A whole library of possibilities.
534 examples and lessons to explore. Find an approach, follow the thinking, and try it in your own writing.
Plan a Problem-Solution Essay
A practical guide to defining a manageable problem, proposing feasible actions, and explaining how to evaluate whether they help.
Represent a Counterargument Fairly
Learn to select the strongest relevant objection to your claim, explain its reasoning accurately, and answer that reasoning rather than a weaker substitute.
Plan a Compare-and-Contrast Essay
Choose criteria that fairly apply to both subjects, then select an organizing pattern that helps readers understand the comparison.
Plan a Narrative Essay
Plan a narrative essay by shaping events around a meaningful choice or change. A focused arc helps readers understand not only what happened, but why it mattered.
Choose an Essay Structure for a Purpose
Choose an essay pattern by identifying the relationship you need to explain. This guide compares chronological, cause-and-effect, compare-and-contrast, and problem-and-solution structures, then demonstrates how to revise a draft when its structure does not fit its purpose.
Plan a Cause-and-Effect Essay
Learn to separate a causal claim from the mechanism that could explain it and from alternative explanations that might also account for the outcome. A fictional school scenario demonstrates how to revise a broad claim into a more careful argument.
Write an Introduction with a Clear Purpose
Learn to open an essay by giving readers the context they need and showing where the writing is going, without beginning with a vague generalization.
Move from Research Notes to an Argument
Learn to group research notes by the work they do for a claim, then use those groups to build a clear, supported argument.
Choose Evidence for the Exact Claim
Learn to check whether evidence supports a claim at the same level of scope and whether it justifies the inference the claim asks readers to make.
Introduce Context Before a Quotation
Learn to give readers the speaker and situation they need before presenting a quotation. A practical method, fictional worked revision, checking questions, and a short exercise show how context makes quoted words understandable without overwhelming the sentence.
Plan an Analysis of a Supplied Passage
Learn to turn an interpretation of a passage into a focused analysis by choosing exact textual details, explaining how they work, and revising claims that go beyond the evidence.
Plan an Explanatory Essay
A practical method for arranging definitions, examples, and relationships so a beginner can follow an explanatory essay.