Individualized Writing Courses for Homeschool Families...

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Curriculum Review: WriteGuide.com
Reviewed by Peter Buffington for The Well Trained Mind website (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/newsletter.php)

WriteGuide, Inc. 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. Also, the program is not a complete writing course, which is not a weakness, but worth being aware of before you begin.

From Favorite Resources for Catholic Homeschoolers 

(Posted with permission from Love2Learn.net)

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 e-mail 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 at http://writeguide.com/samples.htm.   

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.  The teacher was flexible and enthusiastic throughout the course and we were especially happy to learn that she was Catholic.  WriteGuide.com employs several Catholic teachers and matches them up with Catholic families upon request.  

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. (10-8-03)

By Mary-Eileen Swart, Newsletter of GMCHE 

(Greater Milwaukee Catholic Home Educators) 

 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

(Note: There are two reviews of our company posted on the Pennsylvania Homeschoolers website.  The first - which is posted lower on this page - was published several years ago, when WriteGuide.com offered several different writing programs.)

This is one of the very best places to gain sound info on writing for your kids. Lots of excellent FREE ideas and articles and worksheets for students, plus detailed info on their Writing Tutorials. 

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, 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 - Language Arts Links

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.

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