• Grades 6-8
• TIP Talent Search participant price: $65.00
• Guest price: $92.00
• Semesterlong online course; student must independently purchase required text

Now an online course with updated content that incorporates lessons about writing for online media!

Feeling adventurous? Then accept the challenge and depart on The Writer's Journey. Slay the dragons of dull language and disorganization so you can seize the treasure: writing that grabs your readers' attention with well-chosen details. On this journey, you will delve into concepts such as vivid diction, controlling purpose, audience awareness, and lively voice while studying examples of descriptive, expressive, and narrative writing in the accompanying Mercury Reader for Developing Writers (sold separately). Practice skills with writing topics of personal interest while meeting national standards. Experience eight stages of the writer's journey (including prewriting, drafting, and editing) as you write sensory descriptions, comparisons, dialectical journals, poems, autobiographical incidents, and short stories. Learn how to blog, query publishers and agents, and write a professional email.  With the help of an accompanying Web site, your mentor can assist you using additional guidelines, answer keys, and supplementary materials.

Get a year of intensive writing and literature study by buying this course and The Reader 's Journey, Volume 1. Price: $110 (TIP Talent Search participant); $155 (Guest). Buy now

Get two years of advanced writing study by buying this course and The Writer's Journey, Volume 2. Price: $110 (TIP Talent Search participant); $155 (Guest). Buy now

Required text (student must purchase independently)

• The Mercury Reader for Developing Writers, a collection specially arranged for Duke TIP users only available at Pearson Education for about $34.00. To order by phone, call (800) 947-7700. You must refer to ISBN-10 0536143803 when you place the order.

Recommended materials

For the final unit, a handbook on grammar and sentence variety is recommended. This handbook is also used for The Writer's Journey, Volume 2.

Click on the textbook title to see availability and prices at various online booksellers.

• The Art of Styling Sentences (4th edition), by Ann Longknife, Ph.D., & K.D. Sullivan. ISBN 0764121812

Other handbooks of style can be substituted, such as:

• Barron's Painless Grammar ISBN-10 0812097815
• Grammar for Middle School: A Sentence-Composing Approach—A Student Worktext by John Killgallon and Jenny Killgallon. ISBN-10 0325009562
• The Little, Brown Compact Handbook (5th edition), by Jane E. Aaron. ISBN 0321104951
• The Elements of Style Illustrated (4th edition), by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. ISBN-10 1594200696

System requirements