Individualized Writing Courses for Homeschool Families...

"Our goal is to address the precise needs, interests, and skills of students who have chosen to learn at home."

General Information

Individualized Writing Courses

Resources

Skill Sheets
Letter Writing Program
TEACHLetter (a free monthly resource)
Bookstore
Links

The WriteGuide Method

The WriteGuide Method is the philosophy that motivates and prompts all the instruction delivered by our writing consultants. It is based on ten principles, which have been organized into four distinct sections.

Part One:

Individualized Instruction

1. Individualized instruction is the most efficient method of teaching.

Part Two:

Responding to Student Writing

2. Grammar, mechanics, and punctuation conventions must never be viewed as requirements, but as tools by which tone and meaning may be constructed, controlled, and communicated.

3. Writers learn best when they are able to demonstrate consistent improvement in their writing.

4. There is no legitimate reason to tell a writer of the many problems in his or her writing all at once (see principles 6 and 7).

5. All writers have mastered certain skills, but most of the time they are unaware of their own accomplishments. Making a young writer aware of a well-executed technique enables the writer to use the technique more frequently, and also to use it more effectively.

Part Three:

Errors and Syntactic Growth

6. Most errors (that is, those that are not repeated and are not the result of unfocused attention) are signs of syntactic and linguistic growth. Writers do not intentionally create constructions that are incorrect. Rather, they are aiming at correctness but have not yet learned the correct way of communicating the concept they have in mind.

7. Most errors in a given piece of writing are repeated errors. The error is repeated because the writer hasn’t mastered the appropriate skill or technique. If the repeated error is identified and then explained to the writer, the writer should be able to eliminate the error entirely from his or her style of writing.

Part Four:

Learning to Write, Revision, and Writing Processes

8. Writing is a skill that is learned and acquired, and it is learned and acquired from many different sources. Indeed, one’s ability to generate written language is constantly evolving. Furthermore, there is much to be gained by actively studying and imitating (as a form of practice) the work of other writers.

9. Revision is literally a process of "re-seeing." Each draft or revision brings the writer either closer to his or her intended meaning, or closer to a more desirable form. Writing, then, must at any moment be either a process of moving towards a targeted goal, or a process of discovering (if not creating) meaning.

10. There is no single “writing process” that all writers should utilize. All writers have their own unique writing process, which is nothing more nor less than the circumstances and methods by which the writer is able to produce his or her best work.