According to the report, the rising cost of college, even before the recession, threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans.  Published college tuition and fees increased 439% from 1982 to 2007 (adjusted for inflation) while median family income rose 147%. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last 10 years, and students from lower-income families (on average) get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

The report, Measuring Up 2008, is one of the few to compare net college costs — that is, a year’s tuition, fees, room and board, minus financial aid — against median family income. Those findings are stark. Last year, the net cost at a four-year public university amounted to 28 percent of the median family income, while a four-year private university cost 76 percent of the median family income.

“This study reveals that higher education is becoming a roadblock, not a gateway, to success for low-income and middle-class students,” says Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., chair of the National Center For Public Policy And Higher Education board of directors and former four-term governor of North Carolina. “States must confront these roadblocks to ensure that the United States can remain competitive with other industrialized nations that have made expansion of opportunity and affordable higher education national priorities.”

I felt it was such a valuable site that I sent the owner, Linda, a few questions to answer about the site so you could get a better idea about what GrammarNOW.com is all about:

Please tell our audience a little about what GrammarNOW.com is all about:

GrammarNOW! is a site dedicated to offering resources that help with grammar and writing. I offer a Q&A Club that answers individual grammar or writing questions, a Tip of the Week by email, an editing service, and a wide variety of resources for all kinds of writers: students of all levels, teachers, business professionals, fiction and nonfiction writers, and many others, including those who are just curious or have a nagging grammar question. In addition, there are links to language discussions (e.g. jargon), and software or other products I have researched and think will be helpful to my visitors.

When did you start GrammarNOW.com and why?

I began the site in 1998 because I saw a need to help people with grammar. I originally just offered free answers to questions, but eventually I had to begin the Q&A Club because the demand became overwhelming. The site has evolved over the years to offer the many resources that it does today.
 
Please tell us a little about yourself, and your background:

I taught English at the high school, junior college, and mostly university level for 25 years, primarily composition and literature. After that, I began freelance copy editing, which I still do, and enjoy very much. I have clients from around the world and get to read a wide variety of materials. My resume is online at http://grammarnow.com/resume/. (I also have a web design and development business that began about the same time as the grammar site. When I started teaching writing students to create simple web pages for their personal or collaborative writing projects—this was in the early days of creating web pages for all of us – I learned html myself and, well, things just took off after that in unexpected ways.)

What kinds of service does grammarnow.com offer for students and/or teachers?

Aside from the Q&A Club, which offers immediate replies to individual grammar and composition questions, both students and teachers will find very helpful relevant links in my Resources list and in the software offered on the site. I am very selective when choosing resources, trying to make sure that they are useful for my visitors. Just to reassure teachers, my copy editing service is not available for students who are graded on composition or for essay writing classes. It is only available for upper-level students in fields other than English or for graduate students.

How often do you update the site, and where do you get new content and ideas from?

I update it whenever new content becomes available. People write to me asking to be included in my resource list or to advertise on the site. I analyze my stats in detail so I know where my visitors are coming from and what they’re looking for. So when someone new requests inclusion on the site, I research them and consider whether they’ll add value to the site, and then add them if so. Otherwise, I may update my resume or testimonials. Just this week, I added a new resource (yours!) and a new advertiser to the site to provide more value for visitors. I am always updating the Tip of the Week. Sometimes I consider redesigning the site, and have done so once, but who has time?

Are you planning any new additions or features to the site?  What’s next for grammarnow.com?

The next big step is my searchable CD of grammarNOW! Tips. Right now, visitors can sign up for a free weekly grammar Tip of the Week by email. I am working toward putting about 200 of them on a CD that can be searchable by word or phrase. Anyone who is signed up for the Tip of the Week will receive a notice when the CD is ready for purchase.

There are a variety of ways that we can increase comprehension when reading literature. Using these techniques increases the comprehension of a classic novel in a variety of students and can result in successful comprehension of the piece of literature.

One of the top ways to increase comprehension of literature in the classroom, and with tutoring tactics, is to compare the text with a modern day interpretation of the literature. Learning by comparison can be helpful. Comparing classic literature to modern situations can also help students. Often younger generations will be more adept to learn the themes of classics they are able to identify with. If the tutor is able to provide some mirroring within the classic to modern day situations, the student is more likely to learn the information.

Providing a translation for texts written in poetry can also prove helpful. Since poetry is a language all its own, especially with Victorian authors such as Byron, Keats and Shelley, providing a text with a contemporary translation under or opposite of each line in the poem increases comprehension for the student.

Using textual clues such as descriptive words to gain the feeling of the literature can improve comprehension greatly. These identifier words can create recognition of one word, which can lead to the comprehension of one phrase, which can lead to the comprehension of the whole page.

These are just some techniques a good tutor can employ to help their student’s grasp of reading comprehension with classic literature; find a tutor near you to learn more!

Resources for Classic Literature

• Classics at the Online Literature Library
• Classic Lit authors from A to Z
• SparkNotes and Study Guides on Classic Literature
• Free Classic Literature in the Public Domain from the Classic Literature Library
• GradeSaver Classic Notes on Lit Classics
• Free Online Literature and Study Guides