U.S. College Writing Seminar
Work directly with Ivy League Teaching Fellows and Writing Instructors to improve your analytical academic writing skills!
Modeled on the freshman writing seminars at Yale University, the U.S. College Writing Seminar provides students with the essential writing skills to succeed in U.S. high school and college:
Reading and
analyzing a text.
Using
secondary
sources.
Developing
a thesis.
Providing
evidence.
Making an
argument.
Master Essential Writing Skills
Program Structure
Meet some of our writing instructors with elite credentials




Jason Stevens
Assistant Professor, English, Harvard
Ph.D., English, Columbia
MPhil, English, Columbia
BA, English, Haverford
Shaun Halper
Post-Doctoral Associate, Yale
Ph.D., History, UC Berkeley
BA, History and Art History, Columbia
Nicole Richards
Ph.D. Candidate, American Studies, USC
MA, African American Studies, Columbia
BA, English Literature, Penn
Joanna Smolenski
PhD Candidate, Philosophy, CUNY
BA, Philosophy, Columbia

Shannon Beddingfield
Ph.D. Candidate, English Literature, Yale
MA, Middle Age Studies, Yale
BA, OSU
Check out some of the novels past students have read throughout the seminar.










Night
by Elie Wiesel
Animal Farm
by George Orwell
The Crucible
by Arthur Miller
The Outsiders
by S. E. Hinton
The Stranger
by Albert Camus
Stargirl
by Jerry Spinelli
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck
The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe
Topic 1: Close Reading: How to Analyze Primary Sources
Topic 2: Generating a Research Topic
Topic 3: Developing a Thesis Statement
Topic 4: How to Outline a Research Essay
Topic 5: From General Outline to Detailed Outline (Or: How to Select Quotes)
Section 1: Producing a Framework
Section 2: Writing Your Research Paper
Topic 6: Transition Sentences and Topic Sentences
Topic 7: Block Quote Paragraphs
Topic 8: Paraphrased Quote(s) Paragraph
Topic 9: Contextualization "Paragraph"
Topic 10: Introduction and Conclusion Paragraphs
Topic 11: Editing
One-on-one writing seminar: 16 sessions.
Team-based writing seminar: 12 sessions, with a maximum of 10 students in each seminar.