Spring Semester Classes Open!
My regular readers know that I do my best to use this blog to provide interesting and useful information on all things writing. The steady growth of subscribers and page visits encourages me that I’m doing that reasonably well.
But every so often, I need to dedicate a post to a shameless plug for WriteAtHome.com. Thanks for indulging.
The truth is, I love talking about WriteAtHome because what we do — help kids write better — is important. And what’s exciting is that it really works. We give creative and varied writing assignments to students and (even better) we give them a personal writing coach to guide them through all our writing projects. We teach writing concepts through a variety of lessons each week as well, but the real progress comes as students work on multiple drafts of papers with the encouragement and wise guidance of their writing coach.
We are getting ready to start all second semester courses and the 3rd session of our shorter (9-week) writing workshops, including Research Paper, Essay, and Short Story. If you haven’t tried a WriteAtHome course before, now’s the time to get started. It’s never too late to start working on writing skills, and there is no end to the growth and improvement a student can make. Please check out our courses at WriteAtHome.com.
For all of you who are already participating our program — thank you! Thanks for all the grateful and inspiring emails we get with regularity. Thanks for encouraging our wonderful staff of coaches too. They so love getting nice notes from appreciative students and parents.
If you have any questions about what we offer or how to get started, feel free to post them in the comments below, or email us at placement-at-writeathome-dot-com.
Hi Mr. Wasko,
Last time I checked, WAH offers some great classes but they are mostly for high school students. What are the possibilities that WAH can offer college-level classes for those who are looking to enhance their writing but not receiving the proper “help” from universities?
Hi Madison. We don’t get asked that question very much. My background, when I started WriteAtHome, was in high school education, so that’s where we began. As we started to grow, we increasingly received questions about classes for younger, middle-school aged children. In time, we added those.
We certainly could develop some material for college-aged students (many of our writing coaches are college teachers), but I’m not sure there are enough students like you out there to make it worthwhile. Do you think there are many out there who would want something like that?
I agree with Madison – it would be awesome to have some W@H college classes available. But I’m not sure if there would be enough interest…you could open up the Pay per Paper to college students, or provide an essay and/or research paper workshop(s) for college students instead of starting an entire year-long program. Just a thought. I know I would be interested!
Good questions, Lois.
We are currently averaging in the neighborhood of 1500 students. That number fluctuates some each quarter as our workshops begin and end. Writing coaches are all part-time and tell us how many students they are able to handle at a time. On average, each coach works with about 25 students.
I understand your reaction to the total cost of two full-year courses, and appreciate your willingness to make that kind of investment. We always tell customers the same thing you mentioned — that on a week-to-week basis, our courses are very reasonable. Tutors in our area make about $50 an hour. Compared to that we’re a bargain.
And you understand that we charge what we do because we are paying experienced writing coaches to do their thing. It’s not some computer program that spits out data. It’s real, knowledgeable, likable tutors — each with their own style and perspective (something you’ve also discovered).
This is my fourth year of taking WriteAtHome classes, and I love the personal instruction from my coaches and the open communication available with each of them. My writing has improved by leaps and bounds since starting W@H, and I look forward to starting another semester of the full-year course, as well as taking the SAT Essay workshop this month. I’m wishing you offered some college-level classes, since this might be my last year of high school (depending on whether or not I cram more classes in and make this my senior year).
For me, the best part of W@H is the constructive criticism combined with the challenge not only to write well, but to tweak, edit and rearrange so that my essays and compositions come across in the clearest way possible.
Thanks, Brian/WriteAtHome! You’ve developed my writing skills more than you know!
Thanks for the kind words, Morgan. I’m excited about the SAT Essay workshop too, especially because I am personally doing the coaching this time around. I look forward to helping you with your essays.
This is the second year my two have taken the full year course. When I look at the bill on my credit card, I hyperventilate, but when I reconsider that this is full year tuition for 2 students, it translates to about $10 a week, for a personalized tutoring session. That makes it worthwhile, AND my kids benefit from feedback from someone else.
Anyway, all the coaches we’ve had have been just what my kids needed at the time. My son, last year, was willing to walk over hot coals to please his coach, who was TOUGH. This year he is ridding his writing of boring verbs. He has said this year’s coach is too easy! My daughter has produced some amazing papers over the past two years also. Her wimpy writing now has more pizzazz.
My questions are, how many students are registered for WAH, and about how many students does each coach have?