Time4Writing offers a series of 8 week online writing courses taught by certified teachers. From the basics of sentence structure to writing a research paper, the courses are designed to help elementary, middle and high school students build skills and master the art of writing at all levels.
Certified teachers provide one-on-one instruction and assign a weekly topic for study using an easy to use online system. Students simply log in and work through the automated exercises, lessons, readings, and written assignments at their own pace. Then, their personal writing teacher reviews and provides feedback on each assignment the day after it is submitted.
The online writing courses start daily and include:
- Elementary Writing Courses:
- Beginning Grammar
- Basics of Sentence Structure
- Introduction to Paragraph Writing
- How to Write an Essay
- Middle School Writing Courses:
- Mechanics of Writing
- Writing Enhancement
- Powerful Paragraph Writing
- Basic & Advanced Essay Writing
- High School Writing Courses:
- Grammar, Usage and Mechanics
- High School Paragraph Writing
- High School Essay Writing
- Essay Writing for the SAT
Visit Time4Writing to browse their courses, meet their teachers or sign up. They offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Before investing in any homeschooling resources, please read
"How to Choose the Best Homeschool Curriculum."
Cons: Not good for improving your writing, not very user-friendly, high price, mixed teacher feedback, hypocritical teacher feedback
Grades Used: 11th grade
I took the course High School Essays the summer before my junior year and had a lot of complaints.
Firstly, the website is not very user friendly for students. It looks a bit outdated and I believe there should be more hyperlinks to get to where you want to be.
Second, this is not a good course for improving your writing. I took this course because I wanted to get A papers and have previously only been receiving B and B+ grades. However, in high school almost all essays are literature-based, and the feedback I received was sub-par. I would make all the corrections my teacher pointed out, only to get a B or even C grade.
Furthermore, multiple times my teacher would give me feedback, I would correct everything she pointed out, and with the final grade she would point out new corrections I should have made, despite her never pointing them out to me in the first place!
Also, the 24 hour wait for your work to be returned (either with feedback or a final grade) is plain annoying, Everyone has days where they can’t start their work until later at night, and this system means one can’t catch up at all. I personally believe they should make 24 hours a guarantee, not a guideline.
This website also stresses quantity over quality. I understand it is important to follow proper structure, however it honestly feels like they don’t care about what you say or whether your persuasion essay is even persuading. I honestly feel like it only depends on whether you followed the exact structure they provide: One topic sentence, one sentence that introduces point, one sentence that explains point. one sentence that introduces point, one sentence that explains point. one sentence that introduces point, one sentence that explains point. concluding sentence. This also means I won’t be able to improve my essays so much as just learn once again how to write an essay.
Honestly, coming directly from a student who took this course and used this site, it’s a waste of money.
Cons: price is high, wish they covered more grammar
Grades Used: 5th
I really love this program. My son has several learning disorders. One of them being a writing disorder. At age 10 in the 5th grade, I enrolled him in Elementary Sentences. He has learned a lot and we’re almost done, so I’m going to enroll him in Elementary Paragraphs, b/c he has never written one, and despite being taught numerous times in numerous ways, he has no clue what a paragraph is.
Cons: You can't customize it at all. I had to use something else for Literature and Analysis.
Grades Used: 6th, 9th
We started with the GUM course as a tool for my dd to update her grammar skills in preparation for CLEP testing and writing. Then we moved to the SAT Essay writing course which was wonderful. It improved my daughter’s writing tenfold. However, we did end up having to extend the course as it was a lot of work for 8 weeks.
I really liked it compared to other writing programs we have tried (WriteGuide.com – that had no redlining of papers, San Diego Scribblers which didn’t have a clear definition of grade/age ability, IEW and Brave Writer which are all good, but not as quick and dirty and well laid out as Time4Writing was for our purposes).
What I liked:
Easy Setup and Ordering.
Can start right away.
Clearly defined Lesson Planned.
Clearly visual detection of where your kid is and the grade.
No bones curriculum.
What I wished they had more of:
Literature Based Analysis writing course
I will use them again for my younger son. My older dd got what she needed with the GUM and SAT Essay Writing courses.
Cons: None so far.
Grades Used: 7th
We have been homeschooling since 2005. It didn’t take us long to figure out that we were not fans of workbooks and textbooks, and we preferred just about *everything* on computers, lol.
We have been very satisfied with our core curriculum and the supplemental websites that we have been using. But a while ago, my 12 year old started getting more and more interested in creative writing. He was writing his own short stories and really getting into it. Unfortunately, we noticed that while what he was trying to say was great, he did need some help with getting it all out there and out there correctly.
Knowing that we needed to help him with his writing skills, and knowing that we were going to want an online program to do so, we set out to find an online writing program. We found Time4Writing.
The first course my son took was the Middle School Mechanics. Studying grammar, punctuation, structure, subjects, etc…it was exactly what he needed to start off with. He reports via the website, to a certified teacher who is basically acting as an online writing tutor. This is great for him, because it gives him accountability to someone other than mommy and daddy for a change.
Logging in and getting started each day is very easy. When he gets to his main page, he sees everything in the course. The lessons are numbered so he sees at what point in the eight week course he will work on something. He sees what he has viewed, what he has submitted and what has been graded.
Each day he submits an assignment, the following morning when he logs in he has feedback from his teacher. She is very clear in the corrections she instructs him to make, and is very encouraging.
I was initially worried about adding something to his homeschool day. We are very relaxed and don’t really follow a schedule, but I didn’t know how he would respond to additional work. When I asked him about the program, his exact words were “I love it!” The middle school level is not cartoonish or childish. It’s straight to the point, and he appreciates that. He even said he’s looking forward to the next course, and when I asked if he wanted to take one over the summer, he said he wouldn’t mind.
I would absolutely recommend Time4Writing to other homeschoolers.