Writing Program -Overview

Finding one’s voice and joining the conversation with humanity about meaning, purpose, and happiness is one of the most important goals of life--and of a Chesterton education. That is why the primary skills of reading, thinking, speaking, and writing are an integral focus of the academic program and permeate throughout the curriculum. The strength of the classical model is that the courses work together, not separately, to achieve this goal. This interdisciplinary approach creates an exponential, symphonic experience for the students that is engaging, efficient, rewarding, and enjoyable. This interdisciplinary approach can be seen very specifically in our writing curriculum. Rather than isolated writing assignments reflecting varied styles and formats, the Chesterton writing curriculum offers an integrated and consistent four-year program that builds slowly and deliberately without assumptions, dividing the skill of writing into its component pieces. To this end, the Chesterton curriculum adopts the writing program from the Institute for Excellence in Writing(IEW)and teaches the program throughout the freshmen and sophomore year. This program, which follows the rhetorical model of Aristotle and Cicero, allows for a gradual, thorough writing curriculum that provides challenge to the advanced student, accelerated success to the average high school writer, and, at the same time, remediation for students with emerging skills.