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Website
Other

English Companion: Reading Expository Text

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Taken from "Reading Reminders: Tools, Tips, and Techmiques," the information on this website provides advice on how to read, understand, analyze, and write expository texts.
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Handout
City University of New York

College of Staten Island Library: How to Write an Essay

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Resource defines what an essay is, the parts of an essay and their functions, and also discusses the editing process and how important it is to check a draft for completeness and high quality. Includes a link to an online guide to citing...
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Website
Palomar Community College District

Palomar College: Reading an Informational Text

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Glenn Foss, an instructor at Palomar College, discusses some possible reasons why students have problems reading and recalling textbook material. Provides an outline for seven steps of effectively reading assigned material.
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Website
Other

Grays Harbor College: Writing Essays: Four Tips

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This resource explores four tips for writers: "Center Your Thinking," "Organize Your Thinking," "Specify Your Thoughts," and "Present Your Thoughts Clearly." The information is presented in an easy-to-follow outline with examples given...
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Website
Other

Glendale College: Structure of the Five Paragraph Essay

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This website from the Glendale Community College shows the structure of five paragraph essays and the elements within the paragraphs (motivator, thesis sentence, topic sentence, specific support, reworded thesis, clincher). Gives...
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Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Read Write Think: Exploring Perspective in Narrative

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Interactive instructional activity which allows learners to determine the perspective or point of view of a story character by imagining actually spending a day in their "shoes." Based on Atticus's statement in "To Kill a Mockingbird."...
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Handout
University of Washington

University of Washington: Introductory Paragraphs

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This writing center tutorial explains why the opening paragraph is so important. It also addresses six common problems to avoid.
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Activity
Other

Style: Cause and Effect Writing

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This site provides a list of what to do and not do for writing cause and effect essays. It also contains an evaluation checklist at the end which students can use for their own writing.
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Handout
University of Victoria (Canada)

The U Vic Writer's Guide: Writing Essays: The Statement of Your Thesis

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Brief explanation of the thesis statement, followed by examples of faulty and improved thesis statements.
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Handout
ACT360 Media

Writing Den: Essay Writing Tips

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
All you want to know about writing essays, from prewriting to editing. Click on the tip-o-matic and find tips on anything dealing with grammar or writing.
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Handout
Joe Landsberger

Study Guides and Strategies: Expository Essays

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This page has eight basic steps for writing expository essays: select topic, write the thesis, choose a method of development, organize, write topic sentences for body paragraph, write the body paragraphs, write an introduction, and...
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Handout
Other

Indiana University of Pennsylvania: Writing Center: Writing Strong Conclusions

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This Indiana University of Pennsylvania Writing Center site provides tips to writing a strong conclusion to an essay. The article discusses incorporating an anecdote, a basic summary, a startling summary, famous ideas, and/or hints to...
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Article
E Reading Worksheets

E Reading Worksheets: Narrative Essay Assignments

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
A number of narrative essay assignments are provided in this discussion. Assignments are provided to help scaffold the narrative essay writing process.
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Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Reading Reflections

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
An exercise consisting of three reflective questions that students respond to after completing an assigned reading in any curriculum area. The task promotes skills in critical thinking and self-assessment.
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Handout
Tom Richey

Tom richey.net: Historical Writing: Writing Resources for Students

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Resources for helping students to write historical essays. Includes a movie trailer to demonstrate the traits of a good introduction, tips for writing a paragraph, tips for formal writing, and guidelines for citing sources.
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Activity
TES Global

Tes: Writing: For and Against

For Students 11th - 12th Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] This TES resource provides four writing prompts for argumentative essay performance assessments. Teachers can edit the prompts if they choose.
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Article
Leaf Group

E How: How to Write a Research Paper in Accounting

For Students 11th - 12th Standards
This article by Vaughnlea Leonard focuses on writing a research paper for an accounting class. The main differences from other research papers is choosing an appropriate topic and selecting sources written by accounting experts.
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Handout
Colorado State University

Colorado State Writing Center: Critical Reading

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
In-depth instructions on critical reading with lots of links to more reading guides and activities. A good site to help improve reading skills to become a better writer.
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Handout
Merriam-Webster

Merriam Webster: Anecdote/definition

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A good extensive definition of "anecdote" and the origin of the word.
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Handout
Other

World Wide Words/exploring the English Language

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
"World Wide Words is devoted to the English language - its history, quirks, curiosities and evolution. The Words site is organized into sections, each with its own index to help you find your way about."
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Handout
University of North Carolina

University of North Carolina: Writing Center: Handouts: Writing About History

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Students are provided with an eight-step process for completing academic writing on historic topics. Steps include understanding the topic, making an argument, organizing information and supporting details, and other important writing...
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Handout
Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College: Writing a Thesis Sentence

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This Dartmouth College writing lab tutorial teaches students how to develop a thesis statement.
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Website
Sophia Learning

Sophia: Cause and Effect Papers: Organization

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A screencast lesson [5 mins, 53 secs] explaining how create an outline to plan the organization of a cause and effect essay. Following the lesson, a printable document provides an outline format for students to follow when writing their...
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Unit Plan
Sophia Learning

Sophia: Comparing and Contrasting Texts

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Two PowerPoint presentations and a video [2:57] on comparing and contrasting literary and informational texts as well as how to write a literary analysis. Includes links to external resources.