2017-2018 Essay Grading Service

Hi everyone! With the 2017-2018 school year starting, I thought I'd re-post the steps for submitting student essays to me to grade.

You may click on this link for my Essay Grading Service if you'd like to read about my service in detail or you may click on the page "Essay Grading Service" just under the header. You may also click on this link to see some of my Sample Graded Essays or again you may click on the page entitled "Sample Graded Essays" under the header.

Please contact me via e-mail using the "Contact Susanne" link in the sidebar if you are interested in using my services. Let me know the age(s) and grade level(s) of your student(s) as well as your goals and/or concerns for him/her/them as writers. Please also alert me to any learning challenges, reluctance in writing, extreme interest in writing, or any other matters I need to know before I evaluate the essays.

I usually return e-mails within 24 hours, so you may expect to receive a return e-mail from me in a timely manner.

After discussing your student(s) and goals/concerns, I'll e-mail the following directions for sending me essays to be graded:

Simply e-mail me the essay you wish to be graded as a Word attachment, including the assignment either in the text of the e-mail or also as an attachment. Also let me know if you would like comments only or comments with a letter grade and anything else I may need to know (such as learning challenges, reluctant writing, etc.) so that I can respond to the essay in the most constructive and helpful way possible.

I will respond to let you know that I have received the essay and which day you can expect to have it returned, usually 3-5 school days. If you need an essay graded sooner than that, let me know, and I'll see if I can slip it into my schedule. Also, with each assignment, please include the writer’s age, grade level, and whether you want a letter grade since I grade for quite a few families. :) 

I then download the essay, marking corrections, noting excellence, and offering suggestions for improvement in the right margin. At the end of the essay, I write an overall summary of which elements of the essay were done well and which elements may need further attention. 

My overarching goal is to encourage growth in the art and craft of writing in our students.   

Then when I return the graded essay, which I attach as a Word document and also as a PDF (because some Apple computers and tablets don’t show the review comments in the right margin of Word documents), I will let you know the fee: the number of words in the essay times $.03 (3 cents per word, excluding the student's name, essay title, date, and notes for me). 

If you wish to have your writer revise the essay and re-submit it to be graded again, I charge half as much the second time around.

Then you may remit via PayPal, and I'll give you the e-mail address to do so when I return the essay. I definitely prefer to grade the essay first and then receive payment. 

Regarding research essays, I am well-versed in the latest Modern Language Association (MLA) format style according to the MLA Handbook, 8^th Edition (2016) which is the format most commonly used for research in the humanities. Because I am not at all familiar with other research formats such as APA, CMS/Turabian, etc., I only grade research essays formatted according to the MLA style, either the 7^th or the 8^th edition.

So just send along the essay when you're ready, and we'll go from there. 

Please let me know if you have any questions; I'll be happy to answer them!


Writing with you,

Fall 2017 Brave Writer Courses

This school year marks 15 years of teaching and working at Brave Writer. Julie Sweeney Bogart started Brave Writer in January 2000, and I joined the Brave Writer team (of four other employees) in 2002.

Over the past few years, I've settled into a great schedule at Brave Writer; I'm teaching 48 weeks a year now, with some overlap of classes. I love teaching kids and families, mostly homeschoolers, via these online classes. I've written most of the materials I teach; the only class I teach that I haven't written is Groovy Grammar; the rest I've either overhauled and rewritten or have written them from scratch.

So here are the classes, with dates and links, that I'll be teaching this fall at Brave Writer:

The Groovy Grammar Workshop: August 28-September 22 (4 weeks). This family workshop turns grammar on its head! Rather than relying on boring workbooks and grammar rules that no one can keep straight, we explore how words work together to create clarity and meaning. We "collect" words, play games with them, make up words by creating a "fictionary," and then explore how words work together in Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky." We conclude the class with writing our own Jabberwocky-style poem using nonsense words. Much family fun is in store in Groovy Grammar!!

The Shakespeare Family Workshop: August 28-September 29 (5 weeks). In this family workshop, we explore Shakespeare's life through a scavenger hunt, draw or create models of the Globe Theatre, and examine the language of Shakespeare's time. Then we'll have an informal study of Shakespeare's sonnets before we explore Shakespeare's plays, spending a week each on comedies (focusing on Much Ado About Nothing), histories (focusing on Richard III), and tragedies (focusing on Hamlet). So if you want a fun and extensive exploration of Shakespeare and his works, this family workshop is ideal!

The MLA Research Essay: September 25-November 3 (6 weeks). This class is intended for high school juniors and seniors only, with a small class size of only ten students to provide maximum teacher-student interaction. Using the college textbook The MLA Handbook, 8th Edition (2016), students will research and write a 5-7 page college-level persuasive research essay using the most recent format of the Modern Language Association (MLA). Students do not need to purchase the textbook; all posts will include materials from the text, and students may contact the teacher with additional questions. Students will finish this course with a college-level essay and much knowledge of how to do academic research.

Playing with Poetry Workshop: November 6-December 12 (5 weeks). This family workshop class focuses on writing many kinds of poetry: free verse, visual poetry, Japanese poetry, traditional rhymed verse, and alternative poetry forms. We'll also explore reading and analyzing poetry, and there are several fun optional activities such as song lyrics as poetry. This workshop is a wonderful way to introduce families to the fun and games of writing poetry, providing a solid foundation in poetry analysis and the history of poetic form. So much fun!!!

I'll be teaching the same courses in the spring, with the addition of a high school literary analysis course on Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. More on that class in December when I post the spring schedule!!

Fall registration began on Monday, July 31, so please enroll as soon as possible since all of our classes were full for the entire 2016-2017 school year!! Be inspired!! Write bravely!!

Writing with you,

Essay Grading and Spring 2017 Brave Writer Courses

Yes, I am still grading essays via e-mail for anyone who is interested. More information about how to submit essays, the time frame for grading, and the prices are included in this previous post:

2016-2017 Essay Grading Service

I'll also be teaching several Brave Writer online classes in 2017, starting January 9 and going through June 16, plus a summer class on Fan Fiction in July (4 weeks, precise dates TBA).

WINTER:

Groovy Grammar Workshop: January 9-February 3 (4 weeks) --SESSION FULL


MLA Research Essay: February 6-March 17 (6 weeks) --SESSION FULL 


Playing with Poetry Workshop: March 20-April 21 (5 weeks) --A FEW SPACES LEFT

SPRING:

Shakespeare Family Workshop: April 24-May 26 (5 weeks) --SESSION FULL


Literary Analysis: Shakespeare's Macbeth: May 22-June 16 (4 weeks) --A FEW SPACES LEFT



So, happy writing, everyone!

Writing with you,