In Essay Writing 101: Analytic Essay, students develop aptitude with the fundamental skills necessary for academic writing. Every essay or research paper builds from these foundational principles. Students strengthen skills in offering reflections, commentary, summary, and analysis of controversial topics in writing.
This course enables teens to merge their thinking with concrete writing skills as they interact with the ideas of experts in a field. Over four weeks, students read a range of sources, explore possible positions and perspectives, consider their own thinking and analysis, analyze structure, and complete an analytic essay
Syllabus
Week One
Tournament of Essays. This week we'll crack the code, discovering what makes professional essays shine.
Week Two
Launching into Analysis. Students explore a topic of interest and then dive into research to read the takes of various experts on their topic.
Week Three
Bits and Pieces → Essay. With initial writing and research in hand, students collect more writing to use in their essay. The second half of the week is devoted to finding an effective essay structure.
Week Four
Analytic Essay. Here's where we put it all together! Students proceed through the rough draft, revision, and editing process as they complete their analytic essay.
Common Core and Academic Standards Support
What follows is a word bank and set of skills associated with this class. Use them to craft your own learning narrative for use in year-end evaluations, charter school reports, or any other accountability source.
Word Bank
- Analysis
- Argument
- Citations
- Editing
- Credible sources
- Fact-checking
- Keen observation
- Idea generation
- Literary devices
- Multiple viewpoints
- Opening hook
- Research
- Revision
- Writing craft
- Writing voice
Core Skills
- Analyze source texts and apply critical thinking
- Argue with support for multiple points of view
- Cite textual evidence to support conclusions
- Edit writing for standard English usage
- Employ strong verbs to create clear images
- Employ vivid detail to engage readers
- Evaluate credibility of a source
- Evaluate persuasive writing techniques
- Generate topics for nonfiction writing
- Maintain distinct writer’s voice
- Read diverse sources
- Research and absorb material for writing
- Revise writing for clarity, flow, order, interest, and economy of language
- Write detailed, organized, structured original narratives
