Academic Writing

Overview

“Like stones, words are laborious and unforgiving, and the fitting of them together, like the fitting of stones, demands great patience and strength of purpose and particular skill”

- Edmund Morrison

The AW course for the primary section introduces to students the most common academic essays encountered upon entering secondary school. Whereas the Creative Writing course focuses on developing plots, setting and characters within stories and poems, the AW course teaches students the framework that governs narrative and persuasive essays and the writing style that can be implemented within them.

At Capstone, we believe that mastering writing is critical to academic success at both the secondary and tertiary levels of education.   While it is easy to identify “good” writing as a reader, it is much more difficult as the writer to produce outstanding compositions. Aside from time and effort, students require an understanding of the technical and stylistic rules that govern powerful writing. Students also need guided review of their own writing so as to identify the specific obstacles that hinder their writing potential.

Over the years, we have observed that students possess a mixture of shortcomings when it comes to their writing, including limited creativity and analysis, inconsistent subjects, organization and development, and countless types of grammar errors. Because of the differing demands and educational upbringing facing local and international school students, Capstone offers classes designed specifically for local school students and their international school counterparts.

The local school “sections” focus on technical grammar and writing style within relatively rigid (and proper) essay structures while the international school sections encourage students to explore their stylistic potential by reading the writing of others and refining their own technique. Essentially, the former course focuses more on technical grammar and structure while the latter focuses more heavily on style and content.

Next:Learning Objectives