Time-tested classical techniques--the imitation and analysis of great writers--combined with original composition exercises in history, science, biography, and literature.

The Student Workbook encourages independent composition, while the Instructor Text contains easy-to-use supporting information for the teacher, rubrics for grading, sample compositions, and dialogue to use while teaching. Together, the Student Workbook and Instructor Text provide a full year of middle-grade writing instruction, preparing students to enter high-level rhetoric.

• Reviews Level One skills in narration, biographical sketches, descriptions, and sequences


• Teaches new skills in writing comparisons, drawing contrasts, and tracing cause and effect


• Improves sentence style through prose exercises drawn from Erasmus, Aristotle, and other classical rhetoricians


• Covers three-level outlining, composition planning and structure


• Guides the student through critical essay writing in both fiction and poetry


• Provides practice in research and documentation skills