Testimonials
Dear Mr. Ludwig,
I wanted to let you know how well one of your past students, Veronica Kennedy, is doing with her writing abilities. I attribute her skill at writing to many things but very much so to the individualized attention she received from WriteGuide for the two years we had her enrolled.
Veronica is currently a senior in high school and taking a college writing class at a local university. A few weeks ago her teacher asked to speak to her privately; of course she was a bit nervous! The teacher asked her the following question: "Why are you in this class?" Puzzled she answered, "Because this is the class they told me to take and I needed an English Composition class." The teacher proceeded to praise her on her writing skills and said she was miles ahead of the other kids in the class---all of them being one to two years older than she! She even told Veronica that she really shouldn't be in that class because she wrote so well.
Please pass this on to Mrs. Peggy Folan as she worked very hard with Veronica and I think she would be happy to hear how well Veronica is doing!
God bless you.
We have now been using WriteGuide for one year. We have been very pleased with our experience. Three of our children, 11th grade, 9th grade, and 6th grade are currently enrolled and we have had excellent consultants. Both have shown so much concern and enthusiasm for my children’s writing. It has been fun to watch them develop a relationship through their daily e-mails with my children reflecting their three very different personalities: One is like a trusted friend casually sharing experiences, and humor. Another more reserved child, a different respectful approach, and the third child somewhat in between. They praise in abundance, and give wonderful helpful guidance, direction, and correction. They are able to get out of my kids what I had difficulty getting in the complete writing and editing process, as well as giving instruction I didn't feel qualified to on MLA format etc. I feel so fortunate to have found WriteGuide and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for a program to teach, encourage, promote, and perfect the writing process in their children
When my 11 year-old son started WriteGuide last year, I worried that the instructor assigned to him might throw up her hands in despair due to son's feeble attempts at writing. He hated writing and it showed. I half expected that his first piece of writing would result in immediate expulsion from the program.
Not wanting the task of keyboarding to interfere with my son's introduction to WriteGuide, I agreed to transcribe his first few writing assignments from handwritten documents to the computer. His first effort was a single run-on sentence, continuing on for almost a page. My stressed fingertips blanched as I typed. Not only were my son's ramblings replete with grammatical and spelling errors, they were stylistically horrifying, too. I was tempted to edit his work to assuage my deep sense of embarrassment, but decided to let it all hang out. I couldn't help think to myself, "What will poor Mrs. Cevela do with this disjointed, mangled piece of writing?" I found myself feeling sorry for her.
Well, now a year later, my son has mended his illiterate ways due to Mrs. Cevela's gentle guidance. In fact, in less than a year's time, his relative weakness in writing and language arts has turned into his outstanding strength. He also enjoys writing, taking to the task with confidence and creativity.
As a sixth-grader last spring, he took the Woodcock-Johnson test of academic achievement. Much to my surprise, he scored at the twelfth-grade level on writing-related subtests. Unlike most tests of this sort, the Woodcock-Johnson is a progressive test, which continues from one grade level to the next until the student is unable to go further. As such, the test provides meaningful grade level assessments. Consequently, my son is actually able to write at an advanced grade level, despite last year's seeming lack of promise.
Before beginning WriteGuide, I was concerned that a formal writing program might stifle my son's unique voice. In my opinion, his slightly off-center way of seeing the world is actually an asset. I fretted at the thought that a writing teacher might want to wring his personality out of his writing. Well, that worry was a total waste of time. His writing is freer than it's ever been because he now has the tools to write what he wishes. He no longer labors over language mechanics, settling for an inferior way of expression simply because he can't figure out how to put his ideas down on paper. Now he can think it and write it. Life is good!
Mrs. Cevela has effectively taught him many writing conventions, along with expanded ways of looking at the world. Her emphasis on including sensory detail and internal dialogue in his creative writing has added greater dimension and interest to his work. Even HE has marveled at the transformation of some of his writings from mediocre to dynamite through use of these methods. As a parent, I couldn't be happier to witness this miraculous change in my son's writing!
With gratitude,
I feel like I have stumbled in to a gold mine or something! As a home school mom, I have struggled to guide my children in learning all their subjects. Writing was the one I neglected the most. My 15 yr. old managed to get in to college, but his writing skills were just barely passing for college level (as opposed to math and reading comp. etc.). I worried how he would do writing the papers that are required in most classes. In just a few months, my son has become very organized in his writing. So far, he has been able to write a good paper for his American History class and a good speech for his Public Speaking class. At a time when my son would rather learn from someone else rather than mom, I am so grateful to our writing consultant for helping him in such a clear and concise manner. There are many more good things that I could say, but I don’t have the time. That brings up another reason I like WriteGuide. They do what I don’t have time to do at this time in my life.
Thanks,
Dear WriteGuide,
I cannot express the enthusiasm my 4th and 3rd grade sons get each time they write their consultant Mrs. Lovett. and how much they enjoy reading what she has written and requested of them. My sons where absolutely afraid of writing and had know idea how to even start. Mrs. Lovett has done such a wonderful job walking each of them through each step of writing a paper. Now they both can't wait to start their next report.
Thank you for such a wonderful program,
As parents of a home school family educating six children at once we are always looking for good resources that can help out in the areas where we are weak. One of those areas is writing. We are so glad that we have found the Write guide program. We have found it to be a professional, prompt and practical program. Professional in that the teachers are more than qualified, prompt in that their response to the assignments sent it is always timely, and practical in that they challenge our children, but do not overwhelm them in the assignments. Amazingly we are finding that our children are actually enjoying writing.
I am very pleased with Mrs. Wolfe’s work as my sons writing instructor. She is always kind and encouraging and explains things in a way that makes it easy for him to write well. In fact I am looking to continue with your writing program for the entire year not just the three months we've signed up for and I would like to continue using Mrs. Wolfe as our consultant.
Dear Mr. Ludwig,
I would like to give some feedback on the consultants we have worked with.
Mrs. Dunnan:
My daughter, Kerstin, was so pleased with the help of her writing consultant. She found Mrs. Dunnan to be very encouraging and enthusiastic. As Kerstin worked on a very lengthy writing project, she found Mrs. Dunnan's daily comments to be very motivating. At times Kerstin grew weary of this long-term project, and sometimes became discouraged; but Mrs. Dunnan was both a friend and encourager, and kept Kerstin going. Both Kerstin and I were so grateful for Mrs. Dunnan's cheerful help. Kerstin was sad to see her time with Mrs. Dunnan come to an end when Mrs. Dunnan's maternity leave began.
Mrs. Hilton:
My son, Peter, a high school senior, has done well in writing in our home school, but writing was not a favorite subject. However, as we began a writing program with Mrs. Hilton, Peter's outlook changed. He was enthused from the first day, I believe, and has continued to remain excited about his writing projects with Mrs. Hilton. Mrs. Hilton has given clear, appropriate daily assignments, and has offered constructive comments and encouragements. She has suggested projects which appeal to Peter. Already this fall he has tackled a variety of interesting assignments. I am more than pleased with Mrs. Hilton's help. Peter is learning a great deal, and Mrs. Hilton seems to know exactly how to guide Peter each day.
Mrs. Olt:
My daughter Kerstin has summed up the strengths of her writing consultant, Mrs. Olt, as "knowledgeable, structured, and encouraging." We both have been very pleased with Mrs. Olt's help. Although my daughter prefers long writing projects, Kerstin desired this year to try some shorter pieces of writing, and Mrs. Olt has been an excellent guide in this. She has helped Kerstin to focus on correcting some of her weaknesses, and yet she has also encouraged Kerstin in her strengths. Kerstin has been able to complete a number of shorter projects. Mrs. Olt has provided her with constructive comments all along the way, and even helped Kerstin with research on occasion. Thank you, Mrs. Olt!
Dear Mr. Ludwig,
We are extremely happy with the quality of help we are receiving. We get prompt thorough replies to emails and a lot of very specific comments and guidance for the writing.
Our writing consultant has worked with us to give the level of guidance required for a ninth grader attempting some complicated writing assignments and goes step by step without overwhelming the student. She usually focuses on improving one aspect of the writing at a time, but is able to guide the student along so that the assignment gets completed also. Overall we are quite pleased with the arrangement.
Probably the best thing about the situation is that my son willingly does the work for Mrs. Hilton. This is something he has never done before. I wouldn't say he enjoys writing now, but he is self motivated to work on the assignments. A worthy start!
Sincerely,
I was much impressed by WriteGuide's clear guidelines of web-behavior with regard to their service. I am very reluctant to use on-line programs, and WriteGuide won my confidence with their standards.
Our on-line instructor was consistently professional and patient with both me and my students as we learned a new routine.
This on-line program was the interim I needed to refresh and renew our home-based writing instruction.
Thank you for your encouraging manner to me and our students, I appreciated your cheerfulness.