Essay writing is - or will become - a significant part of your student's academic life. This 4-day summer course will help your learner head into the school year equipped with a better understanding of what a 5-paragraph essay is and how to write one with skillfulness and confidence. 

Using a combination of handouts (Word documents outlining the structure of an essay and listing transition words and phrases, graphic organizers, etc.) and PowerPoint slides, I'll teach your learner the basics of good essay writing, from structuring paragraphs to making strong points and effectively supporting and analyzing those points.

During each class, I'll be walking students through the essay writing process step by step. Students will be encouraged to share their theses and paragraphs with me privately in the chat during and after class so that I can offer individualized feedback and guidance in real time, as well as between classes. They'll also be asked to send their first drafts to me.

Please note: While I will be walking students through the process of structuring their essays and giving them time to complete each section of their graphic organizers as we go along, they will be required to do their writing independently. I want them to learn to read and analyze the text (using critical thinking skills), as well as express themselves in written form.

Class 1: Thesis development, brainstorming, research
Class 2: Body paragraph structure, transition words and phrases, critical thinking skills (thoroughly developing a point)
Class 3: Introductory paragraph (hook, background information, thesis)
Class 4: Concluding paragraph, editing, proofreading

Although there are several types of essays (e.g., literary analysis, compare and contrast, persuasive, opinion, personal, etc.), each having a different purpose and therefore requiring a slightly different approach, this class aims to teach some fundamental skills (e.g., good paragraph structure and organization, critical thinking and analysis, etc.), that can be applied to all essay writing.