I
came across a book that made me feel good about the next generation. It’s called Everything You Need to Ace
English Language Arts In One Big Fat Book.
It’s part of a series of books called The Complete Middle School Study Guide.
You
may wonder what’s so inspiring about such a book. First, I love the style it’s presented
in. It features lined pages like that of
a student’s notebook. It has colorful
graphics and alternates between easy-to-read handwriting and print. It feels easy to just flip through and land
on an interesting exercise or valuable lesson.
Second, I like that such a book exists because it really does make what
seems complex simple and straightforward.
Third, I love to see what young minds are being told about our language,
writing, poetry, and how to read a book.
I
should give this to my son, in sixth grade, but I’m enjoying it too much.
The
488-page book from Workman Publishing is a steal with a list price of $14.95. I picked up a discounted copy at Barnes &
Noble for $9.00 as a member. Well worth
it.
The first
unit is on grammar, which it describes as “the structure of a language – not
what words mean, but the way words fit together: how the words in a sentence are arranged and
the rules that explain how words get used.”
It went on to detail prepositions and independent clauses. It talked about
intensive pronouns, verbs and mood, and the Latin and Greek roots of our words. Dangling modifiers, conjunctions, and complex
sentences are all things I failed to fully understand in school. Back then, I didn’t appreciate the English code or
scientific formula for how words connect to each other in a technical
sense. I just wrote from the heart and
edited based on what sounded right. I
could be violating some rules of the language right now, but I think what I’m
saying reads well and has impact. If
people don’t understand me or completely misinterpret my intensions then I’ll
go back to study up on possessive pronouns, gerunds, and the present participle.
Don’t
get me wrong, I greatly respect and defend our beautiful and historically-rich language. We need everyone to learn it and use it properly. We can’t afford to have a single illiterate
amongst us. But I just disagree on how
we come to learn the language. Not
everything has to have a name to identify how words come together.
Certainly
we need to understand the verb-noun-adjective thing. We need to know the difference between a
passive and active voice. Certainly we need to understand context and the
nuances of words. Tense consistency and
proper word selection are key, too. Wow,
the more I think about it, there’s really so much we need to know to not only
properly function, but to master the language.
A
good place to start is by learning the roots of words. Once we know that bi means two, we understand
words like bisect, biennial, and bisexual.
Pronunciation
is a tricky thing to learn. It can only
come with practice and correction. For
instance, silent letters confuse us. So
does a letter with multiple sounds as in c for cook, where it sounds like a k,
and when c sounds like an s, as in cents.
At
least there are tools like this book to help us. We also have the dictionary, thesaurus, and
style books. But language is something
you pick up by observing and using.
It’s experiential. It’s living
and breathing.
The
chapter on figurative language usefully shows how often references are made to
familiar things. There’s Biblical
allusion, literary allusion, allusion, personification, verbal irony,
alliteration, mythological illusion, the pun, simile, and the metaphor.
We
need to also grasp how words relate to one another, from synonyms and antonyms
to analogues and homonyms. Figuring out
the denotation vs. the connotation of a word makes a big difference. The book tackles a lot of ground but it was
missing one key area – the role of a strong vocabulary. To know words, is to know life.
The
chapter on reading fiction explores a variety of genres and explains the
difference between science fiction and romance or historical fiction. It also
touches upon the parody, mythology, satire, allegory, realism, and drama. Don’t forget poetry. Remember there’s more than rhyming poetry,
such as free verse, lyrical, and epic.
Page
150 has a valuable lesson: How to write
an objective summary. This is something
lost on most writers, journalists, and bloggers.
Maybe
there’s a lot in this book that people need to learn or get a refresher course
in. Who could forget Shakespeare’s works
in iambic pentameter!? Don’t forget the
sonnet.
The
units on non-fiction noted the varying types of prose, including: literary non-fiction, biography, memoir,
journalism, opinion pieces, exposition, essay, personal essay, arguments,
speeches, epistles, and historical/ scientific/technical/economic accounts. It goes on to explain the author’s viewpoint,
opposing viewpoints, and counter arguments. It does a good job of identifying
the plot, themes, tone, and structure of what’s presented in a book.
It
discusses paraphrasing, plagiarism, and the proper citation of resources. It also goes over how to approach writing,
revising, and editing. Punctuation,
ellipsis, redundancy, narration, character creation, and scores of other useful
writing techniques, reader guidelines, and language rules flow from these
pages.
Thumbing
through this book was like a trip down memory lane. You realize how much you know and have
learned after all of these years of school and then real-life practice.
Can you write better than a middle-schooler? Read up – and then go write your masterpiece.
Can you write better than a middle-schooler? Read up – and then go write your masterpiece.
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