Level One: Mastering the Paragraph

When Shari Barrett began teaching English composition, she quickly recognized the need for strengthening students’ paragraphs. Thus, she created the Level One textbook, which incrementally teaches students to create logical paragraphs, to remain on topic, and to support positions with clear evidence. As her students developed strong paragraph skills, writing essays became easier.

Put That In Writing – Level One is a textbook that equips students with the writing skills needed in high school, college, and work settings. Formal academic writing differs from journaling and creative writing in that it emphasizes the use of analysis and reasoning to prove a contention. Through progressive lessons, Put That In Writing – Level One trains students in techniques for developing paragraphs with strong topic sentences and supporting points that are both logical and topical. Each chapter includes brief instructions with ample illustrations that are easily taught in a classroom or homeschool setting. Detailed daily exercises walk the student through each day’s tasks and permit teachers to easily track student progress. Paragraph assignments are broken down into simple steps and follow a three-week cycle:

Week 1 – Student follows steps to construct an assigned paragraph.
Week 2 – Student follows steps for researching and preparing notes for a timed-write in class.
Week 3 – Student corrects and edits the graded paragraph from week one.

Put That In Writing – Level One is a complete and integrated writing curriculum. For those who have found other writing curricula lacking in content and clear instruction, this textbook meets the need. Students learn not only to follow standard paragraph form, but also how to make one’s writing creative and interesting by adding style points and literary devices. Drills strengthen grammatical understanding. Various paragraph types are taught. Students learn to properly document research. Put That In Writing – Level One is the textbook that will prepare your student for the quality of writing expected as he or she advances through school and into a profession.

Course Objectives: – Recognizing sentence structure – Understanding paragraph structure – Using formal language – Adding interest with style points – Employing literary devices – Doing research – Avoiding plagiarism – Following MLA documentation – Evaluating and editing – Writing within time limits

Types of Paragraphs: – Descriptive – Definitive – Narrative – Process – Comparison – Cause or Effect – Analogy – Defending a position – Literary character analysis

Explore This Textbook: Table of Contents To The Teacher Unit1

Unit 14 Unit 20 Unit 22

Paragraph Checklist Unit 5 & 6 Paragraph Grading Form