Expository Essay Class

Spring Registration

is open!

Register for Spring Classes below:

How Classes Work

Read about:
Brave Writer’s Online Classroom

Winter Dates:

CLOSED February 18 - March 29, 2013

Instructor:

Jean Hall

Tuition:

$249.00 per student

Ages:

13—18 years old

Class Size:

25 students

The Expository Essay class is especially designed for high school students. The expository essay is the primary writing format that ought to be learned before college. Expository essays are used in high school and college to help teachers ascertain how well the student manages material related to the course. Students are expected to read a range of sources, evaluate arguments and then take a position that they defend intelligently, with nuance. This course is the beginning of that journey. Most students asked to write essays haven’t yet even read one! In this class, we’ll look at two kinds of expository essays and then write them.

This course helps students become comfortable with the basic demands of academic writing:

researching various expert opinions in the field
asserting a position
developing points
discovering and providing support/examples
drawing conclusions and asking meaningful follow-up questions

Every variety of essay or research paper builds from these fundamental principles. This course is a perfect way to introduce academic writing to kids who have had little or no exposure to the essay.

This course will cover both open and closed form essay writing, as well as training students in the art of:

paraphrase
thesis statement generation
how to select points and particulars
structuring an essay
finding and using research in your writing
incorporating writing voice into academic writing

Brave Writer specializes in helping students to make the transition from creative, personal experience writing to the academic formats. Students should already be competent writers. Kidswrite Intermediate is a recommended preparatory course, though not required. If you have any questions about your student’s eligibility for this class, don’t hesitate to contact Julie directly with a writing sample and she’ll send you in the right direction.

This class always fills quickly so be sure to sign up early.

For more information about how the classes are run, please read about online classes.

The Brave Writer Program

I thought you might enjoy an update on how Amy is doing in her first college English class. Her first essay is due next Monday. She asked me to read through it to make sure she was on the right track, but she said, “Mom, I want to see if I can do this one all by myself.” She pulled out her notes from your expository essay class and proceeded to write her thesis statement in about 3 minutes. It got a “short, sweet and to the point” comment from her instructor. Amy was really stoked after watching the other students struggling so much to revise their thesis statements in class. I am pleased because she is not coming to me in tears needing help, but is smiling and confident about this assignment.

Thanks, JoLynn

I find myself falling back upon the simplest principles–which seem to be the most solid and immune to wear and tear. Bricks are among the most simple of building materials, but they do their job–and so does the structure of the five-paragraph essay. After you’ve got that, all that’s needed is a few sentences of cement. Yet I must confess that despite the many times the five-paragraph essay has saved me, I realized as I looked over Help for High School how many of those principles I have forgotten. Right now I’m quite eager to re-read these principles and to put them to work once again when I go back to college.

Anne (Brave Writer student whose writing was generated in the Expository Essay class and is featured in Help for High School)

Brave Writer