But the reality is, our present culture probably sends more letters than either of the previous two centuries. We just call them emails, instant messages, and texts.

Yes, those are letters, even without the ink, envelopes, and stamps. They are written communication from one person to another with a specific intention in mind.

But because sending [digital] letters is ridiculously easy and commonplace now, students often ignore their early lessons about how to construct a letter properly. This informality is perfectly acceptable in the day-to-day communication between family members and peers, but it does not extend to all situations.

A common situation that demands a more formal approach to letter-writing is contacting teachers.

This applies also to students utilizing the EIW Scoring Service. All our scorers (and many professional teachers besides) can attest to the extreme frustration of receiving a message from a student who doesn’t so much as identify themselves!

Students from all types of schooling make this kind of a mistake, but it is especially common for homeschool students. After all, they rarely have to email their teacher; they usually can just walk into the kitchen and ask Mom whatever they need to know. This technique doesn’t work for the Scoring Service, however; nor will it work in a collegiate or professional environment.

So how are homeschool students supposed to write an email to a teacher (or other authority figure)?

Here are some basic formatting and etiquette tips to help you out!

Writing Format

1. Include the parts of a letter

The parts of a letter are date, greeting, body, closing, and signature. In digital letters, the date is often included automatically by the messaging system. However, you should include all other parts.

2. Identify yourself and your class

Always state your full name and what course you are taking at the very beginning of the message. After all, teachers have a lot of students. They often won’t be able to immediately remember who you are and what class you’re taking, so you are in effect wasting your teacher’s time by making them dig for that information themselves—which sometimes college professors won’t do, so your question will go unanswered.

3. Identify the specific assignment or topic about which you have a question

Again, TEACHERS ARE BUSY!! Don’t make them read your mind or Sherlock Holmes their way into figuring out what you mean.

4. Use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation

Hopefully you like your teacher, but your teacher is not your friend. Dont send causal message with slang and improper grammer and bad spellin and typos liek u dont relly car e and it deonst matter? Take it from me: this is the quickest way to make your teacher livid.

Writing Etiquette

1. Be humble

Don’t grovel, but write to your teacher from a level-headed place of humility. This is NOT because the teacher is always right, but because it’s honestly the easiest way to get what you want (whether that is an answer to a question, an extension for an assignment, or help with a confusing topic). Teachers (and everyone, for that matter) respond better to people who speak kindly. “Why’d you give me a C on my paper” won’t get you nearly as far as “Could you please help me understand why I received a C on my paper?”

2. Be respectful

Again, teachers aren’t your friends or your peers. They are authority figures, so treat them with respect (even if you don’t particularly like them). At the very least, this is good practice for working with your boss or other professionals in the future.

3. Close with a thank you

Once again, TEACHERS ARE BUSY! Always thank them for the time they took to read the message as well as for their help. I can almost guarantee you that 87% of teachers will finish the message like, “Look at this respectful young person! I like them! I’m going to help them out right away!” Or at least something similar

Learning how to write to authority figures like teachers is an invaluable skill for homeschool students.

I hope these few formatting and etiquette guidelines are helpful to you!

By Athena Lester
Head of Curriculum and Scoring

One time, for a college course, the final exam was an in-class essay answering the simple prompt, What did you learn in this course?

My answer? “Nothing.”

The course had truly been a bad experience with sub-par instruction from the teacher, and I had been able to skate through all the assignments without really ingesting anything of lasting impact. I’m not ashamed to admit this, for not all classes are worthwhile or life-changing.

But unfortunately, I still had to answer the prompt, What did you learn in this course?

I could have written, “Nothing. You’re a bad teacher and this class was meaningless,” which is honestly all I had to say. But then I would have failed the final. I had to think of something to fill at least five paragraphs in order to call my response an essay. And I did. It wasn’t easy or fun, but I did it.

As much as I would love for students to write about things they are passionate for, the sad fact is everyone will encounter writing assignments they just don’t want to do. Either they aren’t interested in the topic, they truly have nothing to write about, or they simply draw a complete blank when looking at the prompt. What are students supposed to do in these situations?

Here are five homeschool writing tips for what to do when you think you have nothing to say.

1. Brainstorm

They can take some time to write down anything and everything that comes to mind when they read the prompt or think about the topic—even the random thoughts. Don’t think them. Write down the random thoughts. This may prime their brain to help them find something to say.

For example, if the student is asked to write a compare/contrast paragraph about cats and dogs, but the student just does not care one iota about pets and has never had a pet and never wants a pet, what are they supposed to write about? The student can brainstorm for a bit and realize that they’ve seen movies with dogs, and there’s comic strips about cats, and their uncle has a German Shepard, and lions are cats and they’ve seen The Lion King—and eventually they may come up with enough ideas to start writing.

2. Reread

Some assignments ask students to respond to something else, like a poem, article, or someone’s opinion. In these cases, when students can’t think of any response to the material, they should try reading the material again. Revisiting what they are supposed to respond to might help them come up with something to say.

3. Discuss

Students don’t have to face the world of academia alone! Sometimes, to get the writing juices flowing, talking about the topic with someone else will help them come up with ideas of their own. Does a parent or sibling have an opinion on the subject matter? Does a friend have any ideas about what to write? Talk about the assignment with someone else, and then take that discussion and put it onto paper.

4. Pretend

Hear me out: Students will not have first-hand experience with everything, and they certainly won’t be interested in all topics; so sometimes, the only way they can get through an assignment is to pretend they care about it. Sure, ideally, students are invested in their education and everything has a purpose and all that jazz, but I’m being real here. Sometimes, you have to fake it to make it.

For example, a student may be asked to relate the theme of a poem to their own life. However, the student doesn’t like the poem, doesn’t care about the poem, and can’t think of one single way the poem relates to their real life. How are they supposed to get through the assignment? Pretend they care about the poem, pretend it means something to them, and just fake their answer so they can get past this particular assignment. Everyone has to do this sometimes. I’m a writer and I love writing and I had to fake it sometimes in school just to be done with something.

Hot tip: This is especially true of SAT essays. The people grading those responses don’t care if what students write is true or not, as long as it’s well written.

5. Pander

This is probably my least positive suggestion, so feel free to skip it entirely, but I have to speak my mind. Thinking especially of the older students out there with college on the horizon, sometimes the only answer they can put to a question is the answer they know the teacher wants. When all other options fail and a student still can’t think of what to write,  they can just write what they know the teacher wants to hear. They’ll get a good grade (if they write well enough to cover their apathy), and the assignment will be over.

Remember my story about having to write a What did you learn? essay about a course I hated? This right here was how I survived that. I knew what the teacher wanted to hear, so I wrote that down. Yes, I was basically lying because I didn’t learn anything at all in the class, but I got through the final. And I got an A. And I never have to write that paper again.

Now go forth and write!

Everyone has times when they just can’t think of anything to say. I hope these tips help your students face those times with more confidence.

By Athena Lester
Head of Curriculum and Scoring

If you are a new customer or are considering using the service for your homeschool student, you may be curious about what the Scoring Service is like. While a previous blog post (this one) discussed common technical concerns about the Scoring Service, this post will focus on something else. Here, I shine a spotlight on how the service functions and how students can use the service to their best advantage.

Here we go!

Common Questions About How the Scoring Service Works for Homeschool Students

1. “What are the real benefits of using the Scoring Service for my student’s writing?”

Simply put, YOU won’t have to grade their compositions!

With the Scoring Service, you don’t have to be an expert in composition and grammar. Our scorers are your own personal experts! The service takes away the stress of having to evaluate the compositions on your own, which you may not feel confident doing. Our scorers are all qualified individuals who have years of experience as teachers, librarians, editors, and/or English scholars.

Also, many previous customers have said that having someone who wasn’t Mom or Dad grade their children’s papers inspired greater effort and caring from the student. Suddenly, their student WANTED to earn a good grade, and their writing improved because of this.

tl;dr : The Scoring Service provides your student with an English expert to grade their writing, and this often inspires students to care a lot more about their work.

2. “What kind of feedback is given on the submitted writing assignments?”

This answer has two parts.

First: The Scoring Service focuses on overall composition skills. Therefore, even though we do care about things like comma placement and the minutia of English grammar, the major emphasis is on clear communication and overall cohesiveness. We want to help students learn how to transition smoothly from thought to thought, how to construct a quality thesis, how to communicate their ideas in an effective manner, etc.

This means that the Scoring Service is more than a grammar check, but it does check grammar. (Mechanical skills are evaluated for approximately 10% of the final grade for each assignment.)

Second: The service includes in-text comments with specific suggestions or corrections throughout the compositions. (See the tutorial video here for how to see these in-text comments.) It also includes a completed evaluation rubric with a point-value score as well as a one-paragraph overall comment about the general strengths and weaknesses of the composition.

tl;dr : First, the service focuses on overall composition skills but does evaluate grammar/mechanical skills. Second, the service provides in-text comments, a rubric and point value score, and an overall comment for each submitted composition.

3. “What are we supposed to do with the feedback the scorer gives?”

For one thing, read it. Always check the rubric, overall comment, and in-text comments. These three components work together to provide your student a holistic evaluation of their work.

Next, apply the feedback to the next assignment your student completes.

Currently, the Scoring Service is unable to allow multiple submissions for a single assignment. That means the feedback we leave on the paper is NOT meant for the student to go through the paper again and make corrections where indicated. (Although they can do that on their own if they desire the practice.) Rather, they should take the feedback given and do a self-evaluation of the NEXT assignment BEFORE submitting it.

For example, let’s say your student submitted an Expository Essay, and the scorer left a comment saying, “This thesis was vague. Being more specific will create a stronger thesis.” Now, while it might be good practice for your student to rewrite the weak thesis in the Expository Essay, it is ESPECIALLY important for your student to check their thesis in their NEXT assignment (let’s say it’s the Persuasive Essay) before they submit it. Is their persuasive thesis just like their expository thesis—that is, vague? Or is it more specific and therefore stronger? This is how your student is to use the feedback the scorer provides.

tl:dr : First, read all three components of the feedback. Second, apply the suggestions and corrections to the next assignment before submitting.

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These are some of the main questions parents ask us about how the Scoring Service works. I hope this post makes customers of the service feel more confident about going into this school year and addresses some concerns potential customers have.

If you’d like to hear what previous customers of the Scoring Service have to say about it, hop over to Facebook and check out our Parent Groups! We are all about community and supporting each other here at Essentials in Writing.

By Athena Lester

Head of Curriculum and Scoring

Lack of rigid grade levels is one of homeschooling’s perks, but this same lack can also cause confusion and worry when choosing curricula for the year. After all, a homeschool student may be old enough for sixth grade but read at a third grade level, or vice versa. Or maybe you’ve never used Essentials in Writing before and aren’t sure what each level holds in store. Are the grade levels accurate? What if your student’s reading comprehension doesn’t match their current grade? How do you know which one to pick? Well, we hope that the following information will help solve your curriculum concerns.

1. Know that each Essentials in Writing and Essentials in Literature level is evaluated by an expert for grade level accuracy.

That’s right—Essentials in Writing employs a Senior Consultant who evaluates each level of writing and literature for accuracy pertaining to the given grade before the level goes to publishing. That way, teachers and parents can know with a glance that “Essentials in Writing Level 2” or “Essentials in Literature Level 9” are indeed appropriate for second or ninth graders. As a result, if your homeschool student’s grade level is fairly standard for their age, then you can choose the right level for writing or literature with confidence and ease.

2. Ask Customer Service for more information if you’re unfamiliar with the curriculum’s content.

What if your student’s grade level isn’t standard for their age? Your homeschool student may be the right age for seventh grade but read at a high school level, or perhaps the student is ten years old but reads at a third grade level. How do you know which level to choose without actually seeing the level’s content? Just reach out to our Customer Service team with your questions, and they will then check with the Curriculum Team in order to provide you with answers of which level is the best option for your student based on the information you provide. Customer Service can even schedule an appointment with Matthew Stephens, the company’s founder, to help you decide which level is best. We want to help you find the best fit, so never hesitate to contact us with your concerns!

3. Check with other homeschool parents who have used Essentials in Writing or Essentials in Literature.

Experience is key! Just hop over to the Essentials in Writing or Essentials in Literature Facebook groups to explain your situation to fellow homeschool parents and EIW customers and then ask for their recommendations as to which level will be best. Many of them have been in your situation before and are happy to help a fellow customer find the right fit for a student! Then, in the future, you can keep the line moving and help someone else who’s in the same predicament based on your own experience. Bonus—once you’ve joined those groups, you’ll find all kinds of helpful resources and discussions that will further enhance your Essentials in Writing or Essentials in Literature experience.

4. Remember that each Essentials in Writing or Essentials in Literature level builds on what the prior levels have taught.

If your homeschool student does read (or even write) at a higher level, then automatically choosing a higher level of curriculum can seem like the right choice. However, no two levels are the same when it comes to assignments, and each level is designed and written under the assumption that the student has completed the prior levels (or an equivalent of them). As a result, in each level, the student not only learns new concepts but also continues to practice and use concepts that were learned from previous levels. This does not mean that your student must use the level designed for their age or grade, but it’s an important fact to keep in mind as you choose a level for your student.

Overall, trust the process as you choose a level for your student. Contact Customer Service with your questions. Ask fellow Essentials in Writing parents for input. No matter which level you choose, your student will receive excellent instruction for writing and literature—and that’s what we’re here for.

Danielle Nettleton

Curriculum Editor

Essentials in Writing

The Scoring Service has grown from one scorer to five in the last four years, and our customer base has tripled! As we have expanded and adapted, we’ve done our very best to make this service easy and useful to you all. Currently, it operates online through Canvas by Instructure, which allows our team to easily view and return feedback on your students’ compositions.

Every program has its quirks, however, and certain questions have come up a lot about Canvas and other technical aspects of the service. Here, I’d like to share some important information about the technical side of the Scoring Service. These are matters that may help you decide whether or not to purchase the service for your student, or perhaps you are already a customer and would like to know what you’re in for. Either way, let’s dive in!

Common Technical Concerns about the Scoring Service for Homeschool Students

1. “I don’t know how to use Canvas or even what it is! How can I use the Scoring Service?”

Many customers are nervous about using the program because they never have before. But don’t worry! Not only does EIW provide you with step-by-step instructions and video tutorials about exactly how to use Canvas (here), but our Customer Service Team is also ready to help! If you don’t know how to get set up or how to submit a composition or any other problem, our team will be more than happy to walk you through the process personally. You are not on your own!

2. “Why does the service require specific page formatting? Why does it matter?”

The service requires typed compositions in a specific format for several reasons:

1) The service operates online. In order to ensure the readability of the papers (unmarred by blurry scans or pictures), they must be typewritten in one of the basic fonts.

Also, the service focuses on composition skills, not penmanship.

(Check out our other blog post about introducing the computer to your student’s writing program here!)

2) Specific requirements for papers—like font size, margin size, and line spacing—prepare homeschool students for higher levels of education that have rigid guidelines about submissions.

Homeschoolers often have little to no concept of the not-content elements of homework assignments, because why do they need to care? Their teachers (aka, their parents) only have one student in the class! They know what assignment the paper is for and who it belongs to, and as long as it’s readable, that’s all that matters, right?

Not at the college level, no. The Scoring Service prepares homeschool students for collegiate requirements. You don’t want your kid to be like those previously-homeschooled college freshmen who don’t put their name on anything. Or like my elder sister, who did twice as much work as she needed to on a paper because she didn’t know what “double-spaced” meant.

Bonus: Specific formatting rules train your student to read ALL the instructions thoroughly.

tl;dr: Formatting rules are in place for readability and college preparation.

3. “Why do you require students to have their own email addresses? Why can’t my children share one email?”

Let’s say John Homeschooler is in tenth grade, and his sister Mary Homeschooler is in seventh grade. They will use the service for their respective levels and sign up with the family email—homeschoolingrox@email.com.

John sets up his Canvas account under the name “John” and the email “homeschoolingrox@email,” and he joins the Level 10 course. However, when Mary goes to sign up for her Level 7 course with the email “homeschoolingrox@email,” she will find that the email already has a Canvas account associated with it, and it’s under the name “John.” Mary will need to create a new account with a different email address so that she can submit under the name “Mary.”

Now let’s pretend John has a twin brother named Sherlock Homeschooler who also will use the service for Level 10. John and Sherlock cannot share an account in the same level because they will have access to only one set of submissions slots. John and Sherlock (and Mary) need their own Canvas accounts, so they each need to use a separate email.

tl;dr: An email is required to set up an account with Canvas. Each account represents one student and is listed under one name. Therefore, each student needs their own email address for their own account.

Note: You do not have to allow your student access to a personal email if you don’t want them to have that yet. The email does not have to be their email; it just has to be an email. You can create an email and give your student the login credentials for Canvas without giving them the login info for the email address.

4. “Can I keep track of what my student is doing in the Scoring Service?”

Yes! Canvas has an Observer option that will notify the observer of all activity in the student’s Canvas account, including submissions and grades. Ask our Customer Service Team about this option!

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These are some of the main technical questions people ask us about the service. Keep an eye out for Part 2, which will discuss common concerns about how to actually USE the Scoring Service, what feedback is like, and what to do with it! We want you to get the most out of the Scoring Service, and we are always here to help!

Athena Lester

Head of Scoring and Curriculum

Growing up, I was homeschooled from 2^nd grade through 12^th grade. When I was twelve years old, my mother had her third child and only son, Elijah. I had always wanted a little brother, so from the very beginning, I had a special love for the little guy. Being so much older than him created a unique relationship between us—making me something of a mixture between an Annoying-But-Loved Sister and a Cool Aunt.

As my brother has grown, I’ve done my best to meet him on his level and connect with him through play. One particularly dear memory I have is when I unintentionally introduced him to creative writing before he had even learned to write words on his own.

Creative Writing Before Writing Words?

One day when my brother was around three or four years old, I cleared a space on the floor of his bedroom for the two of us, pushing all the toys and shoes and blankets to the side. Elijah and I opened a new box of crayons and drew together, holding those one-sentence-per-topic conversations that happen with young kids.

“So, Bub, what’s your favorite color?”

“Blue.”

“That’s a nice color.”

“Velociraptors are my favorite dinosaur.”

“That’s cool. I like stegosauruses.”

“Uh-huh. I saw a dog eating a bug.”

“That’s gross.”

“I like baseball.”

And so on.

The previous Christmas, I had given my brother a little homemade storybook about a knight who saves his sister, a princess, from a dragon (starring ourselves because I’m adorable and sentimental like that). That must have been what brought the idea to our minds, for before long, our random colorings became a project to create a new storybook. I told him that he could come up with the story and draw the pictures, and I would write the words.

The project was on. He’d draw a picture, and then I’d ask him to tell me what it was. (After all, I knew his markings meant something, but I couldn’t decipher them whatsoever without his explanation.)

“Okay, so what’s happening here?”

“These are pirates!”

“Wow, that’s really cool! What else?”

“Um…they like PUPPIES! They love puppies.”

“So they’re nice pirates. Gotcha. I’ll write that down.”

I labeled the picture according to his description, then asked him, “What do these puppy-loving pirates do?”

“They…go on an ADVENTURE!”

“Brilliant! Draw the picture of their adventure.”

Back and forth we went. I kept asking him what happened next. It didn’t matter if it didn’t make sense. It didn’t matter if Elijah told me something that wasn’t in the picture he drew. No matter what, I wrote down what he told me for the story.

I wish I still had that collection of pictures we amassed, or at least remembered more of what we came up with. The only other details I remember of that afternoon are one particular image and my brother’s description of it.

The page had four small, clumsy squares drawn at the four edges of the paper. Lines connected the squares to a circle in the middle of the page, inside of which were several squashed and deformed figures I knew to identify as puppy-loving pirates at this point.

“What’s happening in this one?”

“They’re down a hole.”

I decided that we didn’t really need to know how they got down the hole for the sake of the adventure.

My brother continued, “And there’s smashing things.”

“Smashing things?”

“Yeah, smashing things.”

After scrutinizing the page, it dawned on me. “Oh! The squares! Those are the smashing things?”

“Yes!”

“And they are going to smash the pirates who are down the hole?”

“Yes!”

“Oh no! How do they escape?”

“They…They get away.”

In spite of this rather anti-climactic description of the dire escape, I knew without a doubt that the scene playing in his little pre-K brain was of Indiana Jones-level epicness.

What about you and your homeschool student?

What does this matter? How does this story affect homeschooling and writing at all? After all, my brother didn’t actually write anything that day.

Or DID he?

Even though my teenage-self was not trying to teach my brother a lesson, I realize now that I did. I not only encouraged creativity (“Let’s write a story! You tell me what happens.”), but I also demonstrated how you can express what is in your mind in a shareable manner. Elijah’s ideas became pictures. At my promptings, he had to explain the pictures to me verbally. That verbal explanation became written words at the bottom of the page—words that he couldn’t even read yet but still knew somehow communicated what he was thinking.

He wrote the story, even if he never picked up the pen.

Writing is one way to clarify and to express your ideas in a sharable format. Creative writing and story-telling are ways to learn to express what is happening in your brain. And in this form of writing/expression, you don’t have to worry about having “the right answer,” because there isn’t one.

Try it yourself! Whether your homeschool student is physically writing yet or not, you can teach them to be creative and put their thoughts into words!

Pull up a carpet and create a story with your young student. They don’t have to draw pictures if that’s not their thing. They can tell whatever story they want. They can tell the story of the Lego build they’re constructing, or the frog they caught on the driveway, or the plan they have to clean the kitchen. (That last one sounds strange, but I have a friend whose toddler is very, very scrupulous about keeping things tidy and loves to tell people about his processes.)

Write down what they tell you, and let them see you do it. Show them that writing is thoughts put into words put onto paper, and it’s as simple as that.

And have fun with your kid! That’s what I did with my brother on that random day when we wrote the story of the Puppy-Loving Pirates and the Smashing Things.

Athena Lester

Head of Curriculum

But, there’s so many words! It’s easy to get overwhelmed at the idea of learning definitions because ultimately, the words in the dictionary seem limitless. Believe me, I once read through half of the “As” and couldn’t get any farther! What are some ways to help your homeschool student learn new words this summer and thus become better at including these words into their writing?

I’ve got a few tips to help with that!

Sign up for the Merriam-Webster “Word of the Day” e-mail.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

It’s simple to sign up for the word of the day at the link above. You and your homeschool student can have fun learning the new word of the day. Then, you can both try to creatively work the word into your conversations. You and your homeschool student could even have a competition: who will accurately include the word most within a day? Then, you get to start the fun all over again the next day!

Watch a movie with your homeschool student and ask them to write down every word they don’t recognize.

Then, ask them to write what they think the word means based on the context it’s used in. Your homeschool student can better guess a definition when they understand context by asking questions such as, “Who is speaking the words?” and “What is the setting?” For example, in Beauty and the Beast, what do the villagers mean when they sing about Belle that “behind that fair facade, they believe she’s rather odd”? And, what might “provincial life” be? Then, after the movie is over, you can pull out the dictionary and find the words together. Then, ask your homeschool student to write out the definitions and say the word aloud in the sentence. Perhaps the next time you watch that movie together, your student (and maybe you, too) will know what the words mean!

Look around your home on a vocab scavenger hunt.

You can ask your homeschool student to look around for unfamiliar words on books, magazines, packaging (though maybe not shampoo bottle ingredients), and write them all down on a sheet of paper. Then, once you’ve collected all the unfamiliar words, look them up in the dictionary. If you’d like to take vocab-learning to the next level, take out Mr. Thesaurus and invite your student to look up the new words to find their synonyms. Through this activity, homeschool students can make connections for how words convey similar and different meanings.

However you may choose to learn new words with your student this summer, I hope your mental appetite is satiated. (Maybe this can be the first word your student looks up in the dictionary!) And when the school year begins again, don’t be surprised when your homeschool student slips a brand-new vocabulary word into their writing from all the fun time you’ve spent learning new words together.

Summertime (when the living is easy) is an excellent span in which to reflect on the past year of schooling and the coming year as well. What subjects were successfully learned? Which topics caused troubles and struggles?

If your homeschool student is anything like I was (in middle and high school especially), they might be questioning yet another year of [insert hated subject here]. “I already learned that! Why do I need to take it again? Shouldn’t I be learning something new?”

And so on.

One question in particular is favored fodder for these arguments, the one that every teacher and homeschool parent dreads hearing: “When will I use this in real life?”

English and writing are frequent victims of this question. True, a five-paragraph essay may not seem particularly applicable to most parts of life, but as I emphasized in my last post about writing over the summer, there’s so much more to writing than paragraphs and essays in an academic setting. Once a homeschool student realizes this, their attitude toward writing will (hopefully) improve.

Whether that earlier question is asked sincerely or snarkily, here are some examples of how writing is part (a big part!) of life for everyone. As a result, when your homeschool student tries to give you grief, you can give it right back as good as you’ve got.

1. Strong communication requires strong writing.

At its most basic, writing is talking that just happens to be written down. Emails, texts, stories, social media posts, applications, business documents—the list (hey, there’s another one!) of mediums that require writing is almost endless. And guess what? If you’re not able to write well, you won’t be able to communicate well through any of these mediums, regardless of the career or life plan you choose. You could be the most eloquent public speaker the world has ever seen, but if you’re unable to communicate through writing, you’re in for hard times, especially since face-to-face communication is far less common among all our technology.

2. Almost all jobs involve some kind of writing.

A family member of mine recently quit his job as a police officer, not because the physical work was too strenuous, but because the job involved far more paperwork than he had expected. Now, don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying he was incapable of that job. However, he wasn’t expecting writing to be such an integral part. It’s not an exaggeration to say that pretty much every job in every field requires some kind of writing. This writing then has to make sense to others in order for work to be accomplished. The sooner you’re prepared for writing to be part of your environment, the more capable you will be.

Which leads me to my next point…

3. Businesses prefer to hire good writers.

Logically, this just makes sense. If writing is such a huge part of the workplace (and it is), then businesses will want people who are able to fulfill this portion of work with ease and skill. Even if writing doesn’t seem to be a prominent feature of a certain job, it’s going to be involved in some capacity. As a result, those in charge of hiring are going to look for applicants who can write—communicate—clearly and effectively in order to keep the business running smoothly. Plus, you can then be utilized to aid others within the business who don’t write as well as you.

4. Good writing makes you look good.

The way in which someone writes is often the first impression they give someone, such as college and job applications or emails. As a result, if your writing is strong, you make a strong impression—and the opposite is also true. Now, the way in which someone writes is not always indicative of their intelligence or skill. Some people (and students) have trouble processing their thoughts through writing, and that’s okay—that’s why our homeschool writing curriculum focuses on basic, repetitive steps instead of fancier elements. This doesn’t change the fact, however, that impressions are made through writing.

Writing often becomes a bogeyman to homeschool students because it’s restrained to an academic setting with intimidating assignments. In reality, however, writing extends far beyond school and reaches out to almost every sector of life. I can’t speak for every subject dreaded by your student, but as for writing, it is most definitely used in “real life.”

Danielle Nettleton

Curriculum Editor

Essentials in Writing

“Excuse me, Athena. That sounds like a school activity, and the point of summer is that children are off school. Why would I want to inflict more compositions on my kids during their vacation?”

Thank you for that question! There are two main reasons homeschool parents may wish to require summer writing from their students.

1. Some homeschool students NEED the extra practice.

As Danielle pointed out in her “Summer Scaries” blog post, low-pressure, non-graded writing activities over the summer can help some students maintain their writing muscles. In some cases, these muscles atrophy over vacation, and students begin the next year having forgotten all they ever learned about composition.

Requiring summer writing not only provides homeschool students with practice, but it also demonstrates that writing is not exclusively an academic activity. Breaking that mental boundary may be the breakthrough your student needs to write well and freely.

(Check out Danielle’s blog post! Solid encouragement for homeschool parents entering the summer months.)

2. Some homeschool students WANT the extra practice.

Some of you may be blessed with a student who LOVES writing, and you should encourage that kind of expression and development! While these students may dive into writing on their own, a little guidance may benefit them—especially younger students.

With these two groups in mind, let’s dive into summer writing ideas! While I encourage you to develop your own ideas and prompts, here are some suggestions to get started.

(Check out the EIW textbooks for guidance about how to approach each of these compositions.)

Summer Writing Prompts

Expository Writing

Think about topics the student will want to write about or things you want them to think about. Writing about these important topics will help them put thoughts and/or feelings into words, which benefits their personal development and not just their academic performance.

Try some of these prompts:

• What kind of person do you want to be? Write a paragraph explaining at least two positive traits you want to see in yourself and why you want them.
• A goal is an idea that someone puts into action. What is one of your goals? Write a paragraph explaining what your goal is and how you plan to accomplish that goal.
• What is one of your favorite memories? Describe the memory and explain why you like it.

Journal Writing

Journaling is a way to record events, but it can also develop self-awareness. Writing journal entries will help students realize they can write for themselves, not just a teacher.

Here are some ideas for journal entries:

• Keep a daily journal of a trip you take this summer. Write 3-4 sentences about whatever you want to record about each day.

(Tip: When I was in elementary school, my mother purchased daily planners as “journals” for my sister and me. The planners provided a limited amount of space for each daily entry, which made the task seem less intimidating than endless empty pages.)

• Describe three things you want to do or be when you are a grown-up.
• Write a journal entry about ten of your favorite things, including items, activities, and foods.

Narrative Writing

Writing stories—original or reimagined—is a great way to foster imagination in homeschool students. Narrative writing can be entertaining and freeing, for there’s no right way to tell a story!

Let your student’s imagination run wild! But in case they need it, here are some suggested prompts:

• Is there a book, movie, or video game that has an ending you don’t like? How could the story have ended better? Rewrite the ending in the way you think is best.
• Write your own version of a fairy tale. Maybe Cinderella doesn’t want to go to the ball, but to the ball game! Maybe Puss in Boots isn’t just a clever cat, but a shapeshifter! Maybe St. George doesn’t want to kill the dragon, but learn to ride it! Rewrite a fairy tale in your own way.
• If you could go on a dream vacation this summer, where would you go? Write a narrative of your vacation—where you would go, who you would be with, and what you would do.

May these few writing ideas inspire you to come up with your own specialized prompts! Summer writing is a chance to shirk off the restrictions of academic prompts, which by necessity are general and impersonal. However, with summer writing, you can get personal with your kids!

For example, if I were coming up with summer prompts for my 13-year-old homeschooled brother, I would include:

• Write a paragraph explaining the best way to take care of the dozen baby chickens we just purchased.
• Journal about how you felt after seeing Avengers: Endgame on opening night.
• Imagine what it will be like to interview at the Lego Company when you are old enough. Write the story of that interview and how you get the job.

Happy summer, everyone! And happy writing

By Athena Lester
Head of Curriculum and Scoring

As Danielle referenced in last week’s blog, summertime can be an opportunity for homeschool students to engage learning while having all the summer fun, too. So, what are some ways to help your homeschool student develop a love for reading during the summertime and thus learn to cultivate their writing skills? Here’s a few ideas I’ve picked up along the way.

1. Encourage your homeschool student to participate in a summer reading program.

These programs can be found at many community libraries, and oftentimes, librarians offer students incentives for reading a certain number of books. These might be a trip to the local zoo, a free book, or even a snazzy new bookmark! Not only do students get incentives for reading, but they can also meet and get to know other students in the program. Perhaps even a sweet book-loving friendship might emerge from a summer reading program.

2. Challenge your homeschool student to memorize one or two classic poems.

Perhaps you could compile some poems (fun, classic, or summer-themed) for your homeschool student to choose from. Memorizing a poem can be both challenging and rewarding—especially because lines of a poem can remain in one’s mind for years to come. A couple of my favorites to memorize as a student were “The Village Blacksmith” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and “Busy” by A.A. Milne.

3. Read a novel with your homeschool student and watch the movie version of the story together.

Not only can it be a fun bonding experience to read a novel with your homeschool student, but you can help your student learn how to compare and contrast through watching the movie version of the book. You can discuss questions such as “How did the director interpret this book differently than you did?” and “What effect did the differences in the movie have in shaping the plot?” From Charlotte’s Web to The Chronicles of Narnia to Little Women, several movie adaptations exist of beautiful literature for all ages. By participating in this activity together, you can engage your imagination with your homeschool student, making memories that can bond you for years to come.

I hope this upcoming summer is memorable and meaningful for both you and your homeschool student as you soak up memories together.