Strong English, But Low Essay Scores? What’s Missing

Emily—Canadian PhD, university-level academic writing instructor

• PhD in social science (Canada)
• 30+ years of university-level English writing instruction
• Years teaching academic writing to Canadian high school and university students
• Specializes in academic writing, literary analysis, and essay coaching

Many high schoolers actually have solid English—their reading, vocabulary, and grammar are all fine—but the moment they write an essay, the same problems appear: the thesis isn’t clear, paragraphs don’t connect, the structure is loose, the analysis stays on the surface, and lots of writing never adds up to a real argument. This usually isn’t a “not good enough at English” problem; it’s that academic writing ability hasn’t been built yet. By Grade 10–11, essay writing is no longer about writing smooth sentences—it’s about learning to organize a piece, make an argument persuasive, read deeper meaning from a text, and express it all clearly. This English session focuses on exactly that gap: what separates “can write English sentences” from “can write an essay with a point, a structure, and real analysis.”

Best for Grade 10–11 students—especially those whose English is already solid but whose essay scores don’t reflect it, and who want to move from writing correct sentences toward writing structured, well-argued, analytical essays.