English Class Notebook
Jensen's Format Writing, Revised
High School English at The Young's Home: During two of my children's high school years, I used Jensen's Format Writing as the leading book for English. Jensen's Format Writing is a writing class, no grammar included, and that is good in our case. When I graded my children's work from Jensen's Format Writing, I was able to see where they needed extra grammar instruction. I mainly used BJUP English Handbook for Christian Schools for the grammar lessons. I also assigned reading selections from Elements of Style by Stunk & White. I used a third book, Hodges Harbrace Handbook 14th Edition, but mostly for my reference.
Pictured on the left is Holly's English class notebook that held her checklists, schedules, class requirements, and completed assignments for grammar, composition, and literature. Read more about the notebook in Syllabus for Sections 1-4.
at CBD
Jensen's Format Writing, Revised
By: Frode Jensen
Published by Wordsmiths
Grades 8 & up
At Amazon
Jensen's Format Writing, A Brief Review
Outside of this website, I have recommended Jensen's Format Writing for several years, but I have never said anything about the book at this website and it is about time that I did. Jensen's Format Writing teaches expository writing. If you read wikipedia's page on expository writing, you will see that expository writing is a type of writing that exposes information. According to the wikipedia, colleges and universities commonly require expository writing. My son had to turn in a research paper during the first two weeks of his freshman year at a university. That was the first paper of many papers and he would agree that colleges and universities commonly require expository writing.
Jensen's Format Writing, Revised by Frode Jensen is for students in the 8th grade and higher. It's 160 pages and my book, purchased in 2003 or '04, has the copyright year of 2002.
The Content
Jensen's Format Writing is in seven parts: paragraphs, the elements of five-paragraph essays, the five-paragraph essay formats, book reports, business letters, condensation, and finally the major report. I have the table of contents online where you can see all of the topics of the class. The material is presented in a concise and orderly manner. Examples of paragraphs and essays are included along with clear instructions that are in a list format. The author directs the student to think in order.
Teacher's Helps
The included teacher helps are grading check sheets, assessment forms, and a sample schedule. I found the checklists very helpful and I made a schedule to suit us. Be certain to read the first part of the book, "To the Teacher" where you will find instructions, information, and suggestions from Frode Jensen. I found it helpful to read the section several times. In the back of the book you will find the check sheets, forms, tests, answer keys, sample schedules, and an index.
When you plan the book, you will need to decide how many paragraphs and essays to assign a week and due dates. Be certain to allow yourself time to grade the work and get back to your student.
Comments that I made several years ago when I used Jensen's Format Writing.
Donna, Aug 9 2004,11:21 AM
Last Thursday, my son turned in his first essay of the new school year. After grading it, I see that he needs to review comma usage. He made 7 comma errors (8 really, but one is debatable.) He made errors in style -- he overused "most" and actually started his first sentence with the weak phrase: "One of the most." Several of his sentences used the passive voice and he used contractions. He also made two errors on the usage of "it's."
I will add to his schedule grammar/usage/style assignments as follows: review commas, if passive voice should be used, review it's and its, if contractions should be used, review weak expressions such as "One of the most." He will use a grammar handbook and The Elements of Style to review. We will have some discussions as well.
Donna, Aug 26 2004, 10:49 PM
Grading the essays is difficult. Jensen's Format Writing includes check sheets for all of the different kinds of writing
assignments and that helps me a great deal. I am currently grading 2
essays. He improves with each essay, but he still has some problems
with sentence construction in terms of presenting the material using
strong sentences. I have to communicate to my son why I do not like
a sentence, telling him it is lame does not work. He writes in
the passive voice too often, he does not always use strong verbs. It
sometimes makes for wimpy writing. He is trying though, but I have
to find the weak areas and point them out and explain....
Simple example:
Wimpy/lame version.. "I think HrDVD's were introduced last year
by Sony"
Strong version "Sony introduced HrDVD's last year."
He's learning plenty this year.
