Edmund Wilson

Posted on April 17, 2026 | Leave a comment

Edmund Wilson: (1895-1972) U.S. critic and essayist. Born in Red Bank, New Jersey, he attended Princeton University and initially worked as a reporter and magazine writer. Much of his writing, in which he probed diverse topics with scholarship and common sense in clear and precise prose, appeared in The New Republic and the New Yorker. Among his influential critical works are Axel’s Castle (1931), a survey of the Symbolist poets; To the Finland Station (1940), a study of the thinkers who set the stage for the Russian Revolution; and Patriotic Gore (1962), analyzing the American Civil War literature. His other writings include plays, poetry, the short-story collection Memories of Hecate County (1946), and five volumes of posthumously published journals. He was widely regarded as the leading critic of his time.

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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The Weekly Text, 17 April 2026: The Writing Revolution Learning Supports V; Expository Words Learning Supports

Posted on April 17, 2026 | Leave a comment

At least for the moment, we have (finally!) reached the end of planning materials posts for The Writing Revolution. What you should know, and possibly dread, is that I have quite a lot of materials based in the methods of The Writing Revolution in various stages of development. So those will appear here eventually.

For this morning, however, let me post the last two learning supports, these on expository words:

V-A*Argumentative Nouns and Verbs

V-B*Expository Words

And even though there are only these two items on it, here is the table of contents for these two documents. And, if it is of any use to you, here is the the complete table of contents as I use it for all the learning supports excerpted or adapted from The Writing Revolution.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Montaigne on His Preferred Company

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

“I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.”

Michel de Montaigne

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

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Common Errors in English Usage: Lion’s Share

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

From the pages of Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage (to which, amazingly, he continues to allow free access at his Washington State University webpage), here is a worksheet on the use of the noun phrase “lion’s share.”

This is a relatively spare document, with Professor Brians’ text on the use of this phrase, and plenty of white space for students to practice writing sentences that include it.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Term of Art: Social Studies

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

“social studies: A broad conglomeration of school studies that includes history, economics, geography, government, civics, and sociology, as well as consumer education, personal decision making, current events, global studies, environmental studies, ethnic studies, gender studies, and other nondisciplinary studies related to contemporary issues and the social sciences.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

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Cultural Literacy: Pulitzer Prize

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

Here’s another item, a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Pulitzer Prize, for which I anticipate exceptionally low interest. This is half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and three comprehension questions. If you are teaching anything do to with journalism, this might be of some use to you and your students.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Word Origins: Ache

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

“ache: [OE] The word ache is a good example of the way that English spelling and pronunciation have developed and in many cases have diverged from each other. The noun comes from Old English and used to be pronounced “aitch” (like the letter H), whereas the verb was originally spelled ake and pronounced the way ache is today. Around 1700, people started pronouncing the noun like the verb. The spelling of the noun has survived, but the word is said in the way the verb (ake) used to be. The modern spelling is largely due to Dr. Johnson, who mistakenly assumed that the word came from Greek akhos ‘pain.’ Other pairs of words that have survived into modern English with k-for-the-verb and ch-for-the-noun spellings include speak and speech and break and breach.:

Excerpted from: Creswell, Julia. Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

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The Weekly Text, 10 April 2026: The Writing Revolution Learning Supports IV; Punctuation Learning Supports

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

Alright, let’s move along with another Weekly Text dealing with materials aligned with Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler’s The Writing Revolution (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2017).

Even though there are only two items in this post, I nonetheless include this table of contents in case you are assembling your own table of contents from this series of posts. And without further ado, here are two learning supports.

IV-A*Using Colons and Semicolons Versions 1, 2, and 3 (i.e. three supports in one document)

IV-B*Using Parentheses Versions 1 and 2 (i.e. two supports in one document)

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Quattrocento

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Quattrocento: (It. four hundred) The 15th century, used especially when referring to Italian art and literature of that century.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Common English Verbs Followed by an Object and an Infinitive: Would Like

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

This is finally the last of these, so without further ado, here is a worksheet on the verb phrase would like when followed by an object and an infinitive.

The cat would like you to feed it.

We would like the server to bring us our check.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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