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.

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

Total Number of Classes: Eight (8)
Prerequisites: 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. 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. 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 9-1 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. Please email us if you need assistance.
• Purchase the book, 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): https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/fd/kcp

Homework: There is an estimated one to four hours per week for homework outside of class time, depending on the student’s ability.

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).