Students who are interested in participating in the Scholastic Writing Competition
One-on-one and small group (Max. 7 students/class)
Class Introduction
Great writing begins with a powerful voice, the ability to express ideas with clarity, creativity, and purpose. Scholastic Writing Preparation is designed for ambitious students in grades 8–12 who want to take their writing to the next level and create work ready for recognition.
Students will learn to transform their ideas into effective, polished, and publishable pieces of writing. Over the class, they will explore figurative language, narrative structure, and poetic form while engaging closely with both literary and media texts.
Guided step by step, students will draft, revise, and refine their own creative works through a rigorous process of planning, writing, workshopping, and re-shaping. Each student will produce a short story and a poem with the intention of submission to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards or other publications.
Class Outcome
- Analysis and reading skills – students will read and analyse professionally published pieces to learn techniques to develop their own voices as writers, and to uncover topics/content that are fresh, imaginative and publishable.
- Writing skills – students will learn how to use new forms and craft language into meaningful text for the audience and purpose. They will develop a multifaceted portfolio of nonfiction, fiction, and poetic writing.
- Spoken/oral skills – students will present their ideas to the rest of the class, disseminating information in a concise manner and providing/taking in feedback during workshops.
September & October Sessions: 8 group lessons, 2 hours each, 16 hours in total.
- Taught by a highly accomplished writing competition teacher with multiple student wins in prestigious contests such as Scholastic, The New York Times, and River of Words. He has also guided students to be published in The Concord Review. Former English teacher at the top U.S. boarding school, The Hill School.
November Session: 5 group lessons, 2 hours each, 10 hours in total.
- Taught by a professor with a Master’s from the University of London and a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing from Pepperdine. She has judged and taught for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, founded an award-winning literary magazine, and helped many students publish their work.
Feedback
Students and their parents will receive brief feedback after each class, regarding the student’s general participation in class. Students will also receive feedback on graded assignments via email. Individual writing assignments will receive continual and extensive on text feedback from the teacher as well as peer feedback.
