Welcome!

Is language the most important of all human tools? We talk, read, and think in language. We get to know ourselves, and others, through language. We can build, break, and heal things with the powerful tool of language.

Here, in "The Look of Language," we confidently improve our language, grammar, writing, and reading skills. Students, teachers, and parents will learn the complete fundamentals of grammar and will:

• understand and use all aspects of grammar purposefully

• accurately analyze how sentences are built

• diagram sentences of every type

• spot, fix, and improve problem sentences

• write, read, and think with more comprehension and fluency.

Here is a basic rule: in order to diagram a sentence, you have to know what you're talking about. The pencil and paper won't lie. As you work through increasingly difficult examples, you will enjoy the feeling and the freedom of really knowing grammar inside and out. As you conclude the course, you will be amazed at your own knowledge, skills, and confidence.

And that will never go away.

Course Summary

The Look of Language is organized into sections, by increasing difficulty. This allows us to preview the learning ahead of us before taking a structured, step-by-step journey together. The beginner lessons might feel a bit simple at first, but we will take our time to ensure that your fundamentals are sound. Everything - everything in this course - builds upwards and outwards from the opening beginner lessons. Form and function. Question and answer. Sense and sensibility. We build good habits, and then we build upon them.

Section 1: Introduction, Preview lessons, & Pre-test

• Learn how best to use this course;

• Preview a sample lesson on “Problem Sentences” and another on “Grammar and Writer’s Block”

• Attempt a difficult “Pre-test” that will be much less difficult at the course’s end

Section 2: Fundamentals (beginner level)

• Learn the parts of speech and how sentences are built

• Diagramming subjects, verbs, modifiers, prepositions, compounds

Section 3: Problem Sentences (round 1)

• Learn how to diagnose, analyze, and fix nagging problem sentences

• Diagramming comma splices, run-ons, and pronoun-antecedent disagreement

Section 4: Fundamentals (intermediate level)

• Diagramming objects, linking verbs, clause-modifiers, and more

• Test yourself with games and Quiz #1

Section 5: Fundamentals (advanced level)

• Diagramming tricky clauses, verbals, complements, appositives, and more

• How to cure writer's block with grammar

• Test yourself with Quiz #2

Section 6: Problem Sentences (round 2)

• Subject-verb disagreement, parallelism, who/whom, we/us, dangling & misplaced modifiers, and more

• Post-Test:the Final Challenge

Enough talk for now --

Students, teachers, parents, even school districts: It's time to master this stuff -- once and for all.

Let’s get started . . .