www.imprimis-books.com

Education

Ph.D., English Education, The American University, Washington, D.C., 1973. B.A., Social Sciences, The University of the Philippines, Quezon City, 1955.

1973--1984. Chief Master Sergeant, Air Force Intelligence Service, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Edited the Southeast Asia Prisoners of War experiences. Cited as the highest-ranked of the top ten writers on the project. (See expanded resume.)

1984--1990. Editor, The MITRE Corporation, McLean, Virginia.

Edited classified publications in a number of technological and scientific disciplines: computer super systems, intelligence, international telecommunications, communications architectures (fiber optics, microwave, satellite, etc.), foreign military structures, artificial intelligence.

1973--1990, taught English composition, research report writing, technical writing, reading, and literature at Northern Virginia Community College: Alexandria, Annandale, and Manassas campuses.

1990--1991, taught technical and professional writing, Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland.

1991--1994, taught English composition, reading improvement, Park College, Parkville, Maryland (District of Columbia Correctional Facility), Lorton, Virginia.

1992--to present, have taught "Writing for Managers," "Technical Writing," and "Business Writing" at University of Maryland University College, College Park.

For fall semester, 1994, taught college composition, Strayer College, Woodbridge, Virginia.

Wrote column, "A Way with Words," for Potomac News, Woodbridge, Virginia, for five years.

Wrote "Out of the Cotton Fields: And into the Classroom," an account of my education.

Wrote An Introduction to an Academic Vocabulary, published by The University Press of America, 1990.

Wrote A Thesaurus of Word Roots of the English Language, published by The University Press of America, September 1992.

Wrote A Thesaurus of Medical Word Roots, Summer of 1996. Imprimis Books (my own company), Occoquan, Virginia.

Wrote Discover It! A Better Vocabulary, the Better Way, Summer 1996. Imprimis Books (my own company), Occoquan, Virginia.

While most readers will not know the latter two words, most will be familiar with fugitive, refugee, and centrifugal. They reason that if a fugitive flees from the law, and a refugee flees from his or her country, then all the words must have something to do with "fleeing."

This process is called "inductive learning," or the discovery approach, thus the title for the book.

Turning the page, the reader discovers that the common element "fug" comes from the Latin verb fugere, meaning "flee." This process is called immediate reinforcement. Underneath this element is a Clavis, Latin for "key," but has come to mean a key to words, or word notes.

In the Clavis, the authors have written word notes for selected words, a process of associative bonding. For example, under centrifugal, the reader finds that the word literally means "center-fleeing." Centrifugal is then linked to centripetal, which literally means "center-seeking," and is referenced to "appetite," which means literally "to seek intensively."

For fillers, the authors have included "wordextras," or fascinating backgrounds of words, for example, "muscle" literally means "little mouse," from the fancied resemblance of a mouse racing up and down the arms of a well-bicepsed person.

The book is completely self-contained, with pretests and post-tests before each section of ten word clusters. There is also a post-book test, complete with answers.

Kim, homeschooling mother of three really bright kids, credits her mother for teaching her to pay attention to editorial detail. "She was a home-based secretary," Kim says, "and she pressed me into service to proofread for her when I was still a pre-teen. She deliberately read things a little differently from the way they were written just to see if I was paying attention." Since that early beginning, Kim has continued to involve herself in avid exploration of the English language.

From creative writing and journalism classes in high school and courses for a linguistics major at the University of Chicago, to editorial work on government newsletters, technical manuals, magazine articles, and several books-in-progress, Kim's education and experiences have only served to increase her enjoyment of the delightful playground of words.

In 1991, Kim and her husband, Mike, decided to begin homeschooling their three children, then 11, 6, and 2 years of age. Teaching grammar, composition, and literary analysis at levels from pre-school to high school necessitated that she learn the reasons behind the rules that had by now become instinctive. (Bright kids ask challenging questions, after all.) As a member of the Olympia Christian Homeschool Group, Kim coordinated a county-wide homeschoolers' writing contest for six years that annually awarded over $1000 in donated prizes and encouraged hundreds of homeschooled kids to polish their writing skills for competition. For two years, she managed a homeschool bookstore in her home, which made her even more familiar with a huge variety of homeschool resources and what helps kids enjoy learning.

Kim is a founding member of the Capital Christian Writers' Association in Olympia, Washington. She has won or placed in several writing contests for her essays, stories, and poetry, including winning both first and third place in the Olympia Shakespearian Festival Sonnet Contest in 1995. Currently the Articles Editor for Home Education Magazine, she has written reviews for Pract ical Home Schooling; poetry for Home Education Magazine and Junior Trails; articles and crossword puzzles for Home Education Magazine; and music for her church.

Besides writing and editing, Kim also enjoys recreational mathematics, singing, playing the piano, computer work, traveling, spending time with her family and friends, and whole-hearted worship of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Occasionally, she gets in the mood for housework. You can reach her by email at KimOHara@aol.com, but hardly ever by phone.