Writing instruction for middle school students is one of the more difficult challenges for teachers. Not only do they need to ensure students master all sorts of grammatical and spelling rules, but they also need to help students come up with something meaningful to say.  

Many of the writing “programs” out there have devised all sorts of complex methods that walk students through multiple phases of pre-writing, writing, and revision. The names for these phases can vary a lot, but the point is more or less the same. The more time you spend thinking about what you are going to write and then writing and rewriting it, the better the end result. I certainly agree with this.  

Nonetheless, those same programs are often overly tedious and devoid of meaningful content for students to contemplate and develop. Instead, they set up drawn out writing assignments about some fairly absurd topics like favorite foods or hobbies. Not that there is anything wrong with those ideas, but they feel a little empty and almost insulting to students. Like a seventh grader doesn’t have more interesting ideas to offer! 

Even in the world of classical education, there are very few writing programs out there, which by the way, are complete with their own fancy names for the writing phases. Most classical educators are appropriately skeptical of anything prepackaged as they tend to suck the life out an otherwise worthy intellectual endeavor. Instead, classical educators hold fast to a collection of good habits and a handful of tried and true exercises.  

One that I have enjoyed using with great success is copia, which comes from the Latin word for ‘abundance.’ As suggested by its etymology, copia as a writing exercise refers to a deliberate practice of finding the many ways in which one might say something. I like to define it as the art of expressing the Truth of language in a new way.

Desiderius Erasmus developed this exercises in the early 16th century, famously coming up with 150 ways to rewrite the sentence, “Your letter pleased me greatly.” For an example of what this looks like, check out this link. His point is fairly obvious. Even the most basic ideas can be said in a multitude of ways. It is up the writer, then, to choose which way is the best.   

This is an invaluable lesson for the student, not to mention the seasoned writer. I spend a class period early on in the school year presenting the Erasmus challenge. Try as they might, my students fall way short of his 150 examples, but they begin to see how words can be transformed without changing the meaning.  

From there, I introduce the two main ways that I have adapted the exercise in the classroom. The first is using copia to teach language patterns. The second is using copia to teach artistic expression. I will present both styles in subsequent posts.