Sept. 9th - December 9th, 2026

No class Oct 20th or Nov 24th (Fall and Thanksgiving Break)

This class is typically for students in 9th-12th grade, often ages 14-17.

This is the first super hero story ever told. With daring disguises, delicate intrigue, agonizing misunderstanding between a man and his wife, and many lives on the line, The Scarlet Pimpernel, ever elusive, must avoid capture at all cost in order to rescue the many French prisoners of the Revolutionary party. Unless they can reach safety, the guillotine awaits! In the balance, one heart sick woman must find the true identity of this hero, or lose her brother forever. This classic tale is full of adventure and danger, love, and frustration. The writing instruction focuses on advanced level 5-paragraph essays with proper MLA citations, editing and revision skills for high school level writers, and various essay types.

Reading and essay writing (advanced)

Skills Needed to Succeed in this Class

• Prerequisite: Advanced Writing Foundations for ALL new students.

• Able to read complex novels with challenging vocabulary and mature content

• Practices the following study skills: 

  ○ Novel annotations and charting 

  ○ Summarizing 

  ○ Note-taking 

• Familiar with literary analysis writing and correctly weaving quotes into essay

• Shows a degree of mastery writing a 3 body paragraph essay and is ready to consistently write 5 paragraph essays 

• Ready to learn how to write a research paper 

• Shows evidence of time management skills 

• Able to complete 5-6 hours of homework weekly

Skilled Learned in this Class

• Fully developing a topic by writing multiple paragraphs 

• Following the essay format of an introduction with a hook, a strong thesis, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph 

• Providing specific examples from the novel to support assertions

• Explaining the examples with insightful literary analysis, using concrete details and supporting commentary sentences 

• Creating quality sentences by including many stylistic elements including strong vocabulary, varied sentence structure and length with proper punctuation, and adding figurative elements. 

NOTE: At the Advanced Level, at least one semester each school year, students will be required to write a research paper for their enrichment project. The research paper will in some way be related to the novel they are studying.

Other Class Details

12 weeks

Class meets for 2 hours per week. 

Maximum class size 15 students.

Supplies: pencil, paper, class novel (see Study Book), TWJ Writing Foundations Handbook

Gmail account to access Google Classroom and communicate with instructor

The Scarlet pimpernel

by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

ISBN 13-978-0451527622

Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/47vA1Jo

This is the first super hero story ever told. With daring disguises, delicate intrigue, agonizing misunderstanding between a man and his wife, and many lives on the line, The Scarlet Pimpernel, ever elusive, must avoid capture at all cost in order to rescue the many French prisoners of the Revolutionary party. Unless they can reach safety, the guillotine awaits! In the balance, one heart sick woman must find the true identity of this hero, or lose her brother forever. This classic tale is full of adventure and danger, love, and frustration. 

For families that pay out-of-pocket for homeschooling classes, The Write Journey, LLC offers a discount of 10% for those classes. Use code “PRIVATEPAY” during check out to apply discount. This offer cannot be combined with any other discounts. The reduced rates for private-pay individuals may be used by students enrolled in charter schools, but only if the family chooses to pay for the goods or services out-of-pocket.

Venmo, PayPal, or Check? Use code “PERSONAL” during check out to change the class cost to $0. After you complete the registration process, please send us your payment. Venmo @TheWriteJourney-Cordell PayPal (Friends & Family) – info@thewritejourney.net

Paying with Charter School Funds? Use code “CHARTER” during check out to change the class cost to $0. After completing the registration process, contact your charter school to order vouchers/purchase orders in three one-month payments. Contact us for assistance if you plan to use charter funds and do not find The Write Journey (or Writing with Kris or Kris Cordell) on your charter school’s vendor list.

To pay with a check, contact us at 916.696.1759.

Cancellation Policy:

Due to the administrative costs and preparations of The Write Journey team to prepare classes and offer reasonable class sizes of 8-16 students, we must charge a cancellation fee. Teachers typically begin communication 2 weeks before classes begin, and class schedules must be finalized in order to offer the correct number of spots open for families. 

A $25 cancellation fee will be charged up to 2 weeks prior to the start of the ordered class. Any time after 2 weeks prior to the start of class, the cancellation fee is one full month’s charge. For private pay families with more than 2 children, a flat rate of $50 will be charged.