Learn

A book, not a course

Thirty-one chapters on four shelves, about two hours of reading. Each of the nine kinds of essay opens with its own shape drawn out paragraph by paragraph, and the prose is commentary on that figure.

Nothing is locked and nothing unlocks anything
Worked examples, already answered, with every reason shown
Twenty-eight figures, drawn rather than photographed
The nine kinds use the names a real assignment will use

Write

Paper, and two hands

US Letter at 1:1, as many sheets as you fill. The Apple Pencil and the keyboard write on the same page: ink is ink, typed passages are typed, and neither is ever converted into the other.

Plain, ruled or grid paper; white page or black
Typed text steps over the page seam instead of straddling it
Folders, optional and flat, and nothing filed by default
Share it, or save a copy as a PDF - text stays selectable

You don't need an iPad to learn

The teaching half of Penmark is just writing, and writing reads fine in a browser. The whole book is on this site, free, in full, with every figure and every worked example - no account, no sign-up, nothing held back for the app. The iPad adds the paper; it does not add the lesson.

shelf 1 · 3 chaptersStart here shelf 2 · 9 chaptersThe kinds of essay shelf 3 · 14 chaptersThe craft shelf 4 · 5 chaptersThe placement essay

Start reading

What is actually in it

The nine kinds of essay

Argumentative, compare & contrast, cause & effect, definition, descriptive, illustration, narrative, process, and classification & division - the names an assignment will use.

Every shape drawn out

Each kind opens with a figure: the paragraphs in order, what each one is for, the moves inside it, and the one thing that breaks the shape.

Worked examples, not quizzes

Every option is already marked with the reason it works or does not. Nothing is scored, because nothing here is a test.

One page, both hands

Handwriting over typed text, typed text under handwriting, on one continuous sheet with a single undo stack.

A real PDF

Typed passages are exported as text, not as a picture of text, so the file stays selectable, searchable and sharp. The page is always white in the PDF, whatever you wrote on.

Optional iCloud

Off until you turn it on. When it is on, your pages sync through your own private iCloud - not through any server of ours, because there isn't one.

penmark.