Better Essay Writing

Persuasive Essay and Argumentative Essay

In this 55-minute class, students will complete 2 essays over a period of 6 weeks. This class focuses on writing Persuasive Essays and Argumentative Essays. Students should have experience writing a 5-paragraph essay and understand basic sentence structure including identifying a fragment and a run-on sentence. This class is suitable for students who have previous essay writing experience, and it is a great follow-up for students who have completed our Writing Essentials: Essay Writing for Middle School. Previous experience with essay writing is required. Some knowledge of grammar is helpful even if the student is unclear about the difference between a noun and a verb.


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What does a typical day in class look like?
For the first three weeks, we will focus on Persuasive Essays and essay formatting. Students will also begin to work on research skills during this session. The next 3 weeks focus on Argumentative Essays, research, and creating citations.
Less than half of our time in class is spent on instruction. This class is very hands on and the instructor provides individual feedback to students to help them better understand teacher feedback. Our goal is to help students feel more in control of their own writing process and more informed regarding teacher expectations.
Please note: Students who do not do the homework on time or skip steps, tend to spend a lot of time trying to catch up. This can lead to unfinished essays or poorly written essays.

This class is great for:
– Students who understand how to write a basic 5 paragraph essay
– Students who are looking to expand their essay writing skills
– Students who are starting to write research essays for other courses
– Students who are seeking a supportive in-class writing environment

Class Overview:
– Welcome & Share
– Focus of the week
– Putting the Writing Techniques into Practice
– Peer to Peer Engagement (as time permits)

Course Overview:
Week 1: Review types of Essays, meet the Persuasive Essay, and an Introduction to Research
Week 2: Rough Draft review
Week 3: Essay Peer review or In-class revisions
Week 4: Meet the Argumentative Essay and expand research skills
Week 5: Rough Draft review
Week 6: Essay Peer review or In-class revisions

Prerequisite: Basic computer literacy skills- Students must know how to mute, unmute, and click on a link (links are shared in the chat).

Typing skills- Students will complete all assignments by typing. They do not have to type with two hands but should be comfortable working writing without using paper