THIS IS A ONE-SEMESTER COURSE.

This course is designed for junior and senior high school students preparing for university. Students will practice undergraduate-level research and writing skills.

In this course, students will:

• Learn undergraduate-level research methods
• Receive an introduction to professional academic scholarship
• Develop substantive theses and conduct independent research for three research papers

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: Third Wednesday of each month, 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Dates: January 28* – April 15, 2026
Note that this course meets once per month.
*Please note that the first class meeting will take place on January 28th, which is the third Wednesday after the semester begins.

Student Expectations: Students will write three research essays on a variety of topics, including literary, historical, and contemporary issues. 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. Students can request up to two one-on-one meetings with the instructor during the term.

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

Materials/Supplies: The instructor will provide all materials for this course.

Prerequisites: Students should be juniors or seniors in high school and should have prior experience writing English-language essays using the MLA style guide or a widely accepted alternative (Chicago, APA, etc.).