{"id":1850,"date":"2012-03-06T16:18:42","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T16:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janice-campbell.com\/?p=64"},"modified":"2015-10-09T18:42:39","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T18:42:39","slug":"words-matter-how-to-use-good-essay-models-to-become-a-better-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/words-matter-how-to-use-good-essay-models-to-become-a-better-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"Words Matter: How to Use Good Essay Models to Become a Better Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Words<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s Words Matter Week<\/a> <\/strong>with its accompanying blog challenge and word-related reading,<\/strong> so I’ve been reflecting on the power and importance of words. One of the best ways you can teach writing is to share good essay models, as Charlotte Mason recommended. I especially like working with excellent essays, as they tend to expand not only vocabulary and usage skills, but also because they expand thought.<\/p>\n

Essayist\u00a0Steve McClure\u00a0writes,\u00a0“As journalists we have a special responsibility to watch out for this sort of thing. Forgive the hyperbole, but we should think of ourselves as being in the front line of the unending struggle to preserve the English language from the tide of cant, jargon and buzzwords that constantly threatens to drown the language in a sea of obfuscation and bafflegab.” (From the essay\u00a0“On the Rapscallions Who Misuse Word\u009ds<\/strong>,” which appeared on the blog of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.)<\/p>\n

Bravo! McClure not only makes an excellent point about a journalist’s responsibility to the English language, but he also demonstrates that there is beauty and delight in a vast, vivid vocabulary. This isn’t the first time a writer has complained about buzzwords, but McClure has done so in a particularly memorable way.<\/p>\n

Although\u00a0Steve McClure’s essay seems to no longer be online, I suggest reading the outstanding Essay; In 750 Words<\/a><\/strong> by William Safire with your\u00a0teenage writer and suggest he or she use the Benjamin Franklin’s model-based writing method* to work\u00a0with it. This should result in not only an expanded vocabulary, but also broadened knowledge and a deeper understanding of the art and craft of writing. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

A mind, once expanded by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oliver Wendell Holmes<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

*If you haven’t encountered the Ben Franklin method, here’s a short excerpt from a longer article on the Excellence in Literature website<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“There are many textbooks available for teaching composition, but it is possible for a motivated student to become an excellent writer using what I call the ‘Ben Franklin method.’ In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Franklin relates how, after his father pointed out his lack of “elegance of expression,” he taught himself to write more elegantly and expressively:<\/p>\n

“About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator – I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, try’d to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come hand. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them.<\/p>\n

But I found I wanted [lacked] a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and using them. Therefore I took some of the tales and turned then into verse; and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes jumbled my collections of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order, before I began to form the full sentences and compleat the paper. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts. By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and amended them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve the method or the language.” Read more . . .<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You may also enjoy\u00a0Charlotte Mason\u00a0on Copywork<\/a>\u00a0as well as Charlotte Mason’s Education Manifesto<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the best ways you can teach writing is to share good models. I especially like working with excellent essays, as they tend to expand not only vocabulary and usage skills, but also because they expand thought. Here’s an example.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[313,3,296],"tags":[373,382,402,1186,656,675,1187,310,1079,1185,1096,1099],"class_list":["post-1850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charlotte-mason","category-how-to","category-language-arts","tag-ben-franklin-essay","tag-blog-challenge","tag-buzzword","tag-essay-model","tag-high-school","tag-homeschool","tag-model-based-writing","tag-teaching-writing","tag-vocabulary","tag-william-safire","tag-word-usage","tag-words-matter-week"],"yoast_head":"\nWords Matter: How to Use Good Essay Models to Become a Better Writer • Doing What Matters with Janice Campbell<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the best ways you can teach writing is to share good essay models. 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I've had the chance to read hundreds of papers from students all over the country, and I've discovered one small key to success in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Home School"","block_context":{"text":"Home School","link":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/category\/homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"In order to write better, write more.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/Write-more-write-better..jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/Write-more-write-better..jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/Write-more-write-better..jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1877,"url":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/charlotte-mason-was-right-education-is-an-atmosphere\/","url_meta":{"origin":1850,"position":2},"title":"Charlotte Mason was Right! Education is an Atmosphere","author":"Janice Campbell","date":"April 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Charlotte Mason said that \"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life,\" and she was right. A study published in 2010 on \"Family Scholarly Culture and Educational Success\" (PDF), reports that a family's \"scholarly culture \u2013 the way of life in homes where books are numerous, esteemed, read, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books and Reading"","block_context":{"text":"Books and Reading","link":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Education is an atmosphere;, illustrated by a Mary Cassatt image.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Education-is-an-atmosphere..jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Education-is-an-atmosphere..jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Education-is-an-atmosphere..jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1583,"url":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/teaching-grammar-to-diagram-or-not-to-diagram\/","url_meta":{"origin":1850,"position":3},"title":"Teaching Grammar: To Diagram or Not to Diagram?","author":"Janice Campbell","date":"September 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 When I teach essay writing for high school or college exams, I encourage students to beware of using absolutes such as \"always\" or \"never,\" because these are rarely true \u2014 there are exceptions to almost everything, and those absolutes are an almost guaranteed trigger for a professor's red pen.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Language Arts and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Language Arts and Literature","link":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/category\/language-arts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"How to teach grammar: is it relevant to diagram?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/diagram-in-grammar.jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/diagram-in-grammar.jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/diagram-in-grammar.jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4,"url":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/copywork-for-teens\/","url_meta":{"origin":1850,"position":4},"title":"Copywork for Teens","author":"Janice Campbell","date":"February 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Mom, I need some copywork!\" I thought my son was kidding when he approached me this morning. After all, he is taking college classes, and doing quite a lot of writing. I thought he'd finished with copywork years ago! As soon as he explained why he wanted it, though, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Charlotte Mason"","block_context":{"text":"Charlotte Mason","link":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/category\/homeschool\/charlotte-mason\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"You can use copywork for teens and adults, as well as for children.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/copywork-for-teens-2.jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/copywork-for-teens-2.jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/copywork-for-teens-2.jpg?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1087,"url":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/happy-national-grammar-day-and-words-matter-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":1850,"position":5},"title":"Happy National Grammar Day and Words Matter Week","author":"Janice Campbell","date":"March 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I love wordy holidays. We spend time teaching our children that words matter, and how to read, write, and speak correctly (or at least I hope we do), and I think those home lessons are reinforced by national holidays that focus on these subjects. This week, we have two such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Language Arts and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Language Arts and Literature","link":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/category\/language-arts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Words Matter Week 2013 - Cuttlefish poster","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.janice-campbell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013-words-matter-week-poster-300x231.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p65lfN-tQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}