Give your middle school student the mastery needed for punctuation — creating strong sentences and getting rid of the most common writing mistakes. This critical course helps your student write clearly, free of punctuation and grammar errors. Take the 6/7-4 course with this course to gain a full semester’s credit for writing.

Special Notes: Course materials are provided free. This course, a continuation of the Writing Essentials series for 6/7 students, is scheduled during several different time slots in the spring semester. This is the third of a 4-part series. Continue with the MS 6/7 Series for a full year of Writing.

Total Classes: 6

Class Dates and Starting Times:

Mondays, January 13 to February 17, 2025 

11:30 AM Eastern (10:30 Central; 9:30 Mountain; 8:30 Pacific)

Duration: 50 minutes per class

Prerequisite: Each course in the 6/7 series builds upon the next. Registration in the Writing Essentials 1: Punctuation & Grammar I (MS 6/7-1) and Writing Essentials 2: Excellent Sentence & Paragraph Writing I (MS 6/7-2) courses is required so that your student has all of the tools and knowledge necessary to succeed in this course. You may take the prerequisite courses LIVE or in Unlimited Access (recording) before or during this course.

Suggested Grade Level: 7th or accelerated 6th grade

Suggested Credit: One-half (½) of a semester's credit for Writing or English. Follow with MS 6/7-4 for a full semester credit. To make a full and complete semester of middle school writing, sign up for the 6/7-4 course that follows this course.

Instructor: Bonnie Donlon, BA

Course Description: This is an essential writing course for all middle school students, to further the student's ability and confidence in using punctuation and grammar correctly (and well!). Your student will learn to identify and use correct punctuation in longer passages of text, including additional work with the use of commas, semicolons and colons, and quotation marks. Special emphasis will be placed on using punctuation correctly in systems of testing, such as standardized tests, and increase your student's ability to identify wrong uses of punctuation, to self-edit, and to make corrections easily.

Course Outline:

• Class 1: Correct comma use with clauses, compound sentences, and commas vs. semicolons in lists

• Class 2: Odd punctuation challenges with colons, semicolons, and capitalizations

• Class 3: Correct usage of quotation marks and their surrounding punctuation

• Class 4: Complete Sentences vs. fragments in academic work vs. Advertisements and informal writing

• Class 5: Punctuation, capitalization, and form with formal letters

• Class 6: Common punctuation and grammar mistakes with pronouns, questions, compound sentences, and more

NOTE: To get the full experience when watching the recorded classes, make sure to click on the video icon at the top right to see the instructor.

Course Materials: Course materials are included free as PDF files. Word or the ability to convert a document to a Word-compatible document is required. If you do not own Microsoft Word, you can use a system such as Google Docs that convert to Word documents FREE. 

Homework: This course has weekly quizzes, requiring an estimated one to three hours per week for homework outside of class time (depending on the student’s skill level upon entering the course). Quizzes are graded automatically by the computer for instant feedback.

Note: All student work needs to be 100% the student's own work and the student's own writing. Nothing can be copied from anywhere else unless a source for the text is given on the assignment. Any students who copy work from elsewhere will receive a zero on the assignment. Repeated copying will result in failure of the course.

Technical Help: If you have any technical trouble or questions about course content, please email us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com.

Fee: $89 if you register on or before November 15. $109 after November 15 for all 6 classes. (Registration closes one week before the first day of class. After that date, registrations are not guaranteed. There is a $20 surcharge for late enrollments after the course is closed.)