Literature of the Hart

Many young people are not sure where their lives are going. Academic mentoring can make a transformative impact, as this recent testimonial shows: “Michael provided valuable guidance and support throughout the university application process, including advice, coaching and feedback, which we greatly appreciated. His support helped my daughter navigate the application process with confidence, and she received offers from the universities she had hoped to attend.  I would wholeheartedly recommend Michael and Hartland Educational Consultancy Services to any student or family looking for exceptional educational support. He is not only an excellent tutor but also a wonderful mentor who genuinely cares about his students and their success. His encouragement, professionalism and belief in my daughter’s abilities made a tremendous difference to her confidence and academic achievements. We will always be grateful for his support and would highly recommend his services to others.” Find out mo...

All families want their children to achieve the best grades they can at school. In his role as an Associate of NACE (National Association of Able Children in Education), Michael Hartland coaches schools in the UK and abroad on how best to do this. In the last few weeks, he has been delighted to present to the IAPS (Independent Association of Preparatory Schools) and to a selective girls’ school . Hartland Educational Services offers Academic Mentoring in addition to tuition in all subjects, whether this is for: -Primary support -11+ preparation -School application -Secondary support -GCSE and A Level -University application for degrees and Masters -University support -Learning English as an additional language Through our extensive network of engaging and well-qualified tutors, we are able to help you find the tutor offering the right level of expertise and experience for your requirements. Subjects range from English and EAL to Maths and Science, and include the broad range of subjec...

What are we trying to do when we teach creative writing? Some of the more pragmatic answers might include to improve students’ writing skills and to prepare them for exams.  But creative writing also opens a window on the human experience of life, and I am grateful that I came across Joseph Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces a few years ago.  I now think that it should be recommended reading for anyone involved in teaching writing. Campbell explores myths from around the world and identifies archetypal narrative situations such as ‘the departure’, ‘the call to adventure’, ‘crossing the threshold’ and ‘the belly of the whale’.  Each one of these is enough for a whole module for a course on creative writing as well as offering opportunities to explore the cross-cultural themes of growing up, discovering vocations and coping with challenge. In my own work with students, I find there is an endless fascination with the wonderful opening of Dickens’ Great Expectati...

Do you know how to use the cool colon? Or how to add a dash of semicolons to spice up your writing? Many students are looking for final improvements to develop their writing before their summer exams; many adults could enhance their writing with a few simple punctuation tips. As a teacher of English over many years I made an important discovery: learners can start using colons and semicolons quickly if these wonderful punctuation marks are taught in the right way. To help students remember how to use colons and semicolons, I use the phrases “explain and expand”, and “connect or contrast”: they are easy to remember; they help distinguish between semicolons and colons; they lay the foundations for connecting sentences in ever more fluent and stylish ways.   Using colons is not something to fear   :     they can seriously improve your writing.   Semicolons confuse some   ;    they liberate others!   Now you know how cool and ...

In my experience as an English teacher and tutor, many students do not understand the basic grammatical structures of sentences. So they make mistakes- and mistakes affect their grades. But you can learn different sentence types to improve your writing. If you read the following, you’ll see five different sentence types in use: Really?  Students write sentences all the time.  Many rely on simple sentence forms and this can make their writing unambitious.  Complex sentences, which require more exact punctuation, are rarely used.  Multiple complex sentences, which are really quite advanced sentence structures, are usually unheard of, but this means that students, who are quite capable of writing them, might not be accessing the highest grades.   You can find out more about how I help students develop their writing in my ebooks: Quest for the Jabberwock - Five Sentence Types (for ages 7-16) The Five Sentence Type Workbook (for ages 16+) But I'm No Good ...

Our latest ebook,  Quest for the Jabberwock , takes students on a journey, not just of creative writing, but of mastering five important sentence types:  simple sentences compound sentences complex sentences multiple complex sentences non-sentences. Building on the first  Hartland English Guide ,  Five Sentence Types ,  Quest for the Jabberwock  is designed to appeal to school pupils, both primary and secondary, who will enjoy creating each next step of the narrative and learning a different sentence type as they go. The other titles in the  Hartland English Guides  are:   A Dash of Punctuation But I’m no good at creative writing Five Sentence Types Quest for the Jabberwock  is available on Amazon, priced at only £4.99. Find the right  Hartland English Guide  for you  here !