Writing Resources

Presents an overview of what is known about how literacy develops the component skills of reading and writing, and the practices that are effective for developing them. Also describes principles of reading and writing instruction that can guide those who design and administer programs or courses to improve adult literacy skills.

This publication focuses on the effectiveness of formative writing (teacher feedback, student assessment, and ongoing monitoring) and offers best practices for assessment (allow paper/pencil or word processing, mask student names when scoring, and use multiple samples). Like "Writing Next" and "Writing to Read" - both available in this resource library - it is a meta-analysis of large-scale research studies.

This resource from Teaching Excellence in Adult Literacy (TEAL) “aims to help adult education instructors improve the writing instruction they already use in their programs.” It is not a curriculum, but a guide to increase familiarity with evidence-based writing instruction and translate research findings into teaching practices.

This website offers resources for understanding and teaching prewriting, outlining, paragraphing, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, avoiding plagiarism, and many other writing skills for students at grade levels 7-12.

This PowerPoint covers topics such as academic writing skills adult learners need; teacher and learner challenges related to academic writing; strategies or supports that make academic writing possible for adult learners; and how teaching graphic organizers can be effective with adult learners at different levels.

This 2007 report identifies 11 elements of current writing instruction found to be effective for helping adolescent students learn to write well and to use writing as a tool for learning.

Do you need to brush up your own writing skills before teaching your students how to write more effectively? This website provides hundreds of free writing resources, columns, and exercises for writers and teachers of writers. Examples include apostrophes, capitalization, commas, editing, hyphens, letter writing, persuasive writing, punctuation, and verbs.