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What others are saying about Brave Writer writing courses.

When I review all the things we learned in this class, I realize that Laura learned way more by working with me than she would have learned if I had allowed her to struggle through the mechanics on her own. That’s why these online classes have helped me so much. I needed to be guided through the process of how to teach writing, and you have done just that. Before we discovered Bravewriter classes, we simply were’t taking on such writing projects because she didn’t know where to start and I didn’t know how to help her. —Joyce Y

An important "Aha!" for me is to be free of trying to fix everything that is wrong with my kids' writing. If I try to fix everything that I think is wrong, then the writing becomes mine instead of my kids' writing. We've used different writing manuals and became bored very quickly with them. The manuals have the usual great ideas - how to begin with a topic, set up paragraphs with supporting sentences, and finish with a concluding paragraph. The resulting writing can be very dull.

Not only that, upon opening up whatever book we were using at the time, my kids would begin to fidget, look away, etc. I would get comments like "Do I have to look at all these examples?", or "But, Mom, of course this is perfect writing - all this stuff was written by an adult! My paper will not look like this!" They were exactly write (pun intended).

With this course, the kids were able to write a well-organized paper without ever looking at what they call "a boring textbook." All of the exercises used in this course gave us the tools we need to write well - without the intimidation of me telling my kids, " Here, your writing should look like the example in this book. Never mind that it was written by a professor of English!" —Angela S

I can't tell you how much better you made me and my son feel about the writing process. I learned the most in this little venture. I was way too bogged down in the mechanics of writing. I sucked all the life out of his imagination and creativity. He would moan and groan every time I tried to have him do a writing assignment. He dreaded them so much, and I have to say I dreaded the whole process too. Writing equaled a BAD time in this house.

You started this class...this dreaded writing course, with a game of all things. You drew him in from the start. You had such positive comments for him that he began to look forward to the next thing Mrs. B would have him do.

I appreciated so much the way you gently set me straight about the terrible mechanics thing. There is a time and place for that, but I will not get so focused on a grammatically correct paper that I miss the sheer pleasure of reading his original thoughts.

I really did not know what to expect of him and his writing. He is much more willing to write about things out of his head now. Every paper I had received from him had a very definite Mario game flavor. I asked him today to do a list of ideas for his next story that he will start on tomorrow. He very happily got started. He is going to write about an iguana named Iggy. Iggy lives in a tropical rain forest that is in danger of being cut down. I could not believe it! No Mario in sight!

I think that is the area that we both grew the most. My unconditional acceptance of anything that he took the time to put down, and he learned of the sheer joy of making up his own stuff. I think that having a professional third party over-see our growing process was priceless. Thank you. —Cheryl S

You help us "deconstruct" the process into "digestible" components and then help us to "reconstruct" it all into a coherent whole.

My biggest challenge is that I was not able to explain HOW to write. Sure, I could correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors and teach the components of a sentence, but how could I communicate the SPIRIT behind what we write? In addition, your class gives me the tools to help me more effectively communicate my deep love of language and literature. I have learned more from your Bravewriter class in six weeks than I could have learned in 16 years from other sources! Your class has set me on the right path for all my future writing assignments. —Nancy S