A common essay topic is "How do you define ____?" Unless students are prepared to answer this question, they might end up thinking, "Uh, I don't really know." Avoid that by learning how to systematically approach both a definition essay and a classification essay in this four-week flex class. 

Please note that a flex class has no live meetings. All work is done asynchronously; videos are posted on Mondays, and students can submit their work anytime. The instructor connects with students through private messaging (via Outschool) and provides feedback on all submitted work. Both completed essays will receive an in-depth evaluation. Parents are also welcome to request grades for content, style, and grammar. 

The ideal student has written a five-paragraph essay previously. The focus of this class will be on using the structure of an essay to become better writers: We will work on transition between paragraphs, strengthening the thesis, choosing strong words, avoiding repetition, and expressing our thoughts clearly. 

We will also work on rewriting sentences in class to be more complex. To this end, students will be required to show certain grammatical and stylistic elements in their body paragraphs, such as a dependent clause and alliteration. 

Essay 1: Classification. This essay will require some critical thinking as we categorize items, places, people, and animals into categories. The purpose of this essay is to perfect organization skills but also to focus on writing with clarity and succinctness. 

Essay 2: Definition. For this essay, students will choose one term such as "love," "laziness," or "equal rights," and will create an essay that gives not just the standard dictionary definition but also the historical use, etymology (if applicable), connotation, negation, and their personal interpretation. 

Week 1: What is classification? We'll cover that as well as an overview of essay construction and the writing requirements. Students will receive numerous worksheets/informational sheets after class covering the writing requirements, plagiarism, citations, essay structure, and outlining. The homework is to write the three body paragraphs for the classification essay. 

Week 2: We'll finish those classification essays by revising the body paragraphs and then writing an introduction and conclusion. Students will receive a rubric to aid them in completing the essay. 

Week 3: This week, we'll start our definition essays. As a class, we'll brainstorm words and phrases that we might define, and students will pick their topics. The homework will be to write the body paragraphs. 

Week 4: We'll revise the body paragraphs and complete the essay with an introduction and conclusion.