Whether you or your students are in school, homeschooling, unschooling, or just learning on your own, at some point you’re bound to face the question, “What is an essay?” Here’s Marie’s simple definition and a surprising second definition from Thomas. What is an essay? The powerful possibility of calmness.
Even the brightest students of English grammar can become confused about whose or who’s. In fact, a student from Kahului, Maui, recently asked me to clarify the difference in an Ask Cozy Grammar video. After you take a peek, I’ll share three keys I’ve discovered to remembering grammar easily, keys you can easily use with your students.
A topic that can sometimes intimidate students (or their teacher or parents!) is how to use quotation marks in a sentence. Everything seems fine till you need to combine quotation marks with other kinds of punctuation marks, like periods and commas. Does the final period go inside or outside the quotation marks? Here’s our answer.
Marie and I have both long believed that grammar can enhance creativity. We’re therefore particularly delighted to share a poem written by one of Cozy Grammar’s students, Miguel Gonzalez Del Castillo. Miguel wrote the following poem in response to a creative writing assignment in the Basic Cozy Grammar Course.
Do you remember the first time you discovered exclamation marks? How powerful! And how fun! These marks can serve powerfully, especially when used adeptly. But using exclamation marks adeptly can take some practice. That’s why we wanted to share two free excerpts from our Basic Cozy Punctuation Course.
In our most recent Ask Cozy Grammar Q & A session, a participant asked, “Why are commas so confusing? There’s so many different rules. How do I begin understanding them?” Here’s an answer from Thomas about getting started with commas as well as a free excerpt from Marie’s lesson on commas from the Basic Cozy Punctuation Course.
Join Marie and Thomas for an exploration of sentences and sense. In an except from Lesson 1 of the Basic Cozy Punctuation Course, Marie shows us how to use periods at the ends of sentences. Then, in a supplementary video from the Basic Cozy Punctuation Course, Thomas shows the importance of periods in seeing the sense of our sentences.
Did you know there are four basic kinds of sentences? Watch a free excerpt from Lesson 1 of the Basic Cozy Grammar Course where Marie uses clear and concrete examples from life in her cozy beach cottage to illustrate the four kinds of sentences: assertive, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory.
Sometimes knowing a little history can go a long way in helping us understand a subject. Exploring the story of where punctuation comes from is not only interesting but can also help us learn to use the dots, lines, and squiggles of punctuation easily, freely, and joyfully.
Punctuation can often seem intimidating. Everywhere we look, there appear to be different and contradictory rules about how we’re supposed to use all these dots, lines, and squiggles in our writing. But as Marie explains, punctuation is simply a tool to clarify meaning and prevent misunderstanding.
Marie celebrates the natural world and the power of imagination. Here’s an example of how Marie uses nature to walk students through the writing of an expository essay. In this month’s first free excerpt, Marie uses the basic essay format she teaches in the Basic Cozy Essay Course to write an essay about the beach in front of her Cozy Beach Cottage.
In the Basic Cozy Essay Course, Marie distinguishes between the format of an essay and the purpose of an essay. The format of an essay is the technique of the essay, the simple building blocks with which it is made. The purpose, on the other hand, is the reason why any particular essay is being written. This reason might be to make a point, tell a story, or review a book, for instance.
Nothing is more meaningful to us than to have Marie’s courses find their way to the people and places where they can make a real difference. Part of the secret of Marie’s approach is how freely she offers herself as she is. Her courses are as unique as she is, inspiring her students to embrace their own uniqueness.
Marie believed that grammar gives us a marvelous way to understand the power of language, a way she believed could also be fun. That’s why this month we wanted to share a free and fun game for learning the eight parts of speech. Take a peek and then download a free PDF of Marie’s Cozy Grammar Game!
We’re thrilled to announce the release of the second edition of The Basic Cozy Essay Course, complete with all-new additional videos filmed in London, England. In this free excerpt from Lesson 1, Marie answers the question What is an Essay?, gives an overview of her basic essay format, and shares some handy advice for getting started.
One of the topics Marie was most intent on helping her students understand was how to write an essay. As she explains in the introduction to The Basic Cozy Essay Course, if we don’t know how to write an essay, it can be a fearsome assignment. But when we learn how, it can open innumerable doors—as it did for Marie herself.