Homeschool Review Crew - IEW Institute for Excellence in Writing High School Essay Intensive

For some reason, all but one of my children dread writing with a terror and intimidation accompanied with lack of self confidence, so when I was offered the opportunity to review the High School Essay Intensive from Institute for Excellence in Writing, many homeschoolers know as IEW, with author Andrew Pudewa, I was thrilled.

What is the High School Essay Intensive from IEW?

The High School Essay Intensive is on its second edition and comes with DVD seminars and handouts and is intended to be used with students in high school, Grades 9 through 12.

I was not familiar with the first edition, but from what I could gather, this updated edition is mostly due to the reason that the SAT and ACT tests changed their essay writing portion format, so in 2016, IEW updated their Essay Intensive to reflect these new requirements. This Essay Intensive also includes techniques for writing a college application as well as provides your student with tools and tips for general composition writing skills.

This 2nd edition intensive includes:

• 5 DVDs which provide 6 1/2 hours of instructional videos
• Student Handouts
• Portable Walls for the Essayist Folder (One of my favorite parts of the package - This is basically a tri-fold summary of the main points students need to remember when writing essays)

The material is presented in seminar fashion that is watched from the DVDs and then the students are asked to delve into essay writing and work through activities provided on the student handouts.

The  DVD seminars cover:


Part 1A - General Strategies for Essay Writing: Length and Structure

• Initial Exercise
• A Hurt and Rescue Operation
• What is an essay?
• Two Questions Writers Need to Ask
• Translating Assignment Length to Paragraphs
• Types of Paragraph
• The TRIAC Paragraph Model
• Essay Models

Part 1B - General Strategies for Essay Writing: Invention and Style

• Canons of Rhetoric
• Invention
• Practicing Common Topics of Invention
• Practice with TRIAC Outline
• Stle
• Sentence Patterns
• Literary Devices: Schemes and Tropes
• Practice with SEntence Openers and Figures of Speech

Part 2 - Understanding and Preparing for the New ACT Essay

• ACT General Guidelines
• The Assignment
• Strategies for Planning
• Strategies for Writing
• Strategies for Proofing

Part 3 - Understanding and Preparing for the Redesigned SAT Essay

• General Guidelines
• The Assignment
• Annotating
• Handy Annotation System
• Annotating Practice
• Strategies for Planning
• Strategies for Writing
• Using Effective Vocabulary
• Strategies for Proofing

Part 4 - Strategies for the Personal Essay

• General Guidelines
• Sample Essay Prompts
• Strategies for Planning: Pop out from the Crowd
• Strategies for Writing, Editing, and Proofreading
• A Not-So-Secret Secret
• Final Practice
• Concluding Comments
• Last Bits of Advice for Life

How Did We Use It?

I have two high schoolers this year, but my daughter is always so much more receptive to the idea of writing than my son, though my son, who is a Junior this year,  probably would benefit hugely by learning how to tackle the ACT or for the redesigned SAT essay writing, I decided that it would be best to start with my daughter and focus on the general strategies section. While she loves to write, she does not like her writing evaluated for grading purposes, was picky about my showing any pictures of her writing and doesn't tend to thrive on anything video related when it comes to instruction, but she has been introduced to IEW's style in the past and was open to the idea of trying it out. 

What Did We Think?

As always, IEW never ceases to deliver excellence in its unique approach to encouraging and instructing students to write well. If you are familiar with Mr. Pudewa's style, you will know exactly the quality you will be presented with. If you are not familiar with him yet, Andrew Pudewa delivers the material in an engaging manner that includes bits of humor that helps the student relax and delve into writing well.

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