theExact Word ‘s ™ Teaching Process Precis theExact Word ™ introduces a language-arts system that makes sense because it captures thought as real people think. Despite conventional grammar, phonics, whole language, process writing, transformational and generational grammar, and the National Writing Project, people at work and in school suffer when they must write. They have trouble with grammar and with organizing and formulating thoughts. Despite teachers’ hard work, a communications crisis exists in the English-speaking world. People do not know the logic of English; therefore, they do not know how to use it. theExact Word ‘s ™ system takes this crisis head-on. With a patented system of colors for highlighting context, the student learns a uniquely visual and kinesthetic tool, an immediately useful yet long-term method for thinking, mental editing, writing, and speaking with command, dignity, and substance. Beginning by identifying the personal ThoughtPrint™ which marks all of an individual’s communications, the student gains a strategic tool to articulate ideals while learning exquisitely accurate mechanical usage. All students, regardless of past experience, learn without remedial overtones, without a curriculum dumbed-down or smacking of elitism for the talented few. How does theExact Word ™ Fit with Earlier Approaches to Grammar and Writing? theExact Word ™ dovetails with current teaching approaches and with conventional grammatical and linguistics programs that national educational organizations and educational research support. theExact Word ™ closes gaps, helping the student use a blend of approaches to thinking and communicating well. It does not replace whole curricula. What it does replace, however, is the conflict caused by the eight-parts-of-speech approach to grammar. Replacing that grammatical premise does not mean abandoning grammar. It means making sense of the grammar so that knowing grammar helps. Replacing the single-word premise with the premise of word patterns and fixed-word order develops the ability to use language by design, not by default. Replace and Rebuild In daily conversation, nobody consciously links together single words from left to right. But in the writing process we suddenly do shift to just that "left-to-right" conscious process of stringing words together on the page or screen. Nor in ordinary conversation, do people listen to isolated words that someone says but listen for meaning in chunks of words and in body language, gesture, tone of voice, and implication. We listen by "reading between the lines." We create context by non-verbal clues. The natural speaking and listening processes do not transfer to the written word very well. Decades of solid work about the structure of language have not seemed to translate to the learning process, or to the demands people face at work. We need to find ways to create and recognize context in writing. theExact Word ™ brings the writer’s intuitive knowledge to conscious use. The teacher builds a replacement for the eight-parts-of-speech labeling process. Thinking of context and word order, students start to think about alternative perspectives, multiple points-of-view, both sides of an argument, the differing styles and needs of our audience, the possibilities for perceiving our own ideas. As odd as it may sound, we can learn to "think out loud," "think on the screen," or "think with context." Distinct from any existing theoretical or pragmatic approach to understanding English, theExact Word ™ has created a tool for bringing context into the moment. The Natural Thought Flow theExact Word ’s ™ technology approaches the problem in two ways: the actual meaning imparted by thought patterns, and why you would decide to use one thought pattern over another. In the teaching process, the student replaces the "invisible" grammar with a "visible," easily spotted, meaningful set of names. Then the student rebuilds the concept of grammar with a logical explanation, without any exceptions. The Natural Thought Flow theExact Word ‘s™ technology approaches the problem in two ways: the actual meaning imparted by thought patterns, and the choice of one thought patterns over another. In the learning process, the student identifies, for the first time, a visible, easily identified logic for language that has a meaningful set of names. With this, the student then develops a concept of grammar with logical explanations, with no exceptions to the rules, and with inextricable connections to thought and meaning. English Mastery and Personal Style Every English speaker has a "ThoughtPrint," ™ a set of natural strengths and strategies. We use our strengths to reveal our insights to others; we use our strategies to think as others do and to design our thoughts according to their needs. Our strategies are often others’ strengths. Learning to use both strengths and strategies, students gain the ability to retain individual style while varying from that style to meet the needs of various readers and listeners. With theExact Word, ™ the student learns to design meaning. After learning his or her natural strengths from a quick "ThoughtPrint" ™ assessment, the student adds writing and thinking strategies to be able to think in more than one way. Drawing upon insights from conventional Latinate grammar, this process allows student to find logic in the language that will apply to writing and reading in all disciplines. Replacing the notion of conventional grammar -- as a system for identifying single words and parts of sentences -- with the approach to grammar as a set of options and choices, work quickly, simply, and permanently. Combining Grammar with Thought Flow Thus, grammar becomes a tool to use in and for writing. With theExact Word, ™ grammar and writing become inseparable for creating deliberate, designed, educated decisions. Attachment What Is Unique? As the following examples illustrate, English "frames" thoughts in a particular way, by word order. More than other languages, according to Webster’s International Dictionary, English uses "fixed- word order as a primary grammatical device." Note these sentences: The dog bit the man. The man bit the dog. These sentences, of course, do not mean the same thing even though the words in them do not change. The endings of the words do not change as they do in inflected languages; yet, the meaning completely changes. The fixed-word order that creates meaning, very simply illustrated in the example above, extends to the creation of thought in all of English. Syntax Word-order denotes syntax, the arrangements of words in sentences in order to create meaning. In English, syntactical word order operates as a powerful part of meaning. The syntax creates the context for thought because English has only four possible context patterns. The fun and satisfaction of teaching this method derives from the realization that students gain: English speakers already know the basic logic of English because we speak it. The following sentences illustrate how naturally we know the "context" of possible sentencing in English. Teaching Goal: Change the Pattern, Change the Meaning As the context patterns change, meaning changes. theExact Word‘s™ technology immediately identifies these changes. Sample Below, we have composed sample sentences with the sort of commentary that one would make in teaching with theExact Word.™ The system failed. Label: Independent clause/Primary Image This sentence identifies an event, with a primary focus. The object of the meaning is to impart a "mental picture" of this particular event. After the system failed, the client registered a complaint. Label: Dependent clause/Conditional Image This sentence identifies a new meaning to the same data as the Independent Clause/Primary Image sentence. Thus, the same event has a new significance. The word, "after," makes this event a condition which automatically triggers the reader to expect more information. The failing system triggered a default. Label: Failing is a participle/Process Detail This sentence reduces the Primary event to a process which modifies the system information, but the failing process is, while folded in succinctly, only a part of the added information, not the primary focus. Although failing, the systems in the budget department did not affect the rest of the company. Label: Failing is a gerund/Process Detail "Although failing" combines that gerund/Process Detail into a prepositional phrase/Background Detail This sentence again enfolds the process succinctly as a detail, but the detail now shows that the process operates as Background to other events. The student learns to "keep" data, but to relate it to other details, ideas, and events so as to produce varying perspectives and meaning. The student learns to control and express meaning by choosing the context, or thought pattern which best fits the need of an assignment, the moment, the reader. The student learns to use patterns and trigger words to develop thought, after meaning, and shift express in new directions. Summary for Potential Student and Work Place Markets For the Work Place Audience as Well We have to think about grammar in school and at work if someone tells us that we do not write well. The notion of "writing well" conventionally means that subjects and verbs agree; that punctuation is correct; that the writing in generally simple and makes sense. We also know that people judge each other’s intelligence according to grammar and not substance, and they reject each other’s writing when it does not fulfill their expectations. In the workplace, people often take a grammar refresher, believing it will help them to write well. The popularity of computer grammar-checkers is evidence of people’s belief that if their grammar is correct, their writing is good. Results In school, teaching conventional grammar often deflects from the process of teaching critical thinking and writing. Teaching grammar distracts the teacher from the mission of interpreting literature and developing style and integrity in the student’s writing, thinking, and presenting skills. theExact Word’s ™ patented process and teaching approach inextricably tie thought to the structure and mechanics of English. The software, text books, and exercises allow students to simultaneously identify every word in a sentence by grammatical Latinate label and every context pattern possible in English. Further, the teacher and student can use theExact Word ‘s™ technology to read literature by appreciating the sensitivity and skill in the artists’ craft. Understanding how writers use language can only deepen the experience of pleasure, feeling, and meaning in literature. The technology of theExact Word ™ gives the speaker and writer a new access to English; with it the language can become immediately richer, more flexible, and more open. To use this technology in an intuitive, natural way, the teaching process gives the learner practice in combining and crating new patterns of thought to articulate various points-of-view and perspectives. theExact Word ‘s ™ technology supplies the missing piece for achieving such a goal: the structural logic of English. By identifying patterns of context, one realizes that the thought process and the structure of English operate in concert: generating thought begins to make logical sense; grammatical considerations take one logical answers; structure and meaning relate. The teaching process for theExact Word ™ addresses the void and closes the gap. |