9-3
HIGH SCHOOL
Essential Writing 2:
Excellent Paragraph & Essay Writing
Suggested Grade Level: 9th grade
Master the details holding your student back from writing well—and perfect the essential tools of high school writing…

Your Course Description
This is an 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 his 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.
Your Course Outline
Class 1: Using strong nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in well-constructed sentences
Class 2: Perfecting higher-level capitalization, punctuation, and the use of quotation marks in dialogue in academic writing
Class 3: Perfecting linear writing, transitions, and connectives in sentence and paragraph writing
Class 4: Writing with summary and paraphrase
Class 5: Answering essay questions: structure, form, and content I
Class 6: Answering essay questions: structure, form, and content II
Your Course Details
Total Number of Classes: Six (6)
Prerequisites: Because courses in the program are sequential, for your student’s success, it is required that your student take the 9-Series courses before enrolling in this course. If your student is unable to take the previous courses LIVE, then he or she can watch the recordings on Unlimited Access before taking this course. Special permission may be granted for attending this course without prerequisites, and a passing score on the Aquinas Writing Advantage Writing Assessment allows you to begin high school writing courses with this course. Please contact [email protected] for any questions on permissions.
Suggested Grade Level: 9th – 12th grade
Duration: 55 minutes
Suggested Credit: When combined with the 9-4 Course, this course is worth a full semester’s credit of writing.
Required Materials: All documents are turned in as Microsoft Word documents. If you do not own Microsoft Word 2007 or a later version, you can use a system such as Google Docs that converts to Word documents FREE. All other learning materials are provided FREE.
Homework: There is an estimated one to four hours per week for homework outside of class time, depending on the student’s ability.
How this course fits with your other High School Writing courses...
Fall Semester | Spring Semester | ||
---|---|---|---|
9-1 | 9-2 | 9-3* | 9-4** |
10-1 | 10-2 | ||
11-123 | 11-457 | ||
12-1 | 12-2 |
** The 9-3 and 9-4 courses are consecutive courses, and together the courses give your student a full semester of English and writing. To create the full semester of High School Writing, sign up for the 9-4 course when you sign up for the 9-3 course.
Your Instructors
Live, Interactive Courses
During the week, multiple course sections, times, and instructors are offered for this course. Sign up for the time and the instructor that best meets your needs. Click here to see the days and instructors for the LIVE course offerings — and to sign up for a LIVE course.
Recorded, Independent-Learning Course
When you sign up for Unlimited Access and take this recorded course, your instructor is the designer and Director of Aquinas Writing Advantage, Erin M. Brown, MA, MFA (aka author EB Conroy/Erin Brown Conroy).
Three Sign Up Options (Choose One)
1. Live, Interactive Course
Students attend a LIVE class in a virtual classroom on a specific day, at a specific time. After class (during the week), the student independently completes the coursework that includes readings, activities, and weekly quizzes. Quizzes are graded automatically by the computer for instant feedback. Written assignments are graded with feedback by the instructor. Your instructor is also available for communication outside of class via email, to help answer questions. Homework time outside of class is estimated to be two to three hours per week.
2. Unlimited Access: Recorded, Independent-Learning Course
When you take the Recorded course, you will independently view the recorded video lesson and complete the coursework in the learning management system. Quizzes in the course are graded automatically by the computer for instant feedback. If choosing to not use Instructor Access, grading with feedback is provided by the parent; however, Instructor Access grading is available (see below) where a writing teacher will grade and give feedback for your student’s work. There is an estimated two to three hours of homework/coursework per week outside of watching the weekly video lecture.
When you get “Unlimited Access,” you get 24/7 access to ALL of the writing courses — AND access to 400+ middle and high school courses, in all subject areas, for only $34.97 a month.
3. Unlimited Access with Instructor Access Grading Services
Instructor Access is an optional service, for an additional fee, that accompanies Unlimited Access. When you sign up for one-on-one tutoring with Instructor Access, in addition to the weekly quizzes that are graded automatically by the computer for instant feedback, your student will receive one-on-one help via email with the professional writing instructor. The Instructor Access instructor will grade the course work submitted, and there is an estimated one to four hours per week of homework for your student outside of watching the video lecture. If you’d like Instructor Access, once you sign up for Unlimited Access, you’ll receive email instructions on how to sign up.
Specific Course FAQs
Is this course required? Can I skip this course?
Because the content in this program is sequential, for your student to be successful and not miss any prerequisite content, it is requested that he or she watch the videos of the previous 9-Series courses before taking this course.
Can I start the 9-3 course in the Fall Semester?
The LIVE 9-1 and 9-2 courses are held in the Fall Semester only; the LIVE 9-3 and 9-4 courses are held in the Spring Semester only. If you would like to take this course outside of the LIVE course schedule, then simply take the recorded course in Unlimited Access (with or without Instructor Access grading services).
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