Book picks similar to
Our Mother Tongue: An Introductory Guide to English Grammar by Nancy Wilson
homeschool
education
writing
nonfiction
A Rulebook for Arguments
Anthony Weston - 1986
Readers familiar with the previous edition will find a text that retains all the features that make Rulebook ideally suited for use as a supplementary course book -- including its modest price and compact size. Unlike most textbooks on argumentative writing, Rulebook is organised around specific rules, illustrated and explained soundly and briefly. It is not a textbook, but a rulebook, whose goal is to help students get on with writing a paper or assessing an argument.
The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
Kingfisher Publications - 1998
Along the way, it reveals riveting facts on the founding of the great Roman Empire, the revolution that changed France forever, the war between the North and South that unified America, the start of World War I and the Great Depression that followed, the first moon landing, and the end of apartheid in South Africa.The encyclopedia is organized chronologically and then thematically within each time period. A timeline runs across the top of each page. Each section includes biographies of important people and features on art, architecture, and technology.
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
Douglas Stone - 1999
Based on fifteen years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, Difficult Conversations walks you through a step-by-step proven approach to having your toughest conversations with less stress and more success. You will learn: -- how to start the conversation without defensiveness-- why what is not said is as important as what is-- ways of keeping and regaining your balance in the face of attacks and accusations-- how to decipher the underlying structure of every difficult conversationFilled with examples from everyday life, Difficult Conversations will help you on your job, at home, or out of the world. It is a book you will turn to again and again for advice, practical skills, and reassurance.
Catching Readers Before They Fall: Supporting Readers Who Struggle, K-4
Pat Johnson - 2010
They describe classroom environments that support all students and touch upon comprehension strategies and how to help children integrate them.This book is essential reading for all who work with struggling readers in any context and contains a wealth of resources, including a thorough explanation of all the sources of information readers use to solve words, examples and scenarios of teacher/student interactions, prompts to use with struggling readers, lessons on modeling, and assessment guidelines.
Characters and Viewpoint
Orson Scott Card - 1988
Use them to pry, chip, yank and sift good characters out of the place where they live in your memory, your imagination and your soul.Award-winning author Orson Scott Card explains in depth the techniques of inventing, developing and presenting characters, plus handling viewpoint in novels and short stories. With specific examples, he spells out your narrative options–the choices you'll make in creating fictional people so "real" that readers will feel they know them like members of their own families.You'll learn how to: draw the characters from a variety of sources, including a story's basic idea, real life–even a character's social circumstances make characters show who they are by the things they do and say, and by their individual "style" develop characters readers will love–or love to hate distinguish among major characters, minor characters and walk-ons, and develop each one appropriately choose the most effective viewpoint to reveal the characters and move the storytelling decide how deeply you should explore your characters' thoughts, emotions and attitudes
The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories
Christopher Booker - 2004
Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it shows that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of storytelling. But this is only the prelude to an investigation into how and why we are 'programmed' to imagine stories in these ways, and how they relate to the inmost patterns of human psychology. Drawing on a vast array of examples, from Proust to detective stories, from the Marquis de Sade to E.T., Christopher Booker then leads us through the extraordinary changes in the nature of storytelling over the past 200 years, and why so many stories have 'lost the plot' by losing touch with their underlying archetypal purpose. Booker analyses why evolution has given us the need to tell stories and illustrates how storytelling has provided a uniquely revealing mirror to mankind's psychological development over the past 5000 years.This seminal book opens up in an entirely new way our understanding of the real purpose storytelling plays in our lives, and will be a talking point for years to come.
Abe Lincoln Grows Up
Carl Sandburg - 1926
Growing up poor on the family farm, Abe did chores, helped his father cut down trees, and expertly skinned animals and cured hides. As a young man, he became an avid reader. When he witnessed a slave auction while on a flatboat trip down the Mississippi, he was forever changed—and so was the future of America. This is the remarkable story of Lincoln’s youth, early America, and the pioneer life that shaped one of our country’s greatest presidents.
The Penguin Guide to Punctuation
R.L. Trask - 1997
Do you find punctuation difficult? Are you puzzled by colons and semicolons? Unsure of where commas should go? Confused by hyphens and apostrophes? If so, then this jargon-free and succinct guide is for you.•Contains precise and up-to-date definitions of every type of punctuation mark and shows how each should be used•Gives numerous examples of good and bad usage•Explains the correct use of capital letters, contractions and abbreviations, italics, boldface and the special characters available on a word processor
Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory
Peter Barry - 1995
This new and expanded third edition continues to offer students and readers the best one-volume introduction to the field.The bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and technical language is lucidly and expertly unraveled. Unlike many books which assume certain positions about the critics and the theories they represent, Peter Barry allows readers to develop their own ideas once first principles and concepts have been grasped.
What Your Third Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Third-Grade Education
E.D. Hirsch Jr. - 1992
Featuring sixteen pages of full-color illustrations, a bolder, easier-to-follow format, and a thoroughly updated curriculum, What Your Third Grader Needs to Know is designed for parents and teachers to enjoy with children. Hundreds of thousands of children have benefited from the Core Knowledge Series. This edition, featuring a new Introduction, gives today’s generation of third graders the advantage they need to make progress in school and to establish an approach to learning that will last a lifetime. In this book you’ll discover • Favorite poems—old and new, from the traditional rhyme “For Want of Nail” to Lewis Carroll’s whimsical poem “The Crocodile” • Literature—including Native American stories, African folktales, European fairy tales, classic myths from ancient Greece, stories from ancient Rome, and more • Learning about language—the basics of written English, including sentence structure, parts of speech, and a first look at writing a report or letter • World and American history and geography—journey down the great rivers of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, visit ancient Rome, and experience the earliest days of America with the Pilgrims and Native Americans • Visual arts—an introduction to masterworks by Rembrandt, Henri Matisse, Mary Cassatt, and others, with full-color reproductions and fun, do-it-yourself activities • Music—the fundamentals of appreciating, reading, and making music, plus great composers, instruments, and sing-along lyrics for songs such as “Bicycle Built for Two” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” • Math—stimulating lessons ranging from counting money to solving division problems, numbers through 100,000, graphs, and the metric system • Science—fascinating discussions on the natural world, the cycles of life, the human body and its systems, and the environment, with accompanying activities and stories about famous scientists such as Copernicus and Alexander Graham Bell
Why You Say It: The Fascinating Stories Behind Over 600 Everyday Words and Phrases
Webb Garrison - 1954
A dance that leaves telltale marks on the lower legs of participants is a shindig. Alibi - The word is taken straight from Latin and means "elsewhere." The perfect "alibi" is to prove one was "elsewhere" when the deed was done. And many more...
The Grouchy Grammarian: A How-Not-To Guide to the 47 Most Common Mistakes in English Made by Journalists, Broadcasters, and Others Who Should Know Better
Thomas Parrish - 2002
Some of the most prominent professionals in TV broadcasting and at major newspapers and magazines-people who really should know better-are guilty of making all-too-common grammatical errors. In this delightfully amusing, clever guide, Thomas Parrish points out real-life grammar gaffes from top-notch publications such as the New York Times and the New Yorker to illustrate just how widespread these errors are. With red pen in hand, Parrish's fictional friend the Grouchy Grammarian leads the charge, examining the forty-seven most common mistakes in English and imparting the basics of good grammar with a charming mixture of fussiness and common sense. All of which makes The Grouchy Grammarian the most entertaining, accessible how-not-to guide you'll ever read.
The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Writing Fiction and Nonfiction
Alice LaPlante - 2007
Its hands-on, completely accessible approach walks writers through each stage of the creative process, from the initial triggering idea to the revision of the final manuscript. It is unique in combing the three main aspects of creative writing instruction: process (finding inspiration, getting ideas on the page), craft (specific techniques like characterization), and anthology (learning by reading masters of the form). Succinct, clear definitions of basic terms of fiction are accompanied by examples, including excerpts from masterpieces of short fiction and essays as well as contemporary novels. A special highlight is Alice LaPlante's systematic debunking of many of the so-called rules of creative writing. This book is perfect for writers working alone as well as for creative writing classes, both introductory and advanced.
The Essential 55
Ron Clark - 2003
How many authors would travel coast to coast on a bus to get their book into as many hands as possible? Not many. But that's just what Ron Clark, author of The Essential 55, did to keep his book and message in the public eye. And it worked. After his Oprah appearance, sales skyrocketed: we've sold more than 850,000 copies in six months! The book sat tenaciously on the New York Times bestseller list for 11 weeks. Ron Clark was featured on the Today show, and in the Chicago Tribune, Good Housekeeping, and the New York Daily News--not to mention the calls we've received from teachers and parents who want to get their hands on Ron's guidelines for teaching children. Now in paperback, The Essential 55 will be the perfect book for parents and teachers to slip into their own backpacks, to read on the train or at lunch, and to highlight the sections that resonate for them. And with an author who is truly a partner in getting his message to the masses, we just can't lose.
Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry
Laurence Perrine - 1956
Normal visible cover wear, binding tight, writing and markings inside