This is a great writing resource!  Why didn't they have books like this when I was in school????  I could have used this.  While it's written for the middle grades, I could have even used it in high school--though the same publishers do put out a high school handbook called Writers INC.

So what do we use it for here in our little home school?  Well, my son, age 11, is using it when he can't remember something as he works through his Daily Grams. He's been using this book for help with his Daily Grams for about a year now.  He just looks up, for instance, "article" in the index and turns to it to find out exactly what an article is.  It works great for that!

We're also using it to learn about the writing process and paragraphs.  He's been working through Writing Step by Step and these two sections (Writing Process and Building Paragraphs) are very well done and do a good job of supplementing what he's doing in Writing Step by Step.

In all cases, that I can see, Write Source 2000 gives clear, concise instructions to help the student perform any and every type of writing project.  And listen to all these chapter/section titles:

Developing Essays

Building Paragraphs

Composing, Combining, and Styling Sentences

Writing Naturally

Improving Your Writing

Journal Writing

Phase Autobiographies

Character Sketch

Observation Report

News Story

Editorial

Summary

Book Review

Friendly Letter

Business Letter

Writing Poetry

Story Writing

Writing Dialogue and Plays

There's lots of little things added in that help make this book such an all-around good handbook for the student.  A page-long list of transition words, directions for folding a letter, a list of about a hundred prepositions, numerous examples, a correcting and proofreading checklist--these help make this book all the more valuable.  Plus there's a grammar, punctuation, and usage "yellow pages" section.

BUT Write Source 2000 is not just a great writing resource.  It also discusses thinking and analyzing skills, study skills, test taking, speech writing and presenting, taking notes, and time management.

I especially like the test taking section.  If it hadn't taken a particular class the second semester of my senior year in high school, I would have been even more unprepared for college.  In college I had to be able to take essay tests; for me, they were not easy.  What's neat about Write Source 2000 is that it tells you what words like "prove," "relate," "evaluate," "discuss," "contrast," etc. signify (and what to do) when you come across them on a test.  With this section, a student should be able to make up some of his own tests and then practice taking them.

The last section is the Student Almanac that includes charts, tables, and maps covering things like metrics, the world, the planets, chemistry, cuneiform, and weights.  Plus there's math helps, a few historical documents and a 10-page timeline starting at 1500.

Now, the drawbacks I see.  Well, this book is definitely written for use in public schools. But it can be overlooked, in my opinion.  I haven't seen anything comparable written for home schoolers. Another drawback I see is that it is based on "The Writing Process" which, I feel, has been soundly discredited by Myra J. Linden and Art Whimbey in their book, Why Johnny Can't Write.  But "The Writing Process" is what everyone is using to teach writing and Why Johnny Can't Write hasn't been widely accepted--yet.  And lastly, it's so difficult to get the Source Books (workbooks) that can be used in conjunction with the handbook.  However, Write Source 2000 has so much more to it than just these small troubles--in fact, they can be easily overlooked!

I heartily recommend Write Source 2000!  I'm very pleased with it and so is my son.

You can get yours from Amazon.com at a discount.

Copyright© 1997 Tammy McQuoid