Master the details of writing that you need to succeed — and perfect the essential tools necessary for excellent high school writing, including clear sentence and paragraph construction, summary and paraphrase, answering essay questions, linear & process writing, advanced paragraph structure, and more. Take the 9-4 course with this course to gain a full semester’s credit for writing!

Total Classes: 6

Class dates and starting Times:

Thursdays, January 9 to February 13, 2025.

2:30 PM Eastern (1:30 Central; 12:30 Mountain; 11:30 Pacific)

Prerequisite: Required: Registered for Writing Essentials 1: Essential Punctuation and Grammar I (HS 9-1) High School Simplified Writing 1: Strong Foundational Writing Skills (HS 9-2). Because courses in the program are sequential, for your student’s success, it is required that your student take the 9-1 and 9-2 courses before enrolling in this course. Students will be held accountable for all content taught in the previous courses. 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: 9th grade; however, all high school students are welcome

Suggested Credit: One-half (½) of a semester’s credit for Writing or English

Combine with High School Simplified Writing 2: Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay (HS 9-4) for one (1) full semester credit. When combined with the 9-4 course, this course is worth one (1) full semester’s credit for writing.

Instructors:

Sharon Hamric-Weis, BSEd, JD 

Course Description: Join this essential writing course for all high school students, to make sure that your student has critical high school essay writing foundations in place. Give your high school student exactly what’s needed for writing well-crafted sentences and paragraphs—including the absolute “must-have” knowledge, review, and practice for the use of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and prepositional phrases, and compound sentence structures. Learn to use transitions and connectives to make your paragraphs smooth; the use of quoted material to support your ideas; and the use of summary and paraphrase that’s required in all academic writing. Even if your student has learned foundational concepts before, the approach in this class is to use high school vocabulary and structures that are more complex and needed for upper-level writing. From mastering the details that are holding your student back to providing much-needed practice, help your student perfect the essential tools for high school writing with this course.

Course Outline:
Class 1:
•Writing well-crafted sentences using strong nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions for clarity
•Perfecting higher-level capitalization, punctuation, and the use of quotation marks in dialogue in academic writing
Class 2:
•Perfecting linear writing, transitions, and connectives in sentence and paragraph writing for cohesion
•Using the PEAS academic paragraph structure for high-level high school (and college) writing
Class 3:
•Writing with Summary and Paraphrase, Part 1
Class 4:
•Writing with Summary and Paraphrase, Part 2
Class 5:
•Essay Structure, Form, and Content
Class 6:
•Answering essay questions: structure, form, and content

Course Materials: Simplified Writing 101: Top Secrets for College Success, by Erin Brown 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

Microsoft 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 converts to Word documents FREE

Homework: Students will have weekly writing assignments with grading and direct feedback from the instructor. 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.

Fee: For all 6 classes: $129 on or before November 15. $149 after November 15. (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.)

©2021-2024 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. Technical Help: If you experience technical difficulty with watching the recorded classes or have a question about course content, please email us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com. ZOOM Technical Support: FOR TECHNICAL ISSUES, please contact Zoom at US: +1.888.799.9666 ext 2. Technical Help: If you have any technical trouble or questions about course content, please email us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com.