Expository Writing

In Expository Writing, students delve into the power and potential of the English language. Reading and writing assignments explore relevant and universal themes including war, human rights, cultural awareness, and humans' relationships with the environment, the media, and technology. By reading and evaluating seminal speeches, essays, and stories, students learn how writing is used to explain, persuade, and entertain. Students develop and practice expressing their own ideas in four types of essays: compare and contrast, persuasive, evaluative, and explanatory. Additional assignments will focus on narrative writing, research projects, and speeches.

Writing assignments vary in length and purpose, giving students a chance to demonstrate their skills in lesson-end assignments. In Unit 1, students evaluate a wartime speech, argue for or against a political course of action, and craft a speech adapted for two different audiences. Over the course of Unit 2, students build a research project addressing the causes and effects of the civil rights movement. Unit 3 gives students a chance to students to respond to texts and topics related to loyalty and cultural awareness through an argument, a narrative, and an analysis essay. In Unit 4, students write and publish an explanatory article about the environment, an argument about the impact of technology on society, and an analysis of multiple themes within a text.

Through reading, writing, revising, discussing, and refining grammar and language skills, students develop the ability to communicate effectively and persuasively about relevant issues in the academic and professional worlds. This course is built to state standards.