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Book Review of The Lively Art of Writing

The Lively Art of Writing
reviewed on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


Another homeschooler mentioned this book in a discussion about how to teach writing conclusions. I ordered it and was so impressed, I used it in a composition class with 7-th - 12th graders this year. Several of the kids were, I'll just say it, really terrible writers. Several were good writers. Several could not write at all, but really wanted to learn. One came only because there were some cute boys. Every single student improved.

We spent the whole year in this deceptively brief book, and would have benefited from repeating many of the exercises several times. The author teaches step by step how to write an essay, and has several excellent chapters on style.

Yesterday one of my students who was a very poor reader and writer at the beginning of the year said that at first he felt resistant to the book, but soon became inspired to really work on his skills and saw that he could improve them without much pain at all. I give it a 5 stars, especially when I think back to some of the drivel I have tried to use in the past.