WriteShop - An Incremental Writing Program

WriteShop is an impressive curriculum that makes teaching a successful composition course feasible for parents of homeschoolers. As a parent who searched many years for a good writing curriculum, this is the best writing curriculum I've seen.

WriteShop uses an incremental approach to teach writing. Its step by step approach gives students the necessary tools to develop excellent writing skills. The curriculum assumes that the student can construct, capitalize, and punctuate a basic sentence. The introduction includes a brief overview of these skills. The writing lessons follow "The Writing Process: easy as 1-2-3-4-5" format:

1. Brainstorm
2. Write "sloppy copy"
3. Write first revision
4. Hand in work
5. Write final draft

WriteShop teaches the elements of style. Students first work on developing a good paragraph using vivid, descriptive words and using sentence variations. After learning to write descriptive paragraphs, they move on to informative, narrative and persuasive writing. Each lesson introduces new ideas as well as reinforcing concepts previously covered. Students write one composition over a two-week period, including two revisions. They learn editing skills with the Writing Skills Checklist for each lesson.

The curriculum includes models for the layout of handwritten and typed compositions. Papers must be stapled in a specific order when turned in. These skills may seem minor, but such detail is in line with the requirements at the university level. Each assignment includes a Student Writing Skills Checklist, a Teacher Writing Skills Checklist, and a Composition Evaluation to assist the teacher in grading the assignment.

Following the WriteShop incremental approach, students will see improvement in their writing.