論文之前：中學寫作項目

The most common question from parents after taking Paragraph Construction Zone and Advanced Paragraphs is, "What comes next?" For those students who aren't quite ready to compose essays, the answer is, THIS CLASS! We will bridge the gap between paragraphs and essays by focusing on longer styles of writing that aren't as structured as essays but that still build skills of brainstorming, organization, grammar, and composition. 

Week 1: Narrative writing. Students will have the option of writing a personal narrative (something that really happened) or a fictional narrative. However, either style must showcase the following elements: an interesting hook, dialogue, description, sentence variety, and certain literary elements such as metaphors and similes. 

Week 2: Students will revise their narrative drafts during class time, specifically asking whether their compositions show various styles of sentence openings and lengths, strong word choice, and snappy dialogue. 

Week 3: Expository writing. Think of this as a "baby" essay. Students will select a topic that they can "expose," or explain, to their readers. In this class, they will work on writing the middle paragraph that gives information about their topic. Prior to this, they will work on graphically organizing their information. 

Week 4: After revising their middle body paragraph, students will compose an introduction (and yes, a thesis!) and conclusion. 

Week 5: The fourth week will focus on explaining and practicing persuasive techniques, as well as brainstorming the affirmative and negative sides of a topic (all topics will be age-appropriate). Students will work on writing a series of persuasive reasons for the body of their composition. These will not be full paragraphs, however. The focus is on understanding the structure of an essay while paring down the actual body "paragraphs." 

Week 6: The final week, students will compose a thesis, introduction, and conclusion to pair with their body sentences. 

This class is intended to take the stress out of writing; to this end, we will play plenty of writing games and use writing activities to sharpen our skills. Each week the instructor will present an engaging lesson that allows plenty of class interaction.