Class Time: 5th hour (1:25 - 2:20)

Minimum Class Size: 8

Maximum Class Size: 20

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of grammar and spelling. Previously enrolled in a jr. high or high school level writing class at a co-op or successfully completed a semester of writing lessons last year.

Required Materials or Books:

• MLA Handbook
• Access to computer for online research and for submitting homework in Word document format.

First semester: Students will learn how to choose a topic for a research paper, write a thesis sentence and outline and then write a rough draft. Each student will be encouraged to choose a topic of personal interest, so that the writing process will be enjoyable. Rough drafts will be checked and returned to the students for revisions. The final research paper will be 6-12 pages long and documentation will be in the MLA format.

Second semester: Students will sharpen their essay writing skills with opportunities to write essays for college admission applications and scholarship forms. In addition, we will have a unit of study on fiction writing and poetry writing.

Teacher Information:

B.A. in English from Austin College, Sherman, TX

Experience in freelance copy editing and proofreading.

14 years homeschooling experience.

My family and I live and work on a 3rd generation cattle ranch near Marlin.