THIS IS A TWO-SEMESTER COURSE.

Designed for students in their early high school years, this course introduces maturing writers to investigative and argumentative essay writing, guided by the award-winning Michael Clay Thompson language arts curriculum’s Advanced Academic Writing I text.

In this course, students will:

• Learn how to conduct independent research while evaluating sources
• Develop substantive thesis statements and conduct guided research while evaluating sources
• Write essays in standard MLA format on a variety of topics in literature, history, and architecture
• Use advanced MLA formatting for citations
• Receive extensive feedback on each essay, allowing them to improve relative to their own strengths and weaknesses
• Prepare for academic writing at the university level

Because this course is writing-intensive, in-person meetings will occur once per month, with several exchanges of feedback by email between each meeting. Students are not required to attend the class meetings, and recordings will be available.

Class Meetings: Second Wednesday of each month, 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Fall Semester: September 10 – December 10, 2025
Spring Semester: January 21* – May 13, 2026
*This course meets once per month. However, please note that the January 2026 class meeting will be held on January 21st.

Student Expectations: Students will complete three short writing exercises, four short essays, and one essay revision. All work must be typed and submitted in one of the following file formats so that the instructor can add comments and tracked changes: doc, docx, odf, or rtf.

Student Support: The instructor is available via email. Struggling students can request up to four one-on-one meetings with the instructor throughout the year.

Feedback/Assessment: The instructor will provide extensive feedback on all writing assignments.

Materials/Supplies: Students will need to purchase Advanced Academic Writing I from the MCT language arts curriculum. They also would benefit by having the newest (ninth) edition of the MLA Handbook, available online and in bookstores.

Prerequisites: Students should already be familiar with thesis statements and basic MLA essay format. Good English grammar and mechanics are required.