Essentials for Writing is designed for students in middle school and high school who are at risk of failing to meet high school graduation requirements in English Language Arts. The program consists of 95 lessons designed to teach essential skills for learning to write, as well as the complex behaviors needed to compose: narrative passages, stories with a specific theme, descriptive essays, autobiographical sketches and biographies, responses to literature, and persuasive arguments and position papers.

The program is appropriate for middle and high school students who have completed Expressive Writing, Reasoning and Writing, or who have passed the placement criteria. Students should be able to read at least at a fourth-grade level, write basic paragraphs, and copy words at a rate of at least 15 words per minute.