A week ago, my dad mentioned that he wanted a promotional flyer for the business novel we wrote together a couple of years ago. Neither of us has any graphic design background not any knowledge of promotional materials. But we were game for a challenge.
This led me to remember one of my favorite quotes about how to teach and learn. It's from Benjamin Franklin.
"I thought the writing (in the Spectator) excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With that view, I took some of the papers, and making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by for a few days, and then, without looking at the book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand. I then compared my Spectator with the original."
Isn't that a wonderful way to learn to write? My favorite thing about it is that it's so versatile. It teaches how to learn to write, not just how to write.
I plan to use this method with my kids. (I hear that the Institute for Excellence in Writing uses the same concept, so I might use that, or do it myself.) My goal is that when they go to college, they can say, "I want to be published in this journal in my field, so I need to learn to write that way," and be able to do it on their own.
That's what I attempted to do Friday with the promotional flyer. I looked for good examples from the internet and tried to model mine on theirs. I'm not claiming it looks professional, but I'm pretty proud of the result. That's what I want for my kids.
This led me to remember one of my favorite quotes about how to teach and learn. It's from Benjamin Franklin.
"I thought the writing (in the Spectator) excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With that view, I took some of the papers, and making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by for a few days, and then, without looking at the book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand. I then compared my Spectator with the original."
Isn't that a wonderful way to learn to write? My favorite thing about it is that it's so versatile. It teaches how to learn to write, not just how to write.
I plan to use this method with my kids. (I hear that the Institute for Excellence in Writing uses the same concept, so I might use that, or do it myself.) My goal is that when they go to college, they can say, "I want to be published in this journal in my field, so I need to learn to write that way," and be able to do it on their own.
That's what I attempted to do Friday with the promotional flyer. I looked for good examples from the internet and tried to model mine on theirs. I'm not claiming it looks professional, but I'm pretty proud of the result. That's what I want for my kids.
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