Writing Help by
Ruth Vilmi
Ruth Vilmi is one of the most prolific Web developers in ESL. This is a comprehensive
list of resources for ESL writers, including: academic, business, e-mail, fiction,
and technical writing. For those of us teaching in the ESL service courses this
site is very useful. It looks to be for advanced English learners whom are interested
in specific writing strategies for specific writing genres. This could be worked
into various genre analysis lessons.
Temasek Engineering
School OWL
The Temasek Engineering School Online Writing Lab. Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore.
ESL writing exercises for engineering students. Really interesting content-based
exercises. These exercises look like they are for intermediate through advanced
university students. The exercises take technical writing tasks straight from
authentic task that engineers encounter in their profession. This would work
well in a content-based engineering writing course or simply an ESP course focusing
on engineering professionals.
The Communication Station
Some great activities for ESL writers. As well as writing links for ESL students
and teachers. The activities are geared towards intermediate to advanced proficiency
students, with a new section for beginners (higher level beginners)."The
Collective" is an activity were ESL learners can add to an on-going story
paragraph by paragraph.
Online Resources
for Writers
Capital Community Technical College list of ESL writing links. This contains
a guide to grammar and writing and a guide to writing research papers. This
site is geared towards high-intermediate to advanced learners. Again, this would
be good to use with the University service courses as a reference and "guide"
to writing in general and for research papers specifically.
ESL & Writing
Links
University of Arizona ESL links. This is just a list of ESL related links. This
page contains a good list of writing links.
Advice on Academic
Writing
University of Toronto's Academic Writing Advice page. General information on
academic writing, using sources, writing genres, and ESL topics. This is an
ideal site for the University service courses. These are for high intermediate/advanced
ESL students. Students would use sites such as this one as online references
to complete academic writing assignments.
The
Electric Postcard
E-postcards allow students to write and send correspondence to teachers, friends,
and family. This site is just plain fun. It could be used with a wide variety
of students regardless of proficiency level. Students can pick an image from
a large list of possibilities and then are able to write and send this electronic
postcard to anyone with e-mail. This would probably be most appropriate for
students learning personal correspondence writing, but really could work into
many different classes.
DeVry Online Writing
Support Center
Resources for writing. How to use e-mail, news groups, forums, etc.... Cyber
Reference Desk, with adivce for writers, tutorials.... Search the Web for resources
and how to use these resources once they are found. Again this is a site almost
cater made for the ESL service courses. Students are able to find various resources
for academic writing. This site has an added benefit of covering e-writing,
such as: e-mail, news groups, and forums.
Criterion Introduction
Page - by ETS
Criteron is ETS's computer writing rater. This is what is used as one of the
raters for the writing portion of the G-MAT. Here you can write on a sample
topic and see what the results are. This is an ideal source for students who
are applying to an MBA program.
CVs/Resumes and Covering
Letters in English
A great resource for writing CVs/Resumes and Cover Letters in English. This
also covers the differences between British and American styles. This is a good
reference site for those entering the work force, or for a business writing
course. This is probably good for any level student, but probably best for intermediate
through advanced proficiency students.
Business Letter Punch - Interactive
Business letter writing tutorial
Step-by-step online business letter writing tutorial. This is basically a free
demo for a larger program that the company is selling. The free demo guides
students through the process of writing a letter of complaint. This is probably
best for use with intermediate through advanced proficiency students.
Advanced
Composition for NNS of English
There are specific genre writing tips, professional examples, and student examples.
This site guides students through writing specific types of essays and genres.
It provides sample student essays in each of these categories as well. This
is another site geared towards the adult intermediate through advanced levels
that could be best used in academic writing classes such as the University ESL
service courses.
Writing Links from Dave's
ESL Cafe Links page
A list of links to various writing resources on the Web, many of which are for
profit businesses.
Purdue University's Online Writing
Lab
Assistance for students interested in improving their writing ability. For both
NS and NNS. This is one of the most popular resource sites on the Web for academic
writing students. It provides help with citations, various writing genres, and
even grammar. This is used extensively with the ESL service courses at the University.
UIUC service
courses list of writing links
A good list of links and resources for students enrolled in writing classes
or anyone with questions about academic and/or business writing. This list of
links points to other sites with that contain help with specific writing problems.
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant: Discovery
Takes students from topic discovery through documenting sources. A full feature
site for use with both NS and NNS. The site contain a plethora of topics to
choose from: discovering what to write, organizing your writing, revising your
writing, editing your writing, writing informal essays, writing thesis/support
essays, writing exploratory essays, writing argumentative essays, documenting
your sources, and something about paradigm. This works well with the goals of
the ESL service courses at the University.
ExChange ESL Magazine
A site that allows students to submit their work to an online database of essays,
poems, and recipes. There is also a PenPals database that lists people who want
penpals. This is a great site for all levels of ESL students. Being open to
any level, this site would work with most any class that has a focus or even
just a lesson on writing. Teachers could assign topics that would work well
with the categories on the site: WORLD CULTURES - life in the USA, life in my
country, festivals, holidays, and celebrations, sports and recreation, movies,
music and art, lifestyles, philosophy and religion - COOKBOOK - appetizers,
salads, main dishes, and desserts - CREATIVE WRITING - short stories, poems,
essays, and reviews.
created by Daniel Craig