Presenting Applerouth’s Guide to Writing

We’re here to help you be a stronger writer.

Of all the subjects you study in high school, you will utilize few as consistently as writing. Regardless of your college major and future profession, being a strong writer will help you more easily communicate. Confidently and comfortably putting exactly what you want to say down onto paper (or in a Google Doc) is a skill you will employ your entire life.

As important as writing is, it can often be a difficult discipline to learn. We get that and we’ve worked with countless students who find writing downright frustrating and stressful. But it doesn’t have to be.

That’s why we’ve put our approach to writing in one accessible (and engaging!) new book. Our team, led by writing expert Matthew Kiesner, published Applerouth’s Guide to Writing, our 4th printed Applerouth educational guide.

We talked to Matthew about our new book:

What was your inspiration for putting together Applerouth's Guide to Writing?

More and more, writing is an essential skill for success. This is especially true as we move towards more remote employment, where written communication will be a primary way of communicating with our bosses. For all of its practical application, writing instruction in many schools has not caught up. At Applerouth, we've offered writing tutoring for a very long time and our new writing curriculum empowers students to grow no matter where they start.

What can you tell us about the structure of the book?

The Applerouth’s Guide to Writing offers five units, each focused on a type of writing (narrative, informational, argumentative), a big picture topic (main idea, organization) and a grammatical skill (clauses, modifiers). A natural struggle with writing instruction is to focus on all things all at once. Nothing is more demoralizing to a developing writer than to receive a paper back covered in red ink. The structured approach to this curriculum keeps the focus on a few essential skills at a time to help avoid the "everything-all-at-once" type of feedback that can be overwhelming.

Who do you think would benefit from reading this book?

While writing this curriculum, I tried to make it useful for a wide range of students. I think that students as young as 5th grade and all the way up to college can learn fundamental writing skills and gain experience with this curriculum.

What’s the writing tip in the book that you have benefitted the most from?

Don't forget to return to prior writings and revise them. Reviewing and revising your own writing is one of the best ways to foster growth. To that end, the curriculum includes call backs to prior assignments to encourage students to revise their work by focusing on specific skills.

Thanks, Matthew!

Along with our new Guide to Writing, we’re hosting a free webinar event titled “How to Become A Stronger Writer” on Tuesday, October 18th at 8:00pm EDT / 5:00pm PDT. Led by Matthew Kiesner himself, the seminar will focus on practical skills that will improve your writing. You can follow this link to sign up now!

Here’s a clip from a similar seminar Matthew gave in June talking about “Writing with Purpose.”

No matter what you’re studying, being a stronger writer will help you succeed. We can’t wait to support you on this educational journey! Book a 15-min call with one of our Program Advisors to learn more about working with an Applerouth writing tutor.