Building Better Writers: Grammar & Style (Level 1)

In this four-week class, we will focus on common grammar mistakes that can plague even the best writers while learning tips and tricks to elevate our writing style. 

Fans of IEW and similar writing curriculums will appreciate the grammatical and stylistic focus of this class, while students will appreciate the interactive approach and efforts to make writing and editing fun! Throughout the four weeks, we will strive to correct common mistakes, learn editing symbols, and master the tips and tricks that elevate writing from good to great. 

This is a fast-paced class with a lot of information in each class. Students will have time to practice during class and will receive handouts and worksheets following each class. 

Each class can be divided into three parts: 1) a warm-up that introduces the “Get it right” portion of the class (a simple, common mistake); 2) lesson & practice (the focus of that particular class), and 3) time to compose a piece of writing that integrates what we’ve learned that day. Finally, students will leave with an assignment due by the next class. The instructor will provide feedback and an answer key (if necessary) for all assignments.  

Week 1: Running on and on and on… If your student tends to use a lot of “and”s in one sentence or doesn’t understand where to stop, we will use this class to hone in on the WHY of sentence construction. What makes a sentence a sentence? When is a sentence not a sentence? When is a sentence way, way, way too long? We’ll explore subjects, predicates, and conjunctions… in a fun way. We’ll also uncover what teachers mean when they rail on about comma splices.  

Class 1 homework: Students will use a source text created by the instructor. They will take notes and then rewrite the text in their own words, being sure to use proper paragraph construction. 

Week 2: To comma or not to comma, that is the question. No, commas are not optional. Yes, there are certain instances where you have to use a comma (including the Oxford comma in this class). But knowing when to use a comma -- and when to leave it out -- can be tricky. But by constructing sentences whose meanings change completely with commas, we will learn the basics. In others words, we’ll be writing “Let’s eat, Grandpa!” instead of “Let’s eat Grandpa!” In this class, we’ll also go over when to use semicolons and colons and discuss the importance of using who/which clauses. 

Week 2 homework: First, students will make physical editing marks on a printout to turn in to the instructor. Secondly, they will again rewrite from a source text, but will have to use certain elements of writing, such as one who/which clause, in their rewrites. 

Week 3: We’ll recall knowledge from Class 1 as we work on adding style to our writing. But to do so, we’ll have to identify clauses and phrases, as well as adverbs and prepositions. We’ll cover prepositional openers, adverb openers, dependent clauses, and lots of other stress-inducing grammatical terms that will help us become better writers (and besides, those are just fancy names… they’re really pretty easy!). 

Class 3 homework: This week, students will compose an original piece (not more than 500 words) on a given subject. This piece must show grammatical correctness and the use of different styles of sentence openers, as well as writing elements from previous weeks. 

Week 4: Time to dress up our writing! Figurative language isn’t just for poets. Good writers use alliteration, metaphors, similes, and plenty of other devices as behind-the-scenes tricks to enhance the musicality of words. We’ll study and practice numerous devices, and in class students will create their own narrative writing and poem based on an image. 

Class 4 homework: Consider this the final exam! Students will put together everything they’ve learned in four classes for this final composition. The instructor will provide writing prompts and questions, and students will choose which to answer. In their composition, they must display proper sentence construction, sentence variety, strong word choice, dress-up devices, and more!