Course Introduction
Effective writing skills are necessary for success in college and in your future career. This course is designed to improve your writing ability. Pre-College English coursework focuses on active reading and analytic writing, with an emphasis on organization, unity, coherence, and development. It also includes an introduction to the expository essay and a review of the rules and conventions of standard written English.
In Unit 1, you will learn the basics of active reading and how active reading is paramount in your success as a student and beyond. You will also learn how to identify the main idea in a piece of writing and how to create a topic sentence that conveys the main idea in your own writing. You will discover the benefits of prewriting and will learn prewriting techniques that can be used at the onset of any writing project. In Unit 2, you will delve deeper into the main idea by learning the basics of thesis statements while developing strong thesis statements of your own. You will also learn the value of outlines in writing and some techniques to help you outline effectively. Units 3 and 4 continue to explore active reading by focusing on making inferences and paraphrasing material for use in your own writing. Unit 5 wraps up the writing process by providing strategies for writing introductions and conclusions. You will explore various types of essays, and you will apply skills and strategies from across the course to craft an essay of your own. All of the units include grammar basics to facilitate your continued growth as a writer. Each unit will also include active reading practice, allowing you to apply learned skills throughout the course.