Purple Workbook, along with the accompanying Key and the Core Instructor
Text, make up a full year of Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind: a
complete course that takes students from basic definitions ("A noun is
the name of a person, place, thing, or idea") through advanced sentence
structure and analysis--all the grammar skills needed to write and speak
with eloquence and confidence. This innovative program combines the
three essential elements of language learning: understanding and
memorizing rules (prescriptive teaching), repeated exposure to examples
of how those rules are used (descriptive instruction), and practice
using those rules in exercises and in writing (practical experience).
Each year, parents and teachers go through the dialogue, rules, and
examples in the Core Instructor Text; students follow along in the
Workbook. This repetition solidifies the concepts, definitions, and
examples in the student's mind. There are four Workbooks. Each Workbook
contains the same rules and examples--but four completely different sets
of exercises and assignments, allowing students to develop a
wide-ranging knowledge of how the rules and examples are put to use in
writing. The Workbook comes with its own Key, providing not only
answers, but also explanations for the parent/instructor, and guidance
as to when the answers might be ambiguous (as, in English, they often
are). All of the rules covered, along with the repeated examples for
each, are assembled for ongoing reference in the Comprehensive Handbook
of Rules. This will become the student's indispensable guide to writing
through high school, into college and beyond. Step-by-step instruction
takes students from the most basic concepts through advanced grammatical
concepts such as modal and hortative verbs and multiple functions of
noun clauses. Extensive diagramming exercises reinforce the rules and
help technical and visual learners to understand and use the English
language effectively. Each step of the diagramming process is
illustrated and thoroughly explained to the student. Text for examples
and exercises are drawn from great works of literature, as well as from
well-written nonfiction texts in science, mathematics, and the social
sciences. Regular review is built into each year of work. The first of
four non-sequential workbooks, each containing new exercises that allow
students to practice and apply the grammar principles under study.
