San José State University
Revising for Clarity: Characters and Their Actions
This handout offers a three-step process for revising sentences for clarity: diagnose, analyze, revise. After reading an example sentence revision with a detailed explanation, learners complete three sample sentences using the three-step...
Anchorage School District
Writing Reference Sheet
Print out this handy reference page double sided and distribute it to your class. Individuals can use the page to aid them as they work on their topic sentences, transitions, conclusions, and paragraph structure. There is plenty of...
San José State University
Sentence Fragments
Work on sentence fragments with your class using this handout and brief exercise. This resource, which could be used as a reference sheet for learners, goes into detail about complete sentences and the different errors that cause...
San Diego Unified School District
On-Demand Persuasive Writing Samples
Young writers complete a timed persuasive writing assignment in which they argue for a club they would like to see established at school, and are then provided with real student samples of responses.
San José State University
Avoiding Nominalization
Improve syntax with this explanatory handout. It clarifies one way to make writing more precise: avoiding nominalization. This resource provides four ways to find and change nominalization problems and 10 sentences to correct. There are...
Curated OER
Tips for Improving Transition
Vary, bury, pull, fit. These tips for improving transitions in writing are found on a template designed as a teacher resource. A clever way to make memorable these suggestions for improving transitions in writing, the language in the...
San José State University
Dangling Modifiers
You don't want to leave your modifier dangling! Using this worksheet, you can help students on their way to understanding how to modify sentences and to eliminate dangling modifiers.
Ohio Literacy Resource Center
Arguing with Aristotle Ethos, Pathos, Logos
Introduce your classes to the Art of Rhetoric with a lesson that focuses on Aristotle's persuasive appeals and how they have been used, both ethically and unethically, to influence opinion.
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
A Mini lesson on Semicolons
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-lesson on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then consider how this...
Grammarly
Grammarly Handbook: Revising and Editing the Draft
Tips for revising and editing a rough draft. Links to additional information on Global Revisions, Editing Sentences, and Proofreading is provided.
Online Writing Lab at Purdue University
Purdue University Owl: Academic Writing: Sentence Variety: Strategies for Variation
This lesson offers suggestions to help you fix short, choppy sentences, combine sentences with the same subject, and revise sentences that sound the same. L.11-12.3 Language Functions/Style
Grammarly
Grammarly Handbook: Untangle Grammatical Structures
This page explains the need to revise sentences with unclear or mixed constructions and provides examples.
Online Writing Lab at Purdue University
Purdue University Owl: General Writing Resources
This helpful resource details the process of writing, including how to plan, write, and revise. Content also includes the different types or genres of writing, and exercises in grammar and mechanics.
Boise State University
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
This online writing assistance offers help in the writing process, grammar and mechanics, usage, and four different types of essays, as well as help on deciding what and how to document.
Online Writing Lab at Purdue University
Purdue University Owl: Exercise : Run Ons, Comma Splices, and Fused Sentences
This Purdue University OWL (Online Writing Lab) provides practice identifying run-on sentences, comma splices, and fused sentences.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Writing and Language Test: Standard English Conventions
On the SAT Writing & Language Test, you will encounter questions that will ask you to interact with and revise passages in different ways. Standard English Conventions questions ask you to make sentences consistent with standard...
Capital Community College Foundation
Guide to Grammar and Writing: Parallel Form
This site from the Capital Community College defines the term and gives many examples of faulty parallelism and the corrected version of sentences. Includes links to a couple of quizzes at the bottom of the page. "Most of the...
Grammarly
Grammarly Handbook: Sentence Structure
Tips on how to vary sentence structure to strengthen writing.
Grammarly
Grammarly Handbook: Shifts in Writing
Five areas to edit for shifts in writing: Consistent Point of View, Consistent Verb Tenses, Verbs Consistent in Mood and Voice, Shifts from Indirect to Direct Questions/Quotations, and Shifts from British to American English. Each area...
University of Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin Madison: Writing Center: Editing Checklist
This twelve-item checklist is linked to short explanations that include an example of the error, followed by revisions. W.9-10.5 Writing Process
Grammarly
Grammarly Blog: Grammar Rules
This is a grammar handbook with links to grammar rules for the parts of speech, punctuation marks, mechanics, sentence style and clarity, composition, academic writing, organization and development, revising and editing, and research and...
Online Writing Lab at Purdue University
Purdue University Owl: Parallel Structure
Defines the term and gives a number of detailed examples of its use. Also includes proofreading strategies to try. L.9-10.1a Parallelism
Grammarly
Grammarly Blog: Commas After Introductory Phrases
This Grammarly Handbook resource explains how to use commas after introductory phrases in sentences.
Grammarly
Grammarly Handbook: Wordiness
This page focuses on reducing wordiness in writing by using more concise language, and avoiding extra-long words and sentences.