Essentials in Writing

Essentials in Writing is a video-taught, workbook-supported composition program covering grades 1 through 12, built around former public-school English teacher Matthew Stephens delivering each lesson on camera. It solves the most common homeschool writing problem, "I don't know how to teach this", better than most competitors, without claiming to be a literary boot camp.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Subject-specialist / video-taught / workbook-supported
Worldview	Christian-ecumenical (functionally secular in framing)
Grades	1-12
Formats	Streaming video + print or PDF workbook
Cost tier	Standard
Parent intensity	2
ESA-common	Yes (varies by state)
Accredited	No
Established	2010
Website	essentialsinwriting.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	3	Solid college-prep adequacy; not honors- or AP-stretching
Ease of teaching	5	The teacher is in the box; parent runs the schedule, not the lesson
Content quality	4	Clear, well-sequenced, undramatic, the way good composition instruction should be
Flexibility	4	Works as standalone or grammar add-on; pairs cleanly with most LA programs
Value for money	4	Per-grade pricing competitive; bundling adds up at high school
Worldview scope	5	Functionally secular framing; usable across worldview families
Visual/design	3	Plain workbooks; functional, not beautiful
Support resources	4	Stable publisher, responsive customer service, mature catalog

Who the publisher is

Essentials in Writing was founded in 2010 by Matthew Stephens, a former public-school English teacher in Sullivan, Missouri, who began recording his own composition lessons after a request from a homeschool family. The company has remained closely held and family-operated; Stephens still teaches every grade-level course personally, which gives the catalog an unusual continuity of voice. There is no committee here. There is one English teacher who has spent fifteen years teaching writing on camera.

The company's primary product is a year-long writing course at each grade level from 1 through 12. A companion line, Essentials in Literature, covers grades 7 through 12 and provides literature analysis built around mainstream canonical selections. A grammar program, Essentials in Grammar, runs grades 3 through 8 for families who want explicit grammar instruction outside the writing course. The three together constitute a full middle- and high-school language arts package; many families use the writing course alone and pair it with grammar from another publisher.

Stephens is a Christian operating in a Christian-friendly homeschool market, but the program does not carry doctrinal content in the way that Abeka, BJU Press, or Sonlight do. Sample passages are mainstream literary, occasionally drawn from history or biography; there are no scripture references, no devotional sidebars, and no providentialist framing of writing topics. The program is widely used by secular, Catholic, Jewish, and non-religious families without modification. Cathy Duffy's review of Essentials in Writing corroborates this read: she categorizes the program as broadly suitable across worldview households.

The core pedagogy

Essentials in Writing is the homeschool-market version of what an experienced English department chair would call traditional composition pedagogy. Each grade level moves the student through a fixed sequence of writing forms, sentence structure, paragraph development, then narrative, expository, persuasive, descriptive, and research compositions at progressively greater length and complexity. The high school courses also work through the major essay forms a college freshman will be asked to produce: literary analysis, the argumentative essay, the timed essay, and a longer research paper.

The mechanism is gradual release. Stephens teaches the day's concept on video for five to fifteen minutes, models the skill with a worked example, then assigns a workbook task in which the student practices the same skill in their own writing. Over a unit of two to three weeks, the student produces a complete composition, first an outline, then a draft, then a revision, with the parent acting primarily as scheduler and reviewer rather than as instructor. A typical day runs thirty to forty-five minutes and consists of one short video and one workbook page.

Signature mechanics: (1) One teacher across grades. Because Stephens teaches every grade himself, the vocabulary, expectations, and stylistic conventions are consistent from third grade through twelfth. A student who uses Essentials in Writing for several years builds on the same scaffolding rather than restarting in a new framework each fall. (2) Brief videos, real practice. Lessons are short by design; the workbook does the heavy lifting. Families used to longer streaming-school lessons (Abeka Academy, BJU, Apologia video) often find the brevity disorienting until they realize the pedagogy expects student writing time, not seat time. (3) Modular structure. Writing, literature, and grammar are separate purchases. Families can mix and match. Essentials in Writing alongside Easy Grammar, for example, or alongside Lightning Literature for the high-school years.

A day in the life

A seventh-grader using Essentials in Writing 7 starts at 9:00 with the day's video. Stephens introducing, say, the second day of an expository paragraph unit. The video runs about ten minutes. The student then opens the workbook, completes the corresponding exercise (often a short outline or a single drafted paragraph), and submits the page to a parent for a brief review. Total time at the program: approximately thirty-five minutes. If the family also uses Essentials in Literature 7, the literature lesson runs as a separate block, typically in the afternoon, with similar pacing, short video, reading assignment, comprehension or analysis questions in the workbook.

A tenth-grader using Essentials in Writing 10 runs longer because the writing tasks are longer. Lessons remain ten to fifteen minutes on video, but the workbook expects a paragraph or essay-length response. The student typically spends forty-five to sixty minutes a day on writing across the week, with one or two days dedicated to revision rather than new content. The parent's role at the high-school level is reviewer and accountability partner rather than instructor; many families use the high-school course as the writing component of an otherwise self-directed schedule.

What they do exceptionally well

The teacher is the product, and the teacher is good. Stephens is calm, clear, and unhurried on camera. He does not perform; he teaches. For households where neither parent feels equipped to teach composition, or where the parent who is good at writing does not have the patience to teach it, this is the actual problem the program solves. The student does not need a parent who can explain a thesis statement; the program contains a teacher who already does.

Coherence across grades. Most homeschool families assemble writing instruction from three or four sources over twelve years, each with its own vocabulary and expectations. Essentials in Writing offers a single voice from grade 3 through 12, which compounds in value over time. A student who completes Essentials in Writing 9 begins Essentials in Writing 10 already familiar with Stephens's terminology, his outline format, and his rubric.

Reasonable, finishable assignments. Stephens does not over-assign. A weekly writing target in the middle grades is a single well-structured paragraph; in high school, a four- to six-paragraph essay every two to three weeks. Families often arrive at the program after burning out on more demanding writing curricula and find the pacing rebuilds the student's willingness to write.

Customer service and stability. The publisher answers email, attends the major homeschool conventions, and revises the catalog on a stable cadence. The video player is not flashy but works. Customer service complaints in homeschool forums are rare and usually resolved within a business day.

What they do poorly

Ceiling on rigor. A student finishing Essentials in Writing 12 will be prepared for first-year college composition at most institutions but will not have written at honors-level depth. The program does not include AP English Language or AP English Literature equivalents; families targeting selective admissions add a separate honors track, dual enrollment, or one of the more demanding programs (Lost Tools of Writing, Classical Composition, Excellence in Literature for the upper grades). This is not a failing. Stephens is honest about what the program is, but it is a limit.

Visual design. Workbooks are functional, not beautiful. The interior layout has not been substantially refreshed in several years and has the look of a program that prioritizes content over aesthetics. Families coming from The Good and the Beautiful or Beautiful Feet who value design polish find the contrast jarring.

Voice development is incidental. The program reliably produces students who can produce a clean, on-rubric five-paragraph essay. It does not reliably produce students with distinctive voice or stylistic maturity. Families whose goal is "my child is a writer" rather than "my child can write competently" need to add a voice-driven program (Bravewriter, a process-immersive workshop model, or a serious literature seminar) alongside or after Essentials in Writing.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Essentials in Writing if: you need a real teacher delivering composition instruction without you having to know how to do it; you want a single voice across grades; you have a reluctant or struggling writer who has burned out on more demanding programs; you want secular-friendly framing without doctrinal content; you want to mix and match grammar and literature from other publishers.

• Skip Essentials in Writing if: your goal is honors- or AP-level college admissions writing; you want classical Progymnasmata-style imitation and rhetoric; you want voice-and-process immersion of the Bravewriter variety; you want literature and writing to interlock around a literature-driven curriculum (Sonlight, Tapestry of Grace, Beautiful Feet); you dislike video-taught programs on principle.

Cost honest assessment

A grade-level Essentials in Writing bundle (streaming video access for twelve months plus the printed workbook and teacher handbook) runs approximately $99 to $129 per grade per year per the publisher's shop page as of April 2026. PDF-only versions run modestly less; physical workbooks run modestly more. Essentials in Literature is priced similarly per grade. A family stacking writing, literature, and grammar for one student in seventh grade pays roughly $230 to $290 for the year.

Compared to IEW's Structure and Style (roughly $189 for a single-level theme-based writing course plus a separate Structure and Style instructional set), Essentials in Writing is cheaper for the equivalent instructional surface area and substantially less parent-intensive. Compared to Bravewriter's Help for High School (roughly $109 for the writing component, with substantial parent involvement expected), Essentials in Writing trades depth of voice work for self-directed efficiency. Compared to Lightning Literature at the high-school level (roughly $40-$60 per study guide plus the literature texts), Essentials in Writing is more comprehensive but less literature-driven.

A realistic all-in family budget for one middle schooler using Essentials in Writing plus Essentials in Grammar runs $180 to $240 annually. For one high schooler using the full Essentials in Writing plus Essentials in Literature stack, $230 to $290 annually.

ESA eligibility notes

Essentials in Writing is approved on most state ESA marketplaces where curriculum is reimbursable. The program appears in the Step Up For Students MyScholarShop catalog (Florida), in ClassWallet's Arizona ESA approved-vendor lists, and is reimbursable on Iowa's Student First and West Virginia's Hope Scholarship programs as a curriculum purchase. Because the program's content is functionally secular, it does not face the religious-materials restrictions some states apply to overtly Christian curricula. Families should verify program eligibility within their specific state marketplace before ordering, as ESA approved-vendor lists rotate annually.

Alternatives

• IEW Structure and Style, a family would choose IEW over Essentials in Writing because IEW's Structure and Style framework imposes a more rigorous compositional skeleton and produces students who can imitate and outline complex prose with greater discipline.
• Bravewriter, a family would choose Bravewriter over Essentials in Writing because Bravewriter is process- and voice-immersive, treats writing as an act of art rather than mechanics, and works better for the family that wants writing to be an enjoyed practice rather than a daily exercise.
• Writing with Skill / Susan Wise Bauer, a family would choose Writing with Skill over Essentials in Writing because the Bauer sequence is denser, more demanding, and more aligned with classical-education expectations for honors-track college admissions.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed Essentials in Writing's published course descriptions, sample lessons, and pricing pages at essentialsinwriting.com in April 2026. We cross-referenced against Cathy Duffy Reviews and the HSLDA publisher directory. We reviewed several of Stephens's free preview lessons available on the publisher's site, examined the table of contents for grades 5, 8, and 11 across the course catalog, and verified pricing on the publisher's shop pages. Prices and program details verified April 2026.