Improve Students’ Writing with These 7 Online Tools

Ranging from editing tools to plagiarism detectors, these 7 online tools will help students improve their writing skills both in and outside of the classroom.

December 8, 2015 TD Staff Leave a Comment

Essay Punch

Essay Punch is an interactive website that walks students through each part of the essay writing process, from research to organization, writing, editing, and publishing their work. The essay prompt section is particularly helpful, as it breaks the prompts into categories for persuasive writing, descriptive writing, and informative writing. This is a helpful tool to use during class when teaching students the basics of writing essays.

Thesis Builder

Many students struggle with building structured, clear theses. Even if they have a great idea, it can be difficult to put that idea into words. Thesis Builder will ask students a series of questions about their topic, which they must answer with full sentences. Once it has that information, it will build a thesis that students can work with and edit until they feel it is a strong argument. After the thesis is created, Thesis Builder will help students create an outline for their essays. This is a great tool to introduce to students when assigning take-home essays, as students can learn to build on their thesis-creating skills both at home and in the classroom.

Ask Petersen

Julie Petersen is an ESL tutor. Her website features all kinds of helpful articles about everything from study guides to essay samples and educational articles. The website also features a blog with fantastic articles that address writing topics in a way not typically seen on similar sites. For example, one of Julie’s articles teaches students the best time to study, while another focuses on mistakes to avoid when writing an exciting essay. This website is a great resource for teachers as well, as you may come across some tips that you can relay to students during instruction.

Teen Ink

This website was created by teens, for teens and features novels, essays, articles, and other written work. If students are struggling with developing essay ideas or topics, you may want to direct them to Teen Ink for inspiration. Furthermore, students can submit their essays or articles for publishing, helping them to get exposure and feel proud of their work.

Word Counter

Requiring a certain amount of words in an essay ensures students put in adequate research and time into a topic. If you’re concerned a student hasn’t met the proper word count, consider using Word Counter. Simply paste the student’s essay into the text box and the Word Counter tool will tell you exactly how may words are in the essay.

PlagTracker

Ensuring students’ writing is authentic and unique helps teach them how to be accountable for creating their own work. While many teachers may easily sense if a student has plagiarized, researching original text to prove plagiarism takes time. Consider using PlagTracker, an online tool that will find any instances of plagiarism in a written piece and rewrite those sentences with original text.

Hemingway Editor

Teaching your students how to write structured, clear sentences is a challenge. Consider directing them to Hemingway Editor when practicing essays in class or at home to detect whether or not their sentences are clear and concise. Hemingway Editor will analyze students’ writing and point out any sentences that are difficult to read or too saturated with adverbs or passive voice.

Between the grades of kindergarten and 12th grade, students learn a huge variety of writing skills to improve their grammar, structure, spelling, and research skills. These skills are extremely important to master, as writing is frequently used to communicate knowledge, ideas and opinions both in school and the workplace.

Students need to develop writing skills in order to succeed in both school and life beyond graduation, however learning to write is not often an easy task. Perhaps equally challenging is teaching each and every student the rules of grammar, spelling and writing and ensuring all students graduate with the writing skills they need to succeed in both college and their careers.

Students are often at different skill levels and it can be difficult for teachers to spend enough time with each individual student to ensure they are progressing and improving on their skills. Fortunately, there are numerous online tools that can help students improve on their writing skills both on their own time and in the classroom. Take a look at the following slideshow to learn about 10 educational tools that will help supplement teachers’ instruction and improve students’ writing.

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