Composition

 

“For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries: let him read the best authors; observe the best speakers; and have much exercise of his own style.”

 

-Ben Johnson

 

Here is the foundation of all good writing: reading worthy books, narrating and discussing living ideas, and writing frequently. This approach is based on the principle that students are people, made to communicate and understand the living ideas and language of great communicators. Students who pursue this method learn to communicate clearly and express themselves with vigor, grace, and ingenuity. The courses below contain biographies, literature, poetry, and essays that give students a variety of ideas to inspire discussion and writing projects appropriate for their age.

High School Composition (Grades 9-12)

 

This Course will be updated in May 2025. Selections listed below will not be used for the 2025-2026 school year.

 

This course contains a Literature Class and a Composition Workshop. It can be taken as a 45 minute class twice a week, or as a 90 minute class once a week. During the literature class we read and discuss the term’s selections. During Composition Workshop we study a lesson from either Meiklejohn’s Hints on Composition or A Rulebook for Arguments, then we have a 30 minute writing block. Homework is Free Reading and written narrations for only 30-40 minutes each week. Free Reading is the student’s choice of classic literature and poetry from a term's* selections, read at the student’s pace.

 

*A Term consists of ten weeks of class plus one week of exams. Exams are reviews of what the students have learned that term.

 

 

 

Term 1

 

• A New Grammar of the English Tongue by Mieklejohn, Hints on Composition
• A Rulebook for Arguments by Antony Weston
• The Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote of La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
• Hamlet or other Shakespeare play

 

Free Reading: The Oxford Book of English Verse 1x week, The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson, Our Town by Thornton Wilder, or The Story of Sigurd the Volsung by William Morris.

 

 

Term 2

 

• A New Grammar of the English Tongue by Mieklejohn, Hints on Composition

• A Rulebook for Arguments by Antony Weston

• Life of Pompey Part I by Plutarch, translated by Thomas North/John Dryden

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury or Peony by Pearl Buck

• Gift of Friendship collected by Alfred H. Hyatt

• Shakespeare Night: Henry V

 

Free Reading: The Oxford Book of English Verse 1x week, Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien, Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot, or The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton.

 

 

Term 3

 

• A New Grammar of the English Tongue by Mieklejohn, Hints on Composition

• A Rulebook for Arguments by Antony Weston

• Life of Pompey Part II by Plutarch, translated by Thomas North/John Dryden

• The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

• Gift of Friendship collected by Alfred H. Hyatt

• Shakespeare Night: TBD

 

 

Free Reading: The Oxford Book of English Verse 1x week, Leaf by Niggle by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Chosen by Chaim Potok, Poetry by Robert Frost and Wendell Berry.

 

Upper Middle School (Grades 7-8)

 

This Course will be updated in May 2025. Selections listed below will not be used for the 2025-2026 school year.

They will write every week using the ideas we discuss to complete projects for each Term*. The projects of Term 1 will be personal letters; Term 2 will be travel logs and letters; Term 3 will be discussions through correspondence.

 

 

This course contains a Literature Class and a Composition Workshop. It can be taken as a 45 minute class twice a week, or as a 90 minute class once a week. The first session is for reading and discussing the term's literature. The second session is a writing workshop and a lesson from Meiklejohn’s Hints on Composition. The only homework is Free Reading and written narrations, from the student’s choice of the term’s classic literature, read at the student’s pace.

 

*A Term consists of ten weeks of class plus one week of exams. Exams are for reviewing what the students have learned that term.

 

Term 1

 

Composition Projects: Writing Personal Letters

• A New Grammar of the English Tongue by Mieklejohn, Hints on Composition
• Life of Demosthenes by Plutarch translated by Thomas North/John Dryden
• The Age of Fable by Thomas Bulfinch Ch. 24-26
• Gift of Friendship collected by Alfred H. Hyatt
• Shakespeare Night: The Tempest

 

Free Reading: The Oxford Book of English Verse 1x week, The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow by Allen French, Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton, or Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls.

 

 

Term 2

 

Composition Projects: Writing Travel Logs and Letters

• A New Grammar of the English Tongue by Mieklejohn, Hints on Composition
• Life of Pompey Part I by Plutarch, translated by Thomas North/John Dryden
• The Age of Fable by Thomas Bulfinch Ch. 31-33
• Gift of Friendship collected by Alfred H. Hyatt
• Shakespeare Night: Henry V

 

 

Free Reading: The Oxford Book of English Verse 1x week, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, A novel by J.R.R. Tolkien, or a historical fiction novel by Howard Pyle.

 

 

Term 3

 

Composition Projects: Writing Discussions through Correspondences

• A New Grammar of the English Tongue by Mieklejohn, Hints on Composition
• Life of Pompey Part II by Plutarch, translated by Thomas North/John Dryden
• The Age of Fable by Thomas Bulfinch Ch. 34-37
• Gift of Friendship collected by Alfred H. Hyatt
• Shakespeare Night: TBD

 

 

Free Reading: The Oxford Book of English Verse 1x week, Door to the North by Elizabeth Coatsworth, Animal Farm by George Orwell, a novel by Sir Walter Scott.