(Fall 2023) High School Simplified Writing 1: Strong Foundational Writing Skills (HS 9-2)-Monday-5:30 PM ET-with Erin M. Brown, MA, MFA

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.

NOTICE: This is an older course recorded with Adobe Connect and/or Vimeo recordings. We are currently working to replace the recordings with new Zoom recordings.  Please don't hesitate to email us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com with any questions. 

How to get the most out of the High School Simplified Writing 1: Strong Foundational Writing Skills (HS 9-2) course with Professor Erin M. Brown (AKA Erin Brown Conroy/E.B. Conroy):

  • Read the course details below.
  • Prepare a notebook for notetaking and homework. Students -- be sure to take notes during class!
  • Students, begin the course by:
    • LIVE CLASS Students - Coming to the first live Class session on the scheduled date and time.
    • Unlimited Access / Recorded Students - Clicking on the "Recording" and watching Professor Brown’s lecture for Class One.
  • Review any supplemental materials (videos or readings)
  • Complete any Quiz(zes) or homework assignments. The computer will automatically grade the quiz.
    • *Note* If taking the course in Recorded format, the quiz will reset if someone else in the family takes it, so make sure the grade is recorded by a parent.
  • If you need review, watch the recording and/or go over the PowerPoint again.
  • Repeat until all 8 classes are complete.
  • Once the course is completed to the parent's satisfaction, there is a Certificate of Completion at the end of this page (to be filled in for your records). Homeschool Connections does not provide record keeping

 

Total Classes: 8

Prerequisite: 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: 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 Writing Essentials 1: Essential Punctuation & Grammar I (HS 9-1) for one (1) full semester’s credit. When combined with the 9-1 course, this course is worth one (1) full semester’s credit for writing.

  

Instructor: Erin M Brown (AKA Erin Brown Conroy/E.B. Conroy), M.A, M.F.A.

   

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.


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 

Course Materials: 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.