Teaching Writing Blog at You-Can-Teach-Writing.com

Sep 8, Essay Help for Student Writers in Moderated Forum

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:19:23 GMT

Need a little help getting started writing an essay or research paper? Get essay help in a forum moderated by an experienced college writing instructor.

Sep 2, Grammar Websites for Help with Errors that Bug Employers

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:36:27 GMT

Students can quickly get English grammar help by selecting grammar websites from a list arranged to correspond to grammar and punctuation errors common in students' and adults' writing.

Sep 1, Keyword Search Strategy Needs Close Tie to Working Thesis Statement

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:30:26 GMT

To find published evidence for a thesis statement efficiently online, students need a keyword search strategy that puts keywords from their writing skeleton into a search engine.

Aug 29, Online Advertising Opportunities at You-Can-Teach-Writing

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:27:09 GMT

Online advertising at this site can help you put your message before the segment of the education market interested in teaching writing: K-12 teachers, administrators, college faculty, homeschoolers.

Aug 29, A Conclusion Paragraph Is Another Way to Write THE END

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:55:57 GMT

Students who know how to write a conclusion paragraph say gracefully that they finished writing. They should not turn ending their papers into a major production.

Aug 28, Get grammar study e-book before price hike

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:19:33 GMT

If you've been waiting until school year starts to buy your copy of Grammar Abusers Anonymous, don't wait any longer. The special introductory price on ends Sept. 15. Get your copy of Grammar Abusers Anonymous today.

Grammar Abusers Anonymous is not a grammar textbook, but step-by-step directions showing students how to study and apply grammar rules to their own most frequent written grammar mistakes using their own error-riddled papers for practice exercises.

Although teachers may give students ample practice applying grammar rules to publisher-created exercises, they rarely teach students how to apply grammar rules and concepts to their own writing. Grammar Abusers Anonymous will teach them.

Grammar Abusers Anonymous can be used with any English text students have or with free online sources. The e-book includes a link to a list of specific grammar website pages for them to use as resources for studying the 20 most common errors in student writing.

Grammar Abusers Anonymous is recommended for adults, college students, and mature high school students.

Aug 28, Definition of Copyright Is Essential Knowledge for Internet User

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:09:55 GMT

Copyright is a legal protection for creators of intellectual property. That definition of copyright does not give even an idea of what today's Internet user needs to know.

Aug 21, Objectives mark difference between tools and toys

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:05:43 GMT

This past week, someone on Twitter was gloating over having gotten permission to have students create blogs in their classes this year. The tweeter wanted suggestions on ways to use blogs in the classroom. Whoa, Nellie. Let's think about this. Who, having heard lots of people really love their drill presses, buys a drill press and then asks, "What should I do with a drill press?" Nobody. Who buys an air compressor and then says, "What do you think I ought to do with this air compressor?" Nobody. Who buys a fork lift and then asks the neighbors for suggestions on using a fork lift in the kitchen? Nobody with any smarts. Smart folks, inside or outside of education, don't buy tools for the sake of having toolsespecially if the tools are being purchased at taxpayer expense. Educational decisions need to start with educational objectives. Before you choose any teaching tool, whether it's colored chalk or netbook computers, analyze how the tool will help you achieve your annual teaching objectives. Any tool that you (or your students) need to spend more than five minutes learning to use should help you achieve at least two of your annual teaching objectives. Just having tools that you like or that students think are fun is not enough. Tools must help you accomplish measurable objectives. Anything you use that doesn't help you accomplish educational objectives is not a tool but a toy.

Aug 19, Research Paper Outline As Part of the Presentation

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:59:17 GMT

In either MLA paper format or APA paper format, a research paper outline included with the final draft should be a formal outline. Get tips for preparing one.

Aug 19, Outline for Research Paper Plans Development of Paper's Thesis

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:49:09 GMT

Planning beats mere outlining. Efficient students prepare an outline for research paper development from a working thesis statement before they begin research.

Aug 19, Anecdote Is An Example in Story Format

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:38:01 GMT

An anecdote is an example or illustration that uses a very short story to make a point. Such narratives can be evidence within 5-paragraph essays.

Aug 18, Giving Feedback on Writing When the Student Has Nothing to Say

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:17:51 GMT

Your writing evaluation and a student's grade should reflect your assessment the essay's content. Get tips for giving feedback on an empty essay.

Aug 17, Giving English Grammar Help Via Teacher Feedback to Students

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:39:34 GMT

A marked-up paragraph shows one baseline assessment of grammar for writing. Strategies and tips for giving the writer English grammar help for his or her own written work are discussed.

Aug 16, Many Types of Essays, Many Baffled Students

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:24:06 GMT

Narrative essays. Persuasive essays. How-to- essays. Critical analysis essays. Yikes! With so many types of essays that look so different, how can you help students learn to write an essay?

Aug 16, Critical Thinking Strategies to Teach Writers of Expository Nonfiction

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:59:04 GMT

Most students must be taught critical thinking strategies for nonfiction expository writing if they are to become effective and efficient writers in school and on the job.

Aug 16, Developing Critical Thinking Skills: Resources for the Writing Teacher

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:31:16 GMT

Resources chosen specifically for those who teach writing to teens and adults define what is critical thinking and provide help in developing critical thinking skills.

Aug 14, Writing Points Ezine Archive Houses Back Issues

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 19:06:03 GMT

Each month Writing Points delivers tips and resources for teaching writing. Previous months' issues can be searched and read in this Writing Points archive.

Aug 11, Don't correct student errors. Instead.......

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:29:10 GMT

Students need to know they are responsible for finding and eliminating grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors in their writing.

Your role is to teach students how to:

Identify their most frequent, serious errors.
Recognize those errors in their own written work.
Repair their most frequent, serious errors.
Use resources they have available for English grammar help.
Manage their time so they can edit for errors.
Deal with the frustration, discouragement, and anger that arise when the grammar tasks are hard.
Keep a sense of proportion so that they don't overemphasize correct grammar at the expense of good, clearly explained content.

Aug 11, 21st Century Skills Must Include Ability to Formulate Written Questions

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:24:57 GMT

Writing teachers must teach questioning to develop communication and collaboration, two 21st century skills students all must have.

Aug 9, Lazy approach to teaching types of essays

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:28:55 GMT

When I teach types of essays, I treat all other essay types as a modification of either narration or argument. I'm too lazy to develop a new template for each of a dozen or so essay writing genres.

Narration is relating information in a chronological order. Besides the narrative essay, several other types of essays use chronological order, such as the process or how-to essay. In fact, most folks use narration in places other than narrative essays.

Argument is supporting a thesis by presenting evidence in a logical order. Comparison and cause-and-effect writing strategies also present evidence in a logical order. The writing skeletons for all three essay types are not very different; the standard thesis-and-support outline template can be adapted for each one. There are differences, however, in emphasis and tone of three types of essays.

An argument typically asserts a position in its opening paragraph and then attempts to prove that the assertion is true. Argument tends to focus on what ought to happen now or in the future.

Writing developed with an argument strategy usually is very straightforward. Argument is not necessarily combative, but it includes acknowledgement and/or refutation of opposing viewpoints.

A "comparison" essay is a gentler, more subtle strategy than argument. Compare and contrast writing typically discusses the points of similarity or difference of before stating a conclusion. Instead of saying, "Here's my opinion, and here are the facts to prove it," a comparison says, "Here are the facts, and they add up to this conclusion."

In a comparison essay, the writing skeleton gets softened and obscured; it still provides shape and direction, but it isn't as obvious as in the argument essay.

Cause-and-effect writing borrows a little from narrative and a little from argument. C&E attempts to show a relationship between a cause and an effect.

The process by which a cause and effect are linked is described in narrative because processes are chronologically ordered. But C&E also involves an element of argument; it seeks to rule out some explanations of how the cause and effect are related and to prove that others are more plausible.

C&E might build a case and lead the reader to the writer's conclusion, or it might state a conclusion and then prove the case. Both approaches are common.

Aug 1, Sample Narrative Essay from a Writing Teacher's Experience

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 11:51:21 GMT

A short personal essay about how a student's writing teacher made her angry enough to learn shows how narration is used to illustrate a writer's thesis and create a narrative essay.

Jul 30, Teaching Narrative Essay Writing: Tips for Writing Teachers

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:13:27 GMT

Writing a narrative essay, particularly a personal essay, is one of the most difficult nonfiction writing tasks for students. Learn strategies for teaching how to write a narrative essay.

Jul 30, Writing Teachers in Adult Corrections settings

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:03:02 GMT

-Motivating offenders to write -Creating and advising inmate publications -Getting offenders to share with other inmates (obtain/give feedback) in

Jul 27, An Anecdote Example about the 5 Paragraph Essay in Teaching Writing

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:18:12 GMT

Anecdote example relates teacher's experience using the 5-paragraph essay in teaching college writing. Includes salient features of anecdotes and their use in expository writing.

Jul 23, Teaching Writing Blog at You-Can-Teach-Writing.com

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:55:21 GMT

The teaching writing blog keeps you up-to-date on the latest pages and changes at the You-Can-Teach-Writing.com website. Subscribe here.

Jul 22, Writing Points for Teaching Writing, November 2009

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:12:27 GMT

Tips for attacking wordiness with wildcards and giving a reason for learning are in this issue of Writing Points. Microblogging via GroupTweet resources is explained.

Jul 22, Writing Points for Teaching Writing, July 2009

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:40:43 GMT

Free resources for vocabulary, Bloom's taxonomy, and online search are discussed in this July 2009 Writing Points. Also includes links to 17 pages of tips for goals and grading

Jul 22, Unanswerable requests for essay help

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:10:34 GMT

The students who come to the you-can-teach-writing.com essay help forum do not know how to ask a written question that can be answered. Moreover, they don't read the directions that tell them what information they must include.

Despite all the talk about our living in a global economy and having to communicate with people worldwide, teachers are not doing a very good job of helping students learn the standards needed to communicate with people outside their immediate social group.

Three essay help requests that have come in from students in the last 72 hours illustrate that failure. Here are the three submissions reprinted exactly as they were submitted:

The first: helping me write a APA format 200 words
The second: I don't know how to start?
The third: writing an introduction and basically the whole structure of the review of the novel. i haven't quit completed reading the book so I'm finding it hard to sum up and write a conclusion about the whole story.

Sadly, those are just a few of the help requests I have had to discard because students don't know how to ask a question and don't bother to read the directions to find out what information they should include.

Writing teachers should be very concerned about these problems. Not only do they impact students' educational progress, but they also explain in large part the growing public anger against the education establishment.

Jul 21, Writing Points for Teaching Writing, November, 2008

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:41:44 GMT

RSS and other free expository writing resources and tips are in this issue of Writing points that features the editor's note on what's wrong with the way she teaches writing.

Jul 21, Writing Points for Teaching Writing, September 2008

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:36:02 GMT

This Writing Points contains free resources and tips for teaching expository writing including a delicious descriptive writing activity and an alternative to one-shot testing.

Jul 21, Writing Points for Teaching Writing, August 2008

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:33:28 GMT

Resources for teaching expository writing in this month's Writing Points include a book on teaching students with learning difficulties and free tips for teaching boys

Jul 21, Writing Points for Teaching Writing, July 2008

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:30:13 GMT

The importance of writing practice to literature appreciation and the negative impact of ELA jargon are among the expository writing resources and tips in this Writing Points issue.

Jul 21, Writing Points for Teaching Writing, June 2008

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:25:58 GMT

This Writing Points features 5 reasons kids must take remedial English and other resources and tips for teaching expository writing in middle school and beyond.

Jul 21, Writing Points for Teaching Writing Inaugural Issue

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:23:37 GMT

A grammar game and writing prompts suggestions are two stories in the May 2008 issue of Writing Points. Each issue of the free ezine will contain resources and tips for teaching expository writing in middle school and beyond.

Jul 20, Writing prompts that relate to students' life experience work well

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:30:04 GMT

The following writing prompts have worked well for me in lower level high school English classes: Junk food {should/should not} be banned in high schools.

Jul 7, Vocabulary teaching aids

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:57:45 GMT

Words are essential for writers. If you need help teaching vocabulary to students of middle school age or above, check out the resources at You-Can-Teach-Writing.com.

The reading-writing thread contains pages about various ways to teach vocabulary so the words become part of students' listening, speaking, reading, and writing vocabularies.

Topics you will find covered include:

Cloze writing activities
Yes-no-why activities
Websites for those who teach vocabulary
How and why to use vocabulary lists
Analogies as word problems

Additional pages geared specifically toward students who struggle with writing are on the struggling writers thread.

Jun 18, The Writing Process Should be a Strategic Choice

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:37 GMT

There is no one way to write that is the writing process. From several options, writers can choose one best suited to their goals. Regardless of their choice, the components of the writing process are identical.

Jun 17, Writing Prompts Use in Teaching Writing: Basic Information

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:24:51 GMT

Using espoistory writing prompts in teaching writing within the English language arts curriculum is easier if you know some of the terms used to discuss these writing assignments.

Jun 16, How to Teach Vocabulary Starting from a Word List

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:07:40 GMT

Vocabulary lists can be a starting point for teaching vocabulary. Learn how to teach vocabulary grades 7 and beyond from a word list to mastery in reading, listening, speech and writing.

Jun 14, Critical Thinking Strategies Must Be Taught to Struggling Writers

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:22:37 GMT

Teach struggling students critical thinking strategies if you want them to do expository writing. Students must learn strategies, practice them, and be supported in their learning.

Jun 14, What Is Critical Thinking and What Does It Have to Do with Writing?

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:19:04 GMT

Expository writing paints a picture of what is critical thinking that is superior to any short definition of critical thinking.

Jun 14, 5 Paragraph Essay Ideal Training Vehicle for Struggling and Novice Writers

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:15:36 GMT

The strategic processes associated with the the 5 paragraph essay, which detractors call formulaic, make teaching expository writing to beginners and struggling writers doable.

Jun 4, Vocabulary Websites for Reading-Writing Teachers

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:07:28 GMT

Annotated list of English vocabulary websites holding resources for teachers to use in vocabulary activities discussed on this site.

Jun 3, Forget Vocabulary Quizzes: This Assessment Alternative Is Better

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:46:06 GMT

Writing prompts provide opportunities for students show vocabulary in use. They are better than vocabulary quizzes for assessing word knowledge.

Jun 3, Conclusion on a Roy Lichtenstein biography

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:24:11 GMT

I need essay help on making my conclusion on a on a Roy Lichtenstein biography. Linda responds I can see you need some help with several things, starting

Jun 2, Teach English Vocabulary to Struggling Writers Via a Word List

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:48:03 GMT

Start teaching English vocabulary to students who struggle with reading and writing by using vocabulary lists. Tips for teaching vocabulary in high school and middle school are given.

Jun 2, Vocabulary Sentences from Multiple Contexts Make Word Meanings Clear

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:20:02 GMT

Seeing a new word in use multiple times helps students learn. English vocabulary sentences, especially those from class materials, provide context and English usage guidance.

Jun 2, Vocabulary Sentences Teachers Start Activate Knowledge as Students Finish Them

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:00:05 GMT

Write vocabulary sentences to help student connect new words' correct English usage to prior knowledge. English vocabulary exercises for 5 SAT words are given.

May 22, Study Skills Ebook Ends Embarrassing Grammar Errors in Your Writing

Sat, 22 May 2010 15:56:47 GMT

With Grammar Abusers Anonymous, you can kick your bad grammar habits in 12 steps using study skills, not worksheet drills. Your flawed sentences become grammar practice exercises.

May 22, Expository Writing Requires Writers to Make Logical Choices

Sat, 22 May 2010 13:25:35 GMT

What constitutes a logical order for a piece of expository writing depends entirely on writer's goal. There is no one organization that fits all nonfiction.