Course Registration No. ENG-732
COURSE OVERVIEW
Formal five-paragraph essay training; assignments are coordinated with Church History I, Roman History I, Roman Literature I, and Economics I.
18-week course plan for Jensen’s Format Writing: How to Write Easily and Well. This is a single book that we break into three parts, each part completed in a semester. This course, Part 2 of the three parts, is the study of the five-paragraph essay. Part 1 taught the student to recognize the seven formal essay formats—example, classification, definition, process, analogy, cause & effect, and comparison—and to respond to an essay prompt in its own format. The student was trained in the “general procedure for constructing a [format type] essay,” then in the steps of “working it through.” This year the student will continue to practice and internalize those two sets of steps, and then add the “seven sentence outline.” The student needs to internalize the “seven sentence outline” structure this year. “Check Sheets & Forms” (evaluation keys) are included in the back of the worktext. Great Writing: A Reader for Writers is our recommended resource and reference for Jensen’s Format Writing. It includes expanded discussion of the format types and samples of the types drawn from well-known authors and works. And a variety of helpful worksheets for this program are included in the STAA High School Orientation guide.
BOOKS AND MATERIALS
A portion of every purchase made on Amazon after following the links here goes to help support St. Thomas Aquinas Academy's work. Thank you so very much for thinking of STAA when placing your book and general Amazon orders!
 
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160 pgs; seven parts; tests; answer key; teacher’s notes; evaluation forms; index. DVD lectures to expand upon student text are also available from Rainbow Resource, but are not required. We use this book for three semesters. The page numbers, not the content, changed between the 2006 and 2016 editions of "Format Writing." The 2006 edition page numbers are listed in the STAA Study Guide followed by brackets with the 2016 edition page numbers. |
 
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Great Writing: A Reader for Writers [ORDER USED]
Any edition will do; our course plans use the 1987 edition's page numbers. Follow the chapter names if you order another edition. Save money: get a used copy through Amazon Marketplace Sellers ($5-$14 plus shipping). This is a secular, college text. |
 
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Hardcover, 592 pages. Originally published by Loyola University Press in 1953, and now by Lepanto Press, this is a reference manual to accompany the practice of grammar, punctuation, composition, and essay writing. Topics include parts of speech, syntax, punctuation, spelling rules, diagraming, sentences, paragraphs, expository writing, and much more. This is a decidedly Catholic text, with a delightful section dedicated to explaining the capitalization rules for religious terms such as the names of God, the Blessed Virgin, and papacy as well as religious, military, and social titles. St. Thomas Aquinas Academy looks to "Writing Handbook" as the in-house writing style handbook. "Warriner's English Grammar and Composition" by John Warriner or "A Writer's Reference with MLA Update" by Diana Hacker are also fine manuals for grammar and writing style. |
 
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Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition
This is only one option; any full-size collegiate level dictionary is fine. It is a good idea to have an exhaustive desktop dictionary and a condensed, pocket-sized dictionary readily available. |
 
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376 pages. This is our favorite desktop thesaurus but any large, collegiate level thesaurus will do. |
 
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98 pages. One of many MLA style guides. Our course plans reference the free online resource from Purdue -- the Online Writing Lab (OWL) website -- but students are welcome to use this simplified handbook or another instead of visiting the OWL website. |
