art, nor is it Christian.”

[Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water]

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The art, the cosmos, of writing—this is where language (the 2018 Classical Conversations Practicum theme), rhetoric (the third art of the trivium), and community (the third “C” of “Classical Christian Community”) all come together.

Rhetoric (speaking, writing, creating, communicating) is incarnational, an embodied idea.

“[T]o paint a picture or to write a story or to compose a song is an incarnational activity.” [Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water]

“What’s the point of ideas if those ideas are never made flesh?” [N.D. Wilson, The Rhetoric Companion]

“Rhetoric is a productive art, the principled process of making a product.” [Scott Crider]

Rhetoric is an art of the trivium.

Grammar, Dialectic, RHETORIC
Memory, Thought, SPEECH
Naming, Contemplating, CREATING
Finding, Collecting, COMMUNICATING
Knowledge, Understanding, WISDOM
What, Why, WHETHER

We participate in the Imago Dei through these human activities.

Rhetoric is an art we practice in community with others.

“Rhetoric is “the care of words and things”; that care is associative, a practice one learns—and never stops learning—in the presence of others, the ones you lead and are led by.” [Scott Crider]

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How does the art of rhetoric apply to the writing component (IEW) of Essentials? And how does it create a bridge to the Challenge program?

The Art of Rhetoric

• Invention  (What)
• Arrangement  (In What Order)
• Elocution  (How)
• Memory
• Delivery

Institute for Excellence in Writing “IEW” (Essentials)

• Source Texts/KWO  (What)
• ‘Structure’  (In What Order)
• ‘Style’  (How)
• _______
• Reading Papers Aloud

Lost Tools of Writing “LTW” (Challenge)

• 5 Common Topics  (What)
• Persuasive Essay  (In What Order)
• Schemes and Tropes  (How)
• _______
• Presenting Papers

** IEW prepares students for Challenge by introducing them to structure and style. Challenge students move on to LTW, but they will use their IEW research essay skills for their many science papers in Challenge A and B as well as the story sequence skills for their short story in Challenge B.

Essentials Writing (IEW)

Order:

PARAGRAPH

Essay/Report

Intro
Topics
Conclusion

Story

Setting, Characters
Conflict, Plot
Climax, Resolution

(Grammar concerns itself with the form of sentences, and we put those sentences together in writing to create the form of paragraphs, which then form essays and stories.)

Beauty:

Vocabulary
Dress-Ups
Decorations

Order + Beauty = COSMOS!

Writing Quotes

“In art, the Trinity is expressed in the Creative Idea, the Creative Energy, and the Creative Power—the first imagining of the work, then the making incarnate of the work, and third the meaning of the work…” [Madeleine L’Engle in the Introduction to Dorothy Sayer’s The Mind of the Maker, which compares the making of art (particularly writing) to the Trinity in metaphorical terms. The Trinity being Book-as-Thought (Father), Book-as-Written (Incarnate Son), and Book-as-Read (Holy Spirit). Dorothy Sayers is the author of the essay ‘The Lost Tools of Learning.’]

“The pen indeed is mightier than the sword, for it is in written word that we do most powerfully preserve that which is noble and expose that which is evil. And so in great part, the very future of society rests with those who can write, and write well.” [Andrew Pudewa of IEW]

“The discovered matter has to be shaped, given form. Organization gives form to the argumentative matter, providing a beginning, a middle, and an end to the small universe of the essay. The ordered substance must them be communicated through the medium of style, the words and sentences that carry the reader through that small universe.” [Scott Crider, The Office of Assertion] [Invention, Arrangement (structure), Elocution (style). Form! Order and Beauty! Universe = Cosmos]

“The study of rhetoric educates one in a particular liberty, the “liberty to handle the world, to remake it, if only a little, and to hand it to others in a shape which may influence their actions.” Through this “office of assertion,” the writer is a leader of souls… Rhetoric is “the art of soul-leading by means of words.” …Rhetoric is “the care of words and things”; that care is associative, a practice one learns—and never stops learning—in the presence of others, the ones you lead and are led by. Such soul-leading is a liberal power, one which in its finest and fullest manifestation is a form of love: the finest rhetorician not only loves wisdom, but also loves others who do so. The finest rhetor, then is a friend… The purpose… is to teach… how to live within such a community with words so full of care that they release the light of brilliance.” [Scott Crider] [Rhetoric! Words! Community! Loving thy neighbor!]

“Variety pleases. And a pleased reader is more attentive to an argument than a bored one, more likely convinced that the time spent inside the cosmos of your essay will be worth the time… A writer who fulfills his or her obligation to please the reader with variety persuades the reader that the reading is time well spend making the sun run.” [Scott Crider] [Beauty! Loving thy neighbor!]

“Play with words. Juggle them. Write them down. Roll in them. Bake them into cookies. Quote them. Remember them. And such richness in the vocabulary of discourse does accumulate.” [Wilson, The Rhetoric Companion]

Why Liberal Arts?

“All liberal arts, in both the sciences and the humanities, are animated by the fundamental human desire to know, the fulfillment of which is a good, even if it provides no economic or political benefit whatsoever. An education for economic productivity and political utility alone is an education for slaves, but an education for finding, collecting, and communicating reality is an education for free people, people free to know what is so.” [Scott Crider] [The Trivium is for people who are free to know truth!]

The Call of the Wild ~ Poetic Parallelism

 

I’ve written about parallelism in the past. It’s powerful and poetic (and picturesque). After finishing The Call of the Wild by Jack London, I am compelled to compose a complete post with copious quotes from this conspicuous narrative. [Oh, wait. This is a post about parallelism, not alliteration.]

The Call of the Wild is an excellent introduction to classic literature for older kids. It’s a fairly short and simple story (my copy has 134 pages with a fair amount of white space), but the themes are more complex than most children’s books and the vocabulary is rich and varied. For example, London manages to squeeze two of my favorite words into a short sentence:

“And so it went, the inexorable elimination of the superfluous.”

As I was reading, I noticed that London used parallelism prolifically in this novel. Because parallelism is a prominent skill taught in The Lost Tools of Writing as well as the building block of many literary devices, students should be on the lookout for examples in their own reading.

The Call of the Wild is a literature selection for the Classical Conversations Challenge 1 program, so it is a handy example for Challenge students. Let’s explore a few instances of parallelism in this novel.

Among the terriers he stalked imperiously, and Toots and Ysabel he utterly ignored, for he was king—king over all the creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller’s place, humans included. [three present participial adjectives]

Manuel had one besetting sin. He loved to play Chinese lottery. Also, in his gambling, he had one besetting weakness—faith in a system; and this made his damnation certain. [anaphora (the repetition of “Manuel/he had one besetting____”)]

Here was neither peace, nor rest, nor a moment’s safety. [emphasis on the 3rd noun with the addition of an article and possessive adjective]

The day had been long and arduous, and he slept soundly and comfortably, though he growled and barked and wrestled with bad dreams. [two adjectives, two adverbs, then emphasis on the third with three verbs]

This first theft marked Buck as fit to survive in the hostile Northland environment. It marked his adaptability, his capacity to adjust himself to changing conditions, the lack of which would have meant swift and terrible death. It marked further decay or going to pieces of his moral nature, a vain thing and a handicap in the ruthless struggle for existence. [Three clauses (subject, verb, direct object) with anaphora (the repetition of “theft/it marked” at the beginning of each clause)]

Their irritability arose out of their misery, increased with it, doubled upon it, outdistanced it*. The wonderful patience of the trail which comes to men who toil hard and suffer sore, and remain sweet of speech and kindly+, did not come to these to men and the woman. They had no inkling of such a patience. They were stiff and in pain; their muscles ached, their bones ached, their very hearts ached^; and because of this they became sharp of speech, and hard words were first on their lips in the morning and last at night. [*emphasis on third without preposition, +emphasis on third with extra words “of speech and kindly,” ^emphasis on third with “very”]

All things were thawing, bending, snapping. [three present progressive verbs]

And amid all this bursting, rending, throbbing of awakening life, under the blazing sun and through the soft-sighing breezes, like wayfarers to death, staggered the two men, the woman, and the huskies. [three gerunds, three nouns]

With the dogs falling, Mercedes weeping and riding, Hal swearing innocuously, and Charles’s eyes wistfully watering, they staggered into John Thornton’s camp at the mouth of White River. [one gerund, two gerunds, gerund/adverb, adverb/gerund—love the alliteration of “wistfully watering” (and “with,” “weeping,” and “White”)]

Mercedes screamed, cried, laughed, and manifested the chaotic abandonment of hysteria. [four “-ed” verbs, emphasis on the last as it continues with a vivid direct object]

But love that was feverish and burning, that was adoration, that was madness, it had taken John Thornton to arouse. [anaphora (“that was…”), the first clause has a predicate adjective, the second two have predicate nominatives]

And when, released, he sprang to his feet, his mouth laughing, his eyes eloquent, his throat vibrant with unuttered sounds, and in that fashion remained without movement, John Thornton would reverently exclaim, ‘God, you can all but speak!’ [anaphora (“his” repeated each time); so poetic with the adjective following the noun]

He sat by John Thornton’s fire, a broad-breasted dog, white-fanged and long-furred; but behind him were the shades of all manner of dogs, half-wolves and wild wolves, urgent and prompting, tasting the savour of the meat he ate, thirsting for the water he drank, scenting the wind with him, listening with him and telling him the sounds made by the wild life in the forest, dictating his moods, directing his actions, lying down to sleep with him when he lay down, and dreaming with him and beyond him and becoming themselves the stuff of his dreams.

Strangling, suffocating, sometimes one uppermost and sometimes the other, dragging over the jagged bottom, smashing against rocks and snags, they veered in to the bank. [two present participles, two “sometimes____” phrases, two present participles + prepositional phrases]

They went across divides in summer blizzards, shivered under the midnight sun on naked mountains between the timber line and the eternal snows, dropped into summer valleys amid swarming gnats and flies, and in the shadows of glaciers picked strawberries and flowers as ripe and fair as any the Southland could boast. [past tense verb + two prepositional phrases, past tense verb + three prepositional phrases (last with compound object), past tense verb + two prepositional phrases (last with compound object) (all objects of prepositions in first three phrases have adjectives), but emphasis placed on the last phrase by switching order and starting with prepositional phrase and ending with past tense verb (and compound direct object)—so poetic!]

There is a patience of the wild—dogged, tireless, persistent as life itself—that holds motionless for endless hours the spider in its web, the snake in its coils, the panther in its ambuscade… [three adjectives, emphasis on the third with a simile; three nouns with prepositional phrases repeating “in its”]

…this patience belongs peculiarly to life when it hunts its living food; and it belonged to Buck as he clung to the flank of the herd, retarding its march, irritating the young bulls, worrying the cows with their half-grown calves, and driving the wounded bull mad with helpless rage. [present participles with direct objects, increasing intensity and adding words to each subsequent phrase]

As twilight fell the old bull stood with lowered head, watching his mates—the cows he had known, the calves he had fathered, the bulls he had mastered—as they shambled on at a rapid pace through the fading light. [three nouns with adjectival clauses, with repeated “he had”—very strong grammatical parallelism]

From then on, night and day, Buck never left his prey, never gave it a moment’s rest, never permitted it to browse the leaves of the trees or the shoots of young birch and willow. [three verb phrases with “never” repeated at the beginning of each (anaphora), each subsequent phrase getting longer]

The birds talked of it, the squirrels chattered about it, the very breeze whispered of it. [three clauses, grammatically parallel; interesting switch from “of” to “about” in the second clause, emphasis on third clause with addition of “very,” epistrophe (repetition of the word “it” at the end of the clauses)]

He plunged about in their very midst, tearing, rending, destroying… [three present participles]
Thenceforward he would be unafraid of them except when they bore in their hands their arrows, spears, and clubs. [three nouns]

One wolf, long and lean and gray, advanced cautiously… [three adjectives]

On Rhetoric ~ Socratic Dialogue 2 [Paul Harvey]

In my last post on the subject of formal rhetoric, I introduced you to the canons of rhetoric, the basic arrangement of a persuasive essay or speech, and the modes of persuasion. I’d like to focus on the modes of persuasion and a new topic (elocution) in this post.

Elocution pertains to the style in which you state your ideas. This includes word choice, sentence structure, and figures of speech.

“Parallelism is actually a “figure of speech,” a sentence pattern that varies the ordinary or conventional use of language. Figures come in two types, those which vary standard word order and those which vary standard word usage: a figure is either a scheme or a trope. If parallelism is the most important scheme, metaphor is the most important trope. Metaphor is like similie since both compare two items; a metaphor is an identity, however, where a similie is an analogy.” [Scott F. Crider, The Office of Assertion]

 

There are two main categories of figures of speech: schemes and tropes.

 

Schemes appeal to the senses.

These figures of speech have a pleasing or attention-grabbing sound to the ear. Many schemes use repetition of sounds or structure, rhyme or rhythm.

Alliteration is one of the most familiar schemes. It is the repetition of consonant sounds in close proximity, usually at the beginning of words. For example, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is loaded with alliteration in every line.

This king lay at Camelot at Christmas-tide
with many a lovely lord, lieges most noble,
indeed of the Table Round all those tried brethren,
amid merriment unmatched and mirth without care.
There tourneyed many a time the trusty knights,
and jousted full joyously these gentle lords;
then to the court they came at carols to play.

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds rather than consonant sounds.

Parallelism (about which I’ve written at length here and here) is the repetition of structure (words, phrases, or clauses), and many other schemes of repetition rely on parallelism.

For example:

Chiasmus is reverse repetition of a group of words, clauses, or sentences.

The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n. [Milton, Paradise Lost]

Antithesis uses parallel structure to contrast opposing ideas.

Eloquent speakers give pleasure, wise ones salvation. [Augustine] (Eloquent vs wise and pleasure vs salvation)

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or a phrase at the beginning of clauses, lines, or sentences.

Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric, out of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry. [W. B. Yeats]

Epistrophe is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of clauses, lines, or sentences.

Justice is the grammar of things. Mercy is the poetry of things. [Frederick Buechner]

 

Tropes appeal to the imagination.

These figures of speech twist the usual meaning of words and show resemblance. The two most common tropes are similie and metaphor.

A similie shows explicit resemblance and uses the words like or as.

A metaphor shows implicit resemblance by asserting that one thing is another thing.

 

We could continue on with symbolism, personification, onomatopeia, and more, but this is only a brief introduction. American Rhetoric is an excellent resource for definitions and examples of figures of speech if you want to learn more.

 

Elocution is related to the modes of persuasion, because the writer or speaker must keep his audience in mind when considering what style will be most appealing or persuasive.

Let’s quickly review the modes of persuasion before moving on to the practicum.

Ethos is an appeal based on the speaker’s credibility.

Logos is an appeal based on reason and logic.

Pathos is an appeal to the audience’s emotions.

 

Now it’s time for us to practice what we’ve learned using the following video:

 

 

 

Here’s an imperfect transcript to make discussion easier: 

And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.

"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer.

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.

“Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'” So God made a farmer.

 

And now a few questions for you. (I’d love for you all to play along in the comments.)

Is this an example of a persuasive argument?

What is this particular video’s purpose?

In the end, who is trying to persuade an audience?

Of what?

Who is the intended audience?

Whose credibility do we consider? Does the video make an appeal based on credibility? How? By association?

Does this video make an appeal based on reason or logic? In what way?

Does this video appeal to the audience’s emotions? How?

Which mode of persuasion is the strongest? Why?

How is elocution—or style—used in this video?  What is the overall style of the presentation? Do you notice any figures of speech?

Do you think this video is persuasive? Why? What is most effective about it?

Any other thoughts?

 

[Spoiler alert. Grin.]

 

 

 

 

 

The recording is a speech originally delivered by Paul Harvey in 1978. This particular video is a Ram commercial from the 2013 Super Bowl. (Paul Harvey passed away in 2009.)

I indentified some of the figures of speech as examples.

Rhyme/rhythm: seed, weed, feed, breed

Assonance: “sigh, reply…smiling eyes”

Alliteration: “planned paradise,” “plow and plant,” “ride, ruts, race”

Parallelism (so many examples!) “clear trees, heave bails, tame lambs, wean pigs…” “tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work,” “shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, make harness out of haywire…”

Anaphora: “God said, I need somebody”

Epistrophe: “So God made a farmer.”

Antitheses: “strong enough/gentle enough” and “heave bails/tame lambs”

Metaphor?: “bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing” “plow deep and straight and not cut corners” (Is he just talking about plowing here?)

Foreshadowing: Images of Ram Trucks in film before identifying item being advertised

Did you notice any others?

On Rhetoric ~ Socratic Dialogue 1 [Ashton Kutcher]

We’ve talked quite a bit about the 5 Common Topics of Invention (a great dialectic tool) this past year. [The Question] It’s time to learn something new. Let’s move up a rung on the ladder and chat about rhetoric. [The Conversation]

A year or two ago, I had the privilege of speaking on the topic of Rhetoric at a couple Classical Conversations Parent Practicums. As is always the case, I’ve learned so much more about the topic after the fact.

Now I’m itching to lead a Socratic discussion on the topic of Rhetoric using only two videos.

I’m not the person with answers, I’m the person with questions. Will you join me?

I’d like to introduce you to the very basics of formal rhetoric, and then we’ll practice identifying the elements of rhetoric after watching a[n entertaining] persuasive speech.

Come on—it’ll be fun!

Rhetoric is persuasion aimed at the truth. According to Plato, it is the art of soul-leading by means of words.

As Scott Crider writes in The Office of Assertion:

The study of rhetoric educates one in a particular liberty, the ‘liberty to handle the world, to remake it, if only a little, and to hand it to others in a shape with may influence their actions.’ Through this ‘office of assertion,’ the writer is a leader of souls… Rhetoric is ‘the care of words and things’; that care is associative, a practice one learns—and never stops learning—in the presence of others, the ones you lead and are led by. Such soul-leading is a liberal power, one which in its finest and fullest manifestation is a form of love; the finest rhetorician not only loves wisdom, but also loves others who do so. The finest rhetor, then, is a friend.

Let’s cover the basics briefly. [The Art of Manliness has an excellent introduction to rhetoric, if you’re interested in reading just a smidge more.]

Canons of Rhetoric

Invention (inventio): [This is where Aristotle’s 5 Common Topics of Invention belong.] The content of an argument (gathering information and ideas)

Arrangement (dispositio): The structure of an argument (arranging the content)

Elocution (elocutio): The style of an argument (discovering the best style and words in which to express the ideas)

Memory (memoria): The memorization of an argument (including the memorization of general knowledge to be used in conversation and debate)

Delivery (pronuntiato): The presentation of an argument (formatting writing or delivering a speech with effective body language and voice)
 
Writing in particular focuses on the first three canons.

“Invention is what you argue, organization [arrangement], in what order you argue, and style [elocution], how you argue.” (Scott Crider)

The Institute for Excellence in Writing program, used by Classical Conversations students in 4th-6th grades, focuses on structure (arrangement) and style (elocution).

The Lost Tools of Writing program, used by CC students in 7th grade and up, places more emphasis on the invention process with the 5 Common Topics and slowly guides students through the arrangement of a formal persuasive essay while adding elocution elements one at a time.

I’ve covered invention (the 5 Common Topics) frequently here on the blog, so let’s move on to a brief introduction of arrangement.

What is arrangement? It is the ordering of your thoughts.

Basic Arrangement of a Persuasive Argument

I. Introduction—Exordium [Draw in your audience with a joke, question, quote, statistic, anecdote, or challenge.]

II. Background Information—Narratio(n) [Give your audience context for your argument along with any background information they will need (time, place, characters, causes).]

III. Proof of the case—Confirmatio(n) [State your thesis, state the number of proofs you will using, and briefly state each proof (reason to support your thesis), then detail each proof with supporting information.]

IV. Address Opposition—Refutatio(n) [Refute the opposition by stating the counter position’s possible proofs and explaining why these proofs are not persuasive.]

V. Conclusion/Amplification—Peroratio(n) [Restate your thesis and proofs. Tell the audience to whom the issue matters and why. Inspire enthusiasm!]
 
In order to be a soul-leader, you must consider your audience as you are preparing and delivering your argument.

This is where the modes of persuasion come in to play.

Modes of Persuasion

Ethos is an appeal based on the speaker’s credibility.

Logos is an appeal based on reason and logic.

Pathos is an appeal to the audience’s emotions.

Wes Callihan introduces the modes of persuasion in the following video from his Western Culture DVD series.

Cicero on Rhetoric: Ethos, Pathos, Logos (Old Western Culture)

Now that you have a basic idea of the canons of formal rhetoric, the arrangement of an argument, and the modes of persuasion, let’s watch an unlikely example of rhetoric and identify these elements.

[Heads up: the speaker uses the word “crap” and “sexy” in this video if you are watching with kids and that concerns you.]





And now a few questions for you.

Who is Ashton Kutcher’s audience?

Does his audience need to be persuaded of something?

How does he initially connect with that audience? How does he get their attention? [Exordium]

Is his delivery (voice, body language) appropriate to the audience? [Pronuntiato]

Is his style and word choice appropriate to the audience? Is the length of the speech appropriate to the occasion? [Elocution]

Does he give any background or context for his argument? [Narratio]

Is the order of his speech clear? [Dispositio]

Is the purpose of his speech clear? Does he state a thesis or subject for his speech? Does he state the number of ideas (proofs) and introduce them briefly? Does he flesh out each idea with supporting information? [Confirmatio]

Is he familiar with his topic? Does he have enough information gathered? [Inventio]

Is his speech memorized? [Memorio]

Is his speech logical and reasonable? [Logos]

How does he establish his credibility for his argument? Is his credibility strong or weak? In what ways? Is his credibility weaker for any of his arguments? [Ethos]

Does he appeal to the audience’s emotions? How? [Pathos]

Does he restate his ideas in conclusion? Does he identify his audience and tell them why his speech matters to them? Does he inspire them to action? [Peroratio]

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Part 2 is coming up. I can see you on the edge of your seat! [grin]

Parallelism ~ On the Grammar and Poetry of Things

I haven’t waxed philosophical about The Lost Tools of Writing yet this season, so I’ll try to make up for lost time this month.

In this post I won’t go on and on about the brilliance of the 5 Common Topics of Invention and using The Lost Tools of Writing as a “thinking program.” [They still are and we still do, but there’s more!]

Instead, I’d like to talk about parallelism.

One of the very first tools of style or “elocution” a Lost Tools of Writing student learns to wield is parallelism.

[To wield means “to hold (something, such as a tool or weapon) in your hands so that you are ready to use it.” I love this imagery. It reminds me of the quote “A word after a word after a word is power” by Margaret Atwood. We are teaching our students to be powerful with their words and ideas!]

What is parallelism?

Parallelism, also known as parallel structure or parallel construction, is a balance within one or more sentences of similar phrases or clauses that have the same grammatical structure. Some definitions of parallelism include repeated single parts of speech.

The most common number of repetitions is three. (I believe I have heard Andrew Pudewa say “Thrice, never twice.”)

Two famous examples of parallelism (I apologize, I have ancient history on the brain):

“Friends, Romans, countryman, lend me your ears…” (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)

“I came; I saw; I conquered” (attributed to Julius Caesar)

The first contains a repetition of three nouns, one after another. The second contains a repetition of three clauses (subject and verb).

Exact words can be repeated within the structure (such as the use of “I” for each clause in “I came; I saw; I conquered” or “a word” in the earlier quote by Margaret Atwood “A word after a word after a word is power”), but it is not necessary.

If you still don’t quite get it, stick with me. I hope the concept will be clearer by the end of the post.

Why parallelism?

Parallelism requires a student to be balanced and clear in the expression of his ideas.

Lost Tools of Writing students learn to write their persuasive essay proofs in parallel structure. This is a natural place for parallelism as the students list three reasons to support their thesis. We desire their reasons to be clear and balanced in order to be more persuasive.

For example, in our persuasive essay for Where the Red Fern Grows, our original thesis and proofs were as follows:

“Billy should have traveled to town alone to get his dogs for three reasons: his good character traits, he was prepared, his actions paved the way for his hunting successes.”

The structures in that list are adjective-adjective-adjective-noun, pronoun-linking verb-adjective, and adjective-noun-transitive verb-adjective-direct object-prepositional phrase. No similar structures. The sentence is clunky.

We changed the thesis and proofs to the following:

“Billy should have traveled to town alone to claim his dogs for three reasons: he possessed positive character traits, he prepared for the journey, and he paved the way for his future hunting success.”

Now, we have three similar clauses. “He” is the subject of all three clauses. We have three strong past-tense action verbs (with alliteration!): possessed, prepared, and paved. And we have a direct object, a prepositional phrase, and a direct object and a prepositional phrase. Not exactly alike, but the main body of each structure (clause with “he” followed by an action verb) is the same and we maintained a certain consistency of ideas. The new sentence sounds more persuasive to the ear.

When we outlined our persuasive essay for A Gathering of Days, we began with:

[Thesis] Catherine should not have left the blanket and food for the “Phantom.”

C. [Enumeration] 3

D. Exposition

1. Dangerous

2. No authority

3. No respect for property

We had to expand on the ideas in order to present them persuasively. In the end, we wrote the following:

“In A Gathering of Days Catherine had good intentions, but she should not have left the blanket and food for the “phantom” for three reasons. Catherine failed to protect herself and others from danger, she failed to obey the authorities over her, and she failed to respect the property of others.”

“Catherine” (or “she”) is the subject of each clause. “Failed” is the transitive verb in each clause. Each clause contains an infinitive (to protect, to obey, to respect) as a direct object. And each infinitive has a direct object with a prepositional phrase (herself/others from danger, authorities over her, property of others). These proofs are very closely parallel, and the ideas sound strong.

Have I lost you?

This may lead us to the next point.

Parallelism requires a certain proficiency of grammar.

Yes, the justice of things. Students need to know how the English language works in order to use it most intentionally and effectively. For some people, grammar (or justice) is not fun. But it is necessary. It gives consistency, clarity, and structure to our thoughts. It allows us to communicate more powerfully.

The wonderful thing about parallelism is that it is also poetry, which leads us to our next point.

Parallelism pleases the ear.

Parallelism lends a certain pleasing rhythm to a sentence or a paragraph. It gives it a musical, poetic quality. It enchants the reader or the hearer.

Literary devices that appeal to the senses (the sense of hearing in particular) are called schemes.

Parallelism leads to more complex literary devices used for a higher degree of rhetorical style.

Once students master the basics of parallel structure, they can use their knowledge and experience to create antithesis, anaphora, asyndeton, symploce, epistrophe, and climax.

Again, these devices give a powerful, poetic quality to writing and speaking.

I love this building process.

In Teaching Writing with Structure and Style from Institute for Excellence in Writing (which Classical Conversations uses for kids ages 9-12 in the Essentials classes), students learn the advanced “decoration” (or style tool) “Triple Extensions” by repeating words, parts of speech, phrases, or clauses. Students (and parents!) in Classical Conversations Essentials classes also receive a firm foundation in English grammar.

With Lost Tools of Writing (used in Challenge A, B, and I? for kids 12 and older), students learn the formal rhetoric terms “elocution,” “scheme,” and “parallelism,” and learn to build parallel structures in their writing.

Then, students use this parallel structure to learn new literary devices.

There’s an intentional purpose and sequence and progression of complexity. It’s beautiful, really.

In Classical Conversations Challenge B, students have just learned to use antithesis in their writing. Antithesis “juxtaposes two contrasting ideas in parallel form… sometimes parts of speech made exactly parallel, sometimes with a looser structure” (mercy!).

There are many, many examples of antitheses in literature and speeches. One benefit of antitheses is that it is memorable. One famous example:

“That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” (Neil Armstrong)

This sentence uses parallel phrases. “Small step” is contrasted with “giant leap” and “man” is contrasted with “mankind.”

Our opening quote uses antitheses in its parallel clauses, as well. “Justice” is contrasted with “mercy” and “grammar” is contrasted with “poetry.”

In our recent essay on Where the Red Fern Grows, we wrote:

“While he was pulling away from his parents, he was bonding with his dogs.”

This sentence uses parallel clauses. “Pulling away” contrasts with “bonding” and “from his parents” contrasts with “with his dogs.”

Do you see how that works?

This is just a brief, imperfect introduction. It’s not meant to lead you to mastery. And, certainly, I’m not close to mastery, myself. I am, however, fascinated by words and structure and ideas, and I’ve found playing with parallelism to be great fun. I have also found myself noticing parallel structure in everything I am reading!

I’ll end this introductory post with a small sampling from my recent book stack, from picture books to Paradise Lost.

Examples from Literature

Hamlet, retold by Leon Garfield

The stars glared, the battlements shuddered, and Hamlet’s heart ceased as the terrible word was uttered. [independent clauses: adjective, noun, past-tense verb]

But Hamlet’s strangeness had already troubled the smooth surface of the court, puzzled the smiling King and vaguely distressed the easy Queen. [verb phrases: past-tense verb, adjective/article “the,” adjective, direct object; you’ll notice an added prepositional phrase with the first verb phrase and an -ly adverb with the third]

They wore their paper crowns, clutched their wooden swords, and shrugged their patchwork gowns with a dusty dignity and a seasoning of pride. [verb phrases: past-tense verb, adjective “their,” adjective, direct object]

“Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing,” he hissed; and crept towards the sleeper with a black cloak trailing, like some malignant bat. [noun phrases: noun, adjective—these noun phrases are particularly forceful and poetic with the adjective appearing after the noun]

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by AVI

Above and below the church were our dwelling places, some forty cottages and huts of wattle and daub, thatch and wood, dirt and mud, all in varying shades of brown. [noun phrases, compound objects of the preposition “of”: noun “and” noun]

Stiff in limb, chilled in bone, numb in thought, I shifted about. [adjectival phrases: adjective, preposition “in,” object of the preposition]

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

I had the wind of a deer, the muscles of a country boy, a heart full of dog love, and a strong determination. [direct object noun phrases: adjective/article, noun, adjectival prepositional phrase with “of” repeated in each]

The Master Swordsman by Alice Provensen

“How heavy the pails! How endless the wood! How far the well!” [adjectival phrases]

‘“LOOK SHARP!” glugged the jug… “ATTENTION!” clacked the box… “BE ALERT!” creaked the log. “THAT’S THE WAY” wheezed the teapot.’ [clauses: verb, subject]

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom 

Usually it was fog in January in Holland, dank, chill, and gray. [“Triple Extension” adjectives]

On me—until Betsie caught up with them—hems sagged, stockings tore, and collars twisted. [clauses: subject, verb]

Some great examples of antitheses in The Hiding Place:

Adventure and anguish, horror and heaven were just around the corner, and we did not know. [Nouns: adventure/anguish, horror/heaven… and alliteration as well!]

Young and old, poor and rich, scholarly gentlemen and illiterate servant girls—only to Father did it seem that they were all alike. [Nouns: young/old, poor/rich, scholarly gentlemen/illiterate servant girls]

Here we sat, our backs chilled by the ancient stone, our ears and hearts warmed by the music. [Noun phrases: backs/ears-hearts, chilled/warmed, by the ancient stone/by the music]

Paradise Lost by John Milton

Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance pour’d. [Nouns]

Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime, Said then the lost Arch Angel, “this the seat That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom For that celestial light? [Noun phrases with repeated “this”] [We have a little antitheses at the end—”this mournful gloom” is contrasted with “that celestial light.”]

Antithesis:

Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n. [Spoken by Satan, by the way.] [Infinitive phrases: reign/serve, Hell/Heav’n]

And one bonus example. Chiasmus is another literary device that employs a parallel structure. It is a repetition of words in reverse:

The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.

 

I challenge you to discover parallel structure in your own reading.

I’d love it if you shared examples in the comments!

Crispin and Lost Tools of Writing [CC Challenge A] Discussion Notes and ANI

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi is one of my favorite CC Challenge A literature selections of the year. I made many marks in my book as I was reading. The imagery is gorgeous with beautiful schemes and tropes (literary devices: parallelism, similies, metaphors, alliteration, etc.). [In fact, I plan to use a couple passages of the book in my Essentials class next year, having the kids mark up a paragraph as if it were an IEW paper.]

I’m sharing my discussion notes. Obviously, there will be spoilers if you haven’t read the book! And just because something is in our discussion notes, doesn’t make it “the right answer.” Literature is open to interpretation. That’s what makes it so interesting!

Characters

Asta’s Son/Crispin, Bear (Asta, Father Quinel, John Aycliffe, Lord Furnival, Widow Daventry, John Ball)

Plot

Conflict

Asta’s son needed a name, the ability to make decisions, a friend, freedom, a life, a soul, joy.

Climax

Chapter 51, p 222

“As time passed in the darkness of my hiding place, the one thing I knew for sure was that as Bear had helped to free me, he had given me life. Therefore I resolved to help free him—even if it cost me that new life to do so.”

[We took some time to define specific vs. universal (plot is specific, theme is universal).]

Themes

[It would be fun to go through the book using highlighters for different themes.]

Naming (absence of being)

p 21 “O Great and Giving Jesus, I, who have no name, who am nothing, who does not know what to do, who is all along in Thy world, I who am full of sin, I implore Thy blessed help, or I’m undone.”

Becoming (his own person, making decisions, gaining a soul)

p 39 “I need to do as I was told.”

p 52 “I, who had never really had to make important choices about anything—now I had to decide everything for myself. The result was that I stayed where I was…In faith, I did not know how to do otherwise.”

p 82 “’I have no choice,’ I said.
’Would you like one?’
’God’s will be done,’I said.”

p 104 “’Think what you might become if you were cleansed of thirteen years of dirt, neglect, and servitude.’”

p 106 “’Then surely you can sing no less than they for you have a soul.’
’Sometimes…I think I have none…I have…never felt it.’”

p 138 “Perhaps it was time for me to make the decision for myself.”

p 171 “I made up my mind to leave the town…While it was easy to make the decision…”

p 221 “The only question was, now that I knew who I was, what should I do?”

Freedom (not bondage)

p 97 “Lose your sorrows, and you’ll find your freedom.”

Relationships (greater than station in life)

Free will to lay down life, sacrificing

Power corrupts (venom)

p 221 “He was shielding me from the poison in my blood.”

p 222 “I saw it then: Bear and Ball were talking about the very word Father Quinel had used, freedom. Something I had never had. Nor did anyone in my village, or the other villages through which we had passed. We lived in bondage. To be a Furnival was to be part of that bondage.”

Love, Trust

p. 73 “’You needn’t be so resentful,’ he said. ‘When you’ve lived as much as I, you’ll learn to neither trust nor love any mortal. Then, the only one who can betray your is yourself.”

p 88 “As God in Heaven knows, both wheat and trust take a full season to grow.”

p 138 “Though I was excited by Bear’s promise, I was very nervous. Should I or should I not trust him?”

p 207 “Yet I had little hope that it would bring either comfort or release for my one true friend.”

Life and Death

p 1 [Opening words] “’In the midst of life comes death.’ How often did our village priest preach those words. Yet I have also heard that ‘in the midst of death comes life.’ If this be a riddle, so was my life.”

p 12 “Thus our lives never changed, but went round the rolling years beneath the starry vault of distant Heaven. Time was the great millstone, which ground us to dust like kerneled wheat…Birth and death alone gave distinction to our lives…”

p 97 “Living by answers is a form of death. It’s only questions that keep you living.”

p 148 “As for doors, I did not think the world had so many. These people, I thought, must live their lives by little more than entries and exits.”

p 221 “How odd, I though: it had taken my mother’s death, Father Quinel’s murder, and the desire of others to kill me for me to claim a life of my own. But what kind of life?”

All themes come to a head at the climax (quote above under plot) and the last paragraph (resolution) of the book. [sob]

 

Issue:

Whether Crispin should have risked his life and forfeited his birthright to save Bear

5 Common Topics

Definition

[We defined Crispin twice—unnamed and named.]

Asta’s Son

not slaves but neither free

villeins-serfs, bound to Furnival

worked land (farmers)

13 year old boy

couldn’t read or write

Christian

had no name, was nothing, doesn’t know what to do, all alone, “full of sin”

orphan, homeless, friendless

“Wolf’s head” wanted outlaw, others free to kill him

couldn’t make choices or decisions

Crispin

illegitimate son of Lord Furnival

still an orphan (13, Christian)

has Bear = master/friend/father

on the run

forced servant-hood then bound apprentice (not free)

Bear sets him free after Crispin saved his life and sacrificed title

member of the Guild of Free Men

feels like a true son

makes decisions on his own and trusts

Bear

man, physically large, red beard

Age 12-19: enrolled @ abbey to be monk, learned to read and write

Age 20-30ish: ran off with mummers (performers), learned music, tricks, and laughter

Aged 30ish: became soldier. learned survival skills/fighting

Later used knowledge and experience from all 3 to become spy

Then master, friend, and father to Crispin

split hat of jester symbolized his two natures: jest/anger, good/bad

We also defined the term “father.” Lord Furnival fit the objective definition, and Bear fit the subjective definition.

Comparison

We compared the terms serf, servant, and apprentice because Crispin was all three over the course of the story.

Similarities: They are all bound but not slaves.

Differences: Serfs and servants are so for lifetime; apprenticeships are so for a period of years

Serf and servant positions were involuntary; apprenticeships were supposed to be voluntary.

Serfs usually worked the land, servants had a variety of possible tasks, and apprentices learned skills or trades.

All three usually had meager, miserable livelihoods, but apprentices could eventually be free and have a chance at a better life.

We also compared Crispin, Amos from Amos Fortune, Free Man, Nat from Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, and Robin from The Door in the Wall (all Challenge A literature selections).

Similarities: They were all boys. They all were faced with pivotal decisions to make around the age of 12-14 that changed the course of their lives. They made brave and honorable decisions. They took responsibility for their own lives and made sacrifices.

Differences: Crispin and Robin lived in England during the Middle Ages. Nat lived in America in colonial times and Amos lived in America during the time of slavery.

Crispin, Amos, and Robin all had stigmas attached to them, but they were different kinds (illegitimate child, African race, crippled). Nat had none.

Circumstance

England, 1377. Just after the plague.

Lord Furnival died.

Bear was being held in the dungeon of the Furnival palace.

The affirmative answer is possible (because Crispin succeeded in the end). Crispin said he had to try even if he couldn’t succeed. (p 231)

Relationship

We talked about the relationship between Bear and Crispin. Bear was Crispin’s master, father figure, protector, friend, provider, and teacher/mentor.

And then we talked about Crispin’s relationship to Lord Furnival in comparison. (Biological father, but he cast them out.)

What happened immediately before: Crispin warned the men that Aycliffe was coming. Bear helped save Crispin and the other men. Bear was captured.

What happened immediately afterward: Crispin rescued Bear. Aycliffe was killed in the fight at the town gates after going back on his word. Crispin left his cross with Aycliffe’s body, fulfilling his vow.

What caused the circumstances: Aycliffe captured Bear to get to Crispin because Crispin’s birth threatened Lady Furnival’s position.

Testimony/Authority

Who was an authority within the story? Who had something to say about the issue?

Bear told Crispin to leave the city because it was Crispin they wanted. Bear was an authority (master/father) in Crispin’s life. He was a trustworthy authority.

Widow Daventry told Crispin to leave town and never return. She said that his noble blood was poison. She said the connection gave him no honor or position. She said he would be used by Lord Douglas. She said his noble blood would cause a warrant for his arrest. She was an adult authority with life experience. She knew his situation and was trustworthy.

ANI

Negative

Crispin was only a 13 year old boy
He was a wolf’s head and Aycliffe wanted to kill him
He was an illegitimate child
Bear forced Crispin into bondage
It wasn’t fair for Crispin to have to give up who he was just when he had realized it
Bear was not related to him
Crispin was risking his freedom
There were no other heirs to the Furnival line
Title could have provided ease of life
He could have gone to his mother’s father, taken the title, and then tried to rescue Bear
It was terrifying
It was dangerous
Widow Daventry told him to leave town
Bear told him to leave town
Bear didn’t want him in danger
Bear could already have been dead
Widow D. already made arrangements for Crispin to escape
Bear chose to take the risk of being a spy
Crispin was doing exactly what John Aycliffe wanted him to do
It was a trap
Crispin was outnumbered
Crispin had no one to help him

Affirmative (with preliminary sorting)

1. Relationship with Bear
Bear father figure
One true friend
Bear master
Bear saved his life (more than once)
Loved Bear

2. Needed Bear
Bear was teaching him skills
Protecting
Providing
Crispin had no one else

3. Character Development
Brave
Selfless
Self-sacrifice turns boys into men
Taking responsibility
Learning how to make decisions
Honorable
Take charge of destiny

4. Bear’s Qualities
Bear deserved to be saved
Bear was helping peasants in his role as spy
Bear helped others escape before he was captured

5. Technical
It was possible
Crisping was able-bodied
Crispin was the only one who could
Crispin had something to bargain with
Crispin’s decision was made in free will

6. Anti-title
Being part of the Furnival name meant participating in bondage
Noble blood was poison
He would have been used by Lord Douglas if he had tried to claim inheritance

7. Cause/Effect
He needed to save Bear from further torture and death
It was Crispin’s fault that Bear was taken as a prisoner
John Aycliffe was killed in the skirmish

Interesting (not as many as we should have, but most of our “interesting” points were already in our notes)

Bear seemed mean at first and forced Crispin into bondage
Bear was captured while in the service of the Freeman’s Guild
The plague was over
Why did Crispin leave the cross with the dead body of Aycliffe?
Crispin forced Aycliffe at knife-point to make a promise, just as Bear did to him
Crispin gained awareness of his soul

 

I think that about wraps up what I have written. I always feel as if we’re just scratching the surface of what we discussed and what is possible to discuss!

You can read another parent’s Crispin discussion notes and ANI at this link.

I’ll share the essay when it is completed next week.

Literature Selections and a LTW Basic Persuasive Essay [A Gathering of Days]

The ten literature selections for the Classical Conversations Challenge A program were all chosen with the theme “Ownership” in mind, and I have loved almost all of them. I appreciate the variety of fiction and historical fiction (from Ancient Rome to World War II, and two based on the lives of real people) as well as the balance of male and female protagonists (usually around the age of Challenge A students when they face their greatest conflict).  

Number the Stars and Amos Fortune, Free Man were both first-time reads for me, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them.

It seems as if I had heard some negative comments about The Door in the Wall, but it was one of my favorites and it led to great discussions when we were working on the ANI chart.

We are discussing Crispin: The Cross of Lead this week, and I couldn’t put it down once I started reading. My book is all marked up. I hope to share some discussion notes next week. I immediately purchased the other two books in the trilogy, Crispin: At the Edge of the World and Crispin: The End of Time.

The Bronze Bow, our last literature selection, is up next. I’m looking forward to re-reading and discussing.

[I shared some thoughts about our discussion of The Secret Garden here and here and our essay outline here.]

A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32 was the book I struggled with the most. The writing felt forced or awkward, and I didn’t care for the journal-entry style writing (which contributed to the forced story-line). I also found it very difficult to come up with a large number of entries for our ANI chart without getting wildly inventive. It wasn’t awful, I just wasn’t particularly inspired to discuss the book.

Levi and I worked on the essay together, however, and it turned out better than I expected so I am sharing here. We chose to argue a different side of the issue from what we normally do. As I shared yesterday, these basic persuasive essays are intended to be precise, reduced writing with correct structure that will allow for beautiful, high-quality, productive growth in the coming years.

It’s not perfect (especially the support for proof 3), but we’re making progress.

A Gathering of Days by Joan W. Blos

Lost Tools of Writing Basic Persuasive Essay II

Is it possible to do the wrong thing with good intentions? In A Gathering of Days Catherine had good intentions, but she should not have left the blanket and food for the “phantom” for three reasons. Catherine failed to protect herself and others from danger, she failed to obey the authorities over her, and she failed to respect the property of others.

The first reason Catherine should not have left the blanket and food for the “phantom” was that she failed to protect herself and others from danger. Catherine, who was only a fourteen-year-old girl, knew that the “phantom” was a man by the size of his stride and footprints like craters in the ground. She did not know what kind of person he was or what his intentions were. Catherine also risked her friend’s life by asking her friend to accompany her on the mission.

The second reason Catherine should not have left the blanket and food for the “phantom” was that she failed to obey the authorities over her. Catherine kept her actions secret from her father who thought indentured servants ought to be returned and was likely to advise against helping a probable run-away slave. Catherine did not ask for any adult’s help or advice within her community. Catherine’s government, the United States, considered her action illegal. Toward the end of her journal Catherine wrote, “Thus it now appears to me that trust, and not submission, defines obedience.” (p. 139) She should have trusted her authorities.

The third reason Catherine should not have left the blanket and food for the “phantom” was that she failed to respect the property of others. The “phantom” legally belonged to someone else. He disrespected her property by stealing her book and writing in it. The quilt and food were not Catherine’s property to give away.

Catherine should not have left the blanket and food for the “phantom” because she failed to protect herself and others, she failed to obey authority, and she failed to respect the property of others. Catherine’s actions mattered most to her father because his daughter was in danger, she was under his authority, and the property given was his.

Thoughts on The Lost Tools of Writing

Have you read The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers? The essay is available online, and it is short enough that reading it yearly is a reasonable, not to mention profitable and inspiring, exercise if one is interested in the field of education, particularly classical education.

I recently re-read the essay and discovered a few nuggets that I had previously missed or perhaps forgotten. It could be that we’ve entered a new stage in our homeschool that comes with new challenges. For instance, the following quote has a painful accuracy that I did not feel so acutely a few years ago:

“It will, doubtless, be objected that to encourage young persons at the Pert age to browbeat, correct, and argue with their elders will render them perfectly intolerable. My answer is that children of that age are intolerable anyhow; and that their natural argumentativeness may just as well be canalized to good purpose as allowed to run away into the sands.”

Truly, I could not say it more eloquently.

I also experienced many “aha!” moments when I compared Sayers’s essay to the Classical Conversations syllabus.

The Lost Tools of Writing, however, was prominently on my mind at the time, and I highlighted the following passage:

Our Reading will proceed from narrative and lyric to essays, argument and criticism, and the pupil will learn to try his own hand at writing this kind of thing…

Wherever the matter for Dialectic is found, it is, of course, highly important that attention should be focused upon the beauty and economy of a fine demonstration or a well-turned argument, lest veneration should wholly die. Criticism must not be merely destructive; though at the same time both teacher and pupils must be ready to detect fallacy, slipshod reasoning, ambiguity, irrelevance, and redundancy, and to pounce upon them like rats. This is the moment when precise-writing may be usefully undertaken; together with such exercises as the writing of an essay, and the reduction of it, when written, by 25 or 50 percent.

What struck me in this passage was the idea of precise, reduced writing, or pruning, one might say.

My late grammar-stage students are allowed some haphazard “flowering” and growth while using the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) program. They liberally douse, and occasionally drown, their writing with strong verbs, quality adjectives, “ly” adverbs, vocabulary words, who/which clauses, and decorations such as alliteration. They are playing with language in order to become familiar with it. I’ve had the opportunity to listen to many IEW papers written by students in 4th-6th grades, and it is not only my boys who are not precise with their language play. This is reasonable in the grammar stage of learning.

But what of the dialectic? Dialectic is a pruning stage, and pruning is rarely beautiful.

Have you pruned a rose bush? The pruning process is orderly and precise, and the sight of the spare, harsh branches is a bit shock after the leggy late-season growth. But the benefits of judicious pruning of plants include balanced shaping and directed growth, improved air flow, improved plant health, targeted removal of non-productive or structurally unsound material, and increased yield or quality of flowers and fruits.

The rudimentary, introductory, and basic persuasive essays that students write when they begin The Lost Tools of Writing are not intended to look like the untidy sprawling of the grammar stage or the flowering masterpieces of the rhetoric stage. They are intended to be precise, reduced writing with correct structure that will allow for beautiful, high-quality, productive growth in the coming years.

The students begin playing with ideas rather than words, and they focus their attention and efforts on the systematic gathering and processing of ideas (the “invention” stage of the art of rhetoric) as they pertain to a well-turned argument. The beauty comes slowly, allowing the students to be attentive, judicious, and artful, one scheme or trope at a time.

The strength of a piece of writing is rooted in its ideas and basic structure, and the strength of The Lost Tools of Writing is the way it guides a student through the thinking (invention) and structure (arrangement) processes before moving on to style (elocution). I shared more thoughts on The Lost Tools of Writing as a thinking and conversing program here and here.

But let’s talk for a moment about the “should question.” The Lost Tools of Writing process begins with this important foundation. Students consider a character in a story (or in history), choose an action the character performed, and ask, “Should he have done that?”

Andrew Kern says that wisdom is judgment, and late-dialectic-stage students are just beginning to practice wisdom as they make judgments about a character’s actions.

Who cares if Jane runs? I sure don’t. But everybody wants to know whether the ants should have fed the grasshopper, whether Caesar should have crossed the Rubicon, and whether Odysseus should have slaughtered the suitors. These things matter because they arouse the right questions. They help students clarify their thoughts about what is just and fair, what is wise and prudent, and what is noble and honorable. [From The Greatest of All Things by Andrew Kern @ CiRCE]

In the preface of Norms and Nobility, David Hicks says this:

Although in my curriculum proposal I use history as the paradigm for contextual learning, the ethical question “What should one do?” might provide an even richer context for acquiring general knowledge. This question elicits not only knowledge, but wisdom, and it draws the interest of the student into any subject, no matter how obscure or far removed from his day-to-day concerns. It challenges the imagination and makes life the laboratory it ought to be for testing the hypotheses and lessons of the classroom. As this implies, the end of education is not thinking; it is acting.

Have we spent enough time thinking about the end of education? Is knowledge the goal? Is flowery writing the goal? Or is wisdom and right action the goal? Knowledge such as a robust vocabulary is a necessary building block, but it is nothing if the student does not move on to judicious use of words and then on to wisdom and right action.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

A few related thoughts and articles for your perusal:

:: The Holy Grail of Classical Education by Andrew Kern @ CiRCE. [Read the full article to find out why the “why?” matters. I love the concept that this question is the key to an integrated curriculum.]

If I want to see into the meaning of this event, learning the content is necessary. But it is not enough. You have to ask why he did it, what were the outcomes, what he overcame, whether he was wise to do so, what his courage purchased for us, and other big picture questions.

:: Wisdom in the Age of Information and the Importance of Storytelling in Making Sense of the World: An Animated Essay by Maria Popova [You can read the transcript at Brain Pickings, linked in title, or watch the animated video below.]

 

“At the top is wisdom, which has a moral component — it is the application of information worth remembering and knowledge that matters to understanding not only how the world works, but also how it should work. And that requires a moral framework of what should and shouldn’t matter, as well as an ideal of the world at its highest potentiality.”

The Lost Tools of Writing introduced me to the five Topics of Invention, which are tools (questions) for structured thinking. I have been amazed over and over again while playing with the first tool, definition. It astounds me that such fruit can come of something so simple as naming and defining. This first topic of invention is a fantastic way to introduce younger children to dialectic conversation. The next article and the following video show just how rich this single tool can be for a person of any age.

:: Into the Essence of Things by Danny Breed @ CiRCE.

Once you see into a thing’s heart, you can appreciate its beauty, its relationship to things around it, and how it can bless others. Yet, how does one learn to see into the essence of things? It starts with naming, which was one of the first tasks the Lord set before the first man.

:: Matt Bianco Teaches Socratic Circles

Jennifer Dow compares IEW and The Lost Tools of Writing:

:: Comparing IEW and The Lost Tools of Writing @ Expanding Wisdom

The Menagerie [part 2]

I thought you all might enjoy the next installment of Levi’s story while I’m working on the next book list project (and waiting for these antibiotics to kick in after almost seven weeks of illness).

He got braces last week and a haircut yesterday. It’s like I have a full-fledged teenager on my hands! He is almost as tall as me, and his feet passed up mine some time ago. I’m not sure I’m coping. The quotes above express his personality so well.

[Read part 1 here.]

Into the Menagerie

Canth strode into the receiving hall he had been directed to by a hassled-looking servant, who had told him that he might wait there till the lord of the keep came to that place as was required and commanded the servants to notify the resident Asura Krewe that the gate must be opened for a young man who was to be trained as a Ranger.

Canth was told that he might rest his feet on a stool which another tired-out servant procured from a nearby room. After a while of wait Canth was directed to meet the Lord of the Hold.

"Young man, you are the first new Trainee in five years!" boomed the Lord. "And we were not prepared for such a speedy arrival at this time of year!" Canth decided that he liked this man, for he had been hospitable even though his servants were exhausted.

"Thank you for receiving me so pleasantly," Canth replied. "But my new teacher must be waiting for me inside......."

"Oh, your teacher can wait, young man. I would like to make your acquaintance first."

"I am sorry, and I do not mean to be rude, but if your resident Asura Krewe have finished their task then I should be going," he notified the affronted Lord of the Hold.

"I understand young man. I will allow you to be on your way, but please do not mention that I detained your arrival to the Master Trainer. He would make me wish I had a different hold to care for than this castle on the border. It would weaken me to have to fight him off and still have the minotaurs to bother me in my harried state. I would'st prefer if thou think'est of me not as a pompous lord but as a friend." With those words the lord of the hold beckoned to Canth and strode through the halls to the room with the gate.

When they arrived in the room a surprise awaited Canth. He thought that he would be going through a normal-seeming castle gate that had a teleport spell cast upon it, but instead it was a circular frame of metal with a purple swirling energy inside.

The portal, since that was the proper name for the Asura Gate, glowed softly in the twilight, a thing of another world. The Asura in charge told him to step through. He did and felt a pull, like a strong tug, then he walked out of the other gate. This time he was inside the Menagerie.

Inside at last

Inside the Menagerie, birds twittered, deer and stags stalked through the forest, and Canth was in the midst of it all, on a journey into the heart of the forest. A journey to find the person who would teach him how to survive in the wild, find food. He had an apprenticeship to fulfill. An apprenticeship that was his and not another's.

He arrived in the heart of the forest and found a little house built into a hill, in a sixty foot wide clearing, with a round door, and beautifully kept plants in front. The house had a stump outside that had been perfectly shaped into a sort of chair, and there sat a man of about twenty-eight. Canth advanced and presented himself in front of the man, saluting and coming to attention.

"First lesson: don't salute or come to attention for me. If you were in sword school then you would have to do that, but here the rules are a little bit less formal. No officials allowed in here; they would want to disturb the peace by bringing heralds with trumpets, and many horses. That would frighten many of the animals on the Island. We use our proper names, not titles and surnames. And, unless we need to show rank in the corps, no saying ‘sir.’ My name is Peter Wolfwynd. Yours is Canth, correct?"

"Yes, it is.”

“Well, today we should start lessons with archery and a preview of Earth Magik." 

Peter and Canth began lessons. Canth was a natural at Earth Magik, but archery would have to be worked on. When Peter saw that Canth was such a good student and that he could perform some of the more complex Magik and had some expertise in simple wilderness survival, he switched Canth's schedule to include more of this because these were what he himself was proficient in, and were what would be more time-consuming to learn.

[To be continued…]

Vulnerability and Part 1 of “The Menagerie” by Levi

I’m going to be vulnerable with you for a few minutes:

It’s been a rough year with my oldest.

Personality clashes, hormone flares, emotional meltdowns, character issues. Probably pretty equally on both our parts.

Have I mentioned that raising adolescents can be tough?

I asked him if I could share that, and he said I could.

And I say this to let you know that we’re human, with human struggles.

The decisions are endless, and seem to have no easy answers. I hinted about the quandary in this post. How much do we expect our “square peg” children to fit in a round hole? When is it a character or training issue and when should we change our expectations?

I don’t know.

I’m reminded of this article about the best-selling teenage author Christopher Paolini. In the article, his mother talks about his education saying, “Little did I know that when Christopher was daydreaming out the window—and not finishing his math problems—he was dreaming of battling evil sorcerers and flying on dragons, dreams that would form the basis of his first book, Eragon.”

Well, exactly.

I’m not saying I have the next Christopher Paolini on my hands, not at all, but what do you do when your child would rather be thinking or writing about dragons than finishing his math? What do you do when it is a great struggle for him to bend his brain to focus on math? Even if he has the reward of free time at the end of it?

She does say in the very next paragraph: “Sometimes our children balked at lessons and we had a clash of wills. At those crucial points, Kenneth and I gave our children a choice: we told them that by law they had to attend school, but it was their decision where they would do this. They could do the assigned homeschool lessons or Dad would drive them to the local school, where they would do the work those teachers assigned. Ultimately, they always chose to homeschool, but not without a grumble here and there.”

And so we press on, but not without a grumble here and there. [wry grin] And I try to remember that learning to read was a painful process to go through with Levi, but now he can read 1,000 pages a day. So there’s that.

Maybe it is that I fear the regrets of hindsight, and I don’t want to destroy our relationship.

But I can’t live in fear. At some point I have to walk in faith here.

Levi has asked that I share with you all the very rough draft of the beginning of the story he is writing, and I told him that I would be glad to. So this is in part a preface.

Keep in mind that writing assignments are painfully completed (or not, as the case may be) by this son. Painful execution. Painful style. IEW was a battle. Even the creative assignments.

But when he is supposed to be completing a math assignment?

Magic.

Following is the first installment. I’ve edited his random capitalization and punctuation and reformatted the paragraphs. All other content is his spontaneous creativity.

Copyright 2015 by Levi Scovel

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The Menagerie

A Chronicle of the Apprenticeship and Adulthood of a Young Ranger

Chapter One

Selection

It was a dark and stormy night, a night to stay indoors, a night of fear and woe, yet there was a young man out in the blackness, struggling against the wind and snow. His name was Canth; he was the new apprentice in the Menagerie, the place where Her Majesty's royal trackers and scouts were trained.

He had been told it was a honor for him, a castle ward, to be selected for such a prestigious apprenticeship. The selection had taken place on a fair morning. He had been roused from sleep and instructed to change into a brown and green tunic and elegant but sturdy brown pants, and to venture to the Apprenticeship Hall. He had stood in line, shortest to tallest; being the tallest ward he was the last. Then he listened to all the wards receive their apprenticeships.

The first was a young girl who was very lively and fast. "Rhuinnion Green?" questioned the Chancellor.

"Yes, my lord?"

"Have you a wish to be apprenticed to a certain master or mistress?" the Chancellor asked Rhuinnion.

"My lord, I wish to be apprenticed in the courtier class," she announced with a curtsey.

"That is a fine choice," the Chancellor cried! "What say you Ariana?"

"I have seen all I would wish in a Courtier! She is polite and could outpace a centaur!" Ariana replied courteously.

"Ah, Young Tucker is next, do I speak rightly young sir?" The Chancellor requested that Tucker step forward.

"My lord, I am Tucker Nightengale."

"Ah, so I spoke rightly. Well young man, have you a request as to your apprenticeship?"

"Why, yes I do, my lord," Tucker proclaimed somewhat quietly. "My request is to be in the Mage Archen!" he happily announced.

"Well, my boy, may you be delighted to learn that Cobalion of the Mages Archen accepts you!" announced the Mage. "Tis such a rare thing when a boy shows so much talent for Ice that we will accept them if they but ask!" Cobalion pronounced. Tucker blushed. "I have seen him summon an eagle of flawless pure turquoise Ice that can mentally communicate and fly better than a natural bird! This boy will learn many secrets and may succeed me as the Master of the Mages Archen!

“I now will announce a grand thing! I am decided to adopt Tucker as my son and heir! Chancellor, do I have your acceptance of this?"

The Chancellor replied wisely, "You have my Acceptance for this is a thing of wonder, but I must warn you that Tucker must accept your offer as well, or his magical power may be lessened by shock!"

"Tucker?" queried Cobalion.

"Yes, I will accept your offers. I accept both of them!" Tucker cried, and he walked from the room with Cobalion following.

Cobalion returned presently with Tucker beside him in his new Apprentice of the Archen robes. More apprenticeships were confirmed. Some were what the teens had hoped for, others were not, but equally accepted by the teen who had been given a different apprenticeship.

After the last of the ten young wards had received their apprenticeships, it was Canth's turn. He asked if he could become a swordsman. He was turned down; Baron Egan was not accepting apprenticeships now, for he had already received three this morn. Horse school was close to sword school, but they had filled their ranks with new apprentices previously and would not take another. Everywhere he turned there was only despair. Finally he asked if he might join the Rangers. This was the place. He was received! He could not believe his fortune. The only discomfort was that he knew that he would not be training nearby. Sadly he must venture north to the Hold of Gorain, where there was a magical gate that would send him to his training place. He had spent the last thirteen years in the royal castle of the newly crowned Queen Simylene, and rued that he had had to leave the beauteous palace.

Canth’s recent memory faded and he returned to the present. Smurph, smurph in the snow went his boots as he stumbled into the hold from which he would depart to his place of training.

[To be continued…]