interactive essay writing

Free tools to make your students better writers and readers .

Quill.org, a non-profit, provides free literacy activities that build reading comprehension, writing, and language skills for elementary, middle, and high school students.

Writing Across the Curriculum: Quill's nonprofit mission is to now build both reading and writing skills through free, OER content across the curriculum. Over the coming years, we will be building a library of free ELA, social studies, and science activities that engage students in deeper thinking through writing prompts that provide immediate feedback.

9.1 million students have written 2 billion sentences on Quill.

Quill Reading for Evidence

Provide your students with nonfiction texts paired with AI-powered writing prompts, instead of multiple-choice questions, to enable deeper thinking.

Students read a nonfiction text and build their comprehension through writing prompts, supporting a series of claims with evidence sourced from the text. Quill challenges students to write responses that are precise, logical, and based on textual evidence, with Quill coaching the student through custom, targeted feedback on each revision so that students strengthen their reading comprehension and hone their writing skills.

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"Should Schools Have Grade Requirements for Student Athletes?"

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Social Studies Topics

U.S. History

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Quill Connect

Help your students advance from fragmented and run-on sentences to complex and well structured ones.

Using the evidence-based strategy of sentence combining, students combine multiple ideas into a single sentence. They then receive instant feedback designed to help them improve their clarity and precision.

Quill Lessons

The Quill Lessons tool enables teachers to lead whole-class and small-group writing instruction.

Teachers control interactive slides that contain writing prompts, and the entire class responds to each prompt. Each Quill Lessons activity provides a lesson plan, writing prompts, discussion topics, and a follow up independent practice activity.

Quill Diagnostic

Quickly determine which skills your students need to work on with our diagnostics.

The diagnostics cover vital sentence construction skills and generate personalized learning plans based on the student’s performance.

Quill Proofreader

Proofreader teaches your students editing skills by having them proofread passages.

Students edit passages and receive personalized exercises based on their results. With over 100 expository passages, Proofreader gives students the practice they need to spot common grammatical errors.

Quill Grammar

Students practice basic grammar skills, from comma placement to parallel structure.

Quill Grammar has over 150 sentence writing activities to help your students. Our activities are designed to be completed in 10 minutes so you have the freedom to use them in the way that works best for your classroom.

How Quill Works

Set up your classroom, without it.

You can quickly and easily set up your classroom in Quill by inputting student names or providing students with a unique code. If you use Google Classroom or Clever, you can automatically set up your classroom with one click.

Choose activities

Decide if you want your students to proofread passages, combine sentences, or complete a diagnostic. Use our ten minute activities as building blocks during your classroom instruction.

Use easy-to-consume reporting

Use our reporting to spot trends and identify growth opportunities. Monitor comprehension on specific writing standards.

Get immediate feedback for your students

Save time grading and watch your students correct their mistakes instantly.

Intervene where students struggle

See exactly where your students need intervention with our comprehensive reports.

Differentiate learning to meet the needs of all students

Assign specific activities for ELLs and students with learning differences.

Engage students with adaptive activities

Challenge students with questions that automatically adapt based on their previous responses.

Align with the Common Core Standards

Easily meet Common Core language standards with our aligned activities.

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With one click all of your students and classes will be imported.

Over 100 concepts totaling 50 hours of quality curriculum.

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The Online Writing Lab (the Purdue OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.

The On-Campus and Online versions of Purdue OWL assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue OWL serves the Purdue West Lafayette and Indianapolis campuses and coordinates with local literacy initiatives. The Purdue OWL offers global support through online reference materials and services.

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Introducing a Research-Based Writing Solution for Every Classroom

essaypop is an interactive writing platform that allows students to compose great essays on any device and in any subject.

Schools and districts start here

The Perfect Writing Solution for Schools and Districts

Many schools and districts lack a comprehensive approach to writing instruction, and their test scores reflect this. Essaypop allows teachers, instructional leaders, and administrators to take charge of how their students learn to write, and our experts support you every step of the way.

Essaypop integrates seamlessly and safely with any learning management system.

Why essaypop, our solution is really quite simple..

We create better writers with easy-to-understand writing templates and a highly-engaging writing environment.

Improve your writing scores now.

Students show demonstrable writing improvement within five to seven weeks when they use the platform consistently.

It's a powerful tool for every subject area.

Whether it’s ELA, science, math, or history, a single, affordable site license makes essaypop a practical, whole-school solution.

Meet The Platform That Breaks Writing Down for Students

Essaypop offers a kid-friendly, template-based writing interface that demystifies writing for students. It’s a structured and repeatable method that produces results quickly. Here's an example of a simple paragraph template:

Essaypop offers a kid-friendly, template-based writing interface that demystifies writing for students. It’s a structured and repeatable method that produces results quickly.

Learn more about frame writing

The Hive - Where Writing Becomes a Team Sport!

Students stay highly engaged as they collaborate in a social and interactive writing environment. Turning work into play converts even reluctant writers into enthusiastic participants.

Discover how the hive works

Track Student Progress in All Subjects With Our Assessment Tool

Students, parents, teachers, and instructional leaders receive real-time, actionable data.

Our assessment tool makes teachers’ jobs easier and saves them time. For this reason, essaypop is a platform that will actually get used.

Learn more about assessment

The Lesson Library Provides Targeted Practice for Every Subject

Essaypop offers a vast and engaging collection of lesson plans for every subject area. Teachers select from multiple grade levels, genres, and writing types, and the perfect lesson can be found within seconds.

Check out the library

Interested in a writing solution for your bilingual students and Spanish speakers?

Learn about beta testing our Spanish-language version of essaypop.

The Perfect Solution for Elementary School Writing Instruction

Moving younger students from sentence combining to paragraphing to short essay writing is easy when you have the right platform.

A Safe and Sound Solution

Our commitment to data privacy is perfectly clear: essaypop never sells or rents student data or permits advertising on its platform.

Check out our privacy policy

Don't Take Our Word for it.

Here's what our users have to say about essaypop:

Essaypop allows me to teach in a way that’s smart and systematic. My students immediately “get it”, and it’s completely eliminated their writer’s block.

7th Grade ELA Teacher

You can tell that teachers built this platform. It’s like they’ve read my mind. The technology is very user-friendly.

Javier Torres

10th Grade ELA Teacher

Because essaypop is social and interactive, our students love using it. They actually like writing and it’s showing up in our test scores. We’re sold.

William Baxter

Middle School Principal

This is the best writing tool I’ve discovered (and I’ve checked them all out). This platform makes sense and allows me to continue being creative in how I teach.

Mary Anne Hobart

6th Grade ELA Teacher

As a science teacher, I’ve been a little insecure when it comes to writing instruction. Essaypop takes the mystery away from my students and me. We’re even doing lab reports with the platform.

Doug Sullivan

9th Grade Science Teacher

We’ve been looking for a whole-school writing solution that will actually be used for a long time. With essaypop, we’ve found it.

Patricia Marquez

High School Instructional Coordinator

We originally purchased essaypop for our English teachers, but all of our teachers are now using it. It’s spread like wildfire!

Nancy Palladino

High School Principal

Essay Punch ® Online: An Interactive Writing Tutorial

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Introducing EssayPunch.com

As students advance, to improve essay writing skills they need in-depth support. They need to organize their thoughts and learn to clearly communicate their ideas in writing.

However, it can be challenging for teachers to provide personal attention to each pupil. This is where Essay Punch fits in.

Essay Punch takes users through the process of writing an essay. From pre-set writing prompts users learn to develop an idea and write their descriptive, informative and persuasive essays.

The site provides online interactive exercises that guide users step by step through pre-writing, writing, organizing, editing, rewriting, and publishing.

Why wait? This is the best time to add Punch to your writing skills. Follow the quick steps below and start writing now!

Start Writing Now!

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Smart Classroom Technologies

15 Online Resources That Help Improve Essay-Writing Skills

• By Julie Petersen

Throughout the journey from kindergarten to 12th grade, students are supposed to gain appropriate vocabulary and grammar skills that need to be successfully implemented into essay writing. Here are some effective online tools that can help you make the art of essay writing more attractive for your students.

1.  ReadWriteThink – Student Interactives

This page is a great source of interactive tools that help students accomplish various goals, from organizing their thoughts to learning about different aspects of the English language. Some of the most popular tools for grades K-12 include Story Map, Persuasion Map, Word Family Sort, Acrostic Poems, Trading Card Generator and Comic Creator. You can choose different tools based on the grade level, capabilities, student interactive type, theme, and learning objective. 

2.  Interactive Sites for Education

This website serves as a resourceful guide to English language arts topics. You can find educational, interactive games and simulations for grades K-5 in the categories of grammar, compound words, capitalization, phonemes and words, punctuation, poetry, reading and sight words, parts of speech, writing and rhyming. These activities work well with an interactive whiteboard. However, you can also recommend them for individual learning at home. 

3.  Graphic Organizers

Young students can hardly manage all the ideas they get if you leave them in front of a piece of paper and saying they should write an essay right away. The process requires pre-writing stages, where these graphic organizers will be of great help. Your students can use them as a way of putting their ideas and notes in order. Then, the actual writing stage will be much more focused. 

4.  Teach the Children Well – Language Arts

This website may not be that appealing in terms of design, but it’s a great base of resources that will help you become a better teacher. This is actually a collection of awesome articles related to writing. Every educator should spend time examining these resources as they progress through different teaching methods.

5.  Free Writing Resources

Time4Writing.com is mostly known for the eight-week online writing courses it offers. However, the website is also a great source of free resources in seven categories: teaching writing, writing skills, writing sentences, writing paragraphs, writing mechanics, writing essays and standardized-test writing.

6.  Guide to Grammar and Writing

This website offers comprehensive lessons on all aspects of English grammar and writing. You will easily locate all materials you need in the Index, which includes links to all resources of the Guide to Grammar and Writing, as well as Principles of Composition. This online source is like the grammar textbook you always wished to have. Now you can use it to make the lectures more accessible for your students.

7.  [Resource Removed by Editor]

This was a writing resource but has since morphed into an essay purchasing service, which THE Journal does not support or advocate.

8.  Essay Punch

Essay Punch is an interactive, online, essay-writing tutorial that takes students through all stages of the academic writing process. The guidance it offers is based on pre-set writing prompts and interactive exercises for the pre-writing, organizing, writing, editing and publishing stages.

9.  Teen Ink

This well-established magazine publishes high-quality essays and other written forms created by students. The categories at the website include nonfiction, poetry and fiction. There is no need to subscribe to the monthly print magazine; all you need to do is recommend the website as a source of inspiration. You can select some of the featured essays and read them in class in order to show great samples of academic content.

Your students will love this tool! Since they are always struggling to come up with a believable thesis statement, you can recommend the Thesis Builder, an automatic engine that launches a statement based upon the topic, opinions and supporting arguments the users provide in the form. Once they get the thesis, your students can proceed with the creation of an outline without looking for another online tool.

12.  Hemingway Editor

There is a rule about long, complex sentences: You can only use them if you know how. K-12 students rarely manage to handle complex sentence structure, but they still want to impress you with big words and endless arguments. When you want to emphasize the importance of clarity, use Hemingway as an example. This tool will highlight the common errors and long sentences that need corrections.

This tool tests the readability of a piece of writing according to a set of commonly used indicators. You can recommend it to your students as an editing aid that will help them improve the readability of their work before they submit it to you.

When you assign a specific word count for a piece of writing, you want your students to respect it. This tool will help them achieve that goal. It will not only provide them with a correct number of words in their essays, but will also enable them to locate repetitive words and phrases.

Referencing is certainly not the most exciting part of any writing assignment. Nevertheless, you cannot simply neglect all those details and citation rules. This tool provides instant citations in Chicago, Turabian, APA and MLA styles. Upon entering the appropriate parameters, the students get a properly formatted reference without any fuss.

About the Author

Julie Petersen is a tutor and a blogger who features the latest career and educational trends in her articles. She is working on her first e-book dedicated to online learning.

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Related resources.

Expository writing is an increasingly important skill for elementary, middle, and high school students to master. This interactive graphic organizer helps students develop an outline that includes an introductory statement, main ideas they want to discuss or describe, supporting details, and a conclusion that summarizes the main ideas. The tool offers multiple ways to navigate information including a graphic in the upper right-hand corner that allows students to move around the map without having to work in a linear fashion. The finished map can be saved, e-mailed, or printed.

• Student Interactives
• Strategy Guides
• Lesson Plans
• Calendar Activities

The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.

This Strategy Guide describes the processes involved in composing and producing audio files that are published online as podcasts.

This strategy guide explains the writing process and offers practical methods for applying it in your classroom to help students become proficient writers.

This strategy guide clarifies the difference between persuasion and argumentation, stressing the connection between close reading of text to gather evidence and formation of a strong argumentative claim about text.

Students will identify how Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of nonviolent conflict-resolution is reinterpreted in modern texts. Homework is differentiated to prompt discussion on how nonviolence is portrayed through characterization and conflict. Students will be formally assessed on a thesis essay that addresses the Six Kingian Principles of Nonviolence.

Students develop their reading, writing, research, and technology skills using graphic novels. As a final activity, students create their own graphic novels using comic software.

Students are encouraged to understand a book that the teacher reads aloud to create a new ending for it using the writing process.

While drafting a literary analysis essay (or another type of argument) of their own, students work in pairs to investigate advice for writing conclusions and to analyze conclusions of sample essays. They then draft two conclusions for their essay, select one, and reflect on what they have learned through the process.

Students analyze rhetorical strategies in online editorials, building knowledge of strategies and awareness of local and national issues. This lesson teaches students connections between subject, writer, and audience and how rhetorical strategies are used in everyday writing.

It's not easy surviving fourth grade (or third or fifth)! In this lesson, students brainstorm survival tips for future fourth graders and incorporate those tips into an essay.

Students explore the nature and structure of expository texts that focus on cause and effect and apply what they learned using graphic organizers and writing paragraphs to outline cause-and-effect relationships.

Students prepare an already published scholarly article for presentation, with an emphasis on identification of the author's thesis and argument structure.

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Paragraph Punch ® An Interactive Online Paragraph Writing Tutorial

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Introducing Paragraph Punch

As students advance, to improve writing skills they need in-depth support. They need to organize their thoughts and learn to clearly communicate their ideas in writing.

However, it can be challenging for teachers to provide personal attention to each pupil. This is where Paragraph Punch fits in.

Paragraph Punch takes users through the process of writing a basic paragraph. From pre-set writing prompts users develop an idea and write their own topic sentence, body, and a conclusion.

The site provides online interactive exercises that guide users step by step through pre-writing, writing, organizing, editing, rewriting, and publishing.

Why wait? This is the best time to add Punch to your writing skills. Follow the quick steps below and start writing now!

Start Writing Now!

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How to Write an Essay

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

Essay Writing Fundamentals

How to prepare to write an essay, how to edit an essay, how to share and publish your essays, how to get essay writing help, how to find essay writing inspiration, resources for teaching essay writing.

Essays, short prose compositions on a particular theme or topic, are the bread and butter of academic life. You write them in class, for homework, and on standardized tests to show what you know. Unlike other kinds of academic writing (like the research paper) and creative writing (like short stories and poems), essays allow you to develop your original thoughts on a prompt or question. Essays come in many varieties: they can be expository (fleshing out an idea or claim), descriptive, (explaining a person, place, or thing), narrative (relating a personal experience), or persuasive (attempting to win over a reader). This guide is a collection of dozens of links about academic essay writing that we have researched, categorized, and annotated in order to help you improve your essay writing. 

Essays are different from other forms of writing; in turn, there are different kinds of essays. This section contains general resources for getting to know the essay and its variants. These resources introduce and define the essay as a genre, and will teach you what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab

One of the most trusted academic writing sites, Purdue OWL provides a concise introduction to the four most common types of academic essays.

"The Essay: History and Definition" (ThoughtCo)

This snappy article from ThoughtCo talks about the origins of the essay and different kinds of essays you might be asked to write. 

"What Is An Essay?" Video Lecture (Coursera)

The University of California at Irvine's free video lecture, available on Coursera, tells  you everything you need to know about the essay.

Wikipedia Article on the "Essay"

Wikipedia's article on the essay is comprehensive, providing both English-language and global perspectives on the essay form. Learn about the essay's history, forms, and styles.

"Understanding College and Academic Writing" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This list of common academic writing assignments (including types of essay prompts) will help you know what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Before you start writing your essay, you need to figure out who you're writing for (audience), what you're writing about (topic/theme), and what you're going to say (argument and thesis). This section contains links to handouts, chapters, videos and more to help you prepare to write an essay.

How to Identify Your Audience

"Audience" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This handout provides questions you can ask yourself to determine the audience for an academic writing assignment. It also suggests strategies for fitting your paper to your intended audience.

"Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

This extensive book chapter from Writing for Success , available online through Minnesota Libraries Publishing, is followed by exercises to try out your new pre-writing skills.

"Determining Audience" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This guide from a community college's writing center shows you how to know your audience, and how to incorporate that knowledge in your thesis statement.

"Know Your Audience" ( Paper Rater Blog)

This short blog post uses examples to show how implied audiences for essays differ. It reminds you to think of your instructor as an observer, who will know only the information you pass along.

How to Choose a Theme or Topic

"Research Tutorial: Developing Your Topic" (YouTube)

Take a look at this short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to understand the basics of developing a writing topic.

"How to Choose a Paper Topic" (WikiHow)

This simple, step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through choosing a paper topic. It starts with a detailed description of brainstorming and ends with strategies to refine your broad topic.

"How to Read an Assignment: Moving From Assignment to Topic" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Did your teacher give you a prompt or other instructions? This guide helps you understand the relationship between an essay assignment and your essay's topic.

"Guidelines for Choosing a Topic" (CliffsNotes)

This study guide from CliffsNotes both discusses how to choose a topic and makes a useful distinction between "topic" and "thesis."

How to Come Up with an Argument

"Argument" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

Not sure what "argument" means in the context of academic writing? This page from the University of North Carolina is a good place to start.

"The Essay Guide: Finding an Argument" (Study Hub)

This handout explains why it's important to have an argument when beginning your essay, and provides tools to help you choose a viable argument.

"Writing a Thesis and Making an Argument" (University of Iowa)

This page from the University of Iowa's Writing Center contains exercises through which you can develop and refine your argument and thesis statement.

"Developing a Thesis" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page from Harvard's Writing Center collates some helpful dos and don'ts of argumentative writing, from steps in constructing a thesis to avoiding vague and confrontational thesis statements.

"Suggestions for Developing Argumentative Essays" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

This page offers concrete suggestions for each stage of the essay writing process, from topic selection to drafting and editing. 

How to Outline your Essay

"Outlines" (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill via YouTube)

This short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows how to group your ideas into paragraphs or sections to begin the outlining process.

"Essay Outline" (Univ. of Washington Tacoma)

This two-page handout by a university professor simply defines the parts of an essay and then organizes them into an example outline.

"Types of Outlines and Samples" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL gives examples of diverse outline strategies on this page, including the alphanumeric, full sentence, and decimal styles. 

"Outlining" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Once you have an argument, according to this handout, there are only three steps in the outline process: generalizing, ordering, and putting it all together. Then you're ready to write!

"Writing Essays" (Plymouth Univ.)

This packet, part of Plymouth University's Learning Development series, contains descriptions and diagrams relating to the outlining process.

"How to Write A Good Argumentative Essay: Logical Structure" (Criticalthinkingtutorials.com via YouTube)

This longer video tutorial gives an overview of how to structure your essay in order to support your argument or thesis. It is part of a longer course on academic writing hosted on Udemy.

Now that you've chosen and refined your topic and created an outline, use these resources to complete the writing process. Most essays contain introductions (which articulate your thesis statement), body paragraphs, and conclusions. Transitions facilitate the flow from one paragraph to the next so that support for your thesis builds throughout the essay. Sources and citations show where you got the evidence to support your thesis, which ensures that you avoid plagiarism. 

How to Write an Introduction

"Introductions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page identifies the role of the introduction in any successful paper, suggests strategies for writing introductions, and warns against less effective introductions.

"How to Write A Good Introduction" (Michigan State Writing Center)

Beginning with the most common missteps in writing introductions, this guide condenses the essentials of introduction composition into seven points.

"The Introductory Paragraph" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming focuses on ways to grab your reader's attention at the beginning of your essay.

"Introductions and Conclusions" (Univ. of Toronto)

This guide from the University of Toronto gives advice that applies to writing both introductions and conclusions, including dos and don'ts.

"How to Write Better Essays: No One Does Introductions Properly" ( The Guardian )

This news article interviews UK professors on student essay writing; they point to introductions as the area that needs the most improvement.

How to Write a Thesis Statement

"Writing an Effective Thesis Statement" (YouTube)

This short, simple video tutorial from a college composition instructor at Tulsa Community College explains what a thesis statement is and what it does. 

"Thesis Statement: Four Steps to a Great Essay" (YouTube)

This fantastic tutorial walks you through drafting a thesis, using an essay prompt on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter as an example.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through coming up with, writing, and editing a thesis statement. It invites you think of your statement as a "working thesis" that can change.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (Univ. of Indiana Bloomington)

Ask yourself the questions on this page, part of Indiana Bloomington's Writing Tutorial Services, when you're writing and refining your thesis statement.

"Writing Tips: Thesis Statements" (Univ. of Illinois Center for Writing Studies)

This page gives plentiful examples of good to great thesis statements, and offers questions to ask yourself when formulating a thesis statement.

How to Write Body Paragraphs

"Body Paragraph" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course introduces you to the components of a body paragraph. These include the topic sentence, information, evidence, and analysis.

"Strong Body Paragraphs" (Washington Univ.)

This handout from Washington's Writing and Research Center offers in-depth descriptions of the parts of a successful body paragraph.

"Guide to Paragraph Structure" (Deakin Univ.)

This handout is notable for color-coding example body paragraphs to help you identify the functions various sentences perform.

"Writing Body Paragraphs" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

The exercises in this section of Writing for Success  will help you practice writing good body paragraphs. It includes guidance on selecting primary support for your thesis.

"The Writing Process—Body Paragraphs" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

The information and exercises on this page will familiarize you with outlining and writing body paragraphs, and includes links to more information on topic sentences and transitions.

"The Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post discusses body paragraphs in the context of one of the most common academic essay types in secondary schools.

How to Use Transitions

"Transitions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explains what a transition is, and how to know if you need to improve your transitions.

"Using Transitions Effectively" (Washington Univ.)

This handout defines transitions, offers tips for using them, and contains a useful list of common transitional words and phrases grouped by function.

"Transitions" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This page compares paragraphs without transitions to paragraphs with transitions, and in doing so shows how important these connective words and phrases are.

"Transitions in Academic Essays" (Scribbr)

This page lists four techniques that will help you make sure your reader follows your train of thought, including grouping similar information and using transition words.

"Transitions" (El Paso Community College)

This handout shows example transitions within paragraphs for context, and explains how transitions improve your essay's flow and voice.

"Make Your Paragraphs Flow to Improve Writing" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post, another from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming, talks about transitions and other strategies to improve your essay's overall flow.

"Transition Words" (smartwords.org)

This handy word bank will help you find transition words when you're feeling stuck. It's grouped by the transition's function, whether that is to show agreement, opposition, condition, or consequence.

How to Write a Conclusion

"Parts of An Essay: Conclusions" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course explains how to conclude an academic essay. It suggests thinking about the "3Rs": return to hook, restate your thesis, and relate to the reader.

"Essay Conclusions" (Univ. of Maryland University College)

This overview of the academic essay conclusion contains helpful examples and links to further resources for writing good conclusions.

"How to End An Essay" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) by an English Ph.D. walks you through writing a conclusion, from brainstorming to ending with a flourish.

"Ending the Essay: Conclusions" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page collates useful strategies for writing an effective conclusion, and reminds you to "close the discussion without closing it off" to further conversation.

How to Include Sources and Citations

"Research and Citation Resources" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL streamlines information about the three most common referencing styles (MLA, Chicago, and APA) and provides examples of how to cite different resources in each system.

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Generator

This online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. Be sure to select your resource type before clicking the "cite it" button.

CitationMachine

Like EasyBib, this online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. 

Modern Language Association Handbook (MLA)

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of MLA referencing rules. Order through the link above, or check to see if your library has a copy.

Chicago Manual of Style

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of Chicago referencing rules. You can take a look at the table of contents, then choose to subscribe or start a free trial.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

"What is Plagiarism?" (plagiarism.org)

This nonprofit website contains numerous resources for identifying and avoiding plagiarism, and reminds you that even common activities like copying images from another website to your own site may constitute plagiarism.

"Plagiarism" (University of Oxford)

This interactive page from the University of Oxford helps you check for plagiarism in your work, making it clear how to avoid citing another person's work without full acknowledgement.

"Avoiding Plagiarism" (MIT Comparative Media Studies)

This quick guide explains what plagiarism is, what its consequences are, and how to avoid it. It starts by defining three words—quotation, paraphrase, and summary—that all constitute citation.

"Harvard Guide to Using Sources" (Harvard Extension School)

This comprehensive website from Harvard brings together articles, videos, and handouts about referencing, citation, and plagiarism. 

Grammarly contains tons of helpful grammar and writing resources, including a free tool to automatically scan your essay to check for close affinities to published work. 

Noplag is another popular online tool that automatically scans your essay to check for signs of plagiarism. Simply copy and paste your essay into the box and click "start checking."

Once you've written your essay, you'll want to edit (improve content), proofread (check for spelling and grammar mistakes), and finalize your work until you're ready to hand it in. This section brings together tips and resources for navigating the editing process. 

"Writing a First Draft" (Academic Help)

This is an introduction to the drafting process from the site Academic Help, with tips for getting your ideas on paper before editing begins.

"Editing and Proofreading" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page provides general strategies for revising your writing. They've intentionally left seven errors in the handout, to give you practice in spotting them.

"How to Proofread Effectively" (ThoughtCo)

This article from ThoughtCo, along with those linked at the bottom, help describe common mistakes to check for when proofreading.

"7 Simple Edits That Make Your Writing 100% More Powerful" (SmartBlogger)

This blog post emphasizes the importance of powerful, concise language, and reminds you that even your personal writing heroes create clunky first drafts.

"Editing Tips for Effective Writing" (Univ. of Pennsylvania)

On this page from Penn's International Relations department, you'll find tips for effective prose, errors to watch out for, and reminders about formatting.

"Editing the Essay" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This article, the first of two parts, gives you applicable strategies for the editing process. It suggests reading your essay aloud, removing any jargon, and being unafraid to remove even "dazzling" sentences that don't belong.

"Guide to Editing and Proofreading" (Oxford Learning Institute)

This handout from Oxford covers the basics of editing and proofreading, and reminds you that neither task should be rushed. 

In addition to plagiarism-checkers, Grammarly has a plug-in for your web browser that checks your writing for common mistakes.

After you've prepared, written, and edited your essay, you might want to share it outside the classroom. This section alerts you to print and web opportunities to share your essays with the wider world, from online writing communities and blogs to published journals geared toward young writers.

Sharing Your Essays Online

Go Teen Writers

Go Teen Writers is an online community for writers aged 13 - 19. It was founded by Stephanie Morrill, an author of contemporary young adult novels. 

Tumblr is a blogging website where you can share your writing and interact with other writers online. It's easy to add photos, links, audio, and video components.

Writersky provides an online platform for publishing and reading other youth writers' work. Its current content is mostly devoted to fiction.

Publishing Your Essays Online

This teen literary journal publishes in print, on the web, and (more frequently), on a blog. It is committed to ensuring that "teens see their authentic experience reflected on its pages."

The Matador Review

This youth writing platform celebrates "alternative," unconventional writing. The link above will take you directly to the site's "submissions" page.

Teen Ink has a website, monthly newsprint magazine, and quarterly poetry magazine promoting the work of young writers.

The largest online reading platform, Wattpad enables you to publish your work and read others' work. Its inline commenting feature allows you to share thoughts as you read along.

Publishing Your Essays in Print

Canvas Teen Literary Journal

This quarterly literary magazine is published for young writers by young writers. They accept many kinds of writing, including essays.

The Claremont Review

This biannual international magazine, first published in 1992, publishes poetry, essays, and short stories from writers aged 13 - 19.

Skipping Stones

This young writers magazine, founded in 1988, celebrates themes relating to ecological and cultural diversity. It publishes poems, photos, articles, and stories.

The Telling Room

This nonprofit writing center based in Maine publishes children's work on their website and in book form. The link above directs you to the site's submissions page.

Essay Contests

Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards

This prestigious international writing contest for students in grades 7 - 12 has been committed to "supporting the future of creativity since 1923."

Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest

An annual essay contest on the theme of journalism and media, the Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest awards scholarships up to $1,000.

National YoungArts Foundation

Here, you'll find information on a government-sponsored writing competition for writers aged 15 - 18. The foundation welcomes submissions of creative nonfiction, novels, scripts, poetry, short story and spoken word.

Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest

With prompts on a different literary work each year, this competition from Signet Classics awards college scholarships up to $1,000.

"The Ultimate Guide to High School Essay Contests" (CollegeVine)

See this handy guide from CollegeVine for a list of more competitions you can enter with your academic essay, from the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards to the National High School Essay Contest by the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Whether you're struggling to write academic essays or you think you're a pro, there are workshops and online tools that can help you become an even better writer. Even the most seasoned writers encounter writer's block, so be proactive and look through our curated list of resources to combat this common frustration.

Online Essay-writing Classes and Workshops

"Getting Started with Essay Writing" (Coursera)

Coursera offers lots of free, high-quality online classes taught by college professors. Here's one example, taught by instructors from the University of California Irvine.

"Writing and English" (Brightstorm)

Brightstorm's free video lectures are easy to navigate by topic. This unit on the parts of an essay features content on the essay hook, thesis, supporting evidence, and more.

"How to Write an Essay" (EdX)

EdX is another open online university course website with several two- to five-week courses on the essay. This one is geared toward English language learners.

Writer's Digest University

This renowned writers' website offers online workshops and interactive tutorials. The courses offered cover everything from how to get started through how to get published.

Writing.com

Signing up for this online writer's community gives you access to helpful resources as well as an international community of writers.

How to Overcome Writer's Block

"Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block" (Purdue OWL)

Purdue OWL offers a list of signs you might have writer's block, along with ways to overcome it. Consider trying out some "invention strategies" or ways to curb writing anxiety.

"Overcoming Writer's Block: Three Tips" ( The Guardian )

These tips, geared toward academic writing specifically, are practical and effective. The authors advocate setting realistic goals, creating dedicated writing time, and participating in social writing.

"Writing Tips: Strategies for Overcoming Writer's Block" (Univ. of Illinois)

This page from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Center for Writing Studies acquaints you with strategies that do and do not work to overcome writer's block.

"Writer's Block" (Univ. of Toronto)

Ask yourself the questions on this page; if the answer is "yes," try out some of the article's strategies. Each question is accompanied by at least two possible solutions.

If you have essays to write but are short on ideas, this section's links to prompts, example student essays, and celebrated essays by professional writers might help. You'll find writing prompts from a variety of sources, student essays to inspire you, and a number of essay writing collections.

Essay Writing Prompts

"50 Argumentative Essay Topics" (ThoughtCo)

Take a look at this list and the others ThoughtCo has curated for different kinds of essays. As the author notes, "a number of these topics are controversial and that's the point."

"401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing" ( New York Times )

This list (and the linked lists to persuasive and narrative writing prompts), besides being impressive in length, is put together by actual high school English teachers.

"SAT Sample Essay Prompts" (College Board)

If you're a student in the U.S., your classroom essay prompts are likely modeled on the prompts in U.S. college entrance exams. Take a look at these official examples from the SAT.

"Popular College Application Essay Topics" (Princeton Review)

This page from the Princeton Review dissects recent Common Application essay topics and discusses strategies for answering them.

Example Student Essays

"501 Writing Prompts" (DePaul Univ.)

This nearly 200-page packet, compiled by the LearningExpress Skill Builder in Focus Writing Team, is stuffed with writing prompts, example essays, and commentary.

"Topics in English" (Kibin)

Kibin is a for-pay essay help website, but its example essays (organized by topic) are available for free. You'll find essays on everything from  A Christmas Carol  to perseverance.

"Student Writing Models" (Thoughtful Learning)

Thoughtful Learning, a website that offers a variety of teaching materials, provides sample student essays on various topics and organizes them by grade level.

"Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

In this blog post by a former professor of English and rhetoric, ThoughtCo brings together examples of five-paragraph essays and commentary on the form.

The Best Essay Writing Collections

The Best American Essays of the Century by Joyce Carol Oates (Amazon)

This collection of American essays spanning the twentieth century was compiled by award winning author and Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates.

The Best American Essays 2017 by Leslie Jamison (Amazon)

Leslie Jamison, the celebrated author of essay collection  The Empathy Exams , collects recent, high-profile essays into a single volume.

The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate (Amazon)

Documentary writer Phillip Lopate curates this historical overview of the personal essay's development, from the classical era to the present.

The White Album by Joan Didion (Amazon)

This seminal essay collection was authored by one of the most acclaimed personal essayists of all time, American journalist Joan Didion.

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (Amazon)

Read this famous essay collection by David Foster Wallace, who is known for his experimentation with the essay form. He pushed the boundaries of personal essay, reportage, and political polemic.

"50 Successful Harvard Application Essays" (Staff of the The Harvard Crimson )

If you're looking for examples of exceptional college application essays, this volume from Harvard's daily student newspaper is one of the best collections on the market.

Are you an instructor looking for the best resources for teaching essay writing? This section contains resources for developing in-class activities and student homework assignments. You'll find content from both well-known university writing centers and online writing labs.

Essay Writing Classroom Activities for Students

"In-class Writing Exercises" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page lists exercises related to brainstorming, organizing, drafting, and revising. It also contains suggestions for how to implement the suggested exercises.

"Teaching with Writing" (Univ. of Minnesota Center for Writing)

Instructions and encouragement for using "freewriting," one-minute papers, logbooks, and other write-to-learn activities in the classroom can be found here.

"Writing Worksheets" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

Berkeley offers this bank of writing worksheets to use in class. They are nested under headings for "Prewriting," "Revision," "Research Papers" and more.

"Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism" (DePaul University)

Use these activities and worksheets from DePaul's Teaching Commons when instructing students on proper academic citation practices.

Essay Writing Homework Activities for Students

"Grammar and Punctuation Exercises" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

These five interactive online activities allow students to practice editing and proofreading. They'll hone their skills in correcting comma splices and run-ons, identifying fragments, using correct pronoun agreement, and comma usage.

"Student Interactives" (Read Write Think)

Read Write Think hosts interactive tools, games, and videos for developing writing skills. They can practice organizing and summarizing, writing poetry, and developing lines of inquiry and analysis.

This free website offers writing and grammar activities for all grade levels. The lessons are designed to be used both for large classes and smaller groups.

"Writing Activities and Lessons for Every Grade" (Education World)

Education World's page on writing activities and lessons links you to more free, online resources for learning how to "W.R.I.T.E.": write, revise, inform, think, and edit.

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Home » Writing Strategies » How to Use Interactive Writing as a Powerful Teaching Tool

How to Use Interactive Writing as a Powerful Teaching Tool

Most writing is done independently. And this is great because it gives students an opportunity to practice spelling, think independently, problem-solve, and stretch their creativity. But it’s a wonderful idea to mix up your approach to teaching independent writing by incorporating interactive writing as well as shared writing. 

Table of Contents

Interactive writing, shared writing.

• Spelling 

Student Collaboration

Phonemic and graphemic awareness, writing conventions, printing and/or cursive, brainstorming, make a lesson plan, choose a learning objective, share a learning target with your students, a shared experience, prewrite with a prompt, oral composition, share the pen, extend to independent writing, the teacher’s role in interactive writing, a large area, a writing medium, writing implements, corrective tools, small groups, bookend with interactive writing, the difference between spoken and written language, write a letter, prepare your class’s substitute teacher, let the season inspire you, write about reading, interactive writing faqs.

is an activity where students work together to brainstorm and compose a piece of writing in collaboration with a teacher. It involves a shared experience everyone can contribute their thoughts on, followed by a group discussion on what will be expressed in writing. Once a message is composed orally, students “share the pen.” In other words, they take turns writing down the message they’ve composed. 

is quite similar and also a useful tool for students to improve their writing. But in the case of shared writing, the teacher will do the physical writing of the composition. The goal is for the teacher to model proper writing for students, while interactive writing is the students’ chance to try it themselves. Shared writing is best executed on a SmartBoard or other apparatus where students can all easily observe the teacher writing. You can also read our article on shared writing to learn more. For now, let’s dig further into interactive writing…

Interactive writing is often used in the primary grades, and it can be done as a class or in a smaller group. It’s a great demonstration for students to observe the way that writing and speaking work in tandem, while also showing how the written word and the spoken word differ. There have been decades of research supporting the benefits of interactive writing, and the benefits are numerous.

What Are The Benefits Of Interactive Writing?

Students will increase a broad range of skills when you incorporate interactive writing into your teaching practice. Guided practice and repetition of these skills in a safe environment helps the following skills flourish. 

The teacher guidance that comes with interactive writing ensures students get repetitions of correct spellings to add to their memories.

Interactive writing is an opportunity for students to work together cooperatively. Sharing ideas with a group and melding them together into one agreed-upon plan is an important life skill.

Phonemes are the smallest units of sounds that make up words. Graphemes are the individual letter or group of letters needed to make that sound. Breaking down spelling together in an interactive writing experience is an ideal opportunity to practice pairing the English language’s different phonemes they already know to their corresponding graphemes.

Interactive writing provides another chance for teachers to draw students’ attention to writing conventions, such as the use of capital and lowercase letters and punctuation. 

Though the focus here is on writing, writing skills naturally go hand in hand with reading skills. Essentially, spelling is to reverse-engineer reading.

With more and more digital technology these days, classroom writing activities give your students a chance to practice their printing or cursive skills .

Though you may only write a single sentence, you’ll want your students to write from abundance. This is a good practice to get in the habit of for many things in life. Brainstorming during interactive writing will help your students learn how to come up with and share ideas, rather than settle on the first idea that comes to mind.

How To Best Implement Interactive Writing In The Classroom

What are the steps to interactive writing? There are so many ways to practice it. What you do with interactive writing boils down to your students’ age and ability, learning objectives, and your own creativity! Let’s walk through the how-to of it all. 

You’ll first need a lesson plan to prepare your interactive writing exercise. You might find a blank lesson plan template helpful to write the lesson plan out on. 

Lesson plans need to begin with a goal you’ll help students achieve from participating in the activity. What do you want your students to gain from this? For example, you might be trying to help your students learn how to infer, make a connection, or retell information. 

A learning target is your objective framed for the students’ point of view. These are “I can” statements worded in student-friendly language that make it clear what students are aiming to learn from a lesson, and how they will be able to demonstrate when they’ve learned it. Discover more about learning targets and how to use them here. (hyperlink to learning targets blog post).

Begin students’ interactive writing exercises with a shared experience, such as a book everyone reads together, an activity the students participated in at school, or a movie watched in class.

Once you’ve established the shared experience, you can begin “prewriting,” which is to say, you’ll have a group discussion on what you’ll write about. Come up with a prompt to shape the discussion. Let’s refer to an example of using interactive writing with students, as demonstrated by kindergarten teacher, blogger, and educational consultant, Deedee Wills in her video, Interactive Writing Quick Tips . Wills’ example details the shared experience of a book read by her students. She gives them the prompt, “ share your favorite part of the book. ”  Her students then break off into small groups to discuss, while Wills walks amongst them, observing their conversations. 

After some time for students to discuss the prompt amongst themselves, Wills brings everyone back together again to share their ideas for the prompt. Students chime in with their thoughts, and Wills helps them narrow it down to the message they’d like to create. For kindergarten students, she suggests breaking it down into one sentence, two sentences for first graders, and multiple sentences for children older than that. Once the message has been decided upon, Wills has her students repeat the message several times, often using fun voices with each repetition, such as “monster” or “opera singer.” As Wills shares, students have to be able to say a sentence before they can write it out.

The composition is now ready to be written out. Have students take turns going up to the whiteboard, or whatever writing medium you choose for the activity. You might have each student spell one word before handing off the proverbial pen to the next student. Your goal is to get everyone to participate. 

Ability levels will vary, so it’s important to be aware of this and sensitive to it. Students can become embarrassed if they feel they are not at the same writing level yet as their peers. But make sure you don’t leave these students behind in favor of their more advanced or more confident classmates. Wills gives the example of a trickier word for young students: “heaping.” She asks her students what letter they think the word begins with, and they answer, “H.” Wills asks her student to look over at an example of an “H,” and asks her to draw it on the board. Adaptations and support like this allow everyone to be included, no matter their current level. 

After the writing is complete, Wills leads another discussion, asking her students to review with her. She may ask the class to share conventions they noticed in the writing. Things like capitalizing the first word in a sentence, spaces between words, and punctuation at the end of a sentence. 

Finally, Wills gives her students an opportunity to respond to the prompt on their own. A chance to solidify what they practiced together via independent writing. 

Interactive writing is all about participation and whole-class collaboration. Your role will be to lead the interaction. Do this in a way that shapes and directs the writing, but leaves the creativity to your students. Once students have brainstormed and shared their ideas, you can help them collate their ideas into one cohesive idea. Every student will be at their own level in regards to writing, sharing, and confidence. Naturally, teachers tend to notice the eager students and the students who already have an answer. Take special care to involve every student. Support each student and encourage their participation, adapting to individual needs.

What You Will Need To Practice Interactive Writing

What you’ll need comes down to your personalized approach, so this is not an exhaustive list. But here are some things to consider in your preparation for interactive writing with your classroom.

Yes, you could have students sit at their regular desks or tables and come up to the front of the room when it’s their turn to write. But even better if you have a space for everyone to gather close together, such as a carpeted reading area on the floor. This can better facilitate students’ collaboration with each other. A less formal feeling to the setting can also help students feel comfortable with risk-taking, such as sharing their ideas or attempting to spell new words.

There are a lot of options that will work well. You can use a whiteboard, a large easel of paper, or a chalkboard.

“Sharing the pen” is a turn of phrase used to describe interactive writing, but of course, you can use any implement that works well for your medium. That could be a pen, markers, chalk, pencils, Wikki Stix, or anything else your creativity can come up with!

When students write independently, they inevitably make spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes. This is totally fine. But when you’re writing interactively with your students, it’s a great opportunity to oversee their accuracy in real-time. So whatever medium you use, make sure you have a method to correct errors as you go. That might include erasers, whiteout, or correction tape.

Interactive Writing Tips

It’s important to involve every student. Each child needs to participate, as well as receive attention from the teacher. With class sizes often being large, you may want to break yours down into smaller groups to effectively engage everyone. 

Interactive writing brings everyone together as a cohesive group, so it makes for a great activity to start and end the day. You can have students create a morning message and an end-of-day message covering various topics. A morning message might include the date, goals for the day, or positive reflections such as what students are thankful for or excited about. An end-of-day message could include things students learned that day, what the best part of the day was, the results of a science experiment, or things they feel proud of.

Writing together can also be a great welcome back activity after a holiday break, or at the start of a new school year. It can also make a nice send-off before any of these events. 

There are many differences between how we communicate verbally, and how we can clearly write out the same thought. Interactive writing is a perfect time to teach your students about this. Try asking, “How can we write that out?”

More Interactive Writing Examples

The sky’s the limit for what kind of writing prompts you can use with your students. Get creative! And check out some of these ideas to use or be inspired by:

There are so many letters your class would enjoy writing and their recipients would love to receive. For example, you can have them write thank you letters to cafeteria workers, the school janitor, a substitute teacher they had, someone who came in to speak to the class, or a group that hosted them on a field trip. Students could also write a letter to a person or group that they admire, such as the author of a book they just read, or someone doing good in the world. 

Speaking of substitute teachers, you and your class can help welcome a sub with an interactive writing exercise before the teacher’s arrival. Check out this Full Day Substitute Plan bundle for 2nd grade for ideas of interactive writing to share with your students’ sub.

Why not write about the time of year or approaching holidays? For example, try out these September Writing Prompts for grades 3, 4, 5, and 6.

 Or Daily Bell Ringers Writing Prompts for Fall for grades 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Reading a book makes for a great shared experience everyone can comment on afterward. Try these Chat Sessions for Responses to Literature for grades 3 and 4 for ideas to discuss and write about books your students have read.

Interactive writing and shared writing are very similar, and often get confused for one another. Both are writing activities carried out between a group of students and a teacher. But the main difference is “sharing the pen.” In interactive writing, students share the pen amongst each other, taking turns to write their collaborative statement. In shared writing, the teacher transcribes the message being dictated by the group.

Interactive writing is an opportunity to improve independent writing. It also strengthens students’ reading and spelling skills, plus a host of other benefits.

Anything you can come up with! It doesn’t have to be limited to typical statements. You could guide your students through composing a song, poem, limerick, essay, story, joke, or any other style of writing that suits you.

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Laurie H. was a fulltime teacher for over a decade and now enjoys using her experience in education for writing.

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What Is Interactive Writing & How Can I Really Make It Work?

The 3M’s of interactive writing.

Interactive writing (IW) has decades of research behind it, yet many teachers may not recognize the power it has to develop children’s writing and reading skills. Below, I’m sharing strategies for using IW to teach foundational skills such as concepts about print, phonemic awareness, and phonics. In addition—and perhaps even more importantly—I am going to reveal what expert teachers do to make the practice effective.

What is Interactive Writing?

Many of us know the most popular kind of interactive writing (IW)—morning message. For example:

Source: @ tenderlovingkindergarten

Interactive writing capitalizes on the children’s ideas and creates readable texts. Interactive writing is immediate, personal, and relatable. The experience is designed to model how language and print work in tandem. As simple as it looks, the conversation that leads to the negotiated text advance students’ understanding of complex language concepts.

Interactive writing highlights the writing process for children and the importance of writing to communicate a message. What makes it so powerful as a writing and reading practice is all teachers can do to steer the experience based on the observed strengths and needs during reading instruction. For example, imagine students in a small reading group are having difficulty solving unknown words. Perhaps they are trying to sound out words letter by letter which, given the irregular nature of the English language, is not always productive. Noticing this, the teacher quickly records these observations. After the students are finished with the text, the teacher asks them a question about the main character, and together they engage in IW to generate a statement in response to the reading.

As the teacher and students record the statement, the teacher keeps in mind the unproductive word-solving she saw. During the writing, the teacher purposefully uses examples that show students how to hear and record larger, more efficient units of information. The teacher also demonstrates how the students can take this same action when reading. Making these connections provides students with new alternatives when they are problem-solving while reading. Furthermore, every type of co-created IW text becomes a source of reading material that children can go back and revisit and reread independently.

A Boon To the Start of the School Year

Source: @ mandyrobek_edu

IW is an amazing back-to-school routine, helping to develop a sense of classroom community. The message you write can be a daily classroom recap at the end of the day (one of my favorites because when children are questioned about what happened at school instead of saying nothing, the day’s highlights are fresh in their minds); the results of a science experiment; a letter to a favorite author, or any topic that is meaningful to children.

Whatever the selected genre and form, the ensuing conversation with students provides rich opportunities to support language development including, background knowledge and vocabulary. If you are interested in learning how to implement IW, much more advice can be found in my book Interactive Writing: Developing Readers Through Writing (Benchmark Education, 2020). For now, let’s focus on the 3Ms of managing it successfully.

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IW isn’t for the faint of heart. In fact, I often feel like I have run a marathon after an IW session. So, planning for this literacy activity is paramount to its success. There are many opportunities to differentiate instruction for individuals, and making the best in-the-moment teaching decisions keeps my brain going at lightning speed. Yet here’s the thing I want you to know—my brain can’t go at lightning speed unless it is “freed up” to focus on instruction. Yes, the apparent spontaneity of responsive teaching is actually built on a plan.

“The apparent spontaneity of responsive teaching is actually built on a plan.”

M odel Routines: Tackling Traffic

Source: @ hayesmakesithappen

The plan begins with clearly established routines and procedures. At the beginning of the year, I have children practice how to come up to and participate on the IW chart. This may sound trivial, but if it takes a child 15 minutes to come up and add a letter or a word to the text we are creating, chances are I will have some time management issues on hand. Rethinking where IW takes place in the classroom may help; often, the flow of traffic to and from the IW text needs streamlining. Ideally, you can set up a carpeted space in front of the chart , as meeting on the carpet sets a tone for the activity and contributes to a sense of community.

While students can participate from their desks or team tables, I encourage using a designated space—even if this requires students to push a table back a few feet at the start of an IW session to open up an area where everyone can clearly see the chart and sit comfortably. The space where children will write has to be accessible, so as you plan the layout of the classroom, keep in mind that “Creating a conducive environment for interactive writing means making space” (p. 47).

M anage Time: Watch out for Wiggles

Another important planning consideration is time. When engaging in IW, I keep a close watch on the children’s body language. Are they getting wiggly and restless? At the beginning of the year, an IW session may only last 10-15 minutes. As the children’s stamina increases, IW lessons may extend to 25-30 minutes. Regardless of the length of the IW session, I always maintain a divided attention to engage the entire class, even when one child is at the chart.

For example, during a simple morning message, we may write the date. The sentence begins with the word “Today,” and I have the children clap the parts of the word before purposefully inviting a child to contribute the first part to the chart. While the child makes his or her way to the chart, I build phonological awareness with the others.

Developing phonological awareness is a foundational skill, and IW offers plenty of authentic opportunities to do this. Quickly I say the parts of several compound words, pausing between them (out – side; play – ground; jelly – fish). After each, the students blend the two parts as they say the word.

Of course, while this is happening, I am also checking on the child at the chart and providing support as needed. The interactive in interactive writing traditionally involves “sharing the pen,” but there are many ways to make this powerful practice interactive.

M anage Materials: Participation Pack Prep

Another option for making IW interactive for all children is to use what I call Participation Packs. These materials allow the students on the floor to work alongside the child at the chart. As the student at the chart begins to write the word “to,” students on the floor can simultaneously be writing the word. I often say things like, “Write the word ‘to’ as many times as you can before your classmate sits down.”

When I first started using the Participation Packs, I have to admit managing the materials was a little overwhelming! But after years of trial and error and some collaborative planning, I developed a workable system. I store the Participation Packs in a tub and, at the beginning of an IW session, each student receives one. Participation Pack suggestions include:

• 8 x 11 whiteboards.
• Plastic Solo plates (works like a whiteboard).
• Chalkboards and colored chalk.
• Small Magnadoodles.
• Boogie Boards.
• Clipboards.

Collaborate with your grade level team to develop a list of rotating materials for the Participation Packs. Then, each person can locate and purchase one of the materials on the list to share amongst the group. Changing up the materials in the Participation Packs every month keeps the children motivated to use the materials.

Having an organized system and a plan for IW assists with all things related to management. Taking the time at the beginning of the year to launch a framework that provides a structure for both teacher and students alike supports teaching and learning. Most importantly, an established framework allows the focus of IW to center on the reciprocal relationships in writing and reading and allows important instructional decisions to be made.

Take it a step further with interactive bulletin boards !

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5 Free Interactive Writing Websites

by California Casualty | Educators | 0 comments

Online writing tools can engage and assist students in the writing process. These 5 free, interactive websites will help students brainstorm, organize, write, edit, and revise. And the best part? They’re all free to use! interactive writing websites

Interactive Writing Websites

• Student Interactives (ReadWriteThink.org)

Engage your students in online literacy learning with these interactive tools that help them accomplish a variety of goals—from organizing their thoughts to learning about language—all while having fun.

Quill provides free writing and grammar activities for elementary, middle, and high school students.

• Grammarly.com

Grammarly corrects hundreds of grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes. This is while also catching contextual errors, improving your vocabulary, and suggesting style improvements. Come for the best-in-class grammar checking, stay for the added polish that will keep your text clear, mistake-free, and effective.

• BoomWriter.com

At BoomWriter, the mission is to immerse students, teachers, parents and administrators in an interactive learning experience, both in and beyond the classroom. Students develop their creative writing skills and understanding of literary elements. They can apply, share, and assess vocabulary knowledge in a fun and interactive way. Plus, they have the ability to demonstrate their nonfiction writing skills in information and explanatory, argument/opinion, scientific, or narrative focused projects.

• VisuWords.com

Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Additionally, learn how words associate.

Just For Fun

• MagneticPoetry.com

Play Online! Create poems and share them with your friends!

• Writing Games (FunEnglishGames.com)

Check out these fun writing games for kids. Enjoy a range of free activities, resources and practice exercises related to writing letters, stories, newspapers, debates, advertising and instructions. The games are perfect for challenging students who enjoy interactive learning online. Find a topic that suits you and improve your English by completing as many of the educational challenges as you can.

Our Education Blogger is a public school teacher with over a decade of experience. She’s an active NEA member and enjoys writing about her experiences in the classroom.

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The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay | Steps & Examples

An academic essay is a focused piece of writing that develops an idea or argument using evidence, analysis, and interpretation.

There are many types of essays you might write as a student. The content and length of an essay depends on your level, subject of study, and course requirements. However, most essays at university level are argumentative — they aim to persuade the reader of a particular position or perspective on a topic.

The essay writing process consists of three main stages:

• Preparation: Decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay outline.
• Writing : Set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion.
• Revision:  Check your essay on the content, organization, grammar, spelling, and formatting of your essay.

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Table of contents

Essay writing process, preparation for writing an essay, writing the introduction, writing the main body, writing the conclusion, essay checklist, lecture slides, frequently asked questions about writing an essay.

The writing process of preparation, writing, and revisions applies to every essay or paper, but the time and effort spent on each stage depends on the type of essay .

For example, if you’ve been assigned a five-paragraph expository essay for a high school class, you’ll probably spend the most time on the writing stage; for a college-level argumentative essay , on the other hand, you’ll need to spend more time researching your topic and developing an original argument before you start writing.

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Before you start writing, you should make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you’re going to say it. There are a few key steps you can follow to make sure you’re prepared:

• Understand your assignment: What is the goal of this essay? What is the length and deadline of the assignment? Is there anything you need to clarify with your teacher or professor?
• Define a topic: If you’re allowed to choose your own topic , try to pick something that you already know a bit about and that will hold your interest.
• Do your research: Read  primary and secondary sources and take notes to help you work out your position and angle on the topic. You’ll use these as evidence for your points.
• Come up with a thesis:  The thesis is the central point or argument that you want to make. A clear thesis is essential for a focused essay—you should keep referring back to it as you write.
• Create an outline: Map out the rough structure of your essay in an outline . This makes it easier to start writing and keeps you on track as you go.

Once you’ve got a clear idea of what you want to discuss, in what order, and what evidence you’ll use, you’re ready to start writing.

The introduction sets the tone for your essay. It should grab the reader’s interest and inform them of what to expect. The introduction generally comprises 10–20% of the text.

1. Hook your reader

The first sentence of the introduction should pique your reader’s interest and curiosity. This sentence is sometimes called the hook. It might be an intriguing question, a surprising fact, or a bold statement emphasizing the relevance of the topic.

Let’s say we’re writing an essay about the development of Braille (the raised-dot reading and writing system used by visually impaired people). Our hook can make a strong statement about the topic:

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

2. Provide background on your topic

Next, it’s important to give context that will help your reader understand your argument. This might involve providing background information, giving an overview of important academic work or debates on the topic, and explaining difficult terms. Don’t provide too much detail in the introduction—you can elaborate in the body of your essay.

3. Present the thesis statement

Next, you should formulate your thesis statement— the central argument you’re going to make. The thesis statement provides focus and signals your position on the topic. It is usually one or two sentences long. The thesis statement for our essay on Braille could look like this:

As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness.

4. Map the structure

In longer essays, you can end the introduction by briefly describing what will be covered in each part of the essay. This guides the reader through your structure and gives a preview of how your argument will develop.

The invention of Braille marked a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by blind and visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

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The body of your essay is where you make arguments supporting your thesis, provide evidence, and develop your ideas. Its purpose is to present, interpret, and analyze the information and sources you have gathered to support your argument.

Length of the body text

The length of the body depends on the type of essay. On average, the body comprises 60–80% of your essay. For a high school essay, this could be just three paragraphs, but for a graduate school essay of 6,000 words, the body could take up 8–10 pages.

Paragraph structure

To give your essay a clear structure , it is important to organize it into paragraphs . Each paragraph should be centered around one main point or idea.

That idea is introduced in a  topic sentence . The topic sentence should generally lead on from the previous paragraph and introduce the point to be made in this paragraph. Transition words can be used to create clear connections between sentences.

After the topic sentence, present evidence such as data, examples, or quotes from relevant sources. Be sure to interpret and explain the evidence, and show how it helps develop your overall argument.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

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The conclusion is the final paragraph of an essay. It should generally take up no more than 10–15% of the text . A strong essay conclusion :

• Returns to your thesis
• Ties together your main points
• Shows why your argument matters

A great conclusion should finish with a memorable or impactful sentence that leaves the reader with a strong final impression.

What not to include in a conclusion

To make your essay’s conclusion as strong as possible, there are a few things you should avoid. The most common mistakes are:

• Including new arguments or evidence
• Undermining your arguments (e.g. “This is just one approach of many”)
• Using concluding phrases like “To sum up…” or “In conclusion…”

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

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Checklist: Essay

My essay follows the requirements of the assignment (topic and length ).

My introduction sparks the reader’s interest and provides any necessary background information on the topic.

My introduction contains a thesis statement that states the focus and position of the essay.

I use paragraphs to structure the essay.

I use topic sentences to introduce each paragraph.

Each paragraph has a single focus and a clear connection to the thesis statement.

I make clear transitions between paragraphs and ideas.

My conclusion doesn’t just repeat my points, but draws connections between arguments.

I don’t introduce new arguments or evidence in the conclusion.

I have given an in-text citation for every quote or piece of information I got from another source.

I have included a reference page at the end of my essay, listing full details of all my sources.

My citations and references are correctly formatted according to the required citation style .

My essay has an interesting and informative title.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (e.g. font, page numbers, line spacing).

Your essay meets all the most important requirements. Our editors can give it a final check to help you submit with confidence.

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An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

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Artificial Intelligence

College writing centers worry ai could replace them, those who run the centers argue that they could be a hub for teaching ai literacy., by maggie hicks     aug 12, 2024.

Angelina Litvin / Unsplash

This article is part of the collection: Artificial Intelligence Holds Promise for Education — and Creates Problems.

Writing centers on college campuses have been around for more than 100 years , and they’re both a resource for students doing assignments and a symbol of the importance in higher education of learning to express yourself in text.

But as generative AI tools like ChatGPT sweep into mainstream business tools, promising to draft properly-formatted text from simple prompts and the click of a button, new questions are rising about what role writing centers should play — or whether they will be needed in the future.

Many writing centers are already jumping in to experiment with new AI tools, making the case both for the continued importance of writing instruction and for their place on campus as a hub for teaching AI literacy.

“I see this as a real opportunity for writing centers to show leadership if they're given an opportunity,” says Sherry Wynn Perdue, president of the International Writing Centers Association. “It's an important moment, and our role as leaders is to help provide resources for our colleagues so that we can be leaders in the conversation about generative AI.”

Some writing instructors worry, though, that the new tools may tempt colleges to rely too heavily on the technology or even eliminate writing centers entirely. Writing centers are often run by non-tenured staff, which can make them especially vulnerable, says Genie N. Giaimo, director of Middlebury University's writing center and an assistant professor of writing and rhetoric there. And in the past, administrators at some colleges have replaced their services with all-encompassing tutoring centers or third party organizations, Wynn Perdue adds.

And even some professors with doctoral degrees in English are wondering whether colleges need to do as much these days to teach the skill of writing in light of new AI tools. “Why do we need a required writing course if AI can do everything outside stakeholders want such a course to teach?,” asked Melissa Nicolas, a professor of English at Washington State University, in an op-ed last year.

So where does AI leave the writing center?

Finding a Balance

Writing centers need to find a balance between introducing AI into the writing process and keeping the human support that every writer needs, argues Anna Mills, an English instructor at the College of Marin.

AI can serve as a supplement to a human tutor, Mills says. She encourages her students to use MyEssayFeedback, an AI tool that critiques the organization of an essay, the quality of evidence a student has included to support their thesis or the tone of the writing. Such tools can also evaluate research questions or review a student's writing based on the rubric for the assignment, she says.

By modeling these uses of AI, Mills says, writing centers can increase students’ understanding of the technology and ease their worries about using it inappropriately. Many students arrive at college concerned that they’ll be accused of cheating if they use AI for anything, she says. For instance, many have seen the video on TikTok of a student who says she was given an F on a paper for using a grammar checker that set off an AI detection system her professors used. Providing guidance can help students feel more comfortable with the technology, she says. And understanding that AI’s suggestions can be wrong also boosts student confidence in their own abilities.

“The student could say, once they get the feedback, ‘No, that's not really what I want to do. Could you help me think about how to expand this other part of it?’” Mills says. “That's something that I think we need to be cultivating — that kind of confidence and willingness to engage and push back — because that is how you get the most out of AI.”

Still, Mills requires her students to go to the writing center at least four times during the semester. Human interaction is essential to the writing process, she argues. Often the tutors energize students and show a genuine interest in what they are writing, something they can’t get from any chatbot, Mills says.

“Writing doesn’t have that much meaning without a human audience,” Mills says. “Meeting with someone as you are developing your ideas is often the place where you feel that there’s the most meaning in what you’re doing.”

Writing centers can play a pivotal role in retention for a college, says Giaimo. The resources can be especially important for students who historically haven’t gotten as much support from colleges, such as first-generation students and those from marginalized communities, she adds. And working with a tutor could be the first one-on-one teaching interaction a student has at college, which is vital, especially for students coming out of the pandemic.

Even as the use of AI tools grows in the business world, students still need to learn how to write and organize their ideas, Giaimo says. And without proper guidance, students can end up leaning too heavily on tools like ChatGPT without ever picking up the underlying skills to put their own thoughts down on paper.

“We forget that most people who are in these processes, at least in higher education, they're just kind of starting out or learning,” Giaimo says. “The process part is important, and actually maybe even more important than what the final end product looks like.”

Promoting AI Literacy

Writing center tutors play an essential role in helping students understand how to use AI appropriately, says Sarah Z. Johnson, director of Madison College’s writing center. Many writing centers these days train tutors in AI literacy, which the tutors can then pass down to the students they work with as the opportunity arises.

Johnson and her team train their tutors to teach students about how AI can be useful in the writing process. For instance, if a student is struggling to organize an essay, a tutor might ask the student to paste their draft into a chatbot and ask it to create an outline for them, Johnson says. The student can see where a paragraph or sentence may work better in the paper and save time during the tutoring session, she says.

This year, tutors will also learn a list of AI literacies, such as how large language models work, issues with generative AI, such as their cultural biases, or how to write prompts that can help organize information, Johnson says.

At Middlebury, tutors are also trained to navigate AI policies, which can differ among instructors, Giaimo says. Tutors also learn to speak with students who they find have used AI inappropriately — say, by having a chatbot do too much of an assignment without attribution — and guide them in a more productive direction.

In that way, Johnson says, tutors can help writers think through the “implications” of using AI, so they can make their own decisions about questions like “Does this final product represent me? Does it represent my voice? Does it represent what I want to say?”

The most important thing, says Johsnon, is “realizing that gen AI is a tool, but you have to know how to use it rather than it using you.”

Writing centers often have relationships with departments across campus, which makes them an excellent place to promote AI literacy, Johnson says. Students may be coming with an assignment from an engineering class or a social sciences class, she says, which means writing center staff can build connections with colleagues across the college.

To prevent colleges from replacing writing centers with AI, directors and staff need to be proactive and advocate for the role they play in promoting AI literacy, she says. Johnson and Wynn Perdue helped craft a list of AI literacies that will be released later this year by a joint task force between the Modern Language Association and the Conference on College Composition and Communication. The IWCA also has its own generative AI taskforce, which Johnson and Wynn Perdue both sit on, that plans to create additional resources to help writing centers adjust and train their staff.

“Gen AI is not something that we're scared of, but it is something that absolutely needs to have parameters,” Johnson says. “If we're not helping students figure out what those parameters are through tutors and things like that, I just don't know how it's going to happen.”

Maggie Hicks is a freelance education reporter covering student life, mental health and other topics in higher education.

Artificial Intelligence Holds Promise for Education — and Creates Problems

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