TheHomeSchoolMom may earn affiliate commissions from purchases made using links on curriculum reviews pages. Read our full disclosure.
Institute for Excellence in Writing is DVD based instruction that provides videos of actual writing instruction. The course includes workbooks. Each level is good for one to two years of instruction. Courses are offered to train instructors to teach students, actual writing instruction for students or combination packs.
Website: Institute for Excellence in Writing
Post Your Review »
(10 Reviews)
Before investing in any homeschooling resources, please read "How to Choose the Best Homeschool Curriculum."
Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
I am very impressed by Mr Pudwa and his system! I am looking forward to teaching my daughter some new techniques.
The Student Intensive DVD sets are still available secondhand on ebay. Do these DVDs have all you need to complete the course? Is there a file to printout on the discs?
I take the note the the current IEW Stucture SS courses are considered OK but the older courses are still quite relevant.
~ thanks
My children have gone from have NO writing skills to being proficient due to IEW materials and workshops. I highly recommend all their materials.
Cons: More expensive than other options.
Grades Used: Student Writing Intensive B (Middle School)
Can you remember being told to write a story or a report and looking at a blank page with your mind equally blank? IEW removes that problem by providing students with stories and reports to emulate while it teaches them techniques to improve their writing. My daughter loves to write, and her papers are now much better than the sources the program provides. My son's idea of paper was one run-on sentence, and he now turns in multiple paragraphs with three or more sentences per paragraph. I believe they have made at least three - five grade levels of improvement - all while actually enjoying the lessons. What more could you ask for?
Cons: Other products are extremely disappointing
Grades Used: 8-10
Andrew Pudewa is fabulous and has really nailed it on his writing courses. I have purchased the Structure and style parenting videos, the Student Writing Intensive c and the C continuation course.
Truthfully, the Structure and Style I did not use much. It was far too time consuming and he covered the same stuff in the courses. The Student courses C were fabulous! My kids LOVED watching him and enjoyed writing. He teaches simple, hack school, formulas to write exceedingly well! We have learned so much through these courses and would highly recommend! I wish we had started with it sooner.
We have also tried the Literature Analysis Windows on the World program
The information itself was very interesting and overall we thoroughly enjoyed the course but it is SOOOO hard to use! It is meant for a literature teacher who is already familiar with this stuff. Not a parent! I basically had to read the student books to my kids so we could understand. It was just very difficult to use. Overall, I would recommend it because it is extremely thorough and covers very interesting information. so I would recommend it but beware that it is really hard to use! Plan on buying an extra student book just so you can help your kids understand!
Speech Boot Camp: very deceiving... you buy it and then have to print out the student books. at the price, it should come with them. It was BORING and although it had some great tips in it we hated it! Not worth the money.
Lemonade to Leadership: AWFUL! would NOT recommend.
IEW itself is great, don't buy the overpriced old, difficult to use Structure and style. just the student Writing Intensive and Continuation course and buy the Literature, but be prepared to struggle using it.
I wouldn't recommend anything else they offer. Very hard to use and deceivingly overpriced especially when you have to print all the student books.
Cons: Can be labor intensive to help a struggling writer
Grades Used: 4-9
I see writing as a marathon rather than a sprint and IEW is helping me run that marathon step by step. The thing that intrigued me most about IEW when I heard about it from a friend was that the curriculum seemed to address the common problem for the student of What do I write about? And, perhaps more importantly, for the teacher, How do I grade something that seems so subjective?
Okay, my experience is very limited, but from what I have seen most of the writing cue materials you find in early years are focused on creative writing. Then, magically almost, in higher grades, the kids are supposed to be putting together well-written reports and persuasive essays etc. I guess I am missing something but I don’t get that.
There are two parts of writing – content and structure.
In early years kids don’t have a lot of life experience yet to draw on in order to come up with much original content. Yet there seems to be an emphasis on creative writing these days. This is precisely why when asked to write an essay with minimal guidance on a topic a young child might stare at a blank paper for quite a while. In later years, they obviously have more information to process, as well as life experience to frame it in. If only they can begin to learn the structure of good writing in the earlier years, so that by the time they are more mature and have more original content they can “marry” the two. I believe that is what IEW strives to do.
Writing instruction was a struggle for our oldest daughter. Then, we were introduced to IEW and our daughter had the blessing of taking a class at a local co-op to learn the program. We found the History-based writing lessons (Ancient and, now, Medieval) very helpful. It teaches, in a very logical and structured way, the art of writing (with the bonus of history). I didn't know if she would ever "get it" when it came to writing, but now she KNOWS how to put together a paper! We plan on continuing with IEW writing lessons for our other children when they get older. We also love the Phonetic Zoo which helps older children to pick up their spelling skills with audio help. Primary Arts of Language- Reading and Writing are wonderful for hands-on instruction for younger children. My kids especially love the "Phonetic Farm" where you place stickers of a particular phonogram after learning it. Enjoy!
Grades Used: 4th-12th
I have used a multitude of writing products from IEW and have had great success with my children. I have a struggling learner who has become a very proficient writer over three years of using IEW. I attended a High School Intensive Essay Course with my Senior last year that has given her great success in her college English course this year. I myself learned to write with my struggling son and was able to becoming a director for my organization thanks to my ability to write essay for the application for the director position. I really couldn't think of a con to this program. It's the best thing I have found in 18 years of homeschooling.
My son took a one-day course using the IEW Essay Intensive. I would not have paid to do the course on our own, as it's pretty expensive for one. But in a group, we spread out the cost of the DVDs.
Andrew Pudwa, the speaker, was engaging and humorous. My son learns well with those types of lectures. The students completed a "pre-test" writing essay, then critiqued them as they learned. At the end of the day, they did a "post-test" essay to see how their writing had improved.
I won't know the effectiveness of this course until my son repeats the SAT with essay in January. If I see improvement from his last SAT essay scores, then I'll know it was effective.
The supplemental materials were good, but a bit boring with just black and white texts. Diagrams, side bars, etc., would have helped visually.
The one thing I did not enjoy about the videos is that they were recorded from a live lecture to a classroom. My son and I would have much preferred a lecture in front of a camera, speaking directly to the students, rather than feeling like an outsider at a private lecture.
I love it because it has not only taught me how to teach my children writing but has improved my writing. My children do it but find the DVD presentation a little boring.
Until finding this writing program, teaching writing was a difficult task. I found myself pulling my hair out and the children becoming frustrated because I could not break the steps down into learnable pieces. SWI & SICC give us the structure, tools, and motivation to learn how to not only write, but write well. The video lessons make the assignements clear and the checklists help the student keep track of his progress. The checklists also aid the teacher in correcting the students work. IEW recommends that you purchase both TWSS & SIW combo packs, but for those who can not afford the combo, you can still teach the SIW & SICC as long as you watch the video lessons with your child. This is the first writing course that my children have completed, with wonderful results. I highly recommend IEW no matter what age, or how many children you have. The real beauty of this program is that you can incorporate the writing assignments into other subjects(like Science or History) that you are already learning.