This course has a two-fold objective. Students will prepare for the CLEP examination in English Composition with Essay, while simultaneously developing college level essay writing skills.

Writing is a highly individualized pursuit. Each student has a unique perspective as well as unique strengths and weaknesses. This is reflected in the structure of this course. There will be two sessions on the eduFire platform each week; these sessions will highlight specific writing and test taking strategies and allow students and instructor to interact with one another in real time. Each class session is one hour. The instructor will be available for an additional half an hour after class to answer questions and confer with students.

Students will have opportunities outside of class to communicate with the instructor individually about their writing. They will also have access, outside of scheduled class times, to multimedia resources. All materials (with the exception of the $10 Official College Board Guide) are included in the price of the course.

Course Assignments

Students will have weekly writing assignments. Over the course of ten weeks, they will complete five writing prompts under actual test taking conditions (allowing themselves just 45-minutes to plan, prepare, and revise their work). They will have additional assignments to develop prewriting and revision strategies.

In addition, the instructor will assign online worksheets and activities to help students develop grammatical and expressive writing skills, as well as to learn how to be better test takers. Students will take responsibility for goal setting and learning by creating a product to highlight the writing or grammar rules that they personally must master in order to score well on the CLEP. They are encouraged to use the online poster creation tool Glogster, but may choose from other platforms (Google Presentations or Smart.fm) if they prefer.

Required Texts

College Board Online Guide to CLEP English Composition — only $10, to be purchased online after 3rd week

Online Resources

Students will have access to teacher-created writing prompts and online interactive worksheets and activities. These resources, as well as supplemental readings and videos, will be available on an auxiliary site. Registered students will be emailed instructions on how to access the site.

A Note About the Test

Many colleges and universities offer six semester hours of credit for scoring well on the CLEP English Composition With Essay Test. This is a wonderful opportunity to save on cost and money! The test is given a scaled score between 20 and 80, with 50% of the score based on essay writing, the other 50% on multiple choice questions which test both sentence level conventions and skills-in-contest.

A Note About the Instructor

Karen Weil is a teacher/writer living in Seattle, Washington. Her literary analysis, “Masters, Slaves, and Changing Ideas” won second place in The Freshman Essay Competition at The University of Arizona. In recent years, her writing has appeared in various print and online literary journals. She has experience helping students achieve high scores on standardized writing examinations. In addition to teaching at eduFire, she teaches writing courses at Bel-Red Bilingual Academy.

Writing is a developmental process. We will continue to revisit/spiral through previous concepts as new concepts are introduced. Student needs (as evidenced through written work and teacher-student communications) may result in changes to the course outline.

Week 1
Writing Focus: Introduction to the Argumentative Essay, Introduction to Test Format, Prewriting/Brainstorming Strategies
Grammar Focus: Sentence Structure, Prepositional Phrases

Week 2
Writing Focus: Basic Essay Organization, Developing a Thesis Statement, Strategies for Approaching a Timed Essay
Grammar Focus: Advanced Sentence Structure, Syntax

Week 3:
Writing Focus: Developing Essay Support, Elaboration Strategies, Organization Within Paragraphs
Grammar Focus: Recognizing Sentence Errors, Subject /Predicate Agreement, Parallel Structure

Week 4
Writing Focus: Introductions and Hooks, Relevance of Support, Anticipating Prompts
Grammar Focus: Modifiers, Pronoun Case, Test Taking Strategies

Week 5
Writing Focus: Analysis of Sample Papers, Template Development
Grammar Focus: Test Taking Strategies, Verb Tense

Week 6
Writing Focus: Transitions and Coherence
Grammar Focus: Clarity of Expression

Week 7
Writing Focus: Sentence Fluency and Style
Grammar Focus: Agreement (Pronoun Reference and Number)

Week 8
Writing Focus: Rhetorical Emphasis, Consistency of Tone, POV
Grammar Focus: Diction and Idioms

Week 9
Writing Focus: Errors to Watch For
Grammar Focus: Idioms and Prepositions (Advanced Usage)

Week 10
Review

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Strong performance in high school level English composition courses indicates readiness for college level work. Students may contact the instructor with questions about readiness.