I bought this book to prepare for a writing workshop that I was giving for a group of homeschooled third to fifth graders. I had seen the third grade version and was very impressed with it. It was also interesting to see that my fourth grade student who does not enjoy writing could be seen peeking at pages in the book and then actually picked it up and started to read it!
I find Write Source to be an excellent resource for teaching the fundamentals of writing. It goes through the writing process - Prewriting (Outlining), Writing, Revising, Editing (Proofreading) and Publishing and also shows the student how to properly organize their writing and how to make his/her writing interesting for the reader. It goes through the traits - ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions. The book also has rubrics to help the student (and teacher) judge the writing.
The only complaint I have has nothing to do with the book, but with Great Source, the company. They have a software program that looks like it would be great for having an independent eye to look at your student's writing; the software is not licensed for homeschoolers and the lady I spoke with seemed to have an axe to grind with the fact that I am a homeschooling mom. If I hadn't already seen the quality of the book from another homeschooling mom, I would not have bought it. I was happy I was able to buy it from Amazon and not have to have any more dealing with the company.
If you're looking for a writing resource that you and your student(s) will enjoy using, try this - I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
