Students will be introduced to the foundations of persuasive writing: supporting a claim with reasons and a variety of examples, considering the audience, and addressing the counterargument.  Using these concepts, students will also review main aspects of academic writing, focusing on effective introductions, sound thesis statements, strong topic sentences, appropriate elaboration, and successful conclusions.  Special attention will be given to grammar issues regarding the comma with a focus on increasing sentence variety with compound and complex sentence structures.  Students will gain confidence in self-editing and revising for both content and clarity.