Curriculum

  The Thesis and Law Stages hone reasoning skills through the introduction of counterpoint and resolution, providing the students with a plethora of opportunities to create arguments (Invention) using the Heads of Purpose, and to demonstrate them using the Heads of Development. Student capabilities include:

• Skills of argumentation
• Prepared for the advanced skills of rhetoric
• Ability to write “qualifying” essays for college entrance exams

As your student progresses, the fifth stage in the Classical Composition program is Common Topic. The set of exercises in Common Topic are more difficult to categorize by modern composition theory, but would likely fall under the descriptive essay.

These three stages continue to train the students in their ability to utilize and integrate heads of development and examples—that is, the general and the particular in communicating ideas—as well as continuing to train them in the use of heads of purpose (also called modes of argument). Students will learn to write expository essays and a complex introductory paragraph, as well as to cohesively arrange a lengthy essay. The Teacher Guide provides sample answers for every lesson, as well as teaching and grading guidance.

The greatest communicators of ancient times, Quintilian and Cicero among them, employed the progymnasmata to teach their students the art of communication. The 14 exercises, organized from the simplest and most basic to the most complex and sophisticated, were the core education of a classical speaker, designed to produce what Quintilian once called “the good man, speaking well.”

The Teacher Guide provides sample answers for every lesson, as well as teaching and grading guidance.