Course Reviews

From Strewing: Unschooling Resources

 November 7, 2010

One program we have used with success and will probably use in the future is Writeguide.http://www.writeguide.com/  When my older kids got to the age when we were thinking ahead to high school, and indeed, when they were actually working through their high school coursework,  I found it very hard to assess their writing in an objective way.  I either was amazed at how brilliant they were (looking at their written work through proud mama glasses!) or I would focus on everything they did wrong, like spelling and run-on sentences (overlycritical mama glasses!).  And they felt a bit of resentment too, when I tried to constructively give advice or pointed out errors.  So it was best to bring in a third party!  I looked around at lots of options and settled on Writeguide.

The number one reason why I like Writeguide is that you can choose what you want to do.  It isn't signing up for a class where the writing coach becomes a teacher assigning writing projects.  Instead they present different types of writing assignments and you can choose which ones you want to work on and how long you want to work on them.  You can also choose your topics.  I like that so much is left in the hands of the student.  It makes it very easy to design your own course of study.

The daily back and forth of the e-mails felt a little awkward at first but once you get to know your writing mentor and get used to that process, it becomes easier.  I also liked the fact that you have to send an e-mail a day because it made us focus on writing instead of procrastinating (something we are most inclined to do!).  That external structure helped up stick to our work.

My kids have enjoyed Writeguide and I think it helped them to grow and hone their writing skills.

From Heart of the Matter

Reviewed by Amy Bayliss

 I don’t know about you but at times I find it difficult to teach my child to write creative pieces. We can add to that the fact that Gevan was behind due to early learning disability. We are past that now but catching up has been a challenge.

In comes WriteGuide.com.

We were given a one month session to test and review the system provided by WriteGuide.com. Gevan was given his own personal consultant with whom he interacted daily and turned in assignments. His consultant was kind and helpful in bringing Gevan to a new level of writing. Gevan actually enjoyed it.

I was very impressed with the quality of consultants that are provided to teach our children. They each have a Bachelors and Masters degree in field of English; extensive teaching experience; and they must be published authors. They most certainly have credentials but even with all of those accomplishments they respect that the parents are ultimately in charge of their child’s education. I was informed of the progress and assignments along the way and felt very much a part of the instruction.

We began with an initial email introducing ourselves and then went into the first assignment. We had our choice from a variety of assignments and I let Gevan choose what was of interest to him. Each day after Gevan made corrections and/or additions to his paper then he turned it in once again for review by consultant. I was very impressed with the amount of work he accomplished in such a short time.

If you are looking for a way to encourage your child to write or simply improve the gift that is already there then I highly recommend WriteGuide.com. It worked for us!

From HomeschoolWriters.com

Reviewed by Elizabeth Fox, October 7, 2010

What do you do if you are a homeschool mom who likes to personalize instruction for each child, but doesn’t have the time or expertise to do so in every subject? For such a mom, WriteGuide is an answer to prayer. An online tutoring service, WriteGuide specializes in providing homeschoolers with daily one-on-one writing training. When they offered us a free trial to review their services, I jumped at the chance, and I am glad I did. Both my son and I enjoyed the experience. Because of the impressive teaching quality and reasonable price, I enthusiastically recommend the program to friends.

When a family enrolls in WriteGuide, the company matches them with a writing consultant who then queries the parents on their desires and goals for the student’s instruction. In our case, we asked the tutor to teach our eleven-year-old son how to write a five-paragraph essay. Through an online form, the teacher gave personalized assignments, and our son sent back his work.  The system is set up so that the parent and student are each able to send only one e-mail per weekday, so my son had to be careful to make sure his work was the way he wanted it before he turned it in. After receiving a student’s homework, the instructor has twenty-four hours to respond with detailed feedback and a new assignment. This means we got four or five assignments per week, depending on how quickly my son submitted his work. The WriteGuide process is smooth, well-thought-out, and professional.

At $75 per month, WriteGuide is a bargain for the services rendered. Families can sign up for just thirty days at a time and then renew in subsequent months, avoiding the commitment associated with year-long classes. In fact, the month’s tutoring can even be shared by several children in a family, alternating who sends in an assignment each day. When I considered how long it would take me to make individualized daily writing assignments for my children and give them focused written feedback, I was shocked a company could find talented writing coaches to do the same for just four dollars per assignment.

Individualized tutoring makes particular sense for families in special situations: homeschool parents who are short on time; students who have completed a basic writing curriculum and need additional guidance in specific areas; and gifted students who have zoomed beyond their parents’ teaching capabilities. In addition, some students have a hard time receiving correction on their writing, especially from mom. They take it too personally. Sometimes getting input from an outside party can ease tensions, especially during the teenage years when students are pushing for more independence. For all of these special situations, investing in on-one-on tutoring with a professional writer can be a wise solution.

The main reason I like WriteGuide is the skill level of the teachers. Every writing consultant with the company is a published writer with a Masters degree and years of teaching experience. Although I feel pretty confident about teaching writing to my kids, I have to admit that our WriteGuide consultant was a lot better at it than I am. With clear, daily instructions, she walked my son step by step through a process that was simple, logical, and effective. Every day’s assignment was a bite-sized piece of the puzzle, such as how to pick a topic, make a claim, brainstorm reasons to support the claim, organize the reasons, come up with concrete examples, craft supporting paragraphs, and finally write an effective introduction and conclusion. She made it pleasant by her encouraging, positive style and individualized attention. When I didn’t understand why she was going about a particular step the way she was, she responded with detailed explanations which were eye-opening. After a month of instruction, not only did my son feel confident attacking essays, but I felt far more equipped to teach both him and his siblings.

Our WriteGuide experience was both enriching and enjoyable. As a parent, I appreciated having a teaching break while still controlling what my child was learning. Even though my son is not a particularly enthusiastic writer and was initially hesitant about working with someone he didn’t know, he soon looked forward to the daily e-mails and personalized feedback. Motivated to put more energy into his writing assignments than ever before, he took real pride in the results. I’m pleased with how well he has grasped the process of essay writing in just a month. You can read one of the essays he wrote here.

Last week a friend called asking for advice for her daughter, who has recently taken off in her writing interest and ability. This young lady has completed IEW’s “Teaching Writing: Structure and Style” curriculum and her mom didn’t know what to do next. She was thrilled that her child was developing so quickly and wanted to help her continue to grow, but she didn’t feel capable of taking her to the next level. Enthusiastically I shared with her about our experience with WriteGuide: how impressed we were with our teacher’s skill; how much we enjoyed it; how much my son learned. For families in need of outside input, WriteGuide’s affordable, one-on-one instruction can be a godsend.

From HomeschoolBuzz.com   

WriteGuide.com

Reading Level: Grades 4-12
Reviewed by Kathy Davis on September 18, 2010

Writing. Does being responsible for your homeschooled student’s introduction to and education in writing make you feel intimidated? It does me. It is the one subject I feel most ill prepared to teach. I like writing, and I hope I’ve instilled that same feeling in my children. Sure, I can teach the basic mechanics of writing reports and essays, but how do I really know if their writing is any good? For my high-schooler, how do I equip him to do well on the SAT essay and prepare him for college level writing? No matter what the curriculum you are using, wouldn’t you love the chance for a writing expert to read your student’s work, and with confidence building comments and gentle criticisms, guide them to producing an exemplary piece of writing? How pleased was I to find such a service exists at WriteGuide.com!My 10th grader (Garrison) just completed a one-month course at WriteGuide.com. I am so completely satisfied with the experience that I can definitely recommend it to any parent wishing to improve their student’s writing skills.  

For a monthly fee, WriteGuide provides the enrolled student with a personal writing instructor (a published writer with Bachelors and Masters degree in field of English) and through a method of daily email communications, personalized writing assignments are conveyed, completed, and revised until the end result is a well-constructed and uniquely individualized piece of writing.  

Garrison and I agreed he would work on first a book report, and then SAT prompt essays. His instructor, Mr. B. was outstanding, and we both liked the tone of his emails and his manner of guiding Garrison in the development of his essays. The first assignment, a review of H.G. Well’s Invisible Man, took 2 weeks to complete. Through the process of revision, Garrison learned how to carefully choose his words, communicate directly to the reader, and interpret the author’s reasons for writing the book. This was a new experience for us both, as I rarely had him revise a report; we always just went on to the next assignment. I realized we missed an important element in writing. It was through this process that Garrison learned from Mr. B how to develop a well thought out five-paragraph essay.  

The last 2 weeks, Garrison worked on typical SAT essay prompts. Mr. B gave him a question, and to mimic actual testing conditions, Garrison answered the question in 25 minutes. At first this was quite a challenge for him, but by the last prompt Garrison had gained confidence and mastered the formula for completing a cohesive and convincing essay. Mr. B offered him strategies for success, such as using literary or personal examples, how to use the 25 minutes wisely, be mindful of correct grammar, and use rich vocabulary whenever possible.  

Here’s what Garrison had to say about his course:

-----I felt that WriteGuide has helped me a lot in identifying mistakes in my writing and how to fix them, as well as improving my overall skill in the subject. At times there was tons of work I had to get done. But in the end, the result was always better than what it was before. I’m glad I took this course and would recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their writing potential.-----

It is WriteGuide’s mission to provide individualized, high-quality writing instruction for students and to assist parents in educating their own children. From our experience, they did an excellent job fulfilling this mission. Considering the wealth of information we both gained from our one-month enrollment, I will seriously consider using WriteGuide for my other sons.(Note: parents also have the option of sharing a course between siblings).  

I encourage you to visit their website http://www.WriteGuide.com/ to learn more about their program, and if you can, try it for at least a month, I bet you’ll be as happy with the results as we were. 

Thanks to WriteGuide.com for letting Homeschoolbuzz.com try their one month writing course for this review.

From Semicolonblog.com 

About a month and a half ago, the director of Writeguide, an online writing course for homeschoolers, asked if I would be interested in reviewing their program here at Semicolon. I looked at the website, thought it sounded like something that would be of interest to many homeschool families, and asked if one of my urchins could do a trial run.

Karate Kid (age 13) was the guinea pig. He hasn’t done much formal writing, lots of reading but not much writing. We signed up for a one month course, and then promptly it got really busy around here and we managed to forget when the course started! (One month’s instruction at WriteGuide is $75.00, which would be a bargain for many homeschool families who often tell me how intimidated they are by the task of teaching kids to write.) Because it took us a few days to get on track in starting the program, and because I didn’t remind Karate Kid as often as I should have to communicate with his personal writing consultant, he was only able to complete one piece of writing over the course of the month. Nevertheless, I was quite pleased with both the process and the product.

Karate Kid’s assignment, an assignment that I gave him, was to write a process paper explaining how to do something that interested him. The WriteGuide writing tutor will work with your child on an assignment given by the parent, a writing task in the particular curriculum you are using, or a piece of writing that the writing teacher, the parent, and the child decide together that the child needs to complete. For example the homeschool parent could ask the WriteGuide teacher to work with the student on basics of the SAT essay or a research paper or simple paragraph writing, whatever fits the particular student.

-----Students enrolled in our Individualized Writing Course work with their own private writing teacher (called a writing consultant), Monday through Friday on papers and projects of their parents’ choosing. Your child’s writing consultant will provide 100% individualized, hand-tailored instruction to meet his or her precise needs as a writer. The course takes the form of a friendly, daily (Monday through Friday) exchange of letters, papers, instructions, lessons, and feedback between the student and his or her writing consultant. All aspects of the writing process, including generating ideas, prewriting, outlining, research, taking notes, drafting, controlling tone, sentence and paragraph structure, literary and stylistic devices, grammar, punctuation, mechanics, editing, proofreading, and the process of revision.-----

Students, parents and tutor communicate via protected, on-site email. As I said, Karate Kid’s writing teacher was great. She communicated with him daily, M-F, as long as he kept up with the assignments and revisions she suggested. (Sometimes he didn’t answer her for a couple of days, and therefore we may not have used the course to its full potential.) KK wrote a rough draft of his paper, and his WriteGuide tutor gave him specific suggestions to improve the writing, grammar, and structure of his paper. Here’s the end result: How To Make A Bird Bolas by Karate Kid. Remember that although KK is in eighth grade, he has done very little formal writing and had almost no writing instruction, although he has been taught basic grammar and sentence structure. And he has done a lot of reading.

Because I teach literature and history classes at our homeschool co-op, parents come up to me all the time in a panic about teaching writing. In fact, I see writing and science instruction as the two scariest subjects for homeschool parents who are entering the middle school/high school years. My new response will be to recommend WriteGuide as a resource for those who can afford it. Even if you can only do one month’s worth of instruction with WriteGuide, it would be a valuable month’s investment. I plan to sign up for another month’s writing consultation in the spring when KK writes his research paper.

WriteGuide also offers a three month long Introduction to Grammar class that I didn’t try out. However, if your child needs a basic foundation in English grammar, you should look at this course.

From Curriculum Choice

I love writing, and I am the happy beneficiary of several excellent writing courses taken in high school and college. Unfortunately, this has not translated very well when it comes to teaching my own children to write well, especially for my oldest, whose writing skills are advanced. I’m a bit of a “softie” and don’t usually require as many re-writes as might be necessary to produce truly stellar work. Inspiring (pushing?) my son to do his very best in an area that is often subjective has also been difficult for me. My biggest problem is finding the time needed to thoughtfully correct my son’s work, and to guide him step by step through the writing process, particularly with several other young children who also need daily help from mom.

About 18 months ago we found Write Guide, an online course which pairs students with experienced, highly qualified writing teachers. It has been a fantastic fit for our family, and my son’s writing has improved by leaps and bounds through Write Guide. The Write Guide teachers are willing to assign work if you prefer, but in our case, I wanted to be more involved in my son’s writing course. I want my son to write about topics he is studying in history. I wanted him to follow the writing program recommended in our Tapestry of Grace material, but I was having a hard time making it happen on my own. With Write Guide this is no problem! At the beginning of each semester I put together an outline of the topics and types of writing my son will do, and each week the teacher and I communicate about the coming week’s assignments. She implements my vision, assigning work to my son and making all the corrections and recommendations for revision.

The teacher communicates with my son daily, 5 times per week, about his assignments. She and I are also in regular communication about how my son is doing, how many more days he may need to finish a given assignment and what is on the horizon for his next project. My son is writing better than ever before, as I find that he pushes himself to do higher quality work for his writing teacher than he did for good ‘ol mom. It is easy to get him to excel in areas like math and science, where work and grades are objective. I never really knew how to grade his writing, though, or how judge whether he was capable of more. His Write Guide teacher has been able to find the balance between pushing him to grow with every assignment and knowing when “enough is enough” before boredom sets in. Online classes don’t make sense for every family, but they have been instrumental for our family in continuing to educate our oldest child at home. Courses like the Write Guide provide enough of a challenge for this gifted student to continue growing, and I am freed up to spend more time with my younger children who are dependent on spending time with me for virtually every subject. At this time, a Write Guide course costs $75 for the first month, with a slight break in price once you hit the 3-month mark. The cost for a 3 month course works out to about $3.50 per day for a 5-day school week. This has been well worth it for us, in terms of both the time it saves me and the quality of work my son is producing. It has been wonderful accountability to have a teacher to report to daily. The student is allowed to submit 5 papers weekly, with feedback from the teacher Monday through Friday. Siblings are even allowed to share a course, with one child submitting work (for example) Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the other child submitting work Tuesday and Thursday. For more information, read Write Guide’s Frequently Asked Questions page.

From The Well Trained Mind

Reviewed by Peter Buffington WriteGuide.com. offers several different services: individualized writing courses, a spelling program, and articles on different aspects of writing. However, their primary service is, in their own words, to “provide individualized writing instruction for the Homeschool Family, via email.” What you get in the individualized writing course: The writing course offers individualized writing instruction for homeschoolers in grades 3 — 12. The goal of the course is to assist parents in educating their children. The online tutors offer instruction, not just analysis, in their feedback to the students. That is, they will not only tell the student “what is wrong” with a paper, but will give constructive feedback in a quantity that will not overwhelm the student. They can afford to take their time because the feedback is daily. More specifically, the tutors give evaluation and instruction to the student writers in the following areas: structure — how to guide the reader through the work; tone — how to convey an overall attitude toward his or her subject; clarity — how to say what you want using proper grammar; and overall effect — how to achieve singularity, or, how to accomplish what you want to accomplish. Although these divisions sounds a little mechanical, the feedback is not given within these divisions. Rather, it is given in a very straightforward way that is easily understood by the student.

Below is an excerpt from an email from a writing consultant to a seventh grade student who was in the process of writing a book review. This is very characteristic of the type of feedback from the tutors at WriteGuide:

"In the first sentence, you will need to change the comma you have there to a semi-colon. You are putting together two complete and related thoughts, and a comma isn't "strong" enough. Then in that last sentence, place a comma after "rocky". You'll notice, if you read that out loud, you naturally pause there. The comma marks that pause. Let’s move on! The next part of the review is the theme. The theme of the book is the message that the author thinks is so important, he keeps bringing it up over and over again. It is the idea the author wants you to come away with after reading the book. I know this sounds a little tricky and it is, but you can do it. Think of the story “Cinderella”. We might say the theme of that story is “things aren’t always as they appear”. The coachman is really a mouse, the coach is a pumpkin, and the princess is a chamber maid. The person who wrote that story wants you to notice that you often have to overlook the outside of things to really see what is there. Does that make sense? Your job is to figure out the theme of your story. What is the message that the author wants you to get out of his book? What is the idea that keeps coming up over and over? The tutors give feedback on a daily basis either on writing a student is currently doing, or on work “from scratch. ”

The instruction includes all aspects of the writing process, and the tutors offer to guide the student through nearly any genre of writing. Available in one-, three-, nine-, or twelve-month courses, the individualized writing program is self-paced in that the tutor will not send multiple emails if he or she does not receive a response from the student. If you want to look at online samples, go to www.writeguide.com. There you will see reviews of several different projects. The projects are good samples of the type of feedback that WriteGuide tutors offer. (I have seen several other projects and the quality of the feedback is consistently this good. ) What is WriteGuide missing? This is a difficult question because WriteGuide is not really a curriculum, but a service. Because it is a service and not a curriculum, you cannot assume that they will provide the structure for the course. It is not a systematic approach. So, if you use WriteGuide, come in with clearly defined goals. Have an idea of what skills or types of writing you want your child to learn. Basically, the parent or teacher must provide the “syllabus” — at WriteGuide you get feedback on the writing itself.

What learning style does the program appeal to? The feedback on the sample projects at www.writeguide.com is constructive enough that the program would seem to “work” with reluctant writers. Much of the other feedback on the site confirms the same. The program would seem to more greatly benefit a highly motivated student in that the tutors only respond once they have received a response. If a student uses the course as it is meant to be used, he will receive feedback on his writing five days per week. Because there are no “interruptions” in a course, no “putting the course on pause,” a student who does not respond on a regular basis gets less for his (parents’) money than a student who responds regularly. This program is also obviously better for students who respond well to written feedback. If your student responds more positively to verbal feedback, you may need to read and go over the comments with your student. What setting was this program designed for? The program was designed to be used by homeschoolers. But because of the nature of the feedback, anyone in a co-op or school would be able to use the service.

Ease of use? To use the course well, a student (or parent) will need to know how to use email, and to be able to type well. WriteGuide prefers that a student know how to use a basic word processing program (such as Word), but it is not a requirement.

Strengths and weaknesses? The primary strength of the program: the student receives individualized, constructive feedback from a writing teacher on a daily basis. If you as a parent don’t know how to teach writing, or are afraid of teaching writing, you benefit from seeing someone give your child constructive, consistent feedback. Another major strength is that the courses adapt across the curriculum — you can use them with any subject. The weaknesses: The program will not work if you do not have a reliable internet connection, or if your computer frequently crashes.

From The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

As an English tutor, as well as a homeschooling parent, one of the frustrations that I hear most often about homeschooling is the confusion of how to handle the teaching of written assignments, especially as a student progresses into the secondary level. Many parents feel like they themselves never had a thorough grounding in writing. Others feel that the subjective nature of the assignments make it hard to evaluate.

For the many parents out there that face this dilemma, WriteGuide may have the answer for you! WriteGuide is a tutorial writing service that matches your student up with his or her own personal writing tutor who instructs, evaluates, and encourages your student until he or she produces top-notch writing assignments.

I used the service with my own 17-year old and was very pleased with the results. As he and his online tutor worked on writing an analysis of Orwell's Animal Farm (his choice), my son opened up with new ideas that truly amazed me. He would have never responded to his own mother with such mature insights! Since all correspondence flows through the hands of the parents and parents are allowed input in the writing assignments, I felt that I was a part of the process without facing the struggles that these assignments typically entail.

This process may not work for every student, but it will for most. Since you are not tied to any long-term commitment, it would at least be worth a try as students face greater writing challenges in the upper grades.

I found the instructors and staff to be friendly, competent, and creative in the ways that they interacted with my student and with me, as a parent. I saw my son's own skills blossom as he received this writing instruction. For those who are looking for a painless solution to teaching this vital skill, I highly recommend WriteGuide.

From Favorite Resources for Catholic Homeschoolers

We’ve all heard the whining and complaining that can come with teaching composition. Many children just refuse to make the effort to write, and when they finally do finish an assignment their parents agonize over how to grade the composition. Having heard the writing complaints for years, I am excited to report that there is now a solution in WriteGuide.com. Last month two of our children participated in an online tutorial through WriteGuide.com. Wait--before you stop reading because “those things are too pricey for our family,” let me assure you, this tutorial is very affordable. Our children had a great time working on several different compositions that were a part of their tutorial and anxiously waited each day for an e-mail response from their tutor. Writing has never been so easy in our home. WriteGuide.com provides individualized writing courses for as short as 1 month or as long as 12 months. The parent determines the goals of the course and, along with the tutor (all teachers hold masters degrees and have extensive teaching experience) the course content is decided. The students may either have “from scratch” writing assignments, as my children did, or follow a curriculum that the family is already using. The tutor contacts the parent through the web portal to establish the relationship and then the course begins. Each day the student submits his assignment and receives a reply that same day from his teacher. This is not an abstract relationship or one based on forms; the student chats with his teacher through e-mail and receives a personal, friendly reply that motivates the child while at the same time instructing him on style, grammar, mechanics, etc. as they directly relate to his writing assignment. You can see samples of e-mail exchanges between students and teachers here. Our online tutorial was a month long and went from the 2nd of one month until the 2nd in the next calendar month. Rather then have one child do the tutorial for the entire month, our 15-year-old son worked with the teacher for three weeks and our 12-year-old daughter worked with her for the remaining 5 or 6 days. The variety of assignments that WriteGuide will allow is quite varied. While working with the teacher, our son wrote a six-page research report on religious symbolism along with a complete bibliography. (What a relief not to have to teach that myself!) He also wrote the beginning of a fantasy novel. Our daughter, who normally hates writing, cheerfully wrote an essay about the Hittites and is begging to do another writing tutorial. I am amazed at how much her writing improved in just one week’s time.  I'm very impressed with the quality of WriteGuide.com and highly recommend it for both home school families and public school students. You’ll be surprised at how much your child will learn in just one month.

Reviewed by A.C.

From Greater Milwaukee Catholic Home Educators

Review by Mary-Eileen Swart, Newsletter of GMCHE WriteGuide.com is an innovative, highly motivating, and very effective method of teaching the essential subject of writing, and it's perfectly suited to the needs of homeschoolers. WriteGuide.com is an individualized writing program in which your child and his personal writing teacher, or "guide", work on writing projects, using the internet to exchange emails. The WriteGuide teacher leads your child through the writing process, using step-by-step assignments, constructive feedback, and much encouragement, all in bite-sized pieces in one email per day. Those daily emails, along with the fixed deadline for our one-month course, were very motivating for my daughter, and probably would be for many kids. The quality of instruction has been excellent with WriteGuide.com.. Our WriteGuide teacher provided clear instructions, used good examples of the technique being taught, and provided excellent coaching, while always leaving the actual writing entirely up to the student. The end result was a completed writing project of very high quality. From a homeschooling parent's point of view, perhaps WriteGuide's best feature is its flexibility. You purchase the program in one-month increments, and can divide the time among your children any way you like (a separate month for each child, or split a month between two children). You can choose any type of writing project that you like. So far, my 13 year old has written a book review, memoir, personal essay, short poem, and two research papers, over the course of three separate WriteGuide months. You can choose to have your child begin writing projects "from scratch", or send in completed works for comments and fine-tuning. Your child can choose to send his daily email at any time of day or night that he likes (or that you like!) and the teacher will reply within 24 hours. There’s even some flexibility in the cost. The already reasonable rates are discounted if you're a member of an approved group, or if you buy multiple months. If you purchase one month per quarter per student, and if your student writes faithfully every day, you’ll have a full year’s worth of writing classes for a fairly modest expense. There's just one thing that's not flexible, and that's the end date of the course. Once you pick the starting date, a one-month course ends 30 days after that, no exceptions. Don't choose a month in which you'll be on a week's vacation; you can't tack that time on to the end of your month. However, as mentioned above, that deadline in itself turns out to be somewhat motivating, so it's really not a bad thing. With its flexibility and excellent instruction, WriteGuide has become an indispensable part of our homeschool curriculum. I'm very glad it was recommended to me, and I enthusiastically recommend it to other homeschoolers seeking an effective writing program 

From Rainbow Resource Center

WriteGuide.com is a service that employs qualified, experienced consultants to review your child's writing, give constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement. The WriteGuide.com consultants hold B.S. and M.S. degrees in English or a related field and are published writers with a significant amount of teaching experience. The program is meant to be individualized, allowing the students to progress at their own rate. The WriteGuide.com Company states that their program is also a good fit for families using Writing Strands for evaluation of student’s writing. This program uses email as its communication device, so the ability of the child (or parent) to type and use email is critical. All emails between consultants and students go to the WriteGuide.com office with a student number. There are no direct email address exchanges between the student and the consultant. The service allows one email per day to your consultant through the WriteGuide.com office. You can use this service for - creative stories, informational or persuasive essays, etc. In our test of the program the consultant first introduced herself and asked about our child's age, ability, interests and previous writing experience. We then settled on a writing assignment - in our case we chose a short story. We then emailed her what had been written so far for her review. The consultant's reviews were prompt and consistently had an encouraging tone while providing good feedback regarding character development, plot and setting. Secondarily, the consultant helped with spelling, grammar and punctuation, including how to punctuate dialog. The daily feedback helped our child make quick progress on the story. Typically WriteGuide.com consultants don't grade papers, but WriteGuide.com does provide a grading option, based on tone, structure, clarity and overall effect. The program comes in one month, three month and nine month durations. The program "clock" starts when you sign up with no 'pauses" allowed in the program. Therefore, since "the clock is running" it is to your advantage to be prepared to make best use of the time you purchase. You can start with a 30-day program and at its completion just stop or sign up for another 30 days or a longer program. 

From Pennsylvania Homeschoolers

This is one of the very best places to gain sound info on writing for your kids. Especially take a look at the sample email dialogues between actual WriteGuide tutors and homeschool students as they work together to help the student work through a major piece of writing-- you'll be amazed to see a student's writing go from a barebones idea to a final finished piece of lively writing that really makes a point. HIGHLY recommended!!!! 

From Homefires.com

WriteGuide.com was voted the "Click Schooling Top Website from 2000" in the "writing" category. At this website you will find free articles on the subject of writing -- each with a different theme, for example, writing research papers, book reviews, journal writing, grammar in writing, etc. The articles are intended to provide information that is immediately useful for homeschooling families. If you purchase the program your child is given a writing assignment and works with a mentor to improve upon various writing skills. If your child just needs help with essay writing - you can request an assignment to help with that. If your child wants to write poetry, he or she will be assigned a mentor who can coach them. These programs are like correspondence courses, but are reasonably priced -- and here is the really helpful and unusual thing: you can sign up and pay for one assignment at a time! 

From My-ed.com

Write Guide.com, just like having a writing tutor in your own home! Sentence structure, how to write a report, or a review, are all skills that enhance opportunities in a persons lifetime. Communication is also a key to success today in this age of technology. But, developing these skills in our children is not always easy, until now............. Chelsea has always loved writing and is now at a stage in her life where she needs to develop certain skills. Many of you may be aware that she writes book reviews for Box Planet and is constantly writing stories and poems. Chelsea is now enrolled in WriteGuide.com's Individualized Writing Program and has her own writing consultant who is currently taking her through the stages of writing a report, a skill that I know she will keep with her for the rest of her life. Each student is assigned their own writing consultant who works with them and is available each day. Chelsea's consultant (name omitted) has such a pleasant manner, and shows an interest in Chelsea, which is a wonderful confidence builder for a child. It is like having a private tutor at home. Chelsea has selected Refugees as the topic for her report, and the skills she has already developed are helping her to work through the maze of information and select the key facts to write an informative and interesting report. I am also learning a lot from this program! All contact is via e-mail and the turn around is within 24 hours, so each question is answered promptly and keeps the interest high. This is an American site that is growing in popularity world wide, there is no other site like this that offers a complete writing program for children of all ages. Write Guide grew by word of mouth through the homeschooling network in America and continues to grow due to its successful outcomes. I highly recommend this program having seen the rapid development of my daughter's skills. Visit www.writeguide.com. 

From King's Harvest

I have never seen anything like this on the net. It is actually a full, interactive writing curriculum that your students use and participate in online and off. Students are responded to, instructed and corrected by professional writing consultants, usually within 24 hours of submitting their work. A description in their own words, " ...100% individualized writing instruction. It involves a revolutionary approach that guarantees better writing skills. We show students how to capitalize on their strengths, and we help them understand and eliminate their weaknesses. In doing so we provide one of the most effective and affordable writing programs on the market. Perfect for homeschoolers and individuals in need of tutoring or extra help, the WriteGuide program is designed to function as a full-fledged writing curriculum or as a curriculum supplement." This site is also loaded with free writing tips, resources, and information. Bookmark this one and consider their very unique service.