Fortuigence: An Online Writing Course For Teens

I have been, or can be if you click on a link and make a purchase, compensated via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value for writing this post. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

This post about Fortuigence: An Online Writing Course for Teens was made possible with the chance to review their Essay Rock Star Personal Statement Writing Course ($57)

Writing can be a challenging subject for a homeschool parent to teach.  In large part, that is due to the more subjective nature of grading a finished piece of work.  Yet, your child needs to have solid skills in place before finishing high school if they want to be successful when pursuing more advanced education. Even without a college degree, there is a need for good communication skills with writing being a part of it.  Thankfully, you can find a great online writing course for teens with Fortuigence.

About Fortuigence’s Online Writing Course

After spending more than a decade teaching in a traditional classroom, Lily Iatridis founded Fortuigence.  She sought to create an environment where students could have one on one feedback from their instructor, yet done with some flexibility for both the instructor and student as to when and where they complete their work.

The semester long Essay Rock Star writing program has four writing units and takes about four weeks to complete each unit.  We were provided with access to the Personal Statement Writing Course for the course of this review.  The focus  of this course is to write that dreaded  “tell us about yourself” portion of a college application. The teacher will help guide the student through the process so that the finished product is unique, lively and interesting.

Each of the units had a 5 step approach.

Step 1: Brainstorming

Step 2: Organization

Step 3: Free Writing

Step 4: Revision

Step 5: Editing

The course consists of a series of videos and pages to read online with assignments which are uploaded when completed.  Feedback is sent to the email on record (which could be the parent’s or the student’s.)

Fortuigence on Social Media

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fortuigence
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lilyiatridis
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+LilyIatridis and
https://plus.google.com/+Fortuigence1/posts
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/lilyiatridis
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/fortuigence

Our Thoughts about Fortuigence’s Online Writing Course

My senior is the one working through this class and he’s taking it at a snail’s pace.  He doesn’t mind reading the notes or watching the videos.  But, he has decided that the personal essay is by far the HARDEST thing to write.  My guess is that we’ve spent so much time trying to not toot our own horns around here that the idea of something focused strictly upon you seems quite foreign.

Yet, it is exactly that reason as to why I asked for the Personal Statement Writing Course as our review option.  He’s arrived at the moment in time when college applications need to be filled out and submitted.  And, the personal statement is a big part of the college application.   To be successful at this point will in part hinge upon his application and whatever writing he submits.  As a loving mother, I definitely want his story to stand out amid the crowd with some interesting stories included.

I was really hoping to have some of his writing for this to share.  However, he is not far enough along in the process to have something worth sharing.  Maybe in a few weeks he’ll have completed the course and I can share excerpts then.

Now, as for this homeschool mother’s opinion, I am impressed with what I’ve seen in this particular course.  Once you have purchased the class, you go to the classroom tab on the website to access the materials.  During the registration process, you can enter the student’s email address for communication.  I kept it set to my own email which meant that I could see the feedback rather than having to ask my son for it.

Once in the classroom,  you can see the lessons by topic as well as the assignment.  I took a peek at the videos and the brief write ups for the lessons he has done so far and found them well done.   We discovered that submitting the assignment is best done by going to the lesson and clicking through until it asks for the assignment.  There is an option to either type into a box OR upload a document.  P used the box for doing his brainstorming during lesson 2 and afterwards couldn’t recall what he’d sent.  Thankfully, you can go to that assignment from the left hand scroll menu and see what is there.  However, I did tell him to do everything off line and then cut and paste into the form for the future assignments OR just upload a pdf.

Did you struggle with writing your ‘tell me about yourself’ essays when applying to college?
Have you helped a teenager write their personal statement for college applications?
Does teaching writing to your child fill you with dread?

 

Don’t just take my word for how we found this to be.  Visit the Fortuigence post on the Schoolhouse Review Crew website to see what other homeschooling parents thought about this and other self-paced courses.