Critical Thinking & Writing
At GWA we believe good writing is nothing more than good thinking written down. So, your journey begins with the development of core critical thinking and writing skills.
College Admissions
Elite colleges aren’t looking for a “well-rounded” student. They are looking for authentically interesting students with which they can construct a well-rounded class. Our College Essay Program teaches you how to prove that no class is complete without YOU.
Graduate Debt Free
The cost of college continues to rise, but the job market isn’t keeping up. Our Scholarship Program teaches you how to pay for college with merit-based scholarships that have no cap on how much you can win.
SAT/ACT scores are no longer automatic entrance tickets.
Who are We?
At GWA we teach Power Writing™. As distinct from creative writing, Power Writing™ is writing that brings about a desired result. It is writing that successfully makes a persuasive argument; it is writing that gains admission into top universities; it is writing that wins scholarships. Power Writing™ has form and structure, devices that make it more potent, elements essential to its efficacy. Power Writing™ confers agency. It enables the practitioner to set a goal and achieve it, chart a course with confidence and arrive as planned.
- Grow Your Confidence
- Activate Your Agency
- Discover Your Potential
- Write Your Future
Mission Statement
Writing matters and always will matter. We engage our world through words, sentences, and ideally coherent thought. As a result, in study after study effective writing skills are listed as the single most important skill for a successful life regardless of how you measure success.
Mastery over the way we communicate our ideas confers a tremendous feeling of self-worth and confidence. Conversely, when a blank page produces anxiety and paralysis, our possibilities are severely limited, our trajectory in life is curbed.
At GWA, we want every student to know that feeling of supreme confidence that results from wielding words effectively. We want every student to thrive. More specifically, we seek to engender in each student a sense of agency and personal advocacy.
Self-Advocacy
Personal statements and scholarship essays
are nothing more than opportunities for
self-advocacy. The better students learn to advocate
for themselves, the bigger the wins.
Self-Confidence
Confidence is everything. Insecurity can stop you
from even trying. Being able to express yourself instills
an insuppressible, life-altering level of self-confidence.
We want students to live life chin up.
The Commonplace Learning Method™
At GWA, we believe that the fastest way to learn how to write at a high level is learn from author who write at a high level.
Thomas Jefferson taught himself to write using a technique from the Renaissance called the Commonplace Book where he would capture excerpts from texts that he found both thought provoking and elegantly stated. He used these excerpts to hone his critical thinking skills as well as mimic their writing style ultimately culminating in the authoring of the Declaration of Independence. Our Commonplace Learning Method™ is based on this technique of engaging with thought provoking texts and mimicking the style of elegant prose to become a powerful writer.
Agency & Efficacy
Professor Albert Bandura taught us that agency is the ability to be intentional in bringing about desired results and efficacy is the belief that you have agency. You want to make the varsity soccer team, and you believe that if you practice regularly and rigorously you will indeed make the team. Intentions carry little weight without efficacy. You have to actually believe you have the ability to formulate a plan (e.g., graduate with honors). You then have to believe your plan will lead to a successful outcome.
Inadequate communication skills make us feel inadequate and insecure because when we establish connections through words, we win people to our cause with words, and we garner approval and validation with words. Weak writing skills narrow our path and shorten our horizon. Insecurity undermines agency. Agency and efficacy should be nurtured because we must believe in ourselves before anyone else will.
Private Coaching
One-to-One Private Coaching is available to students who want to hone their writing skills to a higher level of proficiency by starting earlier in their academic career. GPC begins the summer before the 10th grade and continues through the end of the 11th grade. Book a free consultation to begin customizing a program that is right for you. One-to-One Private Coaching is available to students who want to hone their writing skills to a higher level of proficiency by starting earlier in their academic career. GPC begins the summer before the 10th grade and continues through the end of the 11th grade. Book a free consultation to begin customizing a program that is right for you.
Harvard University
The lessons from Write to the Top profoundly influenced my writing and helped me adapt to collegiate-level expectations.
Johns Hopkins University
The techniques I learned in Write to the Top helped me write the honors thesis paper that got me into grad school.
USC
The tools and systems I learned from the Write To The Top writing course hugely aided in my path to receiving a full ride scholarship to USC.
Professor & Teacher Testimonials
New York University Law School
Write To The Top provides students with the precisely the type of preparation they need to write at the college level.