Writing & Rhetoric Sampler (For School Review Only)

 For School Review Only!

For grades 3-9

This physical sampler includes excerpts from books 1-10 of the Writing & Rhetoric series! Teachers and administrators are invited to use this FREE resource to explore, understand, and evaluate Writing & Rhetoric for their school or coop! This resource is for evaluation purposes and can not be used to teach a course.

Note: The Writing & Rhetoric series is a semester-based series for grades 3-8 comprised of 12 books. Books 1-10 are included in this sampler. More information on Book 11 can be found here. Book 12 will arrive in 2022. 

This is a consumable item. For more information on this series and the product's copyright, please refer to our General FAQ section here.

 Interested in receiving a review copy for your school?

Request a review copy of this and other CAP texts by filling out the form provided here. Someone from our team will be in touch with you directly!

Writing & Rhetoric Series Overview

A Creative Approach to the Classical Progymnasmata—Think of the progymnasmata as a step-by-step apprenticeship in the art of writing and rhetoric. What is an apprentice? It is a young person who is learning a skill from a master teacher. Our students will serve as apprentices to the great writers and great stories of history.

Students are often expected to write with no clear model before them. Modern composition scolds traditional writing instruction as rote and unimaginative. It takes imitation to task for a lack of freedom and personal expression. And yet, effective communication from writer to reader always requires some sort of form and structure. Many of history’s greatest writers learned by imitation. In other words, writing takes the same kind of determined study as ballet or diving. Creativity uses conventional form as a stage or a springboard from which to launch grand jetés and somersaults. Too often students are expected to tackle complex writing assignments without learning the necessary intermediate steps. The assumption is that because most everyone can speak English well enough to be understood, and form letters with a pencil, that everyone should be able to write well. Yet how many of us would expect a child to sit at a piano, without piano lessons, and play a concerto? Writing is never automatic.

The Writing & Rhetoric series method employs fluent reading, careful listening, models for imitation, and progressive steps. It assumes that students learn best by reading excellent, whole-story examples of literature and by growing their skills through imitation. Each exercise is intended to impart a skill (or tool) that can be employed in all kinds of writing and speaking. The exercises are arranged from simple to more complex. What’s more, the exercises are cumulative, meaning that later exercises incorporate the skills acquired in preceding exercises. This series is a step-by-step apprenticeship in the art of writing and rhetoric.

Fable, the first book in the Writing & Rhetoric series, teaches students the practice of close reading and comprehension, summarizing a story aloud and in writing, and amplification of a story through description and dialogue. Students learn how to identify different kinds of stories; determine the beginning, middle, and end of stories; recognize point of view; and see analogous situations, among other essential tools. The Writing & Rhetoric series recovers a proven method of teaching writing, using fables to teach beginning writers the craft of writing well. This is the first in a series of 12 books that will train students over 6 years, starting in grades 3 or 4 and up.