Essay Writing

Details on paper due Jan 29th.  No late papers will be accepted.

You can combine this paper with the one due in Government

The paper should be 6 pages long.  If you are in Jr. High 3-4 pages is acceptable. 

• Use 10 or 12 font size.
• New Roman font.
• 1 inch margis.
• Double space
• Use a minimum of three quotes
• Use a minimum of three Primary  sources
• And three Secondary sources
• Your opening paragraph should contain your thesis
• Make use of the handouts given in class on how to set up a good argument
• You need a Title page containing the Title of the paper, your name and grade (That your in, not that I’m going to give you.)
• Endnotes at the end of your paper.  (This is where you will list the information about the quotes that you use.)
• Bibliography should be at the end of your paper
• Use MLA format for End notes and Bibliography, we will be going over this in class.

See bottom of the page for the course description.

Homework assigned on October 16th.  Oops, I forgot.  You got lucky.

Homework assigned on Oct. 9th.  Collect the first sentence from 10 newspaper or magazine articles.  Note how they have used that short thesis sentence to garner interest and to give the reader an idea of what is coming.  Note what you can learn from these about how to write thesis sentences.

Homework assigned on Oct. 2nd  Write an essay on college.  This can be on why you think going to college would be a good idea, why it wouldn’t be a good idea, what you hope to get out of it….up to you.  Have fun.

Homework assigned on Sept 25th  Write an essay on teen dating.

Homework assigned Sept. 18…oops, I forgot to assign it.  Don’t worry I’ll make up for that oversight  later.

Homework given Sept. 11.

We have been talking about making good word choices in our writing and have done a few exercises to illustrate the power that words have.  Students were to write a paragraph about themselves last week, and for homework this week they are to go back over their paragraphs and look for words that are repeated or are just plain bland and change them.  They are also to look at how they began each sentence and mix that up as well.

I’ve encouraged students to begin creating a word bank.  As they read, watch TV etc. they need to pay attention to words and to jot them down so that when they are searching for a great word as they write they will have a resource they have been creating.

We will be doing some basic grammar review…if students are not sure what I mean when I speak of nouns, adjectives etc. they are going to miss the point during our instruction time.  If you feel this is an area your child is week in now is the time for a quick review.  There are many excellent resources online , no need to buy anything.  You can check out this site which has grammar definitions, exercises and quizzes if you think your child needs more help.

Course Description

This class is for students in jr. High and High School who need to work on their writing skills.  We will be starting with the basics and working our way up.  There will be a wide variety of writing assignments from personal and academic essays to reports of several pages.  While the emphasis will be on writing papers and essays for school, the skills learned will aid students in a variety of ways in the years to come, as good written communication skills are needed for most jobs these days.

We will also spend some time on research skills.  This has changed drastically from when most adults were in school.  The internet has become an indispensable tool in research, but it is one that is easily misused, leading to misinformation and confusion.

There is no curriculum to purchase for this class, just bring a notebook and pen.