Miss Shelton's English Classroom
Writing Resources
PLANNING RESOURCES
This is a step-by-step guide to planning an essay from skillsyouneed.com. It has some useful advice when it comes to pre-writing strategies to ensure your essay will be well-organized.
This is a Youtube video that demonstrates how to take a writing prompt and brainstorm ideas while remaining on topic. It utilizes a brainstorming technique called mind-mapping.
This is a step-by-step guide through the writing process from Shmoop.com. To complete it, you choose the type of essay you're writing and then answer the questions to brainstorm and begin piecing together your essay.
WRITING RESOURCES
The Purdue OWL is the leading resource on academic writing, including information on the MLA writing standards, which is what we use in my class. This page gives examples of various thesis statements and demonstrates how to successfully structure arguments.
This web page, also from the Purdue OWL, features three exercises in sentence fragments, which is one of the biggest issues high school students tend to make in their writing. Take a look and make sure you can identify what makes a sentence complete.
Comma splices are another HUGE issue in student writing. Check out Grammar Girl's examples and explanations of comma splices and also her tips on how to fix them and avoid them in your writing.
FORMATTING RESOURCES
EasyBib has a great page to guide you through MLA formatting standards. Some of the requirements might be a little different, but they have some helpful explanations and examples.
This PDF file has detailed instructions to walk you through formatting an MLA style paper in Google Docs. It is incredibly helpful if you can't find the right button to change a setting.
EDITING RESOURCES
Grammarly is a free extension that you can add to Google Chrome, which will automatically proofread your writing. The only issue is that you have to copy and paste your writing from Google Docs into the editing window. Grammarly will also check your writing for plagiarism!
This is a list of thirteen tips to follow when editing a paper. Remember, editing is what makes the difference between a C or D paper and an A or B paper.
This page describes exactly what constitutes plagiarism and what you can do to help yourself avoid it. It is always available in case you need a refresher.
If I have made it a requirement for you to record yourself reading your essay aloud, this is what I want yout o use to do that. Vocaroo also makes it easy to send your recording via email, so make sure to send it to sheltonjordan@rsdmo.org. For the subject line, use your first and last name and then recording. For example, Subject: John Doe Recording.
