Free Writing Style Resources
TEACHING ESSAYS BUNDLE
Writing style is an umbrella term which includes writing rules and conventions, the voice or personality of the writer, how the writer interacts with his or her audience, what the author says, his or her purpose for writing, and how the author says what is said (including form, word choice, grammar, and sentence structure). Writing style also includes the personal agenda and collective experience of the writer. Writing style is all about the writer and his or her choices.
English-language arts teachers tend to argue about whether writing style is caught or taught. In my mind it’s both. Exposure to and recognition of unique writing styles through wide reading of a variety of prose and poetry provides a context for developing writers to experiment with their own voices. Teaching accepted writing rules, practicing sentence combining, requiring different grammatical sentence structures, etc. all impact what and how students write.
Following are articles, free resources, and teaching tips regarding how to teach essay strategies from the Pennington Publishing Blog. Also, check out the quality instructional programs and resources offered by Pennington Publishing.
Writing Style
Essay Writing Style
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/writing/how-to-improve-writing-style/
Writing style is personal, but also follows a traditional, widely agreed-to form. Indeed, good writing style does have objective rules to follow. Here are the key rules of writing style, written with tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek examples. This article lists 24 writing style rules in a truly memorable way.
Writing Style
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/writing/writing-style/
Although teachers exert considerable effort in showing students the differences between the narrative and essay genre, the both stories and essays do share some common writing rules. Among these are the accepted rules of writing style. Different than grammar, usage, or mechanics rules, the accepted rules of writing style help student writers avoid the pitfalls and excesses of formulaic, padded, and contrived writing. Additionally, using proper writing style helps students improve coherence and readability.
How to Improve Writing Unity
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/writing/how-to-improve-writing-unity/
Writing unity refers to how well sentences and paragraphs stay focused on the topic sentences and thesis statement. From the reader’s point of view, writing unity means that there are no irrelevant (off the point) details and that the tone of the writing remains consistent. This article gives good and bad examples of writing unity and provides strategies to improve your writing.
How to Improve Writing Parallelism
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/writing/how-to-improve-writing-parallelism/
Writing parallelism refers to the repeated pattern of words and grammatical structures. Parallel structures assist the comprehension of the reader and provide a memorable rhythm to the writing. Improve your writing style and readability by incorporating parallelism in your writing.
FREE Writing Style Posters and Teaching Articles
- Avoid intentional fragments. Right?
- Avoid using big words when more utilitarian words would suffice.
- I have shown that you should delete references to your own writing.
- Generally be sort of specific in your writing.
- Avoid using very interesting, nice words that contribute little to a sentence.
- Prepositions are not good to end sentences with.
- It is a mistake to ever split an infinitive.
- Avoid similes like the plague.
- But do not start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction.
- Always, avoid attention-getting alliteration.
- In my opinion, using “I think” or “I believe” is unnecessary.
- Writers should always avoid using generalizations.
- In this day and age, using clichés is not a necessary evil.
- Parenthetical remarks should (usually) be avoided.
- Always avoid repetitious verbs and avoid repetitious verb phrases always.
- Even if a metaphor hits a home run, it can be over-played.
- The passive voice is a form to be avoided, if it can be helped.
- Of what use are rhetorical questions?
- Avoid exaggeration; it only works once in a million years.
- Cease, desist, and stop wordiness.
- There are good reasons to avoid starting every sentence with There.
- It goes without saying to avoid using formulaic phrases.
- Never write no double negatives
- Keep pronoun references close to subjects in long sentences to make them clear.
How to Improve Your Writing Style with Grammatical Sentence Openers
To improve writing style and increase readability, learn how to vary sentence structures. Starting sentences with different grammatical sentence openers is the easiest way to add sentence variety. This article lists, explains, and provides clear examples for grammatical sentence openers.
Using Music to Develop Authentic Voice
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/writing/using-music-to-develop-authentic-voice/
Music creates the passion, commitment, and authentic voice that we want to see in our students’ writing. Connecting to student experience with their own music can transform the way they write essays, reports, narratives, poetry, and letters.
How to Develop Voice in Student Writing
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/writing/how-to-develop-voice-in-student-writing/
For students to develop voice, they need to practice voice in specific teacher-directed writing assignments. Here are 13 teaching tips to help students find their own voices.
Teaching Essay Style: 15 Tricks of the Trade
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/writing/teaching-essay-style-15-tricks-of-the-trade/
“Never start a sentence with But.” Countless middle school and high school English-language arts teachers cringe when their students faithfully repeat this elementary school dictum. “Never use I in your five-paragraph essay.” Now university professors similarly cringe and shake their heads at the straight-jacketed rules placed upon their students. However, maybe there is a method to our madness. Perhaps these writing absolutes serve a useful purpose for developing writers. Perhaps the little white lies that we teach our students are actually our tricks of the trade.
How to Teach Rhetorical Stance
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/writing/how-to-teach-rhetorical-stance/
Students need to practice the elements of rhetorical stance to improve their writing. This article provides clear definitions and a great sample lesson with useful links to learn how to teach voice, audience, purpose, and form to your students.
Ten Tips to Improving Writing Coherency
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/grammar_mechanics/ten-tips-to-improving-writing-coherency/
Writing coherency refers to how well sentences and paragraphs are organized into an understandable whole. Good writing coherency is reader-centered. From the reader’s point of view, the train of thought must be connected, easy to follow, and make sense.
How to Eliminate “To-Be” Verbs in Writing
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/grammar_mechanics/how-to-eliminate-to-be-verbs-in-writing/
Every English teacher has a sure-fire revision tip that makes developing writers dig down deep and revise initial drafts. One of my favorites involves eliminating the “to-be-verbs”: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, and been. Learn the four strategies to revise these “writing crutches.”
How to Teach Helping Verbs
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/grammar_mechanics/how-to-teach-helping-verbs/
English teachers learn early in their careers that strong nouns and “show-me” verbs are the keys to good writing. Of these two keys, verbs give developing writers the most “bang for their buck” in terms of writing revision. As a plus, revising weak and imprecise verbs, such as helping verbs (also known as auxiliary verbs), with active “show-me verbs” is quite teachable and less vocabulary-dependent than working with nouns. Learn when to use and when not to use helping verbs and how to eliminate them to improve writing.
The Seven Essay Writing Rules
https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/writing/the-seven-essay-writing-rules/
Essays have certain traditional rules that help maintain a fair and balanced writing style. This article details the seven key essay writing rules with clear examples.
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