Essay Writing

General Description

In this class, you will learn to write better essays. This means that you will receive help on all levels including the writing of clear, meaningful, easily understood sentences and well-organized paragraphs that identify and defend strong positions with logical assertions and good evidence. Finally, we will learn how to build our paragraphs into essays that our friends and teachers will admire.  We will also learn different techniques for brainstorming and organizing information prior to and during the process of actually writing the essay.

Homework will include the composition of both formal essays an informal online journal requirement.  We will set up a user group for our class, and before each class students must submit brainstorming, ideas, and questions as well as informal reflections and observations about the assigned essay subjects.  These may include brief or detailed accounts of their writing experiences, what they like, dislike, or are having a hard time with, as well as requests for explanations and clarifications.  Access to this group will be restricted to enrolled student, and students will be encouraged to respond to and assist each other.

A formal essay will be due on Friday of each week, and during the classes on the preceding four days we will focus on the brainstorming, development, and writing of our essays.  Subjects will include current events, movies, and topics to be assigned for published essays, journal articles, or short stories which will be copied for the students.

There will also be a research component of this course.  To make our arguments more believable, we will learn to use online resources as well as the public library to back up our positions.  Instruction on basic research and documentation techniques including endnotes, citation, and bibliography will also be given.