How to Analyze, Organize, and Write Effectively

Arthur Whimbey and Elizabeth Blanton

The new Whimbey Writing Program, How to Analyze, Organize and Write Effectively, utilizes the power of text reconstruction for building writing skills. Designed primarily for students in middle, junior, and senior high school, the program improves:

• idea organization;
• vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and punctuation;
• careful reading;
• critical thinking;
• oral communication; and
• confidence in expression.

This exciting new program provides all the materials you need for over 30 hours of classroom experience, including an Instructor's Manual and Student Workbooks. It can be used as a main text, as part of a language arts course, or even for independent study. The chapters and approximate times to complete the exercises are:

• Creating Word Pictures (3.4 hours). The key to writing a strong description is taking the time to include plenty of details so the reader gets a full picture.
• The Writing Process (1.7 hours). Effective writing includes five stages: thinking of ideas; organizing; writing a first draft; revising for completeness, clarity, power, and correct expression; and revising again.
• Describing a Sequence of Actions or Events (4.6 hours). Writers often need to describe a series of actions or events occurring over a period of time, causing other events, or offering instructions.
• Organizing Ideas into Patterns: Classification and General-Specific (0.8 hours). Writers may need to group things into categories in order to communicate them in an organized, meaningful way.
• Classification (4.1 hours). Delving more deeply into classification patterns provides writers with effective tools using similarities and differences, distinctive features, and subcategories.
• Generalization Support by Specific Details (3.7 hours). Writers convince their readers that a generalization is true by providing specific details that support and illustrate it.
• Beginning with a Thesis Statement (0.6 hours). Writers must sometimes convincingly defend an opinion. One technique is to begin by presenting the opinion and explaining the evidence.
• Writing a Paper for Competency Test: Brainstorming for Ideas (2.9 hours). Many written exams and applications call for expressing and supporting an opinion. There are techniques for getting started, organizing material, and writing effectively.
• Comparing-Contrasting (6.4 hours). Effective writing often compares two or more things based on their similarities or contrasts them based on their differences.
• Defining (3.6 hours). To communicate precisely, it is often necessary to define the words or terms you use with synonyms, phrases, or more extended explanations.

A complete set includes one instructor's manual and ten student workbooks.