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FAQ's
What
are the three problems of writing?
Who
should use The Lost Tools of Writing™?
What is The Lost Tools of
Writing™?
How do I purchase it?
What
about upgrades?
What
makes The Lost Tools of Writing™ so powerful?
How else can I benefit from
using The Lost Tools of Writing™?
What
are the three problems of writing?
When people communicate, they need something to
say, they need to order their thoughts, and they need to express their
ideas fittingly. Building on the works of Aristotle, Cicero,
Quintilian and others, The Lost Tools of Writing™ solves these
three problems one step at a time, systematically, and, believe it or
not, fairly easily.
Your students will begin by writing a simple,
tedious, three point paragraph. By the time the year is over, they’ll
be able to write a detailed, thoughtful, creative 9-11 paragraph
essay, one that lays the foundations for every other kind of writing
too. It includes the elements of narrative, description, debate
rhetoric, and even poetry.
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Who
should use The Lost Tools of Writing™?
The Lost Tools of Writing™ is designed for
students in grades 7-9 with a basic background in grammar. Any high
school student who hasn’t already mastered these materials needs to
learn them as well, though older students can move through the
materials much more quickly. For this reason, we recommend that every
student from grades seven through twelve should master The Lost
Tools of Writing™.
A few ambitious teachers have successfully used
The Lost Tools with fifth graders and it has even been adapted
to third grade with great success.
At the other end, college students benefit
significantly from the way this program focuses their attention on
core writing skills. The Lost Tools of Writing™
need to be mastered by freshman year in college.
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What is The Lost Tools of
Writing™?
LTW is a classical rhetoric program that treats
the writing process as the act of thinking and expression, while
helping teachers master the classical approach to teaching. The
Lost Tools of Writing™ includes
- A “hand-holding” duo bound teacher guide
that explains the program in detail and describes each lesson
- Individual lesson plans (module guides)
that we put in a three ring binder so you can add your own notes and
support materials
- A student workbook with a full year’s
worth of exercise forms, worksheets, model essays, and templates
- CD’s that introduce the program,
explain the ideas behind it, and model how to teach it
- Free On-line support, including the
CiRCE Institute The Lost Tools of Writing™ forum where
dozens of LTW users get together to compare notes, share ideas and
samples, and make (carefully heeded) suggestions for how to improve
the program
In addition, you can participate in
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How do I purchase it?
First, determine what you need based on how many
students you will be teaching.
You should purchase one
complete program for yourself and
one student workbook for each student in your
class.
Second, click
HERE to access our catalogue and tell us what we can send you!
Click on the complete program
button to purchase the entire
package or click on the button that corresponds to
the
elements you wish to purchase.
Please allow 2 to 4 weeks for delivery of your
The Lost Tools of Writing™ materials.
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What
about upgrades?
If you purchased the first or second edition of
The Lost Tools of Writing™, you can purchase the complete third
edition at significant savings:
|
The Lost Tools of Writing™ upgrade
with CD’s
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Only $47.00 |
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The Lost Tools of Writing™ upgrade
without CD’s
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Only $29.00 |
To purchase an upgrade, click
HERE
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What
makes The Lost Tools of Writing™ so powerful?
This is a good question and its one we’ve
pondered for quite a while. When we started teaching writing, we
wanted to be classical, so we pulled out the classical books on
teaching rhetoric (Aristotle, Cicero, etc.). We found that it worked
with astonishing effectiveness, so we continued. Then we started to
ask why it worked so well ourselves.
Here are some thoughts (and we’d welcome your
input on this question!)
The Lost Tools of Writing™ is so powerful
because
- We imitate the classical masters in the design
of the program.
- It separates the three basic problems so they
can focus on one at a time
- What to write
- How to order your thoughts
- How to write
- It lays the foundations of creativity in
discipline and coached practices
- It provides coached repetition for every skill
learned
- The mode of instruction is classical and
corresponds to the nature of the student
- It recognizes verbal skills as essential to
all learning, not as a separate class. So it teaches students
thinking skills that are universally applicable.
- It engages the students in dialogue so they
are actively learning the ideas into their own minds. In fact, if
you are familiar with John Milton Gregory’s The Seven Laws of
Learning (which we recommend for your ongoing reflection) you will
see that this program fulfills all seven of those laws over and over
again.
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How else can I benefit from
using The Lost Tools of Writing™?
Believe it or not, you can turn The Lost Tools
of Writing™ into a fund-raiser for your school while providing
training for your teachers and raising your schools profile in the
community, all in one fell swoop!
How? By
hosting The Lost Tools of Writing™ workshop at your school.
The fee to host a CiRCE Institute master instructor is so low that you
can easily recapture it and make a significant profit by promoting the
workshop to your community.
How else can you raise funds while performing an
in-service?
For details, contact us at (704) 786-9684. Don’t
wait, because we can only do this a few times each year.
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