Introduction
Notes to the Parents
“Of course, to
be a writer, all you really have to do is write.
Frills like writers' conferences are unnecessary. And if you don't
write, no
amount of writing instruction will pull a novel out of your navel.
Once you are writing, however, outside stuff can help.”
Grace Llewellyn The Teenage Liberation Handbook
By the time your teen is somewhere between thirteen and seventeen,
she'll face a blank page without fear. He'll move
a pen across that
page without losing track of what he wants to write. And she'll
listen to
your editorial input without melting into a puddle. When you
see these
signs of readiness, it's time to teach the academic writing
forms. Being
comfortable with writing is the chief prerequisite for format
writing. If
your teen isn't at this place, start with my course The
Writer's Jungle. Even
teens will benefit and make swift progress if they begin with
the writing
process rather than writing formats.
As in my other materials, my goal in this short
course is to help you,
the homeschooling mother, lead your child through the expository
essay
process while staying true to the Brave Writer philosophy—brave
writing
starts with having something to say and then finding the best
way to say it.
Philosophy
Before we get started on the nuts and bolts of essay writing,
let's review some writing principles that you may be tempted
to forget now that your son or daughter is at the critical age:
“pre-college admissions candidate.”
Some parents are tempted to forget everything I've taught them
now that they're embarking on high school writing instruction.
Feelings of pressure to perform at the university level, to
succeed in the admissions' requirements for college, overwhelm
the interest in nurturing your student's writing voice. Moms
want to be sure that their kids can use the writing formats
to pass the classes.
But let me share with you a little conversation
I recently had with my
husband. He's a university adjunct professor who's
taught Freshman
Composition for thirteen years. “Julie, please don't
only teach your home-schooling
mothers the academic writing formats. They can get those any-where.
What their kids need is what Brave Writer offers—enabling
kids to
play with writing, to stay connected to their thoughts, ideas
and opinions,
and to feel the freedom to express those ideas in their unique
writing voices,
not some canned formula devoid of life, personality or passion.”
In his opinion, the essay format has sucked the
life out of writing for
generations of students. Peter Elbow would agree. Peter Elbow,
author of
the classic writing guide, Writing with Power, is
a lone radical voice in the
academic world whose express purpose in life is to irritate
the English
departments of America with his novel approach to writing.
He introduced
freewriting as the foundation of a healthy writing life.
His classic text explodes the myth that applying
formats is the key to
success in writing. He argues persuasively that students have
been robbed
of their voices, and consequently, ownership of their writing
because they
are busy serving the requirements of the establishment and
academic community.
Where Does that Leave Us?
Are you and I going to buck the system? Ought we to abandon
the
essay form and continue to urge our students to “just
write”? My take on
all of this heady stuff is that we can do both—nurture
the writing voice of
our kids and train them to use the writing formats for academic
purposes
at the same time. Our students can learn how to meet the needs
of the
academic environment while preserving something of themselves
in their
writing. It's my goal to aid students in that process
beyond simply listing
the number of particulars needed for each point.
Currently I'm a grad student and get to use the
academic formats
again. What I love about academic writing is that the disciplined
format
helps me to form my thoughts and develop my arguments. I find,
though,
that I write differently at this stage of my life compared
with my undergraduate
years as a history major. Since my professional writing/editing
career has largely been in the magazine industry, my academic
writing has
grown to include my personal experiences as well as narrative
detail that I
find relevant to the material. I find ways to connect with
the reader in
addition to structuring a sound argument. Academic writing
with personal
flair is my favorite niche for writing. So I look forward to
helping you find that balance with your kids, too.
As we look at the components of the essay together,
I'll
provide tips
for drawing on the writing powers your students already have
so that all
they've learned to do won't simply be reserved
for email, post-college writing
or fiction, but will be brought to bear on that most unpleasant
beast:
the essay.
How it works
This course is written to your high school student. I have
him or her
in mind the entire time. You are free to read along or leave
your student to
it. I expect that you'll provide support, brainstorming
sessions, suggestions
for better ways to word things, help in finding resources
for research and
typing or printing when necessary. Offer snacks and colas
as required, too.
Your primary job is to be an ally—your child's
trusted advocate when
writing gets hard and frustrating. An equally important task
is to be your
teen's conversation partner. Kids who talk about their
topics for writing,
write better essays. So keep talking with your teens. Even
if you don't
know the material, be a sounding board and an interviewer.
The more they
give language to what they've studied, the more words
are available for
writing.
Finally, I hope you'll edit your kids' writing.
Read it, mark the parts
that are unclear to you, point out which paragraphs feel
insufficient to persuade,
highlight the great moments of insight that break through.
Be your
child's partner.
I've based this course on two of my online classes: Kidswrite
Intermediate and The Expository Essay. I will release a special
unit on
Timed Essay Writing sometime in the future. I've tailor-made
weekly exercises,
reading assignments, writer's tips and writing samples
to equip your
son or daughter to discover what an essay is and then how
to write one.
This course is divided into two parts: Preparation
for Essay Writing, and
Writing the Expository Essay.
The first unit is based on the Brave Writer course
called Kidswrite
Intermediate. It offers creative exercises for exploring
written language and
ideas so that your kids learn to write with flair and insight.
The exercises
help students expand their understanding of how language
creates view-point,
how it hooks the reader and persuades, how to associate one
idea
with another, how to use beautiful and precise words to move
the reader.
There are six modules in this unit that cover musical
language, creating
metaphors and associating familiar experiences with remote
ones, keenly
observing and analyzing a controversial issue, how to use
personal experience
in academic writing and a final project inspired by Peter
Elbow called
collage writing. This entire unit serves as a transition
to the expository essay portion of the manual, which helps
students understand the importance
of immersing themselves in whatever topic they choose for
writing. This section can be completed in about six weeks if
your student does
one module per week. Also, the strength of this program is
that the
exercises can be used again and again for each new area of
study that
requires writing.
The second section of this book is devoted to
becoming a bigger,
wider, deeper person. Essay writing is about engaging ideas—analyzing
them, asking questions of them, finding support for positions
the writer
takes about an idea or ideas. High school is usually the
first time in a student's
life that she is asked to write about ideas following an
academic for-mat.
Stories, reports and narrations aren't enough.
Teens are expected to
investigate the internal logic of arguments and contrasting
viewpoints
when reading about a subject. Knowing how to write an essay
does not
mean your child will successfully write an essay because
essays depend on
good questions, not an accumulation of information and facts.
Having
something to say comes first. Essays require writers to comment
on information,
not to simply retell it. As parents, we must start by widening
the
life experiences and reading our teens do so that they join
a bigger conversation
than the one they are used to in our homes and local homeschooling
or religious communities. This is the time to open their
minds to other ways of thinking, believing, and knowing.
Your kids will write two complete essays in the
second unit: an open form essay and a closed form essay. We'll
go over how to write a thesis that surprises, how to choose points
and particulars, how to structure an essay according to academic
standards, and how to write quality introductions
and conclusions. There is also a section on parenthetical
citations (how to cite your sources in your writing) and an
FAQ at the end of the course.
My online essay class is among the most popular
of my courses. I've discovered why. Most mothers don't remember how to write
an essay. And
in some cases, they don't remember ever being taught
the essay form. It's not surprising, then, that many moms feel intimidated to
teach the essay.
So let me reassure you up front. The essay format isn't
really as tough to
learn or teach as you've been led to believe. It's
a format used by educators
to quickly determine if a large class of students has assimilated
the
material they've taught. It's also a practical
tool for organizing a person's
research and thinking so that a case can be made for whatever
the essay
writer wants to argue.
The expository essay form has a short life span
in most of our lives.
Usually it's only needed for about eight years (9th grade
through the end of college). Academic research writing will
continue to be used in graduate school as well. Since none
of us read expository essays for pleasure, most students don't
encounter one until they write their first. This reminds me
of my son's foray into playing lacrosse. The first
game he ever saw was
while on the field, playing. He had to learn the rules and
make the moves
as the game was being won or lost. Essay writing can feel
the same way—kids are learning how to organize the material as they write
it out and
know they'll be graded for it. No wonder so many flounder!
And no wonder so many kids prefer to write fiction. No brainer—they
spent their
entire childhoods devouring novels.
The essay unit can be completed in six to eight
weeks if you do
approximately one module each week. It can take longer, if
the student
needs to slow down for any reason. I have an online bulletin
board at the
Brave Writer website for those who get stuck or have questions–brave
writer.com. Kids are just as welcome to post a question
as mothers.
Feel free to direct them to me, if they need help.
This course, then, can fulfill a semester's worth of
composition at the
high school level, at minimum. If you move at a slower pace,
you can
stretch it out over the course of a year. It doesn't
matter if your child is in
9th grade or 12th. These skills are equally necessary and
valuable. And, any
student would benefit from working through the exercises
and writing
projects multiple times using different topics as a way to
practice and
improve her skills. I have many online students who've
taken my essay
class two and three times! The best way to grow as an essay
writer is to
read essays and to write them.
Tools of the Trade
Make this year easy on yourself. Here are some tools of the
trade that
will make essay writing a breeze.
• Computer
Install Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer (or Mozilla
Firefox)
Hook up to the Internet via cable or DSL (if possible)
• Printer, paper, and extra ink cartridges
• Library cards (local and university, if you can manage
it)
• Reference books
--Nitty Gritty Grammar and More Nitty Gritty Grammar (by Edith
Fine and Judith
Josephson)
--Writing with Power (by Peter Elbow)
--MLA Handbook (Buy the latest edition for up-to-date
guidelines that tell you
how to cite sources in academic writing.)
--Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing (The second
edition can be found on Amazon
Used for as little as fifty cents! This is the primary college
writing text used
across the nation and is one of my resources for teaching
the essay.)
• Journal (for keeping track of questions and source
material)
• Newspaper and news magazine subscription
• Notecards and file box
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