Crafting the Essay - Workshop (NCAA Approved) | Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY)

About the Course

Crafting the Essay - Workshop (NCAA Approved)

Grades 7-10
CTY-Level
Session-Based
Language Arts

Bring your experiences to life on the page in this personal essay course. Through 10 assignments, we will experiment with different essay forms to describe scenes, illustrate conflicts, narrate events, share memories, and extract meaning. As we progress through the course and hone our personal essay writing skills, we will learn to use our senses to create vivid descriptions, observe and select details that convey our perspective to readers, imagine and describe events from others’ points of view, and unlock the power of revision. We’ll complete 10 essay projects over 10 course units. Each unit includes two lessons, a pre-writing exercise, an essay assignment, a reflection letter and an asynchronous online writing workshop. In workshops, you will read your classmates’ essays and provide feedback. You’ll receive feedback from classmates on your own essays at least twice, and practice applying feedback to your revisions. Active participation in writing workshops provides a valuable opportunity to grow with the support and insight of your peers.

Time Commitment: 4-6 hours of independent work per week.

Course Overview

What we'll do

You'll complete 10 essay projects over 10 course units. Each unit includes two lessons, a pre-writing exercise, an essay assignment, a reflection letter and an asynchronous online writing workshop. In workshops, you will read your classmates’ essays and give feedback on their work. You’ll also receive feedback from classmates on your own essays at least twice during the session and practice applying instructor and readers’ feedback to your revisions.

What we’ll learn

To analyze a model text and apply the observations to one’s own writing
To engage in the writing process from pre-writing, drafting, shaping, editing, submitting for feedback, using feedback to revise, including strategies to assess your own writing, identify needs, and plan revisions
To identify a main idea within a draft and to develop it through revision
To select factual, informational, and sensory details to shape a narrative or description
To pay careful attention to word choices and phrasing
To narrate, reflect on, and extract meaning from personal experiences
To describe feelings and behaviors from another person’s point of view
To develop our observational skills and use meaning to select appropriate sensory, factual, and informational details to describe the scene in writing

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

Employ pre-writing strategies to externalize ideas and evaluate which are the strongest
Proofread, analyze, restructure, and revise drafts for submission
Select events and details that develop and advance an essay’s thesis
Employ figurative language and literary devices to enhance your narratives
Give constructive feedback on peers’ work and accept and incorporate feedback on your writing and make appropriate changes
Reflect on personal experiences and extract meaning from them in essays
Write in a range of tones, for a variety of audiences
Demonstrate empathy and different points of view
Reflect on your writing process and growth in letters to your instructor
Ask your instructor for help and have confidence discussing your writing with an adult

How we'll measure learning

Instructors evaluate student work using marking guides and rubrics and provide detailed constructive feedback on each pre-writing task and essay. This course is aligned to ELA common core standards for grades 11-12.

This course is

ungraded.

Classes

Register for an Online course by selecting an open class below. If no open classes are listed, then course enrollment is currently closed. Note: You will need to have an active CTY Account to complete registration through MyCTY.

Jan 21 - Apr 13

12 weeks

$1,241

Enroll

Jun 16 - Sep 7

12 weeks

$1,241

Enroll

Testing and Prerequisites

	Math	Verbal
Required Level	Not required	CTY-Level

Check your eligibility using existing test scores If you do not have existing test scores:

Students must achieve qualifying scores on an advanced assessment to be eligible for CTY programs. If you don’t have qualifying scores, you have several different testing options. We’ll help you find the right option for your situation.

Cost and Financial Aid

Tuition
- Varies
Application fee
- Nonrefundable Application Fee - $15 (Waived for financial aid applicants)
- Nonrefundable International Fee - $20 (outside US only)

Financial Aid

We have concluded our financial aid application review process for Academic Year 2023-2024 Online Programs (Courses with start dates July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024). Our application for Academic Year 2024-2025 Online Programs is expected to open in January. We encourage those who may need assistance in the future to apply for aid as early as possible.

Learn More

Technical Requirements

This course requires a computer with high-speed Internet access and an up-to-date web browser such as Chrome or Firefox. You must be able to communicate with the instructor via email. Visit the Technical Requirements and Support page for more details.

This course uses a virtual classroom for instructor-student communication. The classroom works on standard computers with the Zoom desktop client, and on tablets or handhelds that support the Zoom Mobile app. Recorded meetings can only be viewed on a computer with the Zoom desktop client installed. The Zoom desktop client and Zoom Mobile App are both free to download.

Terms & Conditions

Students may interact in online classrooms and meetings that include peers, instructors, and occasional special guests.

After a you complete a course, your projects may be used to illustrate work for future students. 

Enhance your skills in creative writing and critical reading, learn to craft effective sentences, and develop an analytical approach to reading and writing through our Language Arts courses. Guided by our expert instructors, you can further develop your communication skills in our interdisciplinary visual fluency courses, and explore topics in communication theory, design theory, and cognitive psychology. Through coursework and online discussions with classmates from around the world, you’ll elevate your writing structure and style, hone your craft, and become an adept wordsmith fluent in the language of literary arts.

Write, Edit, Publish

Walk in the shoes of a writer, editor, and publisher this fall in Master Class I: Writing, Editing, and Publishing, and then collaborate with peers to create the next issue of our CTY Online student-developed literary journal, Lexophilia, in Master Class II: Writing, Editing, and Publishing, offered in the winter.

Explore Greek Myths

Newly revised for fall 2021, you'll read, discuss, and write about Greek myths in Young Readers’ Series: Greek Myths Revisited, studying exciting, heroic characters and ancient narratives that continue to teach us all valuable lessons about life, love, and family.

Meet our Language Arts Instructors

I realize that I love teaching on an almost daily basis. It comes to me in the form of a student's 'ah-ha' moment, when everything clicks and the student understands a challenging concept. I get goose bumps just thinking about it!

Yvonne Borresen

Language Arts Instructor

Online Programs