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- Course name
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High School Simplified Writing 1: Strong Foundational Writing Skills (HS 9-2) with Erin M. Brown, MA, MFA
- Summary
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Make your writing strong & clear — and master the most critical foundations needed for excellent high school writing, including writing for an audience and purpose, perfecting word choice, strong sentences & paragraphs, linear writing, rhetoric, transitions, and more.
Take the 9-1 course with this course to gain a full semester’s credit for writing.
Instructor Access (optional grading support) for Unlimited Access families is available for this course for $105!
See the sidebar to the left for signup information! Scroll down to read the biography of each instructor.
Instructor: Erin M. Brown, MA, MFA
NOTE: If you have questions about course content and teaching the material, please sign up for Instructor Access to get one-on-one help. Use the email below only if you encounter errors or problems in course content. Thank you.Course Description: In this foundational course, you can gain the skills that make writing strong and clear, lacking nothing—to articulate ideas well in writing for all of high-school-level work. The most important foundations of high school writing are introduced and discussed, and students learn the keys to perfecting strong sentences and paragraphs; learn nine basic forms of rhetoric; focus on linear academic writing for a purpose; practice transitions and connectives, parallelism, paraphrasing, and summary; review punctuation as it influences excellence in writing (comma, semicolon, colon, and dash use); learn how to recognize and correct common grammar struggles; understand the characteristics of an effective introduction, body, and conclusion; learn prewriting, drafting, and editing skills; and practice sculpting a piece of writing with direction, receiving specific feedback from the instructor.
©2012-2024 Homeschool Connections and Erin M. Brown, MA, MFA (aka author Erin Brown Conroy/E. B. Conroy). All rights reserved.
This course is designed by Erin M. Brown, MA, MFA.
This material is only to be used for its intended purpose by active subscribers of Homeschool Connections. Any other use without explicit permission is in violation of the seventh commandment (yes, the 7th commandment) and in violation of US and International copyright laws.
You may print or download to local hard disk extracts for your personal homeschool and non-commercial use only. This is not to be used for homeschool co-ops without express written permission from Homeschool Connections.
If you have questions regarding the learning management system, Caravel, or technical aspects of the course, please contact info@homeschoolconnections.com.FOR TECHNICAL ISSUES, please contact Zoom at US: +1.888.799.9666 ext 2.
Course Materials
REQUIRED BOOK: Get the book Simplified Writing 101: Top Secrets for College Success by Erin Brown Conroy (aka Erin M. Brown/EB Conroy). Buy the hard copy of the book here: http://amzn.to/2FMCose
OR buy the Kindle version of the book here (Download the FREE Kindle app to easily read on your computer, tablet, or mobile device): www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00B7AB90W/catholictreas-20
REQUIRED SOFTWARE
All documents must be submitted in this course (and all of the 9 Series courses) via Microsoft Word OR have the ability to convert a document to a Microsoft Word document (if you do not own Microsoft Word, you can use a system such as Google Docs that converts to Word documents FREE). Again, all documents must be uploaded in a Word document.- Course name
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High School Simplified Writing 1: Strong Foundational Writing Skills (HS 9-2) with Erin M. Brown, MA, MFA
- Instructors
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Donna Graziose, Rebekah Sotillo
- Semester
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Recorded
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Writing ➤ 9 Series: Essential & Simplified Writing
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High School
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Aubrey Heki, Sharon Hamric-Weis, Bonnie Donlon, Erin M. Brown, MA, MFA, Gracie Maimone, BA, Donna Graziose, Vania Kent, Daniel Massett, Myron Manns, Rachel Maschke, MA
- Start time
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September 1st, 2023 at 12:00 AM ET
- Course type
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Recorded, free with subscription
- Relative due dates
- Enhanced quiz security
- Enhanced assignment security
Special notes
Instructor Access (optional grading support) for Unlimited Access families is available for this course for $105!
See the sidebar to the left for signup information!
This is the second of a 4-part series. Continue with the HS 9 Series (9-3 and 9-4) for a full year’s credit for writing.
Total classes
Duration
Prerequisites
Required: Registered for Writing Essentials 1: Essential Punctuation and Grammar I (HS 9-1). Because courses in the program are sequential, for your student’s success, it is required that your student take the 9-1 course before enrolling in this course. Students will be held accountable for all of the punctuation and grammar taught in the previous course. If your student is unable to take the previous courses LIVE, then at a minimum, he or she can watch the recordings on Unlimited Access before taking this course. An alternative to the prerequisite: a passing assessment from the Aquinas Writing Advantage Assessment service. Please contact homeschoolconnections@gmail.com for any questions on permissions.
Suggested grade level
Suggested credit
Outline
Course Outline
Class 1: Audience, purpose, and word choice
Class 2: Perfecting strong sentence and paragraph construction
Class 3: Nine forms of rhetoric (and what they have to do with great writing)
Class 4: Linear writing for a purpose; more how-to’s for crafting strong sentences and paragraphs
Class 5: How to use transitions, connectives, and parallelism to make writing cohesive
Class 6: Punctuation and excellent writing: the comma, colon, semicolon, and dash; conquering common punctuation struggles
Class 7: Key components of an essay/paper; the introduction, body, conclusion, hook, and thesis; prewriting for success
Class 8: Drafting for success; editing and polishing your writing
Materials
Homework
LIVE and Instructor Access students will have weekly writing assignments with grading and direct feedback from the instructor (parents will grade Recorded students’ work). Expect an estimated two (2) to four (4) hours per week for homework outside of class time, depending on the student’s ability; homework includes reading, writing, and responding to feedback.
Donna Graziose
hsc.donnagraziose@gmail.com
Donna Graziose, MA, MS, is a teacher with experience teaching across all levels -- elementary through college -- and a professional book editor for the Simplified Writing series of books and Word Mastery Skill Building workbooks. For many years, she has been working as an academic librarian for universities in New York teaching writing, literature, research methods, and art history. Donna has also enjoyed teaching local homeschoolers for over 10 years in writing, literature, and history.
Donna, a homeschooling mom of seven children, is greatful for the homeschooling lifestyle where she can focus her children's education of faith and family.
Here at Homeschool Connections' Aquinas Writing Advantage program, Donna is an Instructor Access (IA) grading services instructor for the 9 Series High School Foundational writing courses and the Advanced Punctuation and Grammar course.
Rebekah Sotillo
mrs.rsotillo.hsc@gmail.com
Rebekah Sotillo earned her Bachelor of Science in Astrophysics from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, and was commissioned as a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy. While in the military, she drove the aircraft carrier, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72), across the Pacific Ocean to port in locations such as Guam, Manila, and Japan. After driving aircraft carriers, she studied to become a meteorologist for the Navy. With over nine years of leadership experience as a Naval Officer, she works as a Leadership and Interpersonal Communication Instructor for AWA. One of her favorite pastimes is mastering the art of sourdough bread baking. A native of Southern California, she loves the outdoors and spends most of her weekends hiking. Mrs. Sotillo is the Instructor Access one-on-one mentor/grader and LIVE instructor for Leadership and Interpersonal Communication.