What makes The Lost Tools of Writing so powerful?
This is a good question and its one weve 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 wed 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 students 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 u
