• Course Introduction

        • Time: 11 hours
        • Free Certificate
        This course covers concepts prospective teachers should be proficient in to effectively teach general essay writing skills. This course will prepare you for the general essay writing exam for teachers by considering how grammar and syntax affect an essay, how to recognize context and make appropriate revisions, what strategies you can use to select and use details in your writing, and how to craft an essay with the help of a rubric.

        Throughout the course, we will address strategies for taking the writing exam to help you prepare. This course will help you expand your ability to identify strong writing techniques and use those techniques in your essay writing.

        This course is not intended to be your first exposure to, nor to teach, essay writing. This course gives an opportunity to practice and assess your grasp and mastery of standard middle- to high-school-level subject matter. Should you discover that you need to learn or relearn the concepts presented in this course, we recommend you take the ENGL002: English Composition II course before attempting a teacher licensing exam.

        • Course Syllabus

          First, read the course syllabus. Then, enroll in the course by clicking "Enroll me". Click Unit 1 to read its introduction and learning outcomes. You will then see the learning materials and instructions on how to use them.

        • Unit 1: Find the Errors! Fix the Errors!

          This unit is all about sentence-level concerns. We all want our writing to be clear and easy to read. If a reader struggles to understand the words we chose or the sentences we wrote, they will have even more difficulty following the ideas we present. Knowing how to find and correct grammatical errors will help improve the strength of your essay writing. Depending on the exam, you may be asked to identify and correct errors in sample passages.

          This unit identifies common grammar errors, explains the importance of syntax and sentence structure, and helps you build clarity in your writing. Additionally, we'll have our first test-taking strategy where we consider how the essay writing exam is organized and how we can best use our time during the actual exam.

          Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

        • Unit 2: Revise for Context

          This unit focuses on context and revision. Revision is an important stage of the writing process and a key part of writing an effective essay. This unit explains how understanding context can help you write and revise your essay, the difference between revising and editing, and what strategies you can use to revise your draft before hitting submit.

          During your exam, be careful to factor in time to revise your essay after you've written the first draft. Finally, we'll review pre-writing, a great strategy that will not only strengthen your essay writing but may also help you remain calm and collected on exam day.

          Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

        • Unit 3: Supporting Writing

          In this unit, we'll consider the best way to plan and support our essays. As you develop your answer to an essay prompt, you want to be sure you back it up with strong support that is organized in a way that the reader can follow easily.

          We'll discuss thesis statements, supporting points, organizing paragraphs using the MEAL Plan, and determining the relevance of outside evidence with the CRAAP test. Our test-taking strategy in this unit assists with organizing all those ideas to ensure the final essay is clear and focused for the reader.

          Completing this unit should take you approximately 2 hours.

        • Unit 4: Writing the Essay

          In the final unit of this course, we'll think about how to use a rubric and write the actual essay. Essay writing doesn't need to be a daunting and intimidating task. Using tools like rubrics and being prepared for the kinds of essays you may see can help you be successful on this exam.

          This unit will explain rubrics and how to use them to help you write, how to write a support-based essay, and how to write an argument essay. Finally, we'll finish by thinking about the exam preparation material that may be available that explains how your essay will be scored and how you can best prepare by using those materials.

          Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

        • Course Feedback Survey

          Please take a few minutes to give us feedback about this course. We appreciate your feedback, whether you completed the whole course or even just a few resources. Your feedback will help us make our courses better, and we use your feedback each time we make updates to our courses.

          If you come across any urgent problems, email contact@saylor.org.

        • Certificate Final Exam

          Take this exam if you want to earn a free Course Completion Certificate.

          To receive a free Course Completion Certificate, you will need to evaluate yourself as "Satisfactory" or "Effective" on each criterion in the provided grading rubric. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt.

          Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.