Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle share their approach to a narrative writing unit that lets students "spiral" back to skills learned earlier, giving them much-needed writing practice and confidence.

Explanations and student work samples of different kinds of essays. 

Tips on how to craft an essay that readers will want to read. Shared by Writer's Digest.

Ideas on how to write an effective personal essay. By Tim Bason, shared on the Creative Nonfiction website. 

This handout will define what an argument is and explain why they are essential to academic essays. Shared by the  Writing Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

A short explanation of argumentative essays by the online writing lab at Purdue University. 

An overview of narrative and descriptive essays with examples. Shared by the Guide to Grammar and Writing by the Capital Community College Foundation.

A blog post encouraging writers to embrace and leverage the laws of persuasive writing in their own work. Shared by Write to Done, a website for writers. 

Six Roadblocks to Writing Instruction—and How to Find Alternative Routes by Brian Kissel is shared in  Educational Leadership, an ASCD publication.  If we can give our students more freedom to choose topics and find their writing style, they will thrive in the classroom—and beyond.

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.