how to teach a child to write an essay

How to Teach Your Child to Write an Essay – Step by Step

Children are naturally creative, and essay writing should come easy to them. But it usually doesn’t. 

So, how can you teach your child essay writing while making the process enjoyable for both of you?

I’m Tutor Phil, and in this article I’ll show you how to teach your child how to express thoughts on paper, even if some resistance is present.

We’ll first learn three principles that will help you make progress fast. And then we’ll go through the step-by-step process of teaching your child how to write an essay. 

Principle 1. Clarity equals motivation

We’ve all heard the expression: “You can lead the horse to the water, but you can’t make it drink.” One of your concerns can be your child’s motivation. 

You may be convinced that your child hates writing or is really bored with it. Perhaps your child will do anything to avoid sitting down to write. 

And you know what – any or all of the above may be true. But your child can still learn how to write an essay because it is not the lack of motivation per se that is the problem.

In this short video, Dr. Lee Hausner gives some eye-opening advice about motivating a child:

Here are the key points Dr. Hausner makes:

• You cannot create motivation in somebody else.
• Strong parents often mistakenly feel that they can transfer their motivation onto their children.
• Motivation is internal.
• Simplistic formula: “ Activity + Satisfaction = Motivation .”
• Conversely, “ Activity + Stress & Pressure = Avoidance .”
• Create an environment where your child can be successful and enjoy what he does. 
• Encourage and reward any small success and bit of progress. 

Let’s apply these principles to motivating a child in writing an essay. 

How to motivate a child to write

Chances are that if your child would rather not engage in writing, that is primarily because the process is fuzzy in his mind (and I’ll use the pronoun “he” to refer to your child throughout the tutorial, for the sake of elegance and brevity). 

You see, essay writing is not really taught in school. It is taught kind of sort of, but not really. 

Assigning a topic, grading the essays, and making suggestions for improvement is not teaching. It’s only a part of the process. 

To teach is to give the student a method, a step-by-step process, in which every step can be measured and improved. 

That’s what I’m about to give you. And that’s what you will need to effectively teach your child. 

But when a child does not have a step-by-step method, the process is fuzzy in his mind. And whatever is fuzzy is viewed as complicated and difficult because it’s like eating an elephant whole. 

Let’s revisit Dr. Hausner’s formula: “ Activity + Satisfaction = Motivation .”

Activity can be satisfying only if it is successful to some degree. When your child succeeds at something, and you acknowledge him for it, that becomes fun, enjoyable, and satisfying.

But you see, it’s hard to succeed at something without knowing what you’re doing. And even if you succeed, if you did not follow a recipe, then in the back of your mind you suspect that you probably can’t repeat or replicate the success.

Not knowing what to do while being expected to do it is a recipe for avoidance. And guess what – your child probably got his share of fuzzy instructions.

For example, consider this instruction:

“Tie it all together.”  

This statement is meaningless – to a child or even to an adult. What does it really mean to “tie it all together?” And yet, this is how they usually teach how to write a conclusion paragraph, as an example. 

But such a statement only creates fuzziness and demotivates.

So, in this tutorial, we’ll be cultivating clarity. I’ll be giving you crystal clear instructions so you could develop clarity in yourself and help your child develop it, too.

Principle 2. Writing is thinking on paper

An essay consists of sentences. The word “ sentence ” comes from the Latin word “sententia,” which means “thought.” 

Thus, to write literally means to express thoughts on paper. Why is this important?

This is important because by teaching your child how to write an essay, you’re really teaching him how to think . 

Your child will carry this skill through his entire life. It will be useful, even indispensable in:

• Acing standardized tests
• Writing papers in college
• Putting together reports and presentation professionally
• Defending a point of view effectively

You can tell I take essay writing seriously 🙂

But if you ever run out of patience yourself, just remember that you’re really teaching your child how to think. 

Principle 3. Essays are built not written

When you child hears the word “ write ,” he gets that queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. 

We’ll make it a lot easier for him by thinking of writing an essay and referring to it as just “ building an essay.”

If your child has ever loved playing with Lego, then the method you’re about to learn will feel familiar, both in terms of motivation and developing the skill. 

By the way, if you want to brush up your own essay writing skills before you sit down with your child to teach him, I highly recommend this article: Essay Writing for Beginners . 

All right – without further ado, here are…

Six steps to teaching your child essay writing: 

Step 1. Pick a topic and say something about it

In order to write, your child must write about something . That something is the subject of the essay. In this step, you want to help your child pick a topic and say something about it. 

In essence, you’re asking your child these two questions:

What will your essay be about?

• What about it?

For example, 

“My essay will be about grandma’s lasagna.”

“Okay. What about grandma’s lasagna?”

“It’s my favorite food.”

The result will be a complete main point, also known as the thesis. A thesis is the main point of the entire essay summarized in one sentence: 

“My grandma’s lasagna is my favorite food.”

Boom! Now, the reader knows exactly what this essay will be about. It is also clear that this is going to be a glowing review. 

Here’s my short video explaining what a thesis is:

When teaching a child, it’s important to keep the topic unilateral. In other words, it should be either positive or negative. It should be one simple idea. 

Don’t start out trying to develop a more complex topic that offers a balanced perspective with positives and negatives. Don’t do a compare/contrast, either. Keep it simple for now. 

This is the first step because the main point is the genesis for all other ideas in the essay . 

How to help your child pick a topic

Encourage your child to pick a topic he can get excited about because then he’ll be enthusiastic thinking and talking about it. 

Try to think of some of the things you know he is interested in. He can write an essay about absolutely anything.

It doesn’t have to be a serious or an academic subject. It could be anything from apple pie to Spiderman. 

Of course, the subject should be informed by your child’s age, as well. But once you sit down to work on essay writing, make it clear to your child that he can pick any topic he wants. 

Ask your child what he would like to write about or “build into an essay.” And whatever he chooses, just run with it. That’s what your first essay together will be about. 

Once you’re settled on the topic, just have your child write it down on a piece of paper or type it into the computer.

Here is a list of suggestions for essay topics to give a try:

• What I love the most about the summer
• My favorite thing to do on weekends
• John is my best friend because…
• Essay writing is…
• My least favorite day of the week is…
• My favorite season is…
• It is important to be brave (intelligent, skillful at something, etc.)
• If I could have any animal for a pet, it would be…
• My sister (brother) makes my life (exciting, difficult, etc.)
• Holidays are fun times (or dreadful times).

Remember – this is not the only or the last essay you’ll write together. Just encourage your child to pick a topic and write it down. Now, you’re ready for the next step. 

Step 2. Practice the Power of Three

We’re building our essays, remember? Not writing them. At least at this point, all you’ve done is encouraged your child to pick a topic. No writing involved yet.

In this step, no real writing is involved, either. It’s just a mental exercise, really. 

In writing or building an essay, it is necessary to break things into parts. Young children love to break things because they want to see how something works or what it looks like inside. 

How do you write an essay about an egg?

You must first divide the concept of an egg into parts. How do you do that? I highly recommend this simple technique I call the Power of Three. 

Three is an optimal number for a young brain, and really for adults, as well, to think about and process. Our brain thinks like this: “One, two, three, many.”

One doesn’t help us because you’re not dividing. Two is okay but not quite enough ideas to develop.

Three is easy to deal with while giving your child a challenge. And let’s set the record straight – thinking is not easy. It is challenging. This is why so few people teach it. 

But we’re making it fun by breaking it into steps and providing clear instructions. 

Okay, so back to the egg. Let’s apply the power of three to the idea of an egg:

You see, if we only have a whole egg as an idea, it’s like staring at the blank screen or sheet of paper. Nothing causes the writer’s block better than one solid piece.

But now that we’ve divided this idea into three sub-ideas, or supporting ideas, this makes our life discussing eggs a lot easier. 

Now, if we wanted to write an essay about eggs, we can discuss:

• The yolk and its color, taste, and nutritional content
• The egg white, its color, taste, and nutritional content
• The shell, its color, texture, and shape

Note that when we divide a topic or an idea, each part must be different from the other parts in some important ways. In other words, we want three distinct parts. 

You can use this part of the tutorial and ask your child to think about how to divide an egg into parts. It’s a very intuitive step, and your child will love the challenge. 

And by the way, you child may get very creative about it because the answer is not necessarily the yolks, the white, and the shell. It could be:

• Chicken eggs
• Ostrich eggs
• Boiled eggs

Whatever way to divide eggs into three concepts your child comes up with, approve and praise it. Now, let’s apply the power of three to an actual topic. 

We need a topic that we’ll use for the rest of the tutorial. Here it is:

“If I could have any animal for a pet, it would be a panther.”

Applying the Power of Three to an essay topic

Let’s apply what we just learned to this topic about a panther. Note that we have the entire thesis, a complete main point. Our subject is “a panther as a pet.”

We’re just using this example with an understanding that panthers don’t make good pets and belong in the wild. But since we asked, we should roll with the child’s imagination. 

Now, you want to encourage your child to come up with three reasons why he would choose a panther as a pet.

This is a challenging step. The first one or two reasons will come relatively easily. The third reason usually makes the child, anyone really, scratch his head a little.

Let’s come up with three reasons why a panther might make a great pet. 

Reason 1. Panthers are magnificently beautiful.

Great! That’s a good reason. 

Reason 2. A panther is more powerful than virtually any other pet.

That’s another legitimate reason to want a panther for a pet – you’re the king of the neighborhood, if not the whole town. 

And now, we’re thinking of reason 3, which will be the most challenging, so be ready for that. 

Reason 3. Panthers are loyal.

I’m making this one up because I really have no idea if panthers are loyal to their human owners when they have any. But I need a reason, this is just a practice essay, and anything goes. 

When your child comes up with a reason that is not necessarily true or plausible, let him run with it. What really matters is how well he can support his points by using his logic and imagination. 

Working with facts is next level. Right now, you want your child to get comfortable dividing topics into subtopics. 

The only criterion that matters is whether this subtopic actually helps support the main idea. If it does, it works. 

Step 3. Build a clear thesis statement 

Once you know the topic and the supporting points, you have everything you need to write out the thesis statement. Note that there is a difference between a thesis and a thesis statement.

Here’s a short video with a simple definition and example of a thesis statement:

Once you and your child have completed steps 1 & 2 thoroughly, step 3 is really easy. All you need to do is write out the thesis statement, using the information you already have. 

In fact, at this point, you should have every sentence of your statement and just need to put them all together into one paragraph. Let’s write out our complete thesis statement:

“If I could have any animal for a pet, it would be a panther, for three reasons. Panthers are magnificently beautiful. They are more powerful than virtually any other kind of a pet. And they are loyal.”

Note that we added the phrase “ for three reasons ” to indicate that we are introducing the actual reasons. In other words, we are building an introductory paragraph. We’re just presenting our main and supporting points here. 

When you read this opening paragraph, you unmistakably come away with a clear idea of what this essay is about. It makes a simple statement and declares three reasons why it is true. And that’s it. 

It is so clear that not even the least careful reader in the world can possibly miss the point. This is the kind of writing you want to cultivate in your child. Because, remember, writing reflects thinking. It would be impossible to write this paragraph without thinking clearly. 

Note also that there is no need for embellishments or other kinds of fluff. Elegant writing is like sculpture – you take away until there is no more left to take away. 

And guess what – we now have a great first paragraph going! Without much writing, we have just written the first paragraph. We were mostly building and dividing and thinking and imagining. And the result is a whole opening paragraph. 

Step 4. Build the body of the essay 

The body of the essay is where the main point is supported with evidence. Let’s revisit one of the rules of writing – to write an essay, you need to divide things into parts.

The body of the essay is always divided into sections. Now, since your child is presumably a beginner, we simply call the sections paragraphs. 

But keep in mind that a section can have more than one paragraph. An essay does not necessarily have the standard 5-paragraph structure. It can be as long as your child wants. 

But in this tutorial, each of our sections has just one paragraph, and that’s perfectly sufficient. 

How many sections will our body of the essay have? Well, we used the power of three, we came up with three supporting points, and so the body of the essay should naturally contain three paragraphs. 

How long should the paragraphs be? Let me show you how to gauge word count.

This is just an example of how you can teach your child to distribute the number of words across paragraphs. 

As you can see, our body paragraphs should probably be longer than the introductory paragraph and the conclusion. 

This is how I always teach my students to go about a writing assignment that has a certain word count requirement. The essay above will contain about 400 words.

If your child needs to write 600 words, then the following might be a good distribution:

• Introductory paragraph – 75 words
• Body paragraph 1 – 150 words
• Body paragraph 2 – 150 words
• Body paragraph 3 – 150 words
• Conclusion – 75 words

By doing this kind of essay arithmetic, it is easy to map out how much to write in each paragraph and not go overboard in any part of the essay. 

Body paragraph structure 

A paragraph in the body of an essay has a distinct structure. And this structure is not restrictive but it is rather liberating because your child will know exactly how to build it out.

The first sentence in the body paragraph is always the lead sentence. It must summarize the contents of the paragraph. 

The good news is that this sentence is usually a form of one of the sentences that we’ve already written. How so?

Well, in our thesis statement, we have three supporting points. Each of them is essentially a lead sentence for that section or paragraph of the essay. For example, consider this sentence from our thesis statement:

“Panthers are magnificently beautiful.”

This is the first reason that your child would like a panther as a pet. It is also a very clear standalone sentence. 

It is also an almost perfect lead sentence. I say “ almost ” because we don’t want to repeat sentences in an essay. 

So, we’ll take this sentence as a base and add one or two words to it. We can also change a word or two by using synonyms. That way, we’ll expand it just slightly and turn it into a perfect lead sentence for our first body paragraph:

“ Panthers are very beautiful and graceful animals.”

Okay, so we added the epithet “graceful,” but that’s okay because grace is virtually synonymous with beauty. And now we have a great lead sentence and are ready to proceed. 

Let’s write out the entire first body paragraph and see how it works:

“ Panthers are very graceful and beautiful animals. When portrayed in documentaries about animals, panthers are nicely balanced. They are not as huge as tigers or lions. And their size allows them to be nimble and flexible. Their size and agility make them move very beautifully, almost artistically. When I imagine walking with a pet like that on the street, I can see people staring at my panther and admiring its beauty. It would definitely be the most beautiful pet in my entire neighborhood.”

The first sentence, as we already know, is the lead sentence. The next three sentences explain how panthers’ balanced size and agility make them graceful. 

The following sentence is an explanation of how these qualities make them beautiful through the power of movement. 

And finally comes the most specific bit of evidence – an example. This child paints a perfect picture of himself walking his pet panther on a leash. People admire the animal’s beauty, and the kid gets a tremendous kick out of this experience. 

It is an example because it contains imagery, perhaps even sounds. It is a specific event happening in a particular place and time. 

As you can see, this paragraph proceeds from general to specific. It also follows the structure in the diagram perfectly. 

Guide your child through writing two more of these paragraphs, following the same organization. And you’re done with the body. 

Proceeding from general to specific

Argumentative (expository) essays always proceed from general to specific. Our most general statement is the thesis, and it’s the first statement in the essay. 

Then we have our supporting points, and each of them is more specific than the thesis but more general than anything else in the essay. 

Each lead sentence is slightly more specific than the preceding supporting points in the thesis statement. 

Then, an explanation is even more specific. And finally, examples are the most specific elements in an essay. 

When working with your child, cultivate this ability to see the difference between the general and the specific. And help your child proceed in that manner in the essay. 

This ability is a mark of a developed and mature writer and thinker. 

Step 5. Add the conclusion

I almost always recommend concluding an essay with a simple restatement. Meaning, your child should learn how to say the same things in different words in the conclusion. 

Why did I say, “almost?” Because some teachers will require that your child write a conclusion without repetition. 

In that case, the teacher should instruct the student what she expects to read in the conclusion. A great way to deal with this situation is to approach the teacher and ask what kind of a conclusion she expects. 

And she’ll say what she wants, and your child will simply abide. 

But in the vast majority of cases, simple restatement works just fine. All it really entails is writing out an equivalent of the thesis statement – only using different words and phrases. 

Here is our thesis statement:

And here’s our conclusion:

“I would love to have a panther as a pet. Panthers are such magnificent animals that everyone would admire my pet. People would also respect it and keep some distance because of its power. And the loyalty of panthers would definitely seal the deal.”

All we did was restate the points previously made. Let your child master writing this kind of a conclusion. And if you’d like a detailed tutorial on how to write conclusions, I wrote one you can access here . 

Step 6. Add an introductory sentence

The final step is to add one sentence in the first paragraph. I didn’t use to teach it because it’s perfectly fine to get straight to the point in an essay.

This little introduction is an equivalent of clearing your throat 🙂

However, teachers in school and professors in college expect some kind of an introduction. So, all your child has to do is add one introductory sentence right before the thesis. 

This sentence should be even more general than the thesis. It should kind of pull the reader from his world into the world of the essay. 

Let’s write such a sentence as our introduction:

“Not all pets are created equal, and people have their choices.”

And here’s our complete introductory paragraph:

And this concludes the tutorial. You can keep coming back to it as often as you want to follow the steps, using different topics. 

If you’d like the help of a professional, don’t hesitate and hit me up . 

Tutor Phil is an e-learning professional who helps adult learners finish their degrees by teaching them academic writing skills.

Recent Posts

How to Write an Essay about Why You Want to Become a Nurse

If you're eager to write an essay about why you want to become a nurse, then you've arrived at the right tutorial! An essay about why you want to enter the nursing profession can help to...

How to Write an Essay about Why You Deserve a Job

If you're preparing for a job application or interview, knowing how to express why you deserve a role is essential. This tutorial will guide you in crafting an effective essay to convey this...

• Math for Kids
• Parenting Resources
• ELA for Kids
• Teaching Resources

How to Teach Number Recognition to Kids in 8 Easy Steps

How to Teach One to One Correspondence To Kids: 4 Easy Steps

How to Teach Odd and Even Numbers in 4 Easy Steps

How to Teach Long Division to Kids in 6 Easy Steps

15 Famous Mathematicians in History That Kids Should Know

8 Types of Preschool Programs for Kids in 2024

6-year-old Developmental Milestones Checklist

How to Prepare a Schedule for Kindergarten With Examples

How to Prepare a Schedule for Preschoolers With Sample

12 Best Funny Short Stories for Kids to Read in 2024

190+ Fall Words From A-Z for Kids [Free Downloadable List]

60 Famous Quotes About Reading, Books & Writing for All Ages

What is Reading Assessment? Types & Tools  [Full Guide]

What are the Stages of Writing Development [Full Guide]

11 Best English Grammar Apps for Kids [Android & iOS]

12 Best Reading Bulletin Board Ideas for Your Classroom

15 Fun Summer Bulletin Board Ideas for 2024

13 Best Assessment Tools for Teachers in 2024

12 Best STEM Programs for Kids in 2024

12 Best Tips for Substitute Teachers

How to Teach Kids to Write in 9 Easy Steps

Step 1: Develop Fine Motor Skills

Step 2: introduce prewriting skills, step 3: teach letter recognition, step 4: practice writing letters, step 5: connect letters to sounds, step 6: encourage writing words, step 7: introduce writing instruments, step 8: expand writing contexts, step 9: encourage reading.

Ever felt a mix of joy and worry watching a kid clutch a crayon for the first time? If you’re nodding, you’re not alone. Figuring out how to teach kids to write is a common puzzle for many of us. It’s that first big step from messy lines to meaningful words.

Math & ELA | PreK To Grade 5

Kids see fun ., you see real learning outcomes ..

Watch your kids fall in love with math & reading through our scientifically designed curriculum.

Surprisingly, teaching kids to write doesn’t have to be a head-scratcher. With some simple steps and fun activities, it can become an exciting journey for you and your little one.

In the following sections, we’ll dive into a detailed step-by-step guide on how to teach kids to write. Each step is crafted to build upon the last, ensuring a solid foundation is laid for your child’s writing skills. By the end of these strategies, your kids will be equipped with the tools to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively.

9 Easy Steps to Teach Kids to Write

Fine motor skills are the foundation of learning to write. They involve using small muscles in the hands and fingers to perform tasks like holding a pencil, turning pages, and eventually writing letters and words. Developing these skills is crucial for teaching kids to write because it directly impacts their ability to control writing instruments and make the precise movements required.

When to Start:

The journey to develop writing skills begins long before a child ever picks up a pencil to write. It starts as early as toddlerhood. Children can begin engaging in activities to enhance their fine motor skills from as young as 18 months old. Starting early is important to ensure they have a strong foundation to build upon as they grow.

How to Do It:

• Engage your child in activities that encourage using their hands and fingers. Play with clay, finger painting, and threading beads are excellent ways to strengthen these muscles. Using safety scissors for cutting simple shapes out of paper is another beneficial activity.
• Incorporate fine motor skills development into daily tasks. Encourage your child to help with buttoning clothes, zipping up bags, or using child-safe utensils during meal times.
• Provide toys and tools that promote fine motor development. Puzzles , building blocks, and age-appropriate art supplies or online fine motor skills games are great choices.

Here are some fun fine motor skills games to get started:

Explore More

Key Milestones:

• Initially, focus on your child’s ability to grasp and hold objects. This is the first step towards holding a pencil correctly.
• Children should be able to manipulate objects more precisely as their skills advance, such as turning pages or unscrewing lids.

Prewriting skills are the early writing skills children need before they can form letters and words. These skills include drawing lines, shapes and eventually combining these to make letters. Introducing prewriting skills is critical in teaching kids how to write because it helps children understand the basic strokes involved in letter formation.

Children are ready to start developing prewriting skills around the age of 3. This is when they typically have enough control over their hand and finger movements to begin drawing basic shapes and lines.

• Begin with simple shapes like circles, straight lines, and curves. These shapes are the building blocks of letters.
• Use tracing worksheets or apps that allow children to trace lines and shapes. This helps them understand the motion of writing and builds their confidence.

Here are some fun shapes worksheets to get started:

• Being able to draw circles, lines, and crosses is a sign they’re developing the necessary control for writing.
• Successfully tracing over dotted lines or shapes shows they’re ready to start forming more complex figures, like letters.

Letter recognition is the ability to recognize and name all the letters of the alphabet. It’s a fundamental aspect of learning how to teach kids to write because recognizing letters is the first step towards understanding that letters represent sounds, which combine to form words.

Letter recognition can begin as early as age 2 or 3, alongside or shortly after introducing prewriting skills. At this stage, children are usually curious about letters and eager to learn more about them.

• Using alphabet books is a great way to familiarize children with letters. Read together and point out each letter, discussing its shape and sound.
• Engage children with games that involve finding and naming letters. This could be as simple as a letter hunt around the house or structured games like alphabet puzzles.

Begin with these letter games:

• Naming each letter, both uppercase and lowercase, is a key milestone in letter recognition.
• Recognizing letters not just in books or games but also in the world around them, like on signs or in their favorite storybooks .

Practicing writing letters is a crucial step in teaching a preschooler to write. It’s where the physical act of writing starts to take shape, moving from recognizing and drawing shapes to forming actual letters. This stage is essential for children to learn how to express themselves through writing.

Once children are comfortable with prewriting shapes and have a good grasp of letter recognition, usually around ages 3 to 4, they’re ready to start practicing writing letters.

• Motivating children by teaching them to write their names first is a powerful tool. It makes the learning process personal and engaging, giving them a sense of pride in their writing.
• Providing worksheets for tracing and writing letters helps children understand the form and structure of each letter. Start with uppercase letters, which are generally easier to write, and then move to lowercase letters.

Begin with these letter tracing games :

• Being able to write their own name is a significant milestone for preschoolers.
• Moving from tracing to independently writing letters shows progress in their writing skills.

By introducing letter sounds, children begin to understand that letters are not just shapes but symbols that represent sounds. This understanding is crucial for developing reading skills and is a fun way to teach writing as it makes the process more interactive and meaningful.

This step can begin concurrently with practicing writing letters, typically around ages 4 to 5, as children’s understanding of the alphabet solidifies.

• Introducing letter sounds with phonics games and flashcards makes learning dynamic and engaging. Phonics activities help children make the connection between letters and sounds, a critical step in learning to read and write.

Start with these letter sound games:

• Start forming simple words to emphasize the connection between writing and reading. This can be as straightforward as writing C-A-T and sounding it out together. It reinforces the idea that combining letters creates words with meaning.
• Being able to associate specific sounds with their corresponding letters.
• The ability to write and sound out simple words marks a significant advancement in their writing and reading journey.

Encouraging writing words is a pivotal step in how to teach kids to write. It transitions them from understanding individual letters and sounds to recognizing and forming whole words. This stage boosts their confidence and demonstrates the practical use of writing in communication.

After children are comfortable with letters and simple phonics, usually around the age of 5 or when they show interest in creating words, it’s time to introduce this step.

• Teaching common sight words for recognition and writing is essential. Sight words are frequently used words children are encouraged to recognize on sight. Start with a small, manageable list and gradually expand as they become more confident.

Begin here:

• Encouraging the formation of simple sentences helps children see how words come together to express ideas. Begin with sentences that are relevant to them, like “I like my cat” or “The sun is hot.”
• Being able to write and recognize common sight words .
• The ability to string words together to form basic sentences.

Introducing a variety of writing instruments is crucial for children to explore and find what they are most comfortable using. It’s also an opportunity to teach the proper grip, which is essential for writing efficiently and avoiding hand fatigue. This step is about refining their physical skills for writing and offering writing tips for kids to enhance their writing experience.

This can be introduced as soon as children start showing interest in drawing or writing, and should be continuously adapted as they grow and their skills develop.

• Allow children to experiment with different writing tools such as pencils, crayons, markers, and chalk. Each tool offers a different grip, resistance, and experience on paper, helping them develop a versatile skill set.
• Teaching the correct way to hold a pencil is fundamental. Show them the “tripod grip,” which is holding the pencil with the thumb, index, and middle finger. This grip controls the pencil, making writing easier and more comfortable.
• Experimenting with Different Tools: Children should feel comfortable trying out various writing instruments and expressing a preference.
• Mastering the Tripod Grip: Successfully using the tripod grip when writing or drawing is a sign of developing fine motor control and readiness for more advanced writing tasks.

Expanding writing contexts is about broadening a child’s understanding and application of writing across different genres. This step is crucial to improve writing skills as it exposes children to a variety of writing forms, structures, and purposes. It encourages them to think creatively and apply their writing skills in diverse ways.

This can be introduced once children are comfortable writing sentences and simple paragraphs, typically around ages 6 to 8.

• Introduce various writing forms such as stories , letters, poems , and reports. Discuss the structure and purpose of each genre. This variety keeps writing exciting and shows its practical uses in real life.
• Use prompts to inspire creativity and interest in different topics. Prompts can be questions, pictures, or scenarios that spark ideas for writing. This is one of the effective ways to improve writing skills for students by making them think and write creatively.
• Successfully writing a simple story, letter, or poem.
• Being able to create a coherent piece of writing in response to a given prompt.

A strong reading habit is foundational to writing well. Reading regularly exposes children to a wide range of vocabulary , sentence structures , and styles, enhancing their language skills and understanding. This, in turn, significantly improves writing skills as children learn to emulate the structures and styles they encounter in their reading.

Encouraging a love for reading should start as early as possible, even before a child begins to write, and continue throughout their education.

• Foster a love for reading by sharing books together, visiting libraries, and discussing stories. Encourage children to explore books on topics that interest them, which will keep them engaged and motivated to read more.
• Talk about the books they are reading. Discussing characters, plots, and what they enjoyed helps deepen their understanding and appreciation of writing.
• Establishing a routine where reading is a daily activity.
• Being able to talk about what they read, including story elements and what they liked or didn’t like.

How SplashLearn Can Encourage Children to Write

SplashLearn is a fun and interactive platform designed to make learning an exciting adventure for children. When it comes to writing, SplashLearn offers a variety of resources and activities that can significantly encourage and improve children’s writing skills. Here’s how SplashLearn can be a valuable tool in your child’s writing journey:

• Interactive Writing Games: SplashLearn includes a range of writing games that are not only engaging but also educational. These games are designed to teach children the basics of writing, from letter recognition to word formation, in a fun and interactive way. 
• Personalized Learning Paths: One of the key features of SplashLearn is its ability to adapt to each child’s learning pace and style. This personalized approach ensures that children are not overwhelmed or bored but are constantly challenged in a way that’s just right for them. This tailored learning experience can help children progress in their writing skills more effectively.
• Rewards and Motivation: SplashLearn uses a system of rewards and achievements to motivate children. As they complete writing tasks and games, they earn points or badges, which can motivate young learners. This positive reinforcement encourages children to keep practicing their writing, helping them improve over time.
• Parental Involvement: SplashLearn also provides tools and reports for parents to track their child’s progress. This feature allows parents to see how their child is advancing in their writing skills and identify areas where they might need extra help. It also offers suggestions for activities outside the app that encourage writing practice.
• Educational Resources: Beyond games , SplashLearn offers a wealth of worksheets to support writing learning at home. These resources can be used alongside interactive games to provide children with a comprehensive writing learning experience.

5 Benefits of Teaching Kids How to Write Effectively

• Writing is a fundamental form of communication. Teaching kids how to write effectively helps them express their thoughts, ideas, and emotions clearly and confidently in academic settings and their personal lives.
• Good writing skills are crucial for success in school. From completing homework assignments to writing essays and taking notes, the ability to write well can significantly impact a child’s academic achievement and future educational opportunities.
• Writing offers children a unique outlet to explore their creativity and imagination. By learning to write stories, poems, or even journal entries, kids can develop their creative talents and discover new ways of seeing the world.
• The process of writing involves complex thinking skills such as planning, organizing, and problem-solving. Teaching kids to write effectively helps enhance these cognitive abilities, contributing to overall intellectual growth.

Conclusion 

Learning how to teach kids to write is a journey filled with opportunities to enhance their communication, creativity, and cognitive development. By embracing this journey, we can help our children build a strong foundation in writing, setting them up for success in school and beyond.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the best age to teach a child to write.

The best age to start teaching a child to write is around 3 to 4 years old, beginning with basic prewriting skills and gradually moving to more structured writing tasks.

How should a 4 year old be writing?

A 4-year-old should be practicing prewriting skills such as drawing lines, shapes, and beginning to recognize and attempt writing letters, especially those in their name.

Should a 3 year old be able to write their name?

While some 3-year-olds may start showing interest in writing their names, it’s more common for them to recognize and trace letters rather than write their names independently.

• Pre-Kindergarten
• Kindergarten

Most Popular

76 Best Report Card Comments Samples for Teachers

117 Best Riddles for Kids (With Answers)

40 Best Good Vibes Quotes to Brighten Your Day

Recent posts.

13 Letter B Activities & Crafts for Kids

Math & ELA | PreK To Grade 5

Kids see fun., you see real learning outcomes..

Watch your kids fall in love with math & reading through our scientifically designed curriculum.

Parents, try for free Teachers, use for free

• Games for Kids
• Worksheets for Kids
• Math Worksheets
• ELA Worksheets
• Math Vocabulary
• Number Games
• Addition Games
• Subtraction Games
• Multiplication Games
• Division Games
• Addition Worksheets
• Subtraction Worksheets
• Multiplication Worksheets
• Division Worksheets
• Times Tables Worksheets
• Reading Games
• Writing Games
• Phonics Games
• Sight Words Games
• Letter Tracing Games
• Reading Worksheets
• Writing Worksheets
• Phonics Worksheets
• Sight Words Worksheets
• Letter Tracing Worksheets
• Prime Number
• Order of Operations
• Long multiplication
• Place value
• Parallelogram
• SplashLearn Success Stories
• SplashLearn Apps

© Copyright - SplashLearn

Empower Your Classroom Today!

Engage your students., make learning easy.

Access 14,000+ activities and 450+ lesson plans to engage your students and boost their learning!

Teachers, Use for Free

• About Alyce
• Photos of Alyce
• Contact Alyce
• Dream Analysis

How to teach your children essay writing in 5 steps

When you sit down to teach your children essay writing you might not initially know where to begin. Essay writing is the cornerstone of any education and half or more of the subjects your kids are likely to tackle in their school lifetime will require essay writing skills. Writing tips for kids are something that will take them from being a mediocre student to one that shines. Confidence when writing is something that can truly be learned – very few people are born with this important skill. That’s good news, in fact. Like anything worthwhile doing, all great writing takes is practice and dedication.

How to inspire your kids to love writing

Teach Your Children Essay Writing in 5 Steps

Step 1: start with basics.

Lots of kids aren’t great with grammar. Grammar takes time to learn and many parents and guardians simply don’t correct their young children enough, which is doing them a disservice. Some parents might even find these little mistakes cute, funny or charming – but that’s where very young children get into trouble later in life. Some common grammatical errors made by children are listed by writer Amanda Morin here . Phrases like, ““I goed to the store with Daddy so we could buy traps to catch the mouses ,” or, “I’d rather have cookies then cake.” You need to correct your children and equip them with the basics of spelling and grammar. You don’t have to deliver a massive lecture on writing concepts or run the whole grammar gauntlet in one day. Do this step by step, correct them gently when they make a mistake and select grammar and spelling practices which are appropriate for their grade, age, and essay requirements.

Step 2: Create an outline

When spending time with young children we can see them struggling to find the correct words when speaking; this is even more apparent when they’re tasked with writing. The vast majority of children are not initially confident when expressing their thoughts on paper, so it’s an important step to teach your children essay writing in a sensible way. To help your children with essay writing, teach them how to create a structure of the message or story they want to tell. When they perfect this, creating an outline for an essay becomes easier. Once your kids understand “logical context”, their mission is half accomplished. Impart the importance of structure: an introduction, body of the essay (including arguments and structured thoughts), and a well-thought out conclusion. Have them practise with something fun, such as an age appropriate story or fairytale.

Step 3: Provide examples and practise a lot

Give your kids examples! Children work better when they have some examples of what they are trying to do lying in front of them. This tactic, called “learning by example”, will help your children get more ideas about creating their own essay papers. Work on these together and add some creativity to the task. If your kids are young, find fun examples of coordinated text and ask them to point out what structure a piece of writing has – for example, where the beginning, middle and end is. Make sure you don’t overload your kids with tasks either; do the work in small bursts and keep them engaged. Reward them with something fun, such as stickers or colourful pens, or even a new book or two.

Step 4: Don’t push your kids too much

Essay writing is a very hard and complex task; even most adults find it challenging! Striving for perfection is never the best way to get your children immersed in a writing task. Give them plenty of breaks and lots of encouragement. When they make an error, make sure you are gentle with them so you don’t affect their confidence levels. Setting them up for success in this way will give them more confidence at school. Praise them when they do well and offer positive reinforcement.

Step 5: Read to your children and encourage them to read on their own

It should go without saying but all great writers started as readers. Make reading fun! When kids are little (even from when they are babies) read to them: fairy tales, interesting stories and books designed for kids. Find out what subjects your kids love; they might surprise you! Do they love dinosaurs, science, bugs, or stories about witches and wizards? Choose age appropriate books that they will find a genuine interest in. When you are reading to your children, you’ll notice that they’ll definitely catch some words out of the text, and even remember them almost perfectly. This increases their word capacity and vocabulary. Educate your children to love reading on their own. Give them a couple of different books of one or two genres, and ask their opinions.

Essay writing skills help children throughout their school lives

It’s true – writing can be as difficult a subject to teach and assess as it is to learn and for this reason, you, as a parent, need a lot of patience while teaching your children. Remember to enjoy your time together and build a stronger rapport with your kids. This is where parent involvement can make a big difference to their learning outcomes.

When you teach your children essay writing you are giving them a lifelong skill. Encouraging your children to develop strong writing skills at a young age is worthwhile and may make all the difference to their future school success. Essay writing skills can have a lifelong positive impact on a child’s writing and may make essay writing an easier and more enjoyable process throughout their lives.

Essay writing skills for pre-teens and teens

Once your children reach the age of ten, their essay writing needs may ramp up as school requires more of them. However, some students still struggle with essay writing skills in junior or primary school with one study revealling , that “even with spell check and a thesaurus on hand, just 27% of students are able to write well-developed essays with proper language use.” It might be worthwhile to encourage older children to seek out help and to gain lots of feedback. Advise them to break tasks down into workable sections and give themselves ample time to complete tasks. Use these 12 tips to create a school essay when you get stuck.

12 tips on creating an essay outline and plan

• Before you begin: Clearly and carefully read the essay task before you begin
• Beginning, middle & end: Think about narrative, structure and formatting; and then create a writing plan
• Experts: Remember to include arguments from expert references and highlight your main points with examples
• Individual expression: Express your own individual thoughts on the essay topic, framed in context of the wider narrative
• Problem solving: Look to solve problems that arise in different, unique ways (think ‘outside the square’)
• Thoroughness: Analyse what is required of you and ensure the task has been covered end-to-end

Most school essay requirements are similar, when you break them down to their bare elements. Master these simple points:

• Cover a topic fully: make sure you consider all relevant arguments and include a sufficient number of individual ideas, based on your research.
• Be critical! Edit out all info that isn’t necessary to the final draft and be select only the most important arguments for your final essay.
• Annotate: Find evidence and examples; use thorough research from accredited sources.
• Planning: Preparing a plan will help you write logically and consistently as well as adhere to the overall essay structure.
• Proofing: Avoid mistakes; proofread your content at least twice before submitting.
• Formatting & flow: Make sure you include a strong introduction and satisfying conclusion.

How Do I Become a Better Writer, Fast?

What do men find attractive in women when looking for a partner?

Related posts.

How to create a writing plan for any topic

Creating a writing plan before you begin putting words onto a page is a great way to ensure that what you end up with is of high value to your audience. Whether you’re writing an article, an essay, a research paper or a piece of creative writing, it’s always a good idea to plan out […]

10 Unusual Ways to Earn Money as a Writer

Do you want to earn money as a writer? In reality, there are hundreds of ways to do it and here are just a few for you to think about. Most people who want to write for a living want to start out swinging by making millions from writing their debut novel, but the reality is […]

Stuck in a dead end job? Career going nowhere? Here’s what to do!

This is an excerpt from an article I wrote for the fabulous publication, Australian Women Online. To read the full article, head to the link at the end of this text). The job market is tight and good jobs are getting more difficult to hold on to as companies frequently choose long probation periods to […]

Pingback: What to do when your child is scared of water - Alyce Vayle

Pingback: What to do when your child is scared of water | Tips for water play

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

Current ye@r *

Leave this field empty

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers

P LANNING, PARAGRAPHING AND POLISHING: FINE-TUNING THE PERFECT ESSAY

Essay writing is an essential skill for every student. Whether writing a particular academic essay (such as persuasive, narrative, descriptive, or expository) or a timed exam essay, the key to getting good at writing is to write. Creating opportunities for our students to engage in extended writing activities will go a long way to helping them improve their skills as scribes.

But, putting the hours in alone will not be enough to attain the highest levels in essay writing. Practice must be meaningful. Once students have a broad overview of how to structure the various types of essays, they are ready to narrow in on the minor details that will enable them to fine-tune their work as a lean vehicle of their thoughts and ideas.

In this article, we will drill down to some aspects that will assist students in taking their essay writing skills up a notch. Many ideas and activities can be integrated into broader lesson plans based on essay writing. Often, though, they will work effectively in isolation – just as athletes isolate physical movements to drill that are relevant to their sport. When these movements become second nature, they can be repeated naturally in the context of the game or in our case, the writing of the essay.

THE ULTIMATE NONFICTION WRITING TEACHING RESOURCE

• 270  pages of the most effective teaching strategies
• 50+   digital tools  ready right out of the box
• 75   editable resources  for student   differentiation  
• Loads of   tricks and tips  to add to your teaching tool bag
• All explanations are reinforced with  concrete examples.
• Links to  high-quality video  tutorials
• Clear objectives  easy to match to the demands of your curriculum

Planning an essay

The Boys Scouts’ motto is famously ‘Be Prepared’. It’s a solid motto that can be applied to most aspects of life; essay writing is no different. Given the purpose of an essay is generally to present a logical and reasoned argument, investing time in organising arguments, ideas, and structure would seem to be time well spent.

Given that essays can take a wide range of forms and that we all have our own individual approaches to writing, it stands to reason that there will be no single best approach to the planning stage of essay writing. That said, there are several helpful hints and techniques we can share with our students to help them wrestle their ideas into a writable form. Let’s take a look at a few of the best of these:

BREAK THE QUESTION DOWN: UNDERSTAND YOUR ESSAY TOPIC.

Whether students are tackling an assignment that you have set for them in class or responding to an essay prompt in an exam situation, they should get into the habit of analyzing the nature of the task. To do this, they should unravel the question’s meaning or prompt. Students can practice this in class by responding to various essay titles, questions, and prompts, thereby gaining valuable experience breaking these down.

Have students work in groups to underline and dissect the keywords and phrases and discuss what exactly is being asked of them in the task. Are they being asked to discuss, describe, persuade, or explain? Understanding the exact nature of the task is crucial before going any further in the planning process, never mind the writing process .

BRAINSTORM AND MIND MAP WHAT YOU KNOW:

Once students have understood what the essay task asks them, they should consider what they know about the topic and, often, how they feel about it. When teaching essay writing, we so often emphasize that it is about expressing our opinions on things, but for our younger students what they think about something isn’t always obvious, even to themselves.

Brainstorming and mind-mapping what they know about a topic offers them an opportunity to uncover not just what they already know about a topic, but also gives them a chance to reveal to themselves what they think about the topic. This will help guide them in structuring their research and, later, the essay they will write . When writing an essay in an exam context, this may be the only ‘research’ the student can undertake before the writing, so practicing this will be even more important.

RESEARCH YOUR ESSAY

The previous step above should reveal to students the general direction their research will take. With the ubiquitousness of the internet, gone are the days of students relying on a single well-thumbed encyclopaedia from the school library as their sole authoritative source in their essay. If anything, the real problem for our students today is narrowing down their sources to a manageable number. Students should use the information from the previous step to help here. At this stage, it is important that they:

●      Ensure the research material is directly relevant to the essay task

●      Record in detail the sources of the information that they will use in their essay

●      Engage with the material personally by asking questions and challenging their own biases

●      Identify the key points that will be made in their essay

●      Group ideas, counterarguments, and opinions together

●      Identify the overarching argument they will make in their own essay.

Once these stages have been completed the student is ready to organise their points into a logical order.

WRITING YOUR ESSAY

There are a number of ways for students to organize their points in preparation for writing. They can use graphic organizers , post-it notes, or any number of available writing apps. The important thing for them to consider here is that their points should follow a logical progression. This progression of their argument will be expressed in the form of body paragraphs that will inform the structure of their finished essay.

The number of paragraphs contained in an essay will depend on a number of factors such as word limits, time limits, the complexity of the question etc. Regardless of the essay’s length, students should ensure their essay follows the Rule of Three in that every essay they write contains an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Generally speaking, essay paragraphs will focus on one main idea that is usually expressed in a topic sentence that is followed by a series of supporting sentences that bolster that main idea. The first and final sentences are of the most significance here with the first sentence of a paragraph making the point to the reader and the final sentence of the paragraph making the overall relevance to the essay’s argument crystal clear. 

Though students will most likely be familiar with the broad generic structure of essays, it is worth investing time to ensure they have a clear conception of how each part of the essay works, that is, of the exact nature of the task it performs. Let’s review:

Common Essay Structure

Introduction: Provides the reader with context for the essay. It states the broad argument that the essay will make and informs the reader of the writer’s general perspective and approach to the question.

Body Paragraphs: These are the ‘meat’ of the essay and lay out the argument stated in the introduction point by point with supporting evidence.

Conclusion: Usually, the conclusion will restate the central argument while summarising the essay’s main supporting reasons before linking everything back to the original question.

ESSAY WRITING PARAGRAPH WRITING TIPS

●      Each paragraph should focus on a single main idea

●      Paragraphs should follow a logical sequence; students should group similar ideas together to avoid incoherence

●      Paragraphs should be denoted consistently; students should choose either to indent or skip a line

●      Transition words and phrases such as alternatively , consequently , in contrast should be used to give flow and provide a bridge between paragraphs.

HOW TO EDIT AN ESSAY

Students shouldn’t expect their essays to emerge from the writing process perfectly formed. Except in exam situations and the like, thorough editing is an essential aspect in the writing process. 

Often, students struggle with this aspect of the process the most. After spending hours of effort on planning, research, and writing the first draft, students can be reluctant to go back over the same terrain they have so recently travelled. It is important at this point to give them some helpful guidelines to help them to know what to look out for. The following tips will provide just such help: 

One Piece at a Time: There is a lot to look out for in the editing process and often students overlook aspects as they try to juggle too many balls during the process. One effective strategy to combat this is for students to perform a number of rounds of editing with each focusing on a different aspect. For example, the first round could focus on content, the second round on looking out for word repetition (use a thesaurus to help here), with the third attending to spelling and grammar.

Sum It Up: When reviewing the paragraphs they have written, a good starting point is for students to read each paragraph and attempt to sum up its main point in a single line. If this is not possible, their readers will most likely have difficulty following their train of thought too and the paragraph needs to be overhauled.

Let It Breathe: When possible, encourage students to allow some time for their essay to ‘breathe’ before returning to it for editing purposes. This may require some skilful time management on the part of the student, for example, a student rush-writing the night before the deadline does not lend itself to effective editing. Fresh eyes are one of the sharpest tools in the writer’s toolbox.

Read It Aloud: This time-tested editing method is a great way for students to identify mistakes and typos in their work. We tend to read things more slowly when reading aloud giving us the time to spot errors. Also, when we read silently our minds can often fill in the gaps or gloss over the mistakes that will become apparent when we read out loud.

Phone a Friend: Peer editing is another great way to identify errors that our brains may miss when reading our own work. Encourage students to partner up for a little ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’.

Use Tech Tools: We need to ensure our students have the mental tools to edit their own work and for this they will need a good grasp of English grammar and punctuation. However, there are also a wealth of tech tools such as spellcheck and grammar checks that can offer a great once-over option to catch anything students may have missed in earlier editing rounds.

Putting the Jewels on Display: While some struggle to edit, others struggle to let go. There comes a point when it is time for students to release their work to the reader. They must learn to relinquish control after the creation is complete. This will be much easier to achieve if the student feels that they have done everything in their control to ensure their essay is representative of the best of their abilities and if they have followed the advice here, they should be confident they have done so.

WRITING CHECKLISTS FOR ALL TEXT TYPES

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (92 Reviews)

ESSAY WRITING video tutorials

My Kid Can’t Write an Essay Without Having a Meltdown

She gets overwhelmed every time—but breaking down the assignment into smaller steps could help her manage it.

Editor’s Note: Every Tuesday, Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer take questions from readers about their kids’ education. Have one? Email them at [email protected].

Dear Abby and Brian,

My daughter is in ninth grade and is really struggling with essay writing. English, history, the subject doesn’t matter—she has a meltdown every time. She just stares at the screen and doesn’t know where to start.

I try to remember what I learned in high school about the Roman empire or Robert Frost to get her going. I’ve tried to leave her alone, or to sit there doing the work along with her. None of it ever seems to help. I find myself dreading her getting an essay assignment, because whenever she does, the night before it’s due nearly always ends with her in tears or yelling at me.

What can I do?

Julia Virginia

Dear Julia,

Seeing your daughter so upset when confronted with writing assignments can be painful. We appreciate your instinct to help, but neither leaving your daughter alone nor sitting there doing the work along with her is the right approach. What will help is taking an assignment that overwhelms her and breaking it down into a series of small, manageable steps that she can do on her own. The goal is not to get an essay written no matter what, but to set her up for being an independent, confident student who doesn’t rely on you at every turn.

You’ll want to sit down with her and say something like “I know essay writing has been really hard, but it will help if you can think about it as a set of smaller steps and budget enough time for each.” Then go through these steps with her:

• Read the material, highlighting important points and taking notes.

This is the starting point for any good essay writing. Suggest that even before she is assigned a writing prompt, she begins taking notes on the material as she reads it. Annotation should serve as a conversation with the text: She should mark significant or reaction-provoking passages and jot down a few words about why they are noteworthy.

• Review the notes, looking for one thread that ties everything together.

This is how she will begin building her thesis. Teachers sometimes disagree over whether students should start with a working thesis and then find evidence to build their case, or start with examples and see where they lead. We believe that the thesis and examples should be developed together; as your daughter narrows down evidence, her thesis can evolve.

• Write topic sentences for each of the body paragraphs, and then match topic sentences with examples and analysis to build an outline.

Your daughter should think about defending her thesis with a series of sub-arguments, each expressed as a topic sentence for her body paragraphs. Many students have difficulty connecting their arguments to evidence, because they are inclined to summarize the material rather than critically evaluate it. Your daughter can ask herself what her examples reveal about her topic sentences and then delve into the importance of word choice and literary devices as is relevant.

• Write introduction and conclusion paragraphs.

With topic sentences, examples, and analysis for each body paragraph together in outline form, your daughter can move on to her introduction and conclusion. The focus of her introduction should be general background information leading up to the thesis, and the conclusion should offer new insight into the significance of the topic and a parting thought for the reader to ponder.

• Use the outline, introductory paragraph, and conclusion to write a first draft.

Once she has completed an outline, she’ll have a straightforward road map for writing a draft with more thoroughly developed ideas.

• Look over the draft twice: once to ensure that the argument flows logically and a second time to eliminate errors in grammar and syntax, as well as to sharpen word choice.

We recommend that all editing be done while reading the work aloud from a printed draft, pencil in hand. Once these revisions are implemented, she’ll have a final draft ready to go.

If a single major assignment becomes six minor ones, your daughter is far less likely to feel overwhelmed. This process, from start to finish, will take about a week, so she should plan accordingly. With a calendar in front of her, she should look at what assignments she has coming up for the rest of the semester and mark deadlines for each of these steps so that she won’t have to rush at the end. Remember that writing always takes longer than it seems it should. Helping your daughter plan well in advance should allow her to approach writing with less trepidation and instead see it as a process composed of clear, manageable steps.

As she does this more and more, she’ll find that her belief in herself will grow—and you won’t cringe when you hear about the English essay due next week.

B y submitting a letter, you are agreeing to let The Atlantic use it—in part or in full—and we may edit it for length and/or clarity.

About the Authors

Jump to navigation Jump to Content

• Newsletters

• Supporting ELLs Through COVID-19
• New to Teaching ELLs?
• ELL Glossary
• Special Populations
• Resources by Grade
• ELL Resources by State
• ELL Policy & Research
• ELL News Headlines
• Serving and Supporting Immigrant Students
• Special Education and ELLs
• Social and Emotional Support for ELLs
• ELL School Enrollment
• Bilingual & Dual-Language Education: Overview
• COVID-19 & ELLs
• College Readiness for ELLs
• ELL Program Planning
• Events During the School Year
• Programs for Success
• School Libraries
• ELL Family Outreach
• For Administrators
• For Paraprofessionals
• Supporting Newcomer Students: Resource Gallery
• Creating a Welcoming Classroom
• ELL Classroom Strategy Library
• ELL Strategies & Best Practices
• Language & Vocabulary Instruction
• Literacy Instruction
• Content Instruction for ELLs
• Common Core
• Technology & ELLs
• The Role of ESL Teachers
• Navigating Tough Topics in the Classroom: Tips for ELL Educators
• Help Your Child Learn to Read
• Learning Together at Home
• The Preschool Years
• Schools and Families: An Important Partnership
• School Success
• Raising Bilingual Kids
• Technology at Home
• Resources for Parents of Teens
• Visiting the Public Library
• When Your Children Need Extra Help
• Colorín Colorado Book Finder
• Books for Young Children
• Books for Kids
• Books for Young Adults
• Books for Professionals
• Diverse Books: Resource Guide
• Pura Belpré: Her Life and Legacy
• Literacy Calendar
• Meet the Authors
• Classroom Videos
• Advice for New Teachers of ELLs
• Meet the Experts
• Meet the Administrator
• Facebook Live Series
• PBS Show: Becoming Bilingual
• Being Bilingual Is a Superpower!
• Family Literacy: Multilingual Video Series
• Supporting ELLs During COVID-19: Educator Voices
• Administrators
• Paraprofessionals
• Parents & Families
• ELL Resource Collections
• Guides & Toolkits
• Multilingual Tips for Families
• Reading Tips for Parents (Multilingual)
• Reading Tips for Educators
• Topics A to Z
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Research & Reports
• Web Resources
• Colorín Colorado Blog
• Natural Disaster Resources for Schools
• Responding to a Crisis

Add new comment

Helping young children develop strong writing skills, on this page, why is writing important, what can you do, ideas for parents: how to help your child become a stronger writer.

Note: This article was adapted from two articles written by the U.S. Department of Education and was compiled by Colorín Colorado.

Writing is an important part of our daily lives. It is, however, a difficult skill to learn and master. By getting a head start with some simple activities, you can help your child begin to develop her writing skills at an early age. By doing so you will be contributing to her future success as a student and as an adult while teaching her how to express herself.

In this article, we provide some reasons that writing is an important skill for people of all ages, as well as a list of suggestions that will help your child become a stronger writer.

Writing is practical. Every day, we need to write in order to complete our tasks, whether we are filling out a form at the doctor's office or writing an important letter. These tasks require us to write clearly, and organize information effectively.

Writing is an important element of a student's education. Whether students are writing by hand or on the computer, many assignments and exams require students to write short answers or longer essays as a way of assessing what they have learned. As students get older, they will be expected to show more sophisticated writing skills, and to complete more sophisticated tasks through their writing. In addition, many colleges and universities require students to write essays as part of their admissions application.

Writing can be an important element of an employee's job. Employees in many kinds of jobs are required to write on a daily basis. Perhaps they are taking phone messages and doing administrative work, or writing research reports and newspaper articles. Whatever the task, their ability to do their job well may depend on their ability to write. Many job applicants also must submit a resumé and a letter of application when applying to a new job.

Writing is an important form of communication. Writing letters and emails is a common way of keeping in touch with our friends, relatives, and professional colleagues. Writing is frequently the final stage in communication when we want to leave no room for doubt, which is why we write and sign contracts, leases, and treaties when we make important decisions.

Writing can be an important outlet. Many people find writing to be therapeutic, and a helpful way to express feelings that cannot be expressed so easily by speaking.

It's important to remember that writing can be as difficult a subject to teach and assess as it is to learn. Many students have trouble writing with clarity, coherence, and organization, and this can discourage them from writing if they feel frustrated.

That's where parent involvement can make a big difference. Encouraging your child to develop strong writing skills at a young age, and to become a better writer as she gets older, can have a lifelong positive impact on her writing, and may make writing an easier and more enjoyable process for her

To get you started, the Department of Education offers a number of ideas of things you can do help your child become a stronger writer. While many of these ideas apply to younger children, they can be adapted for older children as well. To learn more about ways to support your children if they continue to struggle with writing in middle and high school, read Tips for Parents of Struggling Adolescent Writers .

What You Need

• Pencils, crayons, or markers
• Yarn or ribbon
• Writing paper or notebook
• Cardboard or heavy paper
• Construction paper
• Safety scissors

Before getting started

Provide a place It's important for your child to have a good place to write, such as a desk or table with a smooth, flat surface. It's also crucial to have good lighting.

Provide the materials Provide plenty of paper (lined and unlined) and things to write with, including pencils, pens, and crayons.

Brainstorm Talk with your child as much as possible about her ideas and impressions, and encourage her to describe people and events to you.

Activities for young children

Encourage the child to draw and to discuss her drawings Ask your child questions about her drawings such as: "What is the boy doing?" "Does the house look like ours?" "Can you tell a story about this picture?" Show an interest in, and ask questions about, the things your child says, draws, and may try to write.

Ask your child to tell you simple stories as you write them down Copy the story as your child tells it, without making changes. Ask her to clarify anything you don't understand.

Encourage your child to write her name Practice writing her name with her, and point out the letters in her name when you see them in other places (on signs, in stores, etc.). She may start by only writing the first few letters of her name, but soon the rest will follow.

Use games There are numerous games and puzzles that help children with spelling while increasing their vocabulary. Some of these may include crossword puzzles, word games, anagrams, and cryptograms designed especially for children. Flash cards are fun to use too, and they're easy to make at home.

Turn your child's writing into books Paste her drawings and writings on pieces of construction paper. For each book, make a cover out of heavier paper or cardboard, and add special art, a title, and her name as author. Punch holes in the pages and cover, and bind the book together with yarn or ribbon.

Day-to-Day Activities

Make sure your child sees you writing She will learn about writing by watching you write. Talk with her about your writing so that she begins to understand why writing is important and the many ways it can be used.

Encourage your child to write, even if she's scribbling Give your child opportunities to practice writing by helping her sign birthday cards, write stories, and make lists.

As your child gets older, write together Have your child help you with the writing you do, including writing letters, shopping lists, and messages.

Suggest note-taking Encourage your child to take notes on trips or outings, and to describe what she saw. This could include a description of nature walks, a boat ride, a car trip, or other events that lend themselves to note-taking.

Encourage copying If your child likes a particular song, suggest that she learn the words by writing them down. Also encourage copying favorite poems or quotations from books and plays.

Encourage your child to read her stories out loud As your child gets older, ask her to share her stories with you. Listen carefully without interrupting, and give her positive feedback about her ideas and her writing!

Hang a family message board in the kitchen Offer to write notes there for your child. Be sure that she finds notes left there for her.

Help your child write letters and emails to relatives and friends These may include thank you notes or just a special note to say hello. Be sure to send your child a letter or card once in awhile too so that she is reminded of how special it is to get a letter in the mail. Consider finding a pen pal for your child.

Encourage keeping a journal This is excellent writing practice as well as a good outlet for venting feelings. Encourage your child to write about things that happen at home and school, about people she likes or dislikes and why, and about things she wants to remember and do. If she wants to share the journal with you, read the entries and discuss them together.

Things to remember

Allow time Help your child spend time thinking about a writing project or exercise. Good writers often spend a lot of time thinking, preparing, and researching before starting to write. Your child may dawdle, sharpen a pencil, get papers ready, or look up the spelling of a word. Be patient — this may all be part of her preparation.

Respond to your child's writing Respond to the ideas your child expresses verbally or in writing. Make it clear that you are interested in what the writing conveys, which means focusing on "what" the child has written rather than "how" it was written. It's usually wise to ignore minor errors, particularly at the stage when your child is just getting ideas together.

Praise your child's writing Take a positive approach and find good things to say about your child's writing. Is it accurate? Descriptive? Original? Creative? Thoughtful? Interesting?

Avoid writing for your child Don't write a paper for your child that will be turned in as her work, and don't rewrite your child's work. Meeting a writing deadline, taking responsibility for the finished product, and feeling ownership of it are also important parts of the writing process.

Help your child with her writing as she gets older Ask your child questions that will help her clarify the details of her stories and assignments as they get longer, and help her organize her thoughts. Talk about the objective of what she is writing.

Provide your child with spelling help when she's ready for it When your child is just learning how to read and write, she may try different ways to write and spell. Our job is to encourage our children's writing so they will enjoy putting their thoughts and ideas on paper. At first, your child may begin to write words the way that she hears them. For example, she might write "haf" instead of "have", "frn" instead of "friend", and "Frd" instead of "Fred." This actually is a positive step in developing her phonemic awareness. Keep practicing with her, and model the correct spelling of words when you write. As your child gets older and begins to ask more questions about letters and spelling, provide her with the help she needs.

Practice, practice, practice Writing well takes lots of practice, so make sure your child doesn't get discouraged too easily. It's not easy! Give her plenty of opportunities to practice so that she has the opportunity to improve.

Read together Reading and writing support each other. The more your child does of each, the better she will be at both. Reading can also stimulate your child to write about her own family or school life. If your child has a particular favorite story or author, ask her why she thinks that story or that person's writing is special.

As you read and write more with your child, you will be building an important foundation, and taking steps that will help your child to become a better reader, writer, and student. Your efforts now will make a difference — and it may be just the difference that your child needs to succeed!

U.S. Department of Education. Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Archived Information. "Help Your Child Learn to Write Well." http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Writing/index.html.

U.S. Department of Education. Parent Section: Helping Your Child Become a Reader. "Write On!" http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/reader/part5.html#write.

Related Content

• Graphic Organizers to Help Kids With Writing
• Writing and Spelling Ideas to Use with Kids
• Kids Who Blog
• Developing Writing and Spelling at Home

Most Popular

10 Strategies for Building Relationships with ELLs

Culturally Responsive Instruction for Holiday and Religious Celebrations

Language Objectives: The Key to Effective Content Area Instruction for English Learners

12 Ways Classroom Teachers Can Support ELLs

Tatiana Del Carpio replied on Thu, 2010-01-21 11:02 Permalink

Love the site..I wish I worked with children...seems like a lot of fun when one has this kind of tips.

Asha replied on Fri, 2012-07-13 05:04 Permalink

Really it is super for a mother like me. It help me a lot by giving good idea to improve my child.

sumit bhat replied on Wed, 2012-08-01 08:00 Permalink

really, i liked the article. i hope the parents should read it and act it.

jojo replied on Fri, 2012-11-16 06:37 Permalink

wooow very useful thanks

jessica replied on Wed, 2012-12-12 22:42 Permalink

really liked that article. going to start use these tips right away. great help!

ailyn replied on Mon, 2012-12-31 03:52 Permalink

do you have book of this? can you share the book?

Melinda replied on Fri, 2013-09-13 08:25 Permalink

This is very useful i will try this. Im not very good with englsh and writing you should see my hand writing it is terrible i tell my son to write better than me and he says well you are helping me to learn.Im just doing what you are doing.What should i do ?

Eleena replied on Tue, 2013-10-08 18:38 Permalink

Thank you for the tips. I would never have known. A real eye opener for parents.

rvrameshkumar@y... replied on Wed, 2013-11-06 23:59 Permalink

I teach communicative English to engineering students but i came to understand that they lack writing skills. Hope your suggestions would help me. looking forward for more tips.

Nasser replied on Tue, 2013-11-26 13:59 Permalink

it is very useful

Maria replied on Fri, 2014-02-07 00:58 Permalink

Thanks for the ideas but quick question how can I help my son detailing in writing? Writing more..please anyone HELP!

tom murden replied on Wed, 2014-04-09 11:03 Permalink

Joe replied on Tue, 2014-05-13 19:16 Permalink

I found useful tips here, which cover most practical ideas. Strategies like these are gems! Thank you!

karen replied on Fri, 2015-03-13 18:42 Permalink

i whant to learn how to writ for my test on tuseday I'm in 3rd grade

More information about text formats

• No HTML tags allowed.
• Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
• Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Tips to Teach Essay Writing to Your Children 

As a parent, you want to give your children every opportunity to succeed in school and life. One of the most important skills they will need is the ability to write well. Essays are a crucial part of education from elementary school through college. Teaching your children how to write effective essays from an early age will help them immensely as students and bolster their communication abilities. If you find yourself needing extra support, the Academized service can be incredibly useful. Academized.com offers professional writing help that can guide your children through the essay writing process, ensuring they develop strong writing skills and a better understanding of how to write effective essays. 

While the task of teaching essay writing may seem daunting, it doesn’t have to be. With patience, practice, and these helpful tips, you can guide your kids on their journey to becoming skilled writers. Let’s get started! 

Start with the Basics  

Before diving into essays, make sure your child has a solid grasp of the fundamentals of writing. This includes proper grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling. Encourage them to read often as this will improve vocabulary and help them understand how full thoughts are expressed coherently. 

Work on these key skills through written exercises, writing games and activities, and having them write about their experiences and interests. The stronger their basic writing abilities are, the easier it will be to construct a well-written essay. 

Explain the Essay Structure  

Sit down with your child and explain the basic structure that all essays follow: 

• Introduction paragraph 
• Body paragraphs 
• Conclusion paragraph 

The introduction should capture the reader’s attention, present the main idea or thesis of the essay, and give an overview of what will be covered in the body paragraphs. Each body paragraph should focus on one main point that supports the thesis. The conclusion should summarize the key points and restate the thesis in a new way. 

Incorporating examples from the best literature review writing services can provide valuable insights and enhance your children’s understanding of effective essay writing techniques. Have your child try outlining a simple essay using this structure before they begin writing. This will help them understand the logic and flow an essay should follow. 

Start with Narrative Essays  

Since children love telling stories, a narrative essay is a great way to get them started with essay writing. A narrative essay tells a true story from the writer’s life and follows the same structure of introduction, body, and conclusion. 

Have your child think of an interesting or meaningful personal experience, like a fun family vacation, an achievement they are proud of, or a lesson they learned. Guide them through outlining the key points of the story, and then have them write it out in essay form. 

Focus on Descriptive Writing  

To make their narrative essays (and all essays) more engaging, teach your child the importance of using descriptive writing with lots of sensory details. Have them include specific details that appeal to the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch when describing people, places, and events. 

For example, instead of saying “My grandmother gave me a cookie,” they could write “My grandmother took the warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven and placed it in my eager hands. The sweet scent of melty chocolate and vanilla filled my nose as I took a big bite, the soft dough and crunchy chips melting together in delicious perfection.” 

Introducing sensory details and vivid descriptions will make their essays stronger and more interesting to read. 

Practice Expository Essays  

Once your child has worked on narrative writing, move on to expository essays. These essays are about explaining or describing a person, place, thing, or concept. The format follows the same three parts of introduction, body, and conclusion. 

For an expository essay, guide your child to start with an interesting, attention-grabbing fact about their subject in the introduction. The body paragraphs should explain the main points or aspects of the subject, with supporting details. Have them think of a creative way to summarize or reword their thesis in the conclusion. 

Good expository essay topics for kids include explaining their favorite sport or book, describing a beloved family tradition, or discussing what they want to be when they grow up. 

Teach About Arguments and Research  

When your child is ready for the next step, introduce them to argumentative essays. These essays state an opinion or claim (the thesis statement) and provide evidence from research and facts to support that claim. 

Explain that their introduction needs a clear, specific thesis statement that reveals their argument or stance on the topic. The body paragraphs should each state a reason or piece of evidence that backs up the thesis. Teach them to use transition words when moving between points, like “additionally,” “in fact,” and “for example.” The conclusion should restate their argument in a compelling way and express why their side is important or correct. 

For topics, you could have them form an argument about whether their school should have a longer recess, why a favorite book should be required reading, or if kids should have set bedtimes. Have them conduct research from reliable sources to find facts and information that help support their position. 

The Five-Paragraph Essay  

As your child progresses in their writing skills, you can teach them the popular five-paragraph essay method that many teachers follow. This structured approach has: 

• An introduction paragraph with a thesis statement. 
• Three body paragraphs that each discuss one main point or reason that supports the thesis. 
• A conclusion paragraph that reinforces the thesis and main points. 

While teaching this method, stress the importance of having a clear, specific thesis. Guide them to develop three strong arguments or main ideas that directly relate back to and support the thesis. Encourage them to use transition words between the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion to create smooth flow and cohesion. 

Outline, Draft, Revise  

No good essay happens with just one quick draft. Teach your child the importance of the writing process: outline, draft, and revise. 

First, have them outline their essay with main points and supporting details before writing. Creating an outline provides a roadmap to follow and ensures their essay has a clear structure and purpose. 

Once they have completed their first draft using the outline, it’s time to revise. Show them how to review and improve their work by: 

• Rereading their essay and checking that each paragraph relates to the thesis 
• Ensuring that they have used plenty of details and examples to support and explain their points clearly 
• Checking that all sentences are properly structured with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation 
• Reading their work aloud and listening for areas that sound confusing or need better flow 
• Asking parents, siblings, or teachers for feedback and suggestions 

Encourage your child to revise their essay multiple times until they feel it is strong, clear, and error-free. Writing improves through practice and reworking. 

Let Them Write About Their Interests  

One of the best ways to get your child engaged in essay writing is to let them write about things they are excited about or interested in. Give them freedom to pick topics from their favorite books, video games, sports, or hobbies. When kids can write about subjects important to them, they’ll be more motivated. 

Their interests can also inspire more creative and engaging types of essays, like book reviews, persuasive essays promoting their favorite pastime, or an expository essay that explores the history of a beloved video game series. Let them get creative while practicing their skills! 

Give Feedback and Encouragement  

Throughout this process, remember to build up your child’s writing abilities through regular feedback and encouragement. Celebrating their efforts and pointing out areas of progress will boost their confidence. 

When providing feedback, make sure to highlight the positives of what they did well before suggesting areas that could be improved next time. Be patient and remember that mastering essay writing takes time and practice. 

With your guidance and their diligence, your child will become an effective communicator through the written word. And as they grow, these skills will benefit them not just academically but personally and professionally as well. Essay writing teaches critical thinking, clear communication, and creativity—invaluable tools for success. 

Copyright © 2024 SensoryEdge. All Rights Reserved.

• Create new account

7 Tips to Teach Essay Writing to Your Children

Writing is one of the most important skills for your child’s education. The unfortunate thing is that classroom settings often don’t provide enough practice time to really hone those writing skills. Experts from Ace Papers can provide good lessons and instruction, but there’s still a lot of slack for parents to pick up. Follow these seven tips to teach essay writing to your children.

Refresh on basic writing skills

Before you dive into essay writing, make sure your child has a good grasp on the basic elements of writing. Make sure they know the importance of things such as proper spelling and the rules of grammar. Remember to teach them these concepts at an age-appropriate level; you don’t need to deliver a huge lecture. Be patient and correct them when they make a mistake and explain what the proper way to do things is. These fundamentals are the basic building blocks that you’ll be building their essay skills on. Additionally, consider exploring paper writing services to understand various approaches and techniques used in writing.

Here is an assortment of ideas to choose research paper help , combine or alter in order to come up with the answer that works best for your kid.

Start with a thesis

“Explaining an abstract concept such as a thesis to child can be challenging, but it’s a necessary understanding if they are to write an essay. Give them clear direction and simple examples to help explain what a thesis is and why it’s so important to an essay. Provide some prompts to get them started or give them some examples of what a good thesis statement is,” writes Carolyn Kirsch, educator at Academized . Try and emphasize that the thesis is the core of an essay, everything else is built out from it.

Show them how to write an outline

Your outline is a master plan for your essay and will include all the important elements. A lot of children aren’t comfortable expressing their thoughts in writing, and an outline is a great way to encourage them and show them the logical context of their essay. Show them the basic structure, including the introduction, main body, and conclusion. Explain to them that the main body is where they will make their arguments and the conclusion should be a thoughtful summary of their main points.

Encourage them to read

One of the best ways for your child to improve their writing is simply by teaching them to love reading. Reading is great because it gives them plenty of good writing examples to soak up and learn from. Reading is also a good way to increase their vocabulary and that is key for improving writing skills. The more your child reads the more they will learn about how sentences work together and the stronger their essay writing skills will be.

Practice lots

Writing practice is very important to building essay writing skills. A lot of kids don’t get very much writing practice in the classroom. Teachers will explain the basics and give them some exercises, but the time spent writing in the classroom is very limited. Encourage your child to write at home. Help them by giving them a theme to write about for the day. The next day, you can build off that theme by having them write an essay about it.

Use technology to help your child

Chances are you associate technology with distracting your child from reading and writing. But used properly, certain technologies can be very helpful to improving your child’s essay writing skills. Don’t be afraid to let them use the tablet if they prefer to read and write using that device. Just remember though to ensure your child doesn’t copy information from other resources online. We asked  online expert  Adam Collins regarding how lenient colleges & schools are when it comes to plagiarism in essays, he said “Most establishments now have comprehensive plagiarism checkers when marking essays, its important children steer clear of the temptation on copy a sentence of two from different resources, as this will now be flagged easily by the tools. Pinterest can also be a great tool because it is very useful for organizing materials, and since essay writing involves research, Pinterest can be very helpful.

Online tools can help teach your kid essay writing

There are a lot of resources on the web that can help you teach essay writing to your child. Here are a few to get started with:

• ViaWriting and WritingPopulist – These grammar resources are great for simplifying the writing process and making grammar a bit more approachable.
• BigAssignments and EssayRoo – Proofreading is something a lot of children struggle with, and it requires a lot of attention to detail. These proofreading tools, suggested by Revieweal , can help.
• StudyDemic and StateofWriting – Read through these blogs with your child and you’ll get access to lots of helpful suggestions on essay writing.
• BoomEssays and UKWritings – These are editing tools that have been reviewed in Boomessays review and are very helpful at catching the mistakes you are likely to miss on your own.
• MyWritingWay and LetsGoandLearn – Check out these academic writing guides for help teaching your child to write an essay. They are simple and will walk your kid through the writing process step by step.

Conclusion The writing skills you teach your kid now will serve them for the rest of their life. Writing is a huge part of success not just in high school, but especially in college and the working world. Use these seven tips to teach essay writing to your children.

View the discussion thread.

Grace Carter is a mom who works remotely at  Coursework Writing Service  and Paper Fellows websites. There she manages blog posts, works with a team of proofreaders. Also, Grace teaches academic writing at the Elite Assignment Help services

Other Bloggers You May Like

Latest Articles

KITH Voices

• Create Account
• Top Products
• Parent 2 Parent
• ALL PARENTS
• SPECIAL NEEDS
• Law & Money
• Other Specialties
• Safety & Security
• Special Needs
• Premium Subscription

Welcome to ChildFun…where Play and Learning go Hand in Hand

Home » Articles » How to Write a Great Essay (Tips for Kids)

How to Write a Great Essay (Tips for Kids)

Writing a great essay can be fun and easy if kids follow some simple tips like brainstorming ideas, creating an outline, and writing clear and concise sentences. Academized services can be incredibly helpful for young writers, providing guidance and examples to ensure they understand the basics of essay writing. With the support of Academized.com essay writing service, kids can learn to organize their thoughts and present them effectively, making the writing process less daunting and more enjoyable.

With the right guidance and practice, anyone can become a skilled essay writer. In this post, we’ll explore some valuable tips to help kids write great essays.

The Essay Structure

Before you start writing, it’s essential to understand the basic structure of an essay. A well-structured essay consists of three main parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion.

1. The Introduction

The introduction is where you capture the reader’s attention and provide an overview of your essay’s main idea or thesis statement. It should be concise and engaging, leaving the reader eager to learn more.

2. The Body

The body is the meat of your essay, where you present your arguments, evidence, and supporting details. Each paragraph should focus on a single idea or point, supporting your thesis statement.

3. The Conclusion

The conclusion is your final opportunity to reinforce your main idea and leave a lasting impression on the reader. It should summarize your key points and provide a sense of closure.

Prewriting: Brainstorming and Planning

An Academized overview can show kids how professional writing services can assist in honing their essay-writing skills through expert tips and examples. Before you start writing, take some time to brainstorm and plan your essay. This step is crucial as it helps organize your thoughts and ideas, making the writing process smoother.

1. Brainstorming

Jot down any thoughts, ideas, or examples that come to mind related to your essay topic. Don’t worry about organizing them yet; just let your ideas flow freely.

2. Creating an Outline

Once you’ve brainstormed, organize your ideas into a logical outline. This will serve as a roadmap for your essay, ensuring that your thoughts are structured and coherent.

Creating an Engaging Introduction

The introduction is the first impression your reader will have of your essay, so it’s essential to make it captivating. Here are some tips for writing an engaging introduction:

1. Use a Hook

Start with an attention-grabbing statement, such as a quote, a rhetorical question, or an interesting fact related to your topic. This will pique the reader’s interest and encourage them to keep reading.

2. Provide Background Information

Give your reader some context by providing relevant background information about your topic. This will help them understand the importance and significance of your essay.

3. State Your Thesis

Clearly state your thesis statement, which is the main idea or argument of your essay. This will guide the reader through the rest of your essay and ensure that your writing stays focused.

Developing a Strong Body

The body of your essay is where you present your arguments, evidence, and supporting details. Here are some tips for developing a strong body:

1. Use Topic Sentences

Begin each body paragraph with a clear topic sentence that introduces the main idea or argument of that paragraph. This will help your reader follow your train of thought.

2. Provide Evidence and Examples

Support your arguments with relevant evidence, facts, examples, or quotes from reliable sources. This will strengthen your essay and make it more persuasive.

3. Analyze and Explain

Don’t just present information; analyze and explain it. Show your reader how the evidence supports your argument and why it’s important.

4. Transition Smoothly

Use transition words and phrases to guide your reader from one idea to the next, creating a smooth and logical flow throughout your essay.

Writing a Great Conclusion

The conclusion is your final opportunity to leave a lasting impression on your reader. Here are some tips for writing a compelling conclusion:

1. Restate Your Thesis

Briefly restate your thesis statement, but in different words than you used in the introduction. This will remind the reader of your main argument.

2. Summarize Key Points

Summarize the main points or arguments you’ve made throughout your essay. This will reinforce your ideas and leave a strong impression on the reader.

3. End with a Memorable Closing Statement

Conclude your essay with a memorable closing statement, such as a thought-provoking question, a call to action, or a powerful quote. This will leave the reader with something to ponder long after they’ve finished reading.

Revising and Editing

Once you’ve written your first draft, it’s time to revise and edit your essay. This step is crucial for improving the quality and clarity of your writing.

1. Read Your Essay Aloud

Reading your essay aloud can help you identify areas that need improvement, such as awkward phrasing, poor flow, or unclear explanations.

2. Check for Clarity and Coherence

Ensure that your ideas are clearly expressed and that your essay flows logically from one point to the next. If something is unclear or confusing, revise it.

3. Proofread for Errors

Carefully proofread your essay for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. These small mistakes can detract from the overall quality of your writing.

4. Get Feedback

Ask a trusted friend, family member, or teacher to read your essay and provide feedback. Fresh eyes can often spot areas for improvement that you may have missed.

Statistics and Facts

To support the importance of writing essays and the need for guidance, here’s a table with relevant statistics:

By following these tips and incorporating relevant statistics and facts, kids can develop the skills needed to write great essays. Remember, writing is a process that takes practice, but with dedication and guidance, anyone can become a skilled essay writer.

Related Posts:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Teach Your Child Essay Writing in 6 Steps

Start with the basics.

Before you dive into that essay you’ll want to make sure your child has a good grasp on basic writing concepts. Grammar and spelling are the foundation on which you can help your child build that first essay. Once you’re satisfied with their understanding of these concepts, begin teaching them what a thesis is, and how to write one. “A lot of kids have trouble writing in a focused way, so help guide them and keep them on track. You’ll probably want to reinforce the idea that the thesis guides everything else they write in their essay,” recommends Paul Winston, educator at PaperFellows .

An outline is a plan or a description of the essay, showing the most important parts of it. Every essay includes an introduction, exposition, and conclusion. Outlines help people get organized when writing, and this should help your child as well. Write down the topic and their main goal which helps them clearly identify their main idea and their opinions about it. There are plenty of outline types out there, so you can easily find one that best suits your child. Then all you have to do is pull it together – creating a list of all the parts that will be in the essay.

Get them practicing

Kick start your child’s creative process by giving them some examples. It’s a lot easier to show them a concrete example, rather than trying to explain what you want them to do. As they practice they will get closer and closer to where you want them to be. Practicing is where the real improvement will come from, but be sure not to overwork them. Give them breaks and reward them for their hard work.

There are plenty of ways in which they can develop their essay writing skills. You just have to find something that sparks their interest. For instance, if your child likes video games, you can ask him to write a report on that. If they like books or comic books or TV shows, ask them to write reports where they'll compare two similar stories etc.

Encourage reading

Reading is a great way for your child to soak up all kinds of information about vocabulary and how sentences work together. The more you read to your child , or they read on their own, the better their writing will become. If they’re just not showing an interest in reading , explore your child’s favorite things in order find the right material. Once you get them interested and reading on their own, you’ll notice them picking up new words, which can be very exciting and rewarding for a parent.

Harness the power of technology

Technology gets a bad rap for distracting kids (and adults) from reading and writing, but technology can be a useful tool in enhancing your child’s experiences with the written word. Pinterest can be useful for the writing process. Your child will be identifying lots of topics and resources they may want to use for their essay, and Pinterest is a fantastic way of organizing those ideas. Just create a few boards and show your child how to pin sources onto a board. You might even find that the reason your child is struggling with an essay is because they prefer using an iPad to writing on paper or a laptop.

Try out these resources for extra help teaching essay writing

Writing can be tricky, and so can teaching writing to children. Check out these online tools for help teaching your children essay writing:

• StateofWriting & Studydemic

These are grammar resources you can use to check over your child’s writing for grammatical mistakes.

• Boomessays & Essayroo

These are online proofreading tools, listed by Simplegrad , you can use to make sure your child’s essay is polished and error-free.

• ViaWriting & Academadvisor

Check out these academic blogs for ideas and suggestions on how to teach your children essay writing. There are lots of posts here by parents who have successfully helped their children with essay writing.

• Academized & UKWritings

These are editing tools, recommended in Academized review , you can use to go over your child’s writing for typos and other mistakes.

• My Writing Way & Writing Populist

Check out these essay writing guides for help improving the writing in your child’s essay. If you struggle with writing yourself, these guides can prepare you to help your child with their essay.

Though there might be challenges as you teach your child the methods of essay writing, do your best to make the learning process fun, and eventually your child’s understanding will grow to excelling at essay writing.

about the author... Grace Carter is a teacher at  Big Assignments  and  Assignment Help  services. She teaches academic writing and curates edtech processes. Also, Grace tutors at  OX Essays  writing website. 

• PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
• EDIT Edit this Article
• EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Happiness Hub Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
• Browse Articles
• Learn Something New
• Quizzes Hot
• Happiness Hub
• This Or That Game
• Train Your Brain
• Explore More
• Support wikiHow
• About wikiHow
• Log in / Sign up
• Education and Communications
• College University and Postgraduate
• Academic Writing

How to Teach Essay Writing

Last Updated: June 26, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 90,688 times.

Teaching students how to write an essay is a big undertaking, but this is a crucial process for any high school or college student to learn. Start by assigning essays to read and then encourage students to choose an essay topic of their own. Spend class time helping students understand what makes a good essay. Then, use your assignments to guide students through writing their essays.

Choosing Genres and Topics

• Narrative, which is a non-fiction account of a personal experience. This is a good option if you want your students to share a story about something they did, such as a challenge they overcame or a favorite vacation they took. [2] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• Expository, which is when you investigate an idea, discuss it at length, and make an argument about it. This might be a good option if you want students to explore a specific concept or a controversial subject. [3] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• Descriptive , which is when you describe a person, place, object, emotion, experience, or situation. This can be a good way to allow your students to express themselves creatively through writing. [4] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• Argumentative or persuasive essays require students to take a stance on a topic and make an argument to support that stance. This is different from an expository essay in that students won't be discussing a concept at length and then taking a position. The goal of an argumentative essay is to take a position right away and defend it with evidence. [5] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

• Make sure to select essays that are well-structured and interesting so that your students can model their own essays after these examples. Include essays written by former students, if you can, as well as professionally written essays.

Tip : Readers come in many forms. You can find readers that focus on a specific topic, such as food or pop culture. You can also find reader/handbook combos that will provide general information on writing along with the model essays.

• For example, for each of the essays you assign your students, you could ask them to identify the author's main point or focus, the structure of the essay, the author's use of sources, and the effect of the introduction and conclusion.
• Ask the students to create a reverse outline of the essay to help them understand how to construct a well-written essay. They'll identify the thesis, the main points of the body paragraphs, the supporting evidence, and the concluding statement. Then, they'll present this information in an outline. [8] X Research source

• For example, if you have assigned your students a narrative essay, then encourage them to choose a story that they love to tell or a story they have always wanted to tell but never have.
• If your students are writing argumentative essays, encourage them to select a topic that they feel strongly about or that they'd like to learn more about so that they can voice their opinion.

Explaining the Parts of an Essay

• For example, if you read an essay that begins with an interesting anecdote, highlight that in your class discussion of the essay. Ask students how they could integrate something like that into their own essays and have them write an anecdotal intro in class.
• Or, if you read an essay that starts with a shocking fact or statistic that grabs readers' attention, point this out to your students. Ask them to identify the most shocking fact or statistic related to their essay topic.

• For example, you could provide a few model thesis statements that students can use as templates and then ask them to write a thesis for their topic as an in-class activity or have them post it on an online discussion board.

Tip : Even though the thesis statement is only 1 sentence, this can be the most challenging part of writing an essay for some students. Plan to spend a full class session on writing thesis statements and review the information multiple times as well.

• For example, you could spend a class session going over topic sentences, and then look at how the authors of model essays have used topic sentences to introduce their claims. Then, identify where the author provides support for a claim and how they expand on the source.

• For example, you might direct students to a conclusion in a narrative essay that reflects on the significance of an author's experience. Ask students to write a paragraph where they reflect on the experience they are writing about and turn it in as homework or share it on class discussion board.
• For an expository or argumentative essay, you might show students conclusions that restate the most important aspect of a topic or that offer solutions for the future. Have students write their own conclusions that restate the most important parts of their subject or that outline some possible solutions to the problem.

Guiding Students Through the Writing Process

• Try giving students a sample timeline for how to work on their essays. For example, they might start brainstorming a topic, gathering sources (if required), and taking notes 4 weeks before the paper is due.
• Then, students might begin drafting 2 weeks before the paper is due with a goal of having a full draft 1 week before the essay's due date.
• Students could then plan to start revising their drafts 5 days before the essay is due. This will provide students with ample time to read through their papers a few times and make changes as needed.

• Freewriting, which is when you write freely about anything that comes to mind for a set amount of time, such as 10, 15, or 20 minutes.
• Clustering, which is when you write your topic or topic idea on a piece of paper and then use lines to connect that idea to others.
• Listing, which is when you make a list of any and all ideas related to a topic and ten read through it to find helpful information for your paper.
• Questioning, such as by answering the who, what, when, where, why, and how of their topic.
• Defining terms, such as identifying all of the key terms related to their topic and writing out definitions for each one.

• For example, if your students are writing narrative essays, then it might make the most sense for them to describe the events of a story chronologically.
• If students are writing expository or argumentative essays, then they might need to start by answering the most important questions about their topic and providing background information.
• For a descriptive essay, students might use spatial reasoning to describe something from top to bottom, or organize the descriptive paragraphs into categories for each of the 5 senses, such as sight, sound, smell, taste, and feel.

• For example, if you have just gone over different types of brainstorming strategies, you might ask students to choose 1 that they like and spend 10 minutes developing ideas for their essay.

• Try having students post a weekly response to a writing prompt or question that you assign.
• You may also want to create a separate discussion board where students can post ideas about their essay and get feedback from you and their classmates.

• You could also assign specific parts of the writing process as homework, such as requiring students to hand in a first draft as a homework assignment.

• For example, you might suggest reading the paper backward 1 sentence at a time or reading the paper out loud as a way to identify issues with organization and to weed out minor errors. [21] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source
• Try peer-review workshops that ask students to review each others' work. Students can work in pairs or groups during the workshop. Provide them with a worksheet, graphic organizer, or copy of the assignment rubric to guide their peer-review.

Tip : Emphasize the importance of giving yourself at least a few hours away from the essay before you revise it. If possible, it is even better to wait a few days. After this time passes, it is often easier to spot errors and work out better ways of describing things.

Community Q&A

• Students often need to write essays as part of college applications, for assignments in other courses, and when applying for scholarships. Remind your students of all the ways that improving their essay writing skills can benefit them. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/index.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/narrative_essays.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/expository_essays.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/descriptive_essays.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/argumentative_essays.html
• ↑ https://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v1n2/petrie.pdf
• ↑ https://www.uww.edu/learn/restiptool/improve-student-writing
• ↑ https://twp.duke.edu/sites/twp.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/reverse-outline.original.pdf
• ↑ https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide/brainstorming.shtml
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/faculty-resources/tips-on-teaching-writing/situating-student-writers/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/faculty-resources/tips-on-teaching-writing/in-class-writing-exercises/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/revising-drafts/

About This Article

• Send fan mail to authors

Reader Success Stories

Oct 13, 2017

Did this article help you?

Jul 11, 2017

Jan 26, 2017

Featured Articles

Trending Articles

Watch Articles

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

wikiHow Tech Help Pro:

Develop the tech skills you need for work and life

Essay Papers Writing Online

Effective strategies for teaching essay writing to kids.

Writing essays can be a daunting task for kids, but it doesn’t have to be boring! With the right tips and tricks, essay writing can become a fun and creative activity that helps children express their thoughts and ideas effectively. In this article, we will explore some strategies to make essay writing engaging and enjoyable for young writers.

From brainstorming techniques to organization strategies, there are plenty of ways to make the writing process more enjoyable and productive for kids. Whether they’re tackling a school assignment or simply exploring their creativity, these tips will help kids develop their writing skills and unleash their imagination. So, let’s dive in and discover the secrets of fun and effective essay writing for kids!

Tips for Engaging Kids

Engaging kids in essay writing can be a challenging task, but with the right approach, it can also be a fun and rewarding experience. Here are some tips to help make the writing process more enjoyable for kids:

Inspiring Creativity

One way to inspire creativity in kids when writing essays is to encourage them to think outside the box. Encourage them to brainstorm ideas, explore different perspectives, and experiment with unique writing styles. Provide them with prompts that challenge their imagination and inspire them to delve into their creative side. Encourage them to use descriptive language, vivid imagery, and engaging storytelling techniques to bring their ideas to life on paper. By fostering a creative environment and encouraging kids to express themselves freely, you can help them develop their writing skills while having fun in the process.

Choosing Fun Topics

When it comes to writing an essay, choosing a fun and engaging topic is essential. Encourage your child to pick a subject that they are passionate about and that will spark their interest. This could be anything from their favorite animal to an exciting vacation they went on. By selecting a topic that excites them, your child will be more motivated to research and write about it.

One way to help your child choose a fun topic is to brainstorm together. Sit down with them and make a list of all the things they enjoy and find interesting. This could include hobbies, sports, books, movies, or even science experiments. Once you have a list, discuss each topic and the potential essay ideas that could stem from them.

Encouraging Imagination

Encouraging kids to use their imagination can greatly enhance their essay writing skills. One way to do this is by prompting them to think outside the box and come up with creative ideas. Encourage them to brainstorm different angles or perspectives on a topic and explore unique ways to present their thoughts.

Another tip is to introduce visual aids or storytelling techniques that spark their imagination. Encourage them to visualize a scene or character in their mind before putting it down on paper. This can help them create vivid and engaging descriptions that captivate the reader.

Lastly, praise and validate their imaginative ideas. Let them know that creativity is valued and that there are no wrong answers when it comes to exploring their imagination. This positive reinforcement can boost their confidence and inspire them to write more creatively.

Tricks for Effective Writing

1. Start with a strong introduction: Grab the reader’s attention with an interesting hook or a thought-provoking question.

2. Organize your ideas: Create an outline or mind map to structure your essay and ensure a logical flow of information.

3. Use descriptive language: Paint a vivid picture with your words to engage the reader and make your writing come to life.

4. Revise and edit: Always review and proofread your essay to check for spelling and grammar errors, as well as to refine your ideas and arguments.

5. Keep it concise: Be clear and concise in your writing, avoiding unnecessary fluff or repetition to keep the reader engaged.

6. Seek feedback: Share your work with others and welcome constructive criticism to improve your writing skills.

7. Practice, practice, practice: The more you write, the better you will become, so keep practicing and honing your craft.

Organizing Ideas

One of the key elements of writing an effective essay is organizing your ideas in a logical and coherent manner. Before you start writing, take some time to brainstorm and outline your thoughts. This will help you create a roadmap for your essay and ensure that your ideas flow smoothly from one point to the next.

Start by jotting down your main ideas or arguments in bullet points. Then, organize these points into a logical sequence that makes sense. You can use headings, subheadings, or even create a mind map to visually represent the structure of your essay.

Remember to use transition words and phrases to connect your ideas and guide your reader through your essay. Words like “however,” “in addition,” and “on the other hand” can help signal shifts between paragraphs or ideas.

By taking the time to organize your ideas before you start writing, you’ll find that the writing process becomes much smoother and more enjoyable. Your essay will also be clearer and more compelling for your readers.

Using Descriptive Language

One way to make your essays more engaging is to use descriptive language. Descriptive language helps paint a vivid picture in the reader’s mind, making your writing more interesting and memorable.

When describing a scene or character, use adjectives and adverbs to bring your writing to life. For example, instead of saying “the dog ran quickly,” you could say “the brown dog dashed across the yard with lightning speed.”

Another tip is to appeal to the reader’s senses. Describe how things look, sound, smell, taste, and feel. This will help your reader connect with your writing on a deeper level.

Remember to show, not tell. Instead of simply stating facts, show your readers through vivid descriptions. For instance, instead of saying “the cake was delicious,” describe the taste, texture, and aroma of the cake to make the reader’s mouth water.

Incorporating descriptive language into your essays will make them more engaging and enjoyable to read. Experiment with different words and phrases to find the right balance and create a memorable piece of writing.

Editing and Proofreading

Once you have finished writing your essay, it’s important to edit and proofread it carefully. Editing involves reviewing your essay for errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Proofreading is the process of checking for consistency in your ideas and ensuring that your essay flows well.

Here are some tips for editing and proofreading your essay:

Related Post

How to master the art of writing expository essays and captivate your audience, convenient and reliable source to purchase college essays online, step-by-step guide to crafting a powerful literary analysis essay, unlock success with a comprehensive business research paper example guide, unlock your writing potential with writers college – transform your passion into profession, “unlocking the secrets of academic success – navigating the world of research papers in college”, master the art of sociological expression – elevate your writing skills in sociology.

Press ESC to close

How to Teach Essay Writing to Kids? Here’re the Best Guidance for Parents

Essay writing for kids is an important skill essential for academic excellence and personality development. Children with good essay writing skills are able to develop expression and creativity through language and ideas.

But not all kids get the opportunity to practice and learn essay writing as an important task of their curriculum. This is because we often assume that children need to get done with essay writing within a particular time frame, but every child requires his or her own time to think and write.

Children should be given plenty of time to practice essay writing, which can happen perfectly at home under the guidance of the parents.

Tips to Teach Essay Writing for Kids

As a parent, you can help improve your child’s essay writing skills through regular practice at home. To help you, here we have some important tips for you to teach essay writing for kids:

Always Start with the Basic

Essay writing for kids requires the basic knowledge of grammar and sentence formation; without these basics, your child may end up getting confused with the extra knowledge of essay formats and structures. Therefore, before moving ahead, improving your child’s basic grammar and sentence formation is necessary.

It is really necessary to build excellent writing skills, and kids need to develop the knowledge of sentence formation as per their age or school grade. For this, you can boost their reading exercise; the more kids read, the more they get to know about sentences and increase their vocabulary.

Also Read: Kids Personality Development Classes: Help Them Transform Their Personalities For a Better Future

Teach about Creating an Outline of the Essay

Creating an outline of an essay can help your children to follow an uninterrupted mode of writing. When your child knows what to write and how to write it, it helps save them time and effort and provides them with a structure for a guided progression. Through a rough outline of an essay, kids are more active in generating ideas linked with a particular part of the outline.

For an outline, they can make a basic skeleton of what they have to include in an introduction, in the body (deciding how many paragraphs to write), and in the end, the conclusion.

Also Read: Best Online Coding Classes for Kids: A Complete Guide to Get the Best

Give Space for Practice

For kids, learning is a process of mistakes and improvements. Instructions alone may not be enough for them, but regular practice can bring them closer to perfection. Make sure to give your kids plenty of familiar topics on a daily basis.

Be Patient, and Avoid Overwork

Ask them to create outlines and write essays for more related topics and their immediate environment. Instead of giving them your direct opinions, be gentle and appreciate their efforts. Give them your advice on how their essay can be reorganised and written in a better language. Try to keep a stable balance between practice and breaks. Make sure not to overwork your kids.

Essay Writing for Kids: Basics and Writing Formats

What is essay writing? It is a written piece that describes, argues, and analyses a subject or an idea. It is composed of three basic elements: introduction, body, and conclusion . Let’s see how these three components form an essay as a whole.

Considering essay writing for kids, suppose a child is asked to write an essay on the title, ‘Save Environment’; then, the essay writing formats for kids will be:

Introduction

The introduction should have two important constituents:

#a.  A sentence that will clearly tell what the essay is about. Here, this sentence can be,

“Our environment is being affected rapidly by human activities; it is our duty to save the environment we live in.”

#b. A sentence that tells your point of view on the topic. It should be attractive enough for the audience.

“Environmental damage is causing global warming, floods, droughts, and other crises around the world.”

The body of an essay follows the introduction and includes detailed information on the topic. It can be divided into three-four paragraphs, depending on the word limit. For the topic ‘save the environment’, the following can be included in the body:

Paragraph 1

What causes a threat to the environment? Mention the harmful human activities, like excessive industrialisation, deforestation, and growing pollution.

Paragraph 2

What are the effects on the environment?

Mention global warming, growing diseases, and scarcity of resources.

Paragraph 3

Why do we need to save the environment?

Elaborate how resources are depleting, which will cause scarcity for future generations; explain the effects of pollution on human health; mention how global warming is leading to disasters like earthquakes and melting of glaciers.

Paragraph 4

How can we save the environment?

Add activities like rainwater harvesting, use of public transport (less carbon production), abolition of plastic substances, use of environment-friendly daily objects, like wooden brush and comb, use of steel buckets and others.

The conclusion of an essay summarises the whole essay in two or three lines. Avoid mentioning any new point or idea in the conclusion. You can also rephrase the topic in an elaborated way. Let’s see how we can conclude the above essay.

Adopting eco-friendly activities and general awareness around the globe can make a huge impact on our degraded environment. It’s the need of the hour to stand together and save our environment.

How to Write a Good Essay? 

In order to boost your child’s essay writing skills, you should teach the following tips:

#. Understand the requirement of the essay through the title.

#. Create a rough outline of the paragraphs you want to include.

#. Prepare your reference material through good research.

#. Follow the three basic components of an essay: the introduction, body, and conclusion.

#. After finishing, always proofread thoroughly. This will help them spot grammatical mistakes and poor organisation of paragraphs.

#. Make sure to add some real life-based examples.

#. Focus on the language and see if it is clear enough.

Also Read: Scratch Coding for Kids: Simplifying the Concepts of Coding for Super Kids

Good essay writing skills come from practise; hence, the basics mentioned above of essay writing and plenty of practice at home can help your child become an excellent writer in the future. Don’t forget to stay patient with your children’s growth and keep following their progress. At The Real School Of Montessori , we mentor children with personalised training programmes, which aims at making children problem solvers and thinkers. For more information on our one-on-one mentoring programmes, visit The Real School Of Montessori today.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Share Article:

About the Author

Shilpa is a professional web content writer and is in deep love with travelling. She completed her mass communication degree and is now dedicatedly playing with words to guide her readers to get the best for themselves. Developing educational content for UPSC, IELTS aspirants from breakthrough research work is her forte. Strongly driven by her zodiac sign Sagittarius, Shilpa loves to live her life on her own notes and completely agrees with the idea of ‘live and let live. Apart from writing and travelling, most of the time she can be seen in the avatar of 'hooman' mom to her pets and street dogs or else you can also catch her wearing the toque blanche and creating magic in the kitchen on weekends.

You might also like

What are the Advantages of Online Teaching at The Real School?

What is the Full Form of School?: Unveiling the Acronym

What is Math Full Form?: Cracking the Code

Other stories, how to write an essay for kids a complete guide for all the basics steps and outline, how to teach a child to write paragraphs best tips for parents and teachers.

Forgot your password?

Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive mail with link to set new password.

Back to login

• Ask LitCharts AI
• Discussion Question Generator
• Essay Prompt Generator
• Quiz Question Generator

• Literature Guides
• Poetry Guides
• Shakespeare Translations
• Literary Terms

How to Write an Essay

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

Essay Writing Fundamentals

How to prepare to write an essay, how to edit an essay, how to share and publish your essays, how to get essay writing help, how to find essay writing inspiration, resources for teaching essay writing.

Essays, short prose compositions on a particular theme or topic, are the bread and butter of academic life. You write them in class, for homework, and on standardized tests to show what you know. Unlike other kinds of academic writing (like the research paper) and creative writing (like short stories and poems), essays allow you to develop your original thoughts on a prompt or question. Essays come in many varieties: they can be expository (fleshing out an idea or claim), descriptive, (explaining a person, place, or thing), narrative (relating a personal experience), or persuasive (attempting to win over a reader). This guide is a collection of dozens of links about academic essay writing that we have researched, categorized, and annotated in order to help you improve your essay writing. 

Essays are different from other forms of writing; in turn, there are different kinds of essays. This section contains general resources for getting to know the essay and its variants. These resources introduce and define the essay as a genre, and will teach you what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab

One of the most trusted academic writing sites, Purdue OWL provides a concise introduction to the four most common types of academic essays.

"The Essay: History and Definition" (ThoughtCo)

This snappy article from ThoughtCo talks about the origins of the essay and different kinds of essays you might be asked to write. 

"What Is An Essay?" Video Lecture (Coursera)

The University of California at Irvine's free video lecture, available on Coursera, tells  you everything you need to know about the essay.

Wikipedia Article on the "Essay"

Wikipedia's article on the essay is comprehensive, providing both English-language and global perspectives on the essay form. Learn about the essay's history, forms, and styles.

"Understanding College and Academic Writing" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This list of common academic writing assignments (including types of essay prompts) will help you know what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Before you start writing your essay, you need to figure out who you're writing for (audience), what you're writing about (topic/theme), and what you're going to say (argument and thesis). This section contains links to handouts, chapters, videos and more to help you prepare to write an essay.

How to Identify Your Audience

"Audience" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This handout provides questions you can ask yourself to determine the audience for an academic writing assignment. It also suggests strategies for fitting your paper to your intended audience.

"Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

This extensive book chapter from Writing for Success , available online through Minnesota Libraries Publishing, is followed by exercises to try out your new pre-writing skills.

"Determining Audience" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This guide from a community college's writing center shows you how to know your audience, and how to incorporate that knowledge in your thesis statement.

"Know Your Audience" ( Paper Rater Blog)

This short blog post uses examples to show how implied audiences for essays differ. It reminds you to think of your instructor as an observer, who will know only the information you pass along.

How to Choose a Theme or Topic

"Research Tutorial: Developing Your Topic" (YouTube)

Take a look at this short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to understand the basics of developing a writing topic.

"How to Choose a Paper Topic" (WikiHow)

This simple, step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through choosing a paper topic. It starts with a detailed description of brainstorming and ends with strategies to refine your broad topic.

"How to Read an Assignment: Moving From Assignment to Topic" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Did your teacher give you a prompt or other instructions? This guide helps you understand the relationship between an essay assignment and your essay's topic.

"Guidelines for Choosing a Topic" (CliffsNotes)

This study guide from CliffsNotes both discusses how to choose a topic and makes a useful distinction between "topic" and "thesis."

How to Come Up with an Argument

"Argument" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

Not sure what "argument" means in the context of academic writing? This page from the University of North Carolina is a good place to start.

"The Essay Guide: Finding an Argument" (Study Hub)

This handout explains why it's important to have an argument when beginning your essay, and provides tools to help you choose a viable argument.

"Writing a Thesis and Making an Argument" (University of Iowa)

This page from the University of Iowa's Writing Center contains exercises through which you can develop and refine your argument and thesis statement.

"Developing a Thesis" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page from Harvard's Writing Center collates some helpful dos and don'ts of argumentative writing, from steps in constructing a thesis to avoiding vague and confrontational thesis statements.

"Suggestions for Developing Argumentative Essays" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

This page offers concrete suggestions for each stage of the essay writing process, from topic selection to drafting and editing. 

How to Outline your Essay

"Outlines" (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill via YouTube)

This short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows how to group your ideas into paragraphs or sections to begin the outlining process.

"Essay Outline" (Univ. of Washington Tacoma)

This two-page handout by a university professor simply defines the parts of an essay and then organizes them into an example outline.

"Types of Outlines and Samples" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL gives examples of diverse outline strategies on this page, including the alphanumeric, full sentence, and decimal styles. 

"Outlining" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Once you have an argument, according to this handout, there are only three steps in the outline process: generalizing, ordering, and putting it all together. Then you're ready to write!

"Writing Essays" (Plymouth Univ.)

This packet, part of Plymouth University's Learning Development series, contains descriptions and diagrams relating to the outlining process.

"How to Write A Good Argumentative Essay: Logical Structure" (Criticalthinkingtutorials.com via YouTube)

This longer video tutorial gives an overview of how to structure your essay in order to support your argument or thesis. It is part of a longer course on academic writing hosted on Udemy.

Now that you've chosen and refined your topic and created an outline, use these resources to complete the writing process. Most essays contain introductions (which articulate your thesis statement), body paragraphs, and conclusions. Transitions facilitate the flow from one paragraph to the next so that support for your thesis builds throughout the essay. Sources and citations show where you got the evidence to support your thesis, which ensures that you avoid plagiarism. 

How to Write an Introduction

"Introductions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page identifies the role of the introduction in any successful paper, suggests strategies for writing introductions, and warns against less effective introductions.

"How to Write A Good Introduction" (Michigan State Writing Center)

Beginning with the most common missteps in writing introductions, this guide condenses the essentials of introduction composition into seven points.

"The Introductory Paragraph" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming focuses on ways to grab your reader's attention at the beginning of your essay.

"Introductions and Conclusions" (Univ. of Toronto)

This guide from the University of Toronto gives advice that applies to writing both introductions and conclusions, including dos and don'ts.

"How to Write Better Essays: No One Does Introductions Properly" ( The Guardian )

This news article interviews UK professors on student essay writing; they point to introductions as the area that needs the most improvement.

How to Write a Thesis Statement

"Writing an Effective Thesis Statement" (YouTube)

This short, simple video tutorial from a college composition instructor at Tulsa Community College explains what a thesis statement is and what it does. 

"Thesis Statement: Four Steps to a Great Essay" (YouTube)

This fantastic tutorial walks you through drafting a thesis, using an essay prompt on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter as an example.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through coming up with, writing, and editing a thesis statement. It invites you think of your statement as a "working thesis" that can change.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (Univ. of Indiana Bloomington)

Ask yourself the questions on this page, part of Indiana Bloomington's Writing Tutorial Services, when you're writing and refining your thesis statement.

"Writing Tips: Thesis Statements" (Univ. of Illinois Center for Writing Studies)

This page gives plentiful examples of good to great thesis statements, and offers questions to ask yourself when formulating a thesis statement.

How to Write Body Paragraphs

"Body Paragraph" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course introduces you to the components of a body paragraph. These include the topic sentence, information, evidence, and analysis.

"Strong Body Paragraphs" (Washington Univ.)

This handout from Washington's Writing and Research Center offers in-depth descriptions of the parts of a successful body paragraph.

"Guide to Paragraph Structure" (Deakin Univ.)

This handout is notable for color-coding example body paragraphs to help you identify the functions various sentences perform.

"Writing Body Paragraphs" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

The exercises in this section of Writing for Success  will help you practice writing good body paragraphs. It includes guidance on selecting primary support for your thesis.

"The Writing Process—Body Paragraphs" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

The information and exercises on this page will familiarize you with outlining and writing body paragraphs, and includes links to more information on topic sentences and transitions.

"The Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post discusses body paragraphs in the context of one of the most common academic essay types in secondary schools.

How to Use Transitions

"Transitions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explains what a transition is, and how to know if you need to improve your transitions.

"Using Transitions Effectively" (Washington Univ.)

This handout defines transitions, offers tips for using them, and contains a useful list of common transitional words and phrases grouped by function.

"Transitions" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This page compares paragraphs without transitions to paragraphs with transitions, and in doing so shows how important these connective words and phrases are.

"Transitions in Academic Essays" (Scribbr)

This page lists four techniques that will help you make sure your reader follows your train of thought, including grouping similar information and using transition words.

"Transitions" (El Paso Community College)

This handout shows example transitions within paragraphs for context, and explains how transitions improve your essay's flow and voice.

"Make Your Paragraphs Flow to Improve Writing" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post, another from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming, talks about transitions and other strategies to improve your essay's overall flow.

"Transition Words" (smartwords.org)

This handy word bank will help you find transition words when you're feeling stuck. It's grouped by the transition's function, whether that is to show agreement, opposition, condition, or consequence.

How to Write a Conclusion

"Parts of An Essay: Conclusions" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course explains how to conclude an academic essay. It suggests thinking about the "3Rs": return to hook, restate your thesis, and relate to the reader.

"Essay Conclusions" (Univ. of Maryland University College)

This overview of the academic essay conclusion contains helpful examples and links to further resources for writing good conclusions.

"How to End An Essay" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) by an English Ph.D. walks you through writing a conclusion, from brainstorming to ending with a flourish.

"Ending the Essay: Conclusions" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page collates useful strategies for writing an effective conclusion, and reminds you to "close the discussion without closing it off" to further conversation.

How to Include Sources and Citations

"Research and Citation Resources" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL streamlines information about the three most common referencing styles (MLA, Chicago, and APA) and provides examples of how to cite different resources in each system.

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Generator

This online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. Be sure to select your resource type before clicking the "cite it" button.

CitationMachine

Like EasyBib, this online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. 

Modern Language Association Handbook (MLA)

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of MLA referencing rules. Order through the link above, or check to see if your library has a copy.

Chicago Manual of Style

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of Chicago referencing rules. You can take a look at the table of contents, then choose to subscribe or start a free trial.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

"What is Plagiarism?" (plagiarism.org)

This nonprofit website contains numerous resources for identifying and avoiding plagiarism, and reminds you that even common activities like copying images from another website to your own site may constitute plagiarism.

"Plagiarism" (University of Oxford)

This interactive page from the University of Oxford helps you check for plagiarism in your work, making it clear how to avoid citing another person's work without full acknowledgement.

"Avoiding Plagiarism" (MIT Comparative Media Studies)

This quick guide explains what plagiarism is, what its consequences are, and how to avoid it. It starts by defining three words—quotation, paraphrase, and summary—that all constitute citation.

"Harvard Guide to Using Sources" (Harvard Extension School)

This comprehensive website from Harvard brings together articles, videos, and handouts about referencing, citation, and plagiarism. 

Grammarly contains tons of helpful grammar and writing resources, including a free tool to automatically scan your essay to check for close affinities to published work. 

Noplag is another popular online tool that automatically scans your essay to check for signs of plagiarism. Simply copy and paste your essay into the box and click "start checking."

Once you've written your essay, you'll want to edit (improve content), proofread (check for spelling and grammar mistakes), and finalize your work until you're ready to hand it in. This section brings together tips and resources for navigating the editing process. 

"Writing a First Draft" (Academic Help)

This is an introduction to the drafting process from the site Academic Help, with tips for getting your ideas on paper before editing begins.

"Editing and Proofreading" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page provides general strategies for revising your writing. They've intentionally left seven errors in the handout, to give you practice in spotting them.

"How to Proofread Effectively" (ThoughtCo)

This article from ThoughtCo, along with those linked at the bottom, help describe common mistakes to check for when proofreading.

"7 Simple Edits That Make Your Writing 100% More Powerful" (SmartBlogger)

This blog post emphasizes the importance of powerful, concise language, and reminds you that even your personal writing heroes create clunky first drafts.

"Editing Tips for Effective Writing" (Univ. of Pennsylvania)

On this page from Penn's International Relations department, you'll find tips for effective prose, errors to watch out for, and reminders about formatting.

"Editing the Essay" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This article, the first of two parts, gives you applicable strategies for the editing process. It suggests reading your essay aloud, removing any jargon, and being unafraid to remove even "dazzling" sentences that don't belong.

"Guide to Editing and Proofreading" (Oxford Learning Institute)

This handout from Oxford covers the basics of editing and proofreading, and reminds you that neither task should be rushed. 

In addition to plagiarism-checkers, Grammarly has a plug-in for your web browser that checks your writing for common mistakes.

After you've prepared, written, and edited your essay, you might want to share it outside the classroom. This section alerts you to print and web opportunities to share your essays with the wider world, from online writing communities and blogs to published journals geared toward young writers.

Sharing Your Essays Online

Go Teen Writers

Go Teen Writers is an online community for writers aged 13 - 19. It was founded by Stephanie Morrill, an author of contemporary young adult novels. 

Tumblr is a blogging website where you can share your writing and interact with other writers online. It's easy to add photos, links, audio, and video components.

Writersky provides an online platform for publishing and reading other youth writers' work. Its current content is mostly devoted to fiction.

Publishing Your Essays Online

This teen literary journal publishes in print, on the web, and (more frequently), on a blog. It is committed to ensuring that "teens see their authentic experience reflected on its pages."

The Matador Review

This youth writing platform celebrates "alternative," unconventional writing. The link above will take you directly to the site's "submissions" page.

Teen Ink has a website, monthly newsprint magazine, and quarterly poetry magazine promoting the work of young writers.

The largest online reading platform, Wattpad enables you to publish your work and read others' work. Its inline commenting feature allows you to share thoughts as you read along.

Publishing Your Essays in Print

Canvas Teen Literary Journal

This quarterly literary magazine is published for young writers by young writers. They accept many kinds of writing, including essays.

The Claremont Review

This biannual international magazine, first published in 1992, publishes poetry, essays, and short stories from writers aged 13 - 19.

Skipping Stones

This young writers magazine, founded in 1988, celebrates themes relating to ecological and cultural diversity. It publishes poems, photos, articles, and stories.

The Telling Room

This nonprofit writing center based in Maine publishes children's work on their website and in book form. The link above directs you to the site's submissions page.

Essay Contests

Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards

This prestigious international writing contest for students in grades 7 - 12 has been committed to "supporting the future of creativity since 1923."

Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest

An annual essay contest on the theme of journalism and media, the Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest awards scholarships up to $1,000.

National YoungArts Foundation

Here, you'll find information on a government-sponsored writing competition for writers aged 15 - 18. The foundation welcomes submissions of creative nonfiction, novels, scripts, poetry, short story and spoken word.

Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest

With prompts on a different literary work each year, this competition from Signet Classics awards college scholarships up to $1,000.

"The Ultimate Guide to High School Essay Contests" (CollegeVine)

See this handy guide from CollegeVine for a list of more competitions you can enter with your academic essay, from the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards to the National High School Essay Contest by the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Whether you're struggling to write academic essays or you think you're a pro, there are workshops and online tools that can help you become an even better writer. Even the most seasoned writers encounter writer's block, so be proactive and look through our curated list of resources to combat this common frustration.

Online Essay-writing Classes and Workshops

"Getting Started with Essay Writing" (Coursera)

Coursera offers lots of free, high-quality online classes taught by college professors. Here's one example, taught by instructors from the University of California Irvine.

"Writing and English" (Brightstorm)

Brightstorm's free video lectures are easy to navigate by topic. This unit on the parts of an essay features content on the essay hook, thesis, supporting evidence, and more.

"How to Write an Essay" (EdX)

EdX is another open online university course website with several two- to five-week courses on the essay. This one is geared toward English language learners.

Writer's Digest University

This renowned writers' website offers online workshops and interactive tutorials. The courses offered cover everything from how to get started through how to get published.

Writing.com

Signing up for this online writer's community gives you access to helpful resources as well as an international community of writers.

How to Overcome Writer's Block

"Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block" (Purdue OWL)

Purdue OWL offers a list of signs you might have writer's block, along with ways to overcome it. Consider trying out some "invention strategies" or ways to curb writing anxiety.

"Overcoming Writer's Block: Three Tips" ( The Guardian )

These tips, geared toward academic writing specifically, are practical and effective. The authors advocate setting realistic goals, creating dedicated writing time, and participating in social writing.

"Writing Tips: Strategies for Overcoming Writer's Block" (Univ. of Illinois)

This page from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Center for Writing Studies acquaints you with strategies that do and do not work to overcome writer's block.

"Writer's Block" (Univ. of Toronto)

Ask yourself the questions on this page; if the answer is "yes," try out some of the article's strategies. Each question is accompanied by at least two possible solutions.

If you have essays to write but are short on ideas, this section's links to prompts, example student essays, and celebrated essays by professional writers might help. You'll find writing prompts from a variety of sources, student essays to inspire you, and a number of essay writing collections.

Essay Writing Prompts

"50 Argumentative Essay Topics" (ThoughtCo)

Take a look at this list and the others ThoughtCo has curated for different kinds of essays. As the author notes, "a number of these topics are controversial and that's the point."

"401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing" ( New York Times )

This list (and the linked lists to persuasive and narrative writing prompts), besides being impressive in length, is put together by actual high school English teachers.

"SAT Sample Essay Prompts" (College Board)

If you're a student in the U.S., your classroom essay prompts are likely modeled on the prompts in U.S. college entrance exams. Take a look at these official examples from the SAT.

"Popular College Application Essay Topics" (Princeton Review)

This page from the Princeton Review dissects recent Common Application essay topics and discusses strategies for answering them.

Example Student Essays

"501 Writing Prompts" (DePaul Univ.)

This nearly 200-page packet, compiled by the LearningExpress Skill Builder in Focus Writing Team, is stuffed with writing prompts, example essays, and commentary.

"Topics in English" (Kibin)

Kibin is a for-pay essay help website, but its example essays (organized by topic) are available for free. You'll find essays on everything from  A Christmas Carol  to perseverance.

"Student Writing Models" (Thoughtful Learning)

Thoughtful Learning, a website that offers a variety of teaching materials, provides sample student essays on various topics and organizes them by grade level.

"Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

In this blog post by a former professor of English and rhetoric, ThoughtCo brings together examples of five-paragraph essays and commentary on the form.

The Best Essay Writing Collections

The Best American Essays of the Century by Joyce Carol Oates (Amazon)

This collection of American essays spanning the twentieth century was compiled by award winning author and Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates.

The Best American Essays 2017 by Leslie Jamison (Amazon)

Leslie Jamison, the celebrated author of essay collection  The Empathy Exams , collects recent, high-profile essays into a single volume.

The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate (Amazon)

Documentary writer Phillip Lopate curates this historical overview of the personal essay's development, from the classical era to the present.

The White Album by Joan Didion (Amazon)

This seminal essay collection was authored by one of the most acclaimed personal essayists of all time, American journalist Joan Didion.

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (Amazon)

Read this famous essay collection by David Foster Wallace, who is known for his experimentation with the essay form. He pushed the boundaries of personal essay, reportage, and political polemic.

"50 Successful Harvard Application Essays" (Staff of the The Harvard Crimson )

If you're looking for examples of exceptional college application essays, this volume from Harvard's daily student newspaper is one of the best collections on the market.

Are you an instructor looking for the best resources for teaching essay writing? This section contains resources for developing in-class activities and student homework assignments. You'll find content from both well-known university writing centers and online writing labs.

Essay Writing Classroom Activities for Students

"In-class Writing Exercises" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page lists exercises related to brainstorming, organizing, drafting, and revising. It also contains suggestions for how to implement the suggested exercises.

"Teaching with Writing" (Univ. of Minnesota Center for Writing)

Instructions and encouragement for using "freewriting," one-minute papers, logbooks, and other write-to-learn activities in the classroom can be found here.

"Writing Worksheets" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

Berkeley offers this bank of writing worksheets to use in class. They are nested under headings for "Prewriting," "Revision," "Research Papers" and more.

"Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism" (DePaul University)

Use these activities and worksheets from DePaul's Teaching Commons when instructing students on proper academic citation practices.

Essay Writing Homework Activities for Students

"Grammar and Punctuation Exercises" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

These five interactive online activities allow students to practice editing and proofreading. They'll hone their skills in correcting comma splices and run-ons, identifying fragments, using correct pronoun agreement, and comma usage.

"Student Interactives" (Read Write Think)

Read Write Think hosts interactive tools, games, and videos for developing writing skills. They can practice organizing and summarizing, writing poetry, and developing lines of inquiry and analysis.

This free website offers writing and grammar activities for all grade levels. The lessons are designed to be used both for large classes and smaller groups.

"Writing Activities and Lessons for Every Grade" (Education World)

Education World's page on writing activities and lessons links you to more free, online resources for learning how to "W.R.I.T.E.": write, revise, inform, think, and edit.

• PDFs for all 136 Lit Terms we cover
• Downloads of 1988 LitCharts Lit Guides
• Teacher Editions for every Lit Guide
• Explanations and citation info for 41,993 quotes across 1988 books
• Downloadable (PDF) line-by-line translations of every Shakespeare play

Need something? Request a new guide .

How can we improve? Share feedback .

LitCharts is hiring!

• Quizzes, saving guides, requests, plus so much more.

How to write a perfect essay

Need to write an essay? Does the assignment feel as big as climbing Mount Everest? Fear not. You’re up to the challenge! The following step-by step tips from the Nat Geo Kids Almanac will help you with this monumental task. 

Sometimes the subject matter of your essay is assigned to you, sometimes it’s not. Either way, you have to decide what you want to say. Start by brainstorming some ideas, writing down any thoughts you have about the subject. Then read over everything you’ve come up with and consider which idea you think is the strongest. Ask yourself what you want to write about the most. Keep in mind the goal of your essay. Can you achieve the goal of the assignment with this topic? If so, you’re good to go.

WRITE A TOPIC SENTENCE

This is the main idea of your essay, a statement of your thoughts on the subject. Again, consider the goal of your essay. Think of the topic sentence as an introduction that tells your reader what the rest of your essay will be about.

OUTLINE YOUR IDEAS

Once you have a good topic sentence, you then need to support that main idea with more detailed information, facts, thoughts, and examples. These supporting points answer one question about your topic sentence—“Why?” This is where research and perhaps more brainstorming come in. Then organize these points in the way you think makes the most sense, probably in order of importance. Now you have an outline for your essay.

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, WRITE!

Follow your outline, using each of your supporting points as the topic sentence of its own paragraph. Use descriptive words to get your ideas across to the reader. Go into detail, using specific information to tell your story or make your point. Stay on track, making sure that everything you include is somehow related to the main idea of your essay. Use transitions to make your writing flow.

Finish your essay with a conclusion that summarizes your entire essay and 5 restates your main idea.

PROOFREAD AND REVISE

Check for errors in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. Look for ways to make your writing clear, understandable, and interesting. Use descriptive verbs, adjectives, or adverbs when possible. It also helps to have someone else read your work to point out things you might have missed. Then make the necessary corrections and changes in a second draft. Repeat this revision process once more to make your final draft as good as you can.

Download the pdf .

Homework help

Science lab, (ad) national geographic kids almanac.

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Your California Privacy Rights
• Children's Online Privacy Policy
• Interest-Based Ads
• About Nielsen Measurement
• Do Not Sell My Info
• National Geographic
• National Geographic Education
• Shop Nat Geo
• Customer Service
• Manage Your Subscription

Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society Copyright © 2015-2024 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved

Working Moms Against Guilt

A working mom blog that celebrates the best of work, love and play—100% guilt-free.

Tips for Teaching Your Kids How to Write an Essay

By Sandra Miller

Your kids may not be thrilled when they are first faced with an essay writing task, but writing skills are very important for their future educational and emotional development. Although it can be difficult for you to teach them how to write an essay and start loving that activity, your effort won’t be left without results. The most important thing to keep in mind is that children have difficulties in expressing themselves in a structured from that requires crafting strong sentences.

If essay writing is mission impossible for your children and you really want to teach them how to write, you should work on your own skills first. You need an organized and methodical approach that will make it easy for them to understand what you are trying to say.

Start with the basics

The first thing you need to make sure of is that your children have a basic understanding of spelling and grammar concepts, which are appropriate for their grade, age, and essay writing requirements. If your children’s education lacks these building blocks, you will only confuse them with the attempt of teaching them more complicated writing skills. The result will be nothing more than frustration to both you and your children.

After you make sure that their knowledge is ready to be advanced to the essay writing stage, you should start by introducing the concept of a thesis. The first difficulty children face is directing their essays and keeping them focused. If your children struggle with writing concepts, you can provide thesis prompts or thesis statements for them. Once your children advance their writing skills, they will easily think of their own thesis statements. The thesis should be the main point around which the essay is written. Make sure to explain to them that every page, every paragraph, and every sentence within the essay, no matter how short or long it is, should be associated to the thesis statement.

Advanced stages: Creating an outline

The next step of the process is explaining your kids how to create an outline of the writing. The outline will help them maintain the logical progression from the beginning to the end of the paper. Once your kids understand sentence construction, they may have difficulties in keeping the logical context within the paper because they will be focused solely on creating sentence units that are grammatically correct, expressive, and cohesive. You should teach them how to relate those sentences to one another and stick to the outline.

Explain the meaning and purpose of the introductory and concluding paragraphs, and tell them how to structure the paragraphs in between in a logical order.

Key to success: examples and practice

If you provide examples of good essays to your children, they will immediately get ideas on creating their own papers. They won’t understand what you are trying to say if your approach to teaching is based solely on explanations. You need to be as hands-on as your kids need during the development of their first essays. Once they develop an increased confidence in their abilities, they will be able to work on their own. It is easy to find essay examples online and use them to show your kids what works and what doesn’t work in essay writing.

Practice is the key to perfection. There isn’t a more effective way of teaching children how to write essays than helping them practice as many times as possible. You should make the process interesting, so they won’t see it as a torture. Once you provide them with the conceptual foundation of knowledge, you should help them implement that knowledge through practice.

Remember: striving for perfection is out of the question when you’re teaching your kids something. Don’t put too much pressure on them and don’t require impossible achievements. Essay writing is a very useful skill that will increase their vocabulary and improve their skills of grammar, so you should approach the teaching process with those humble goals on your mind.

You may also like

Breathing new life into this old blog, daily planner for working moms (free printable), being a “mom taxi” was sucking my soul, so i quit, optimizing mealtime: tips for eating together as a family, how i solved my “what’s for dinner” problem—permanently, 29 thoughts on “ tips for teaching your kids how to write an essay ”.

Interesting infographic how to write an argumentative essay http://www.essay-profy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/how_to_write_essay.png

very helpful. Thank you

Before essay writing my son always looks for examples. Is it bad?

very helpful. Thanks

Wow–Seems like this is a rewrite of this article: http://betsydewey.com/how-to-teach-your-kids-to-write-essays/

There are different writing courses online that can truly provide parents and kids interactive education in terms of writing, grammar and comprehension; doing different types of literary pieces can really give voices to their creative minds and opening an opportunity for their growth. Helpful article!

Very informative blog. To know more essay writing tips and the services they offer, go through this link http://www.essaydynamics.com/

You are a wonder mom! It’s hard to teach kids nowadays. You need a lot of patience. But your task would not be so hard if you’re enjoying and make rapport on your kids. Essay writing may be difficult to understand by a kid at early age. However, it will help to them to develop their writing skills PS: https://wedoessay.com/

Very useful, thanks! Yes, practice is the best approach. But I disagree that essay writing skills is compulsory for everybody. What about tech specializations, if child is a fan of math and physics it’s not good to enforce him to write an essay. Let him do what he want!

Actually, being a fan of maths and physics means you will probably need essay-writing skills MORE. My brother is an engineer, and he just got through telling me how lack of proper organisation and correct language on reports has cost his company thousands of dollars on several occasions. I think we make the mistake of assigning humanities skills only to the humanities and science skills only to the science-driven professions. I work in foreign languages, and these days an engineer. doctor or scientist is as likely (if not more likely) to need a foreign language as a mid-level businessperson. Similarly, engineers, doctors and scientists write many reports both internally and for worldwide consumption. They often have to make presentations, which are based on the same base skills as essay-writing.

Thanks for your article. It is true that nowadays teaching children is not an easy task. It’s not a secret that students don’t like writing essay. Visit our site to get a great range of student essays,

The opportunity to do an Extended Project should be more widespread. More importantly, universities should invest more time and effort in helping students develop the research and writing skills needed at university. There seems to be a fairly common assumption within universities that A-Levels primarily prepare students for university work. They should instead be seen for what they are: qualifications that demonstrate that a student is ready to move to the next, quite different level of education, which will require quite different kinds of learning support.

They’re angry, frustrated, and scared. Too many have already given up on themselves and the world around them. So the answer to your question is that it depends on where you’re teaching. Administrative and mentor support is crucial and, sadly, rare. In most states, the emphasis is on analyzing test data and “teaching to the test.

Hi there! I would like to share my personal experience about my life in college. I have just finished my studying and like almost all of learners tried to combine studying and a part-time work. But, if you know, it is so tight to be in two places at the same time and to study well. Only this writing company helped me a lot to made my life so much easier than ever, so I highly advice you to click on their online page and to read this https://www.gloucestercitynews.net/clearysnotebook/2020/10/5-alternative-workouts-for-students-who-cant-afford-going-to-the-gym.html article here.

Everybody should select https://paperwriter.com/ for the greatest advice in their projects. Thanks for reading! According to the university’s needs and learning styles, specialists are able to provide assistance. The site is a good place to go if you’re in need of a term paper writer for hire.

lifehacks and ideas for students can be found at https://studyfy.com/blog With the help of this service I began to learn much better

Moi znajomi doradzali otomistrz.pl jako usługę znalezienia wykonawców tam, gdzie w moim mieście są dobrzy elektrycy Zamówił usługę elektryka i przyjechał szybko i za niewielką opłatą rozwiązał mój problem. Bardzo się cieszę, że się do nich zwróciłam.

My friends advised https://homeworkfor.me/ as a service of finding contractors where there are good essay writers in my city He ordered a paper and he arrived quickly and for a small fee solved my problem.

“Teaching kids how to write an essay is very important in one’s life we can also go for essay writer services for help, and it’s a great opportunity, with a pattern you can start with basics, then create an outline end with examples and conclusion.

“Teaching kids how to write an essay is very important in one’s life we can also go for essay writer services https://www.bestessays.com/ for help, and it’s a great opportunity, with a pattern you can start with basics, then create an outline end with examples and conclusion.

If you are writing an essay or a report, you will need to learn how to write in the appropriate format. Whatever style of formatting you use for your introductory paragraph, you should stick with it throughout the essay.The information you present should be backed up by credible sources and presented in an organized fashion. In addition, you should use techniques such as graphics, headings and subheadings to make it easy for your readers to follow along with your points of view. Finally, if you choose to reference other researchers or authors on the same topic, do so in proper writing format. I always visit https://www.ihatewritingessays.com/edugeeksclub-com-review website whenever I need to get help in essay because reading reviews assist me to find the best writer for it.

https://verschiltussen.com/ is an ideal site to learn the difference between any comparable, It provides a clear, complete analysis of the differences in tabular form.

If you don`t want wasted time you can visit this link https://writemypapers.company/edit-my-paper/ that helps improve your essay writing. And I want to notice that it will be very quick.

From the first phrase, you can tell if a review is professional. Providing new, non-plagiarized content is one of the most difficult components of a fantastic https://bit.ly/3xcIvCj If the content is plagiarized, the website will not rank well. When looking for the best essay writing service reviews,

You are right! I write essays with the help of https://rapidessay.com . They recommend the same thing.

I like your material related to essay writing https://top-resume-reviews.com/blog/16-cover-letter-writing-services Moreover It’s very informative

No matter what your discipline, topic, or deadline is, we are willing to help you complete your essay at https://www.lunwenhelp.com/essay-daixie/ . Over 98% of our customers remain satisfied because we never compromise on the quality of our services. Our essay writing platform is your only right choice! Our team of experts knows how to complete assignments in all academic fields and levels.

Learning how to write an essay effectively is essential for academic success. Studying this topic can be greatly facilitated by option to order persuasive essay online . These essays serve as practical examples, showcasing proper structure, argumentation, and writing style. By studying them, students can gain valuable insights and improve their own essay-writing skills, ultimately leading to higher grades and greater confidence in academic writing.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

This site contains affiliate links at no cost to you. Read disclosure here .

The Natural Homeschool

Living and learning the natural way

How to teach my child to write an essay

Homeschool , Language Arts Homeschool , Subjects

Navigating the internet, you can find multiple articles about the nuances of writing academic essays and improving the writing skills of adults. However, when teaching children the nuances of essay writing, you should be very careful and attentive. The first knowledge on how to write an essay plays a fundamental role in a kid’s development and further learning.

Thus, the techniques, secrets, and explanations should be as effective as possible. So, when asking yourself, “how do I teach my child to write an essay?” be ready for not-so-hard and exciting work ahead! Also, don’t forget to get computer science assignmen t help or you can find more information on assignment topics to be more free while studying.

Before starting an essay writing journey

Before teaching kids details of essay learning, the initial work is crucial. Although writing skills and techniques are important, a child should know the benefit of writing essays, how to enjoy the process of writing, and what opportunities are available if one succeeds in this activity. For example, understanding the role of a  custom essay writing service  can provide insights into professional writing standards and the various styles and structures used in essays.

Thus, before exploring working tips, let’s have a look at several actions that would prepare the groundwork for the smooth and entertaining teaching:

• Start with familiarizing a kid with the genre of the essay. Find what a child likes the most – stories about wizards or space, adventures or nature, and encourage one’s interest in the genre. Further, tell a kid that anyone can create such captivating texts – it’ll boost their confidence and commitment.
• Become a kid’s superhero – show by your example that writing essays is cool, and many adults do it. Besides, regular writing can be your way of emotional recharging and memory stimulation and even prevent mental health problems!
• Train to write essays without rules : indeed, further, you’ll know how to teach your child to craft essays according to standard requirements, but it’s good to start with something easy. For example, make a deal that you and your kid will write an essa y together or individually, describing the weekend or vacation you’ve spent together. First and foremost, demonstrate that essay writing can be fun!
• You must have patience and encourage your kid even if they make mistakes : after all, our falls teach us something new.

Simplicity and basics of essay writing with kids

So, you’ll start wondering: “how to teach my kid to write an essay, and where should I begin?.” The key to success lies in the basics of essay writing. First, start with evaluating your kid’s writing skills and knowledge.

For instance, assign them to write an essay on any subject and analyze the text together. Explore grammatical errors (often, children repeat their mistakes), and look at the essay’s structure and construction of sentences.

After you work on errors, it is paramount that you teach your kid to:

• Create an outline. This prewriting phase of crafting an essay saves a bunch of time and allows writing the text without losing your way. So, basically, an outline is the plan of your future text – it represents the structure of the essay, including a number of paragraphs, introduction, topic sentences, and conclusion. Due to the outline, your kid won’t be distracted and will stick to the initial plan.
• Develop an insightful thesis statement. In this last sentence in the introductory paragraph, your kid will present the central thought of the essay; therefore, practice creating concise and informative thesis statements.
• Keep the balance. In most cases, essay writing includes strict requirements. The word count, topic, and type of essay are the essential orienteers that an instructor can change. However, there’s an aspect that remains forever stable: your kid’s essay should be balanced. The paragraph size should be the same, and the introduction and conclusion should not exceed the word count of one paragraph. Such nuances are simple to memorize and effectively implement!
• Analyze different sources. Writing essay s often requires learners to read various articles, blogs, or books to craft a response or discussion essay. Therefore, teach your kid to assess various materials: read a piece together and discuss how it relates to the assigned topic. Alternatively, ask your kid to browse the web and find several articles on the same issue. Markedly, technology is one of the greatest advantages for today’s adults and children!

After learning these fundamentals and practicing several times, your child won’t have any difficulty crafting essays. You won’t have to relive this shiver of hesitation asking yourself, “how to help my child write an essay?” a hundred times.

Other effective tips for teaching a child to write an essay

None of us is born a genuine mentor or teacher able to teach a kid to be an excellent writer easily. However, due to some effective tips, even a person with no prior experience in writing can explain to a kid the nuances of writing and, more importantly, explain how to write with joy!

So, pay attention to such recommendations: ● Encourage your kid to read. Don’t limit yourself to essays – any text, either scientific or fiction, can significantly expand one’s vocabulary. ● Share your experience of writing essays when you were a student. Tell your kid what you liked about the process, which topics inspired you, or what writing strategies you used. ● Practice writing by composing essays about your child’s favorite movies or series. For example, assign them to write a response essay after each watched episode. You’ll notice the progress even in the middle of season one! ● Luckily, we live in a digital age when maintaining quality educational assistance is a piece of cake! If you feel that your confidence and experience are not enough, feel free to use the help of expert writing services, whose specialists possess great experience in creating papers of various formats and can consult you about crafting original and properly structured essays. Thus, if you still feel a little lost when your kid again asks you, “please, help me to write my essay!” there’s no nothing to worry about.

If you’ve ever asked yourself the question, “how can my child learn how to write an essay?” Now you’ve got numerous working tips that can help you and your child genuinely enjoy writing essays.

After learning the basics of writing essays, your kid will approach the assignment without a shadow of a writing block or discomfort. And becoming a creative writer will not take long – when a kid is surrounded by support, exciting topics, and interesting practice options, one is definitely about to succeed!

You might also like this on how to write an essay:

How to choose a topic for a research paper

The Best Homeschool Writing Curriculum

How To Create A Children’s Learning Nook

The Best Way for Children to Learn to Write Cursive {Free Printables}

The Best Free Printable Sentence Strips for Sentence Starters

Montessori Language Arts Curriculum Bundle 1

Cactus Homeschool Planner {38 Pages}

Reusable Printable Homeschool Mini Planner (36 pages)

Latest posts.

Join 14,000+ homeschoolers!

Reader Interactions

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rider11 says

November 21, 2022 at 4:08 am

I and my friends were going through the nice, To get helpful tips from the blog then the sudden came up with an awful suspicion I had not expressed respect to the website owner for those secrets.

Search this Blog

Grab my button.

500+ Writing Prompts for Kids (Journal & Story Ideas)

Hey there, future authors, creators, and dreamers. Are you ready to let your imagination run wild?

Whether you love to write stories, draw pictures, or just scribble down your thoughts, I’ve got something super cool for you. It’s a list of 500 awesome writing prompts! Think of these as little seeds you can plant in your brain, and who knows what kind of amazing stories will grow?

Grab your favorite pencil, cozy up in your writing spot, and let’s get started.

Unique Writing Prompts for Kids

Table of Contents

Sometimes, the best stories come from the most unexpected places.

Here are some unique ideas that will take your writing to new and exciting worlds.

• Imagine you find a secret door in your school that leads to a hidden world. What happens next?
• If animals could talk, what would your pet say to you?
• You wake up with superpowers one day. What powers do you have, and how do you use them?
• Write about a day in the life of your favorite toy. What adventures do they have when you’re not around?
• You discover a magical treehouse that only appears at night. What do you find inside?
• A new student at your school is actually an alien in disguise. What happens when you find out?
• You get to invent a new holiday. What is it called, and how do people celebrate it?
• Write about a time-traveling kid who visits ancient Egypt. What do they see and do?
• Imagine you can jump into any book and become part of the story. Which book do you choose, and what happens next?
• What would the world be like if kids were in charge of everything?
• Imagine a world where everything is made of candy. What would you do?
• Write about a mysterious door that only appears during thunderstorms.
• You find a map leading to a lost city. What happens next?
• Describe a day in the life of an invisible person.
• Imagine you could turn into any animal at will. Which animals would you choose and why?
• Write about a magical backpack that can hold anything you want.
• You find a message in a bottle on the beach. What does it say?
• Imagine a world where it rains chocolate milk instead of water. What’s it like?
• Write about a time when you shrunk to the size of an ant.
• Describe a town where everyone has a unique superpower. What’s yours?
• Imagine you can speak to ghosts. What do they tell you?
• Write about a magic book that comes to life when you read it.
• You find a pair of shoes that allow you to fly. Where do you go?
• Imagine a day when gravity stops working. What happens?
• You discover a secret underground city beneath your house. What’s it like?

Journal Prompts for Kids

Journaling is a fantastic way to express your thoughts and feelings. These prompts will help you reflect on your day, your dreams, and everything in between.

• What was the best thing that happened to you today?
• Describe your dream vacation. Where would you go, and what would you do?
• If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be and why?
• Write about a time you felt really proud of yourself. What did you do?
• Who is your hero, and why do you look up to them?
• What’s something new you learned recently that made you excited?
• If you could talk to your future self, what advice would you give?
• Write about your favorite memory with your family or friends.
• What are three things you’re grateful for today?
• If you could have any pet, real or imaginary, what would it be and why?
• What’s your favorite thing about yourself, and why do you love it?
• Write about a time when you helped someone. How did it make you feel?
• What do you dream about at night? Describe your most recent dream.
• If you could invent a new food, what would it be and why?
• Write about your favorite place to relax. What makes it special?
• If you could meet anyone from history, who would it be and why?
• What’s your favorite season, and what do you like to do during it?
• If you could live in any time period, when would it be and why?
• What’s the best gift you’ve ever received, and why did it mean so much to you?
• Write about a time when you were really brave. What happened?
• Imagine you could move anywhere in the world—where would you go and why?
• What’s something you want to learn to do, and why?
• Write about a time when you felt really happy. What made you smile?
• If you could trade places with any character from a book, who would it be and why?
• What’s your favorite family tradition, and why do you love it?

Funny Writing Prompts for Kids

Get ready to giggle with these silly and wacky prompts! They’re perfect for writing something that will make you and others laugh out loud.

• Write a story about a cat who thinks it’s a dog.
• Imagine you’re a superhero whose only power is making people laugh. How do you use your power to save the day?
• You wake up one morning to find that you’ve turned into your favorite food. What happens next?
• What would happen if cows started flying? Describe a day on a flying farm.
• Write about a world where everyone speaks in rhymes. What does a regular day sound like?
• Your pencil suddenly comes to life and starts telling you what to write. What kind of stories does it want to tell?
• If you could swap places with any cartoon character for a day, who would you choose, and what crazy adventures would you have?
• Imagine a talking banana who becomes your best friend. What do you do together?
• Write about a time you tried to teach a pet goldfish how to dance.
• What would school be like if all the teachers were robots programmed to be super silly?
• Imagine you have a pet dinosaur. What mischief does it get into?
• What if your shoes suddenly started talking to you? What would they say?
• Write about a day when everything you touched turned into spaghetti.
• Imagine you wake up and everyone in your town is singing instead of talking. What’s the day like?
• What would happen if you could only eat dessert for every meal?
• Describe a time when you accidentally turned your teacher into a frog.
• What if you found out your dog could do magic tricks? What tricks would it do?
• Write about a time when you switched places with your pet for a day. What did you do?
• Imagine you wake up with a giraffe neck. How does your day go?
• What would happen if you could only walk backward for a whole day?
• Write about a time when your lunch came to life and tried to run away.
• Imagine you could change the color of anything by touching it. What do you change?
• What if your favorite food could talk? What would it say to you?
• Write about a time when you got stuck inside a video game. How do you get out?
• Imagine you could make anything float by blowing on it. What would you do with this power?

Story Starter Writing Prompts

Sometimes, all you need is a first sentence to spark your imagination. Here are some story starters to help you begin your next great tale.

• The moment I opened the box, I knew my life would never be the same.
• It was a dark and stormy night when I heard a knock at the door.
• As soon as I stepped into the forest, I realized something magical was about to happen.
• I never expected to find a treasure map hidden in the old library book.
• The day I discovered I could talk to animals was the best day of my life.
• Just as I was about to give up, I saw something that made me gasp.
• When the clock struck midnight, the world around me began to change.
• I was walking home from school when I found a mysterious key on the ground.
• The letter I received in the mail this morning had only one word on it: “Run.”
• I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a dragon flying over my neighborhood.
• As soon as I opened the treasure chest, I saw something glowing inside.
• The strange noise coming from the attic turned out to be a tiny dragon.
• I never thought I’d meet a real-life mermaid, but then I did.
• The moment I touched the ancient artifact, I felt a surge of power.
• My best friend told me a secret that I could hardly believe.
• As I walked through the mysterious fog, I realized I wasn’t alone.
• The letter I found in the old oak tree was addressed to me.
• I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a giant footprint in my backyard.
• The old key I found fit perfectly into the lock of a hidden door.
• Just as I was about to give up, I heard someone calling my name.
• The moment I stepped onto the pirate ship, I knew an adventure was about to begin.
• As soon as I pressed the button, the machine whirred to life.
• I found a map hidden under the floorboards of my room.
• The sound of wings fluttering in the night made me look up in awe.
• The old man handed me a coin and said, “This will change everything.”

Picture Writing Prompts for Kids

Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words—or even more! Use these picture prompts to inspire a colorful story.

• Imagine a picture of a rainbow-colored unicorn dancing in the rain. What is the unicorn celebrating?
• Look at a photo of a deserted island. Who lives there, and what secrets does the island hold?
• A picture shows a giant moon in the sky, twice as big as normal. What’s happening on Earth?
• See a drawing of a mysterious castle on top of a hill. Who lives there, and what’s their story?
• Imagine a picture of a little girl flying a kite that’s pulling her up into the sky. Where does she go?
• Look at a photo of an ancient tree with a door carved into it. Who might live inside?
• Picture a robot sitting alone in a garden. What is the robot thinking about?
• A drawing shows a city floating in the clouds. Who lives there, and how do they get around?
• Imagine a photo of a boy holding a glowing orb. What powers does the orb have?
• See a picture of a cat wearing a wizard hat. What magical adventures does the cat go on?
• Imagine a picture of a spaceship landing in a field of flowers. What happens next?
• Look at a photo of a mountain with a hidden cave. Who or what lives inside?
• A picture shows a giant fish swimming through the sky. How did it get there?
• Imagine a photo of a tree with doors leading to different worlds. Where do the doors go?
• See a drawing of a mysterious island floating in the air. What’s on the island?
• A picture shows a dragon curled up around a pile of gold. What is it guarding?
• Imagine a photo of a tiny village inside a glass jar. Who lives there?
• Look at a drawing of a flying car zooming over a city. Where is it going?
• A picture shows a cat wearing a pirate hat and holding a treasure map. What’s its story?
• Imagine a picture of a magical waterfall that turns everything it touches into crystal. What happens next?
• See a photo of a bridge made of rainbows. What’s on the other side?
• A drawing shows a tiny person riding on the back of a giant bird. Where are they going?
• Imagine a photo of a ship sailing through the clouds. Who is on board?
• A picture shows a castle made of candy. Who lives there, and what’s it like inside?
• Look at a drawing of a forest where the trees glow in the dark. What’s the secret behind the glowing trees?

Winter Writing Prompts for Kids

Winter is a time of magic and wonder. These prompts will help you capture the coziness and excitement of the season.

• Write about building the most amazing snowman ever. What makes it special?
• Imagine you could live in an igloo for a week. What would you do?
• What if snowflakes were actually tiny fairies? Write about their adventures.
• Describe a day in a winter wonderland where animals can talk.
• What would happen if your town had the biggest snowstorm ever? How would you spend your snow day?
• Write about a secret winter festival held by animals in the forest.
• Imagine you wake up and find that everything you touch turns to ice. What do you do?
• What’s the story behind a snow globe that magically transports you to a snowy village?
• Write about a magical pair of ice skates that let you skate across the clouds.
• What would it be like to ride a sleigh pulled by reindeer through the night sky?
• Write about a day when the snow suddenly turned into marshmallows.
• Imagine you could talk to snowflakes. What would they tell you?
• What if you found a frozen lake that led to an underwater kingdom?
• Write about building a snow fort that magically comes to life.
• Imagine a world where winter never ends. What’s it like?
• Describe a snowball fight where the snowballs have a mind of their own.
• What would happen if your pet turned into a snowman overnight?
• Write about a magical scarf that keeps you warm no matter what.
• Imagine you could control the weather with a wave of your hand. How do you use your power?
• What if your town had a secret winter carnival only kids knew about?
• Write about a day when you and your friends discover a hidden ice cave.
• Imagine you find a snow globe that transports you to a winter wonderland. What do you see there?
• What if your favorite winter coat suddenly gave you the ability to fly?
• Write about a time when you met a snow fairy in the forest.
• Imagine you could skate on ice that plays music as you glide. What tunes do you hear?

Christmas Writing Prompts for Kids

Christmas is a time for joy and creativity. These prompts will fill your writing with holiday cheer!

• Write a letter to Santa, but instead of asking for presents, tell him about your year.
• Imagine you are one of Santa’s elves. What is your job at the North Pole?
• What if your Christmas tree could talk? What stories would it tell?
• Describe the most magical Christmas morning ever. What happens when you wake up?
• Write a story about a reindeer who dreams of flying but is afraid of heights.
• Imagine you find a lost present under the tree. What’s inside, and who is it for?
• What would happen if Christmas lights could talk to each other?
• Write about a snowman who comes to life on Christmas Eve and goes on an adventure.
• Imagine you could spend a day with Santa at the North Pole. What do you do?
• What if you woke up on Christmas morning and found out you were Santa for the day?
• Imagine you find a magical candy cane that grants wishes. What do you wish for?
• Write about a time when you helped Santa deliver presents on Christmas Eve.
• What if your Christmas stockings were filled with tiny talking animals?
• Imagine you wake up to find your Christmas tree has grown to the ceiling overnight. What do you do?
• Write about a gingerbread man who comes to life and goes on an adventure.
• What would happen if you found out your Christmas presents could talk?
• Imagine you spend Christmas in a cozy cabin in the snowy mountains. What’s the best part of your holiday?
• Write about a reindeer who gets lost on Christmas Eve. How do you help it find its way home?
• What if you discovered that your favorite Christmas ornament has a magical secret?
• Imagine you could bake cookies that come to life. What kind of cookies do you create?
• Write about a time when you built a Christmas tree out of snow.
• What if you found a snow globe that could show you any Christmas memory? What do you see?
• Imagine you get to design Santa’s sleigh. What does it look like?
• Write about a time when you caught a glimpse of Santa’s workshop.
• If you could celebrate Christmas with any holiday movie character, who would it be and what would you do?

Halloween Writing Prompts for Kids

Halloween is spooky, silly, and full of surprises! These prompts will help you create stories that are a little bit creepy and a whole lot of fun.

• Write about a haunted house that turns out to be friendly. What happens inside?
• Imagine you get to choose your own special Halloween superpower. What is it, and how do you use it?
• What if your Halloween costume came to life? What would it do?
• Describe the creepiest, most mysterious pumpkin in the pumpkin patch. What makes it so strange?
• Write about a group of friends who discover a secret door in a graveyard on Halloween night.
• What would happen if your pet turned into a ghost on Halloween?
• Imagine you’re a witch or wizard for a day. What spells do you cast?
• Write a story about a Halloween party where all the guests are monsters.
• What if you found a magic broomstick that could fly you anywhere? Where would you go?
• Describe the best trick-or-treat adventure ever. What makes it unforgettable?
• Write about a haunted carnival that only appears on Halloween night.
• Imagine you could turn into any Halloween creature. What would you become, and what would you do?
• What if you found a book of spells hidden in your attic? What’s the first spell you try?
• Write about a time when you discovered that your costume gave you real powers.
• Imagine you’re invited to a monster’s Halloween party. What do you see and do?
• Imagine you’re invited to a monster’s Halloween party. What games do you play, and what snacks do you eat?
• What if your shadow came to life on Halloween and started doing things on its own?
• Write about a ghost who has lost their way and needs your help to find their home.
• Imagine you and your friends explore a spooky old mansion. What do you find inside?
• What would happen if all the pumpkins in your town started glowing mysteriously on Halloween night?
• Write about a talking black cat who gives you a special Halloween mission.
• What if you found a magic wand that could bring your Halloween decorations to life? What happens next?
• Imagine you discover a hidden room in your house filled with ancient Halloween treasures. What do you do with them?
• Write about a night when the moon turns blood red and strange things start to happen in your town.
• What if you woke up on Halloween morning to find that your town had turned into a spooky Halloween land overnight?

Spring Writing Prompts for Kids

Spring is all about new beginnings and fresh ideas. These prompts will help you celebrate the season of growth and renewal.

• Write about planting a magical garden. What kind of plants grow there?
• Imagine you could talk to flowers. What secrets would they tell you?
• Describe the first day of spring from the perspective of a hibernating bear.
• What would it be like to have a picnic with talking animals in a blooming meadow?
• Write about a mysterious seed that grows into something unexpected.
• Imagine you discover a hidden spring that makes everything around it come to life.
• What if you could ride on the back of a butterfly? Where would it take you?
• Write a story about a raindrop that goes on an adventure as it travels to the sea.
• Describe a spring festival where the trees, flowers, and animals all join in the celebration.
• Imagine you find a rainbow in your backyard. What happens when you touch it?
• Write about a magical umbrella that can control the weather. What do you use it for?
• Imagine you discover a hidden garden that blooms with flowers in every color of the rainbow. What makes this garden so special?
• Write about a time when you found a baby bird that needed your help. What did you do?
• What if you could talk to insects? What would they tell you about their lives in the spring?
• Imagine you plant a magic seed that grows into something incredible. What does it become?
• Write about a spring day when the rain brings something magical to your town.
• What would happen if all the animals in the forest threw a spring party? What games do they play?
• Imagine you find a hidden waterfall deep in the woods. What do you discover there?
• Write about a butterfly that takes you on a journey to see the first signs of spring.
• What if you could make flowers bloom with just a touch? How would you use this power?
• Imagine you wake up to find that your garden has been transformed into a magical jungle. What creatures do you meet?
• Write about a time when you discovered a family of rabbits living in your backyard.
• What if you could shrink down to the size of a bug for a day? What adventures would you have in the spring?
• Imagine you find a trail of flower petals leading to a secret spot in the forest. What do you find there?
• Write about a spring day when everything you draw with chalk comes to life.

Fall Writing Prompts for Kids

Fall is a season full of colors, cozy moments, and new adventures.

These prompts will help you capture the essence of autumn.

• Write about jumping into the biggest pile of leaves ever. What surprises do you find inside?
• Imagine a talking scarecrow who tells stories about the farm. What are its best tales?
• Describe a day in the life of an acorn as it travels through the forest.
• What would happen if you discovered a secret treehouse hidden in the fall woods?
• Write about a squirrel who is preparing for winter but finds something unexpected while gathering nuts.
• Imagine you could paint the autumn leaves any color you want. What colors do you choose, and why?
• Describe the coziest fall day ever. What do you do, and how do you feel?
• Write about a magical pumpkin that grows bigger every time you make a wish.
• What if you found an enchanted forest where the trees tell stories? What tales do they share?
• Imagine a fall harvest festival where everything you eat gives you special powers. What do you eat, and what powers do you get?
• Imagine you discover a corn maze that changes every time you go inside. What’s the secret behind it?
• Write about a day when the wind carries you away on an autumn adventure.
• What if the leaves in your yard started forming shapes and messages? What do they spell out?
• Imagine you find a mysterious old lantern in the woods. What happens when you light it?
• Write about a squirrel who finds something very unusual while collecting acorns.
• What would happen if pumpkins could talk? What stories would they tell?
• Imagine you spend the night camping in the fall woods. What spooky or magical things do you see?
• Write about a time when you followed a trail of autumn leaves to a hidden place.
• What if you found a haunted scarecrow in a pumpkin patch? What does it want?
• Imagine you could control the wind on a blustery fall day. How would you use this power?
• Write about a cozy fall evening where you discover a hidden world inside a jack-o’-lantern.
• What if you could jump into a painting of an autumn scene? What would you do there?
• Imagine you find an old book of autumn legends. What happens when you read it?
• Write about a harvest festival where everything goes wrong in a funny way.
• What if you discovered a magical acorn that could grow a tree overnight? What does the tree look like, and what makes it special?

Summer Writing Prompts for Kids

Summer is a time for adventure, sunshine, and fun!

These prompts will help you capture the joy and excitement of the summer season.

• Imagine you find a hidden beach that no one else knows about. What do you do there?
• Write about a day when you build the biggest sandcastle ever. What surprises do you find inside?
• What if you discovered a secret cave while exploring the shoreline? What’s inside?
• Imagine you could swim with dolphins for a day. What adventures do you have?
• Write about a time when you found a message in a bottle floating in the ocean.
• What if the sun didn’t set for a whole week? How would you spend the extra daylight?
• Imagine you could fly a kite that takes you up into the sky. Where does it take you?
• Write about a summer carnival that’s full of magical rides and games.
• What if your ice cream cone never melted, no matter how hot it got? What flavors would you try?
• Imagine you spend the summer on a mysterious island. What do you discover there?
• Write about a time when you had the best summer camp experience ever. What made it so special?
• What if you found out your favorite swimming spot was actually home to a family of mermaids?
• Imagine you could talk to the fish in the ocean. What would they tell you about their underwater world?
• Write about a summer night when the stars seem to be extra bright. What happens under the starlight?
• What if you could visit any place in the world for your summer vacation? Where would you go, and what would you do?

Valentine’s Day Prompts for Kids

Valentine’s Day is all about love, friendship, and spreading kindness. These prompts will inspire sweet and creative writing ideas.

• Write about a time when you made a special Valentine’s Day card for someone. What did it look like, and why was it special?
• What if your pet could send you a Valentine’s Day message? What would it say?
• Imagine you find a heart-shaped treasure on Valentine’s Day. What’s inside?
• Write about a Valentine’s Day party where all the guests are animals. What do they do to celebrate?
• What if you could send a Valentine’s Day card to anyone in the world? Who would you choose, and what would you say?
• Imagine you wake up on Valentine’s Day to find that everything around you is heart-shaped. What do you do?
• Write about a time when you did something kind for a friend on Valentine’s Day. How did it make you feel?
• What if you could bake magical cookies that spread love and happiness? Who would you give them to?
• Imagine you receive a mysterious Valentine’s Day letter. Who is it from, and what does it say?
• Write about a time when you helped someone who was feeling lonely on Valentine’s Day. What did you do to cheer them up?
• What if you could create your own special Valentine’s Day tradition? What would it be?
• Imagine you could visit a land where everything is made of candy hearts. What’s it like?
• Write about a Valentine’s Day surprise that you planned for someone special.
• What if you could make a wish on a Valentine’s Day star? What would you wish for?
• Imagine you get to spend Valentine’s Day with your favorite storybook character. Who do you choose, and what do you do together?

Book-Related Writing Prompts for Kids

Books open the door to endless adventures!

These prompts will inspire you to dive into the world of stories and create your own.

• Imagine you could jump into your favorite book. What happens when you become part of the story?
• Write about a time when you found a book that had the power to change the world.
• What if your bookshelf could talk? What stories would it share with you?
• Imagine you could visit a library where every book comes to life as you read it. What book do you choose first?
• Write about a character from a book who suddenly appears in your room. What do you do together?
• What if you discovered a hidden room in your house filled with ancient, magical books? What do you find?
• Imagine you’re writing a book, and the characters start telling you what to write next. What do they say?
• Write about a time when you read a book that was so amazing, you couldn’t put it down. What made it so special?
• What if you could create your own ending for a book you’ve read? How would you change the story?
• Imagine you could visit a world from your favorite book. What would you do there?
• Write about a time when you shared your favorite book with a friend. How did they react?
• What if you discovered a secret society of book lovers who meet in a hidden library? What do they do?
• Imagine you could write a letter to your favorite author. What would you say?
• Write about a book that you wish existed. What’s the title, and what’s the story about?
• What if you could collect all the stories ever written in one magical book? What would it look like, and what would you do with it?

St. Patrick’s Day Writing Prompts for Kids

St. Patrick’s Day is full of luck, leprechauns, and all things green.

These prompts will help you celebrate this fun holiday with your writing.

• Imagine you find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. What do you do with it?
• Write about a time when you met a friendly leprechaun. What did they teach you?
• What if you woke up on St. Patrick’s Day to find that everything in your house had turned green? What’s going on?
• Imagine you follow a trail of shamrocks that leads you to a magical forest. What do you find there?
• Write about a St. Patrick’s Day parade where all the floats come to life.
• What if you found a four-leaf clover that granted you three wishes? What would you wish for?
• Imagine you spend the day in a leprechaun’s shoes. What adventures do you have?
• Write about a rainbow that appears in your backyard and leads to an unexpected discovery.
• What if you could visit a land where it’s always St. Patrick’s Day? What’s it like?
• Imagine you’re in charge of planning the ultimate St. Patrick’s Day party. What do you include?
• Write about a time when you followed a mischievous leprechaun on an adventure.
• What if you could paint the town green for St. Patrick’s Day? How would you do it?
• Imagine you discover a secret tunnel under a giant shamrock. Where does it lead?
• Write about a magical harp that only plays music on St. Patrick’s Day.
• What if your pet turned into a leprechaun for a day? What mischief would they get into?
• Imagine you find a book of ancient Irish legends. What happens when you start reading it?
• Write about a time when you found a hidden message in a bowl of lucky charms.
• What if you discovered that your family had a secret St. Patrick’s Day tradition? What is it?
• Imagine you’re part of a St. Patrick’s Day treasure hunt. What do you find?
• Write about a time when a rainbow appeared in the middle of a rainy day. What happened next?
• What if you could create your own lucky charm? What would it look like, and what powers would it have?
• Imagine you visit a castle in Ireland that’s rumored to be full of magic. What do you discover inside?
• Write about a St. Patrick’s Day where everything you touch turns to gold. What do you do with your newfound wealth?
• What if you could brew a potion that brings good luck? Who would you share it with?
• Imagine you could catch a leprechaun. What would you ask them for, and what deal would you make?

Free Writing Prompts for Kids

These prompts are designed to let your imagination run wild.

There are no rules—just start writing and see where your creativity takes you.

• Write about a time when you discovered a hidden talent you never knew you had.
• Imagine you could spend a day as any animal. Which animal would you choose, and what would you do?
• What if you could visit any place in the world, real or imaginary? Where would you go, and why?
• Write about a dream you had that was so vivid, you felt like you were really there.
• Imagine you could invent a new toy. What would it be, and how would it work?
• What if you found a secret passageway in your house? Where does it lead?
• Write about a time when you made a new friend in an unexpected place.
• Imagine you could visit any time period in history. When would you go, and what would you do?
• What if you could speak any language fluently? Which language would you choose, and why?
• Write about a time when you had to make a tough decision. What did you choose, and how did it turn out?
• Imagine you could design your dream bedroom. What would it look like?
• What if you could have any superpower for a day? Which one would you choose, and how would you use it?
• Write about a time when you had an adventure in your own backyard.
• Imagine you could trade places with anyone in the world for a day. Who would you choose, and what would you do?
• What if you could make a wish on a shooting star? What would you wish for, and why?
• Write about a time when you did something that made you really proud.
• Imagine you could visit any planet in the solar system. Which one would you choose, and what would you explore?
• What if you could create your own holiday? What name would you give it, and how would people celebrate?
• Write about a time when you helped someone and how it made you feel.
• Imagine you could live in any kind of house, real or imaginary. What would it look like, and where would it be?
• What if you could have any pet, real or imaginary? What would it be, and how would you take care of it?
• Write about a time when you tried something new and how it turned out.
• Imagine you could be the main character in your favorite movie or book. What happens next?
• What if you could travel anywhere in the world instantly? Where would you go, and why?
• Write about a time when you discovered something surprising about yourself or someone else.

Technology Writing Prompts for Kids

Technology is a big part of our lives today.

These prompts will help you explore how technology affects the world around you.

• Imagine you could create a new app. What would it do, and why would people use it?
• Write about a time when technology helped you solve a problem. How did it work?
• What if robots became our teachers? What would school be like?
• Imagine you could design your own video game. What is the storyline, and who are the characters?
• Write about a world where everyone communicates only through emojis. How does it change things?
• What if you could invent a robot to do any one task for you? What would it be, and why?
• Imagine a day without any technology. What do you do instead?
• Write about a time when you used the internet to learn something new. What did you discover?
• What if you could talk to your favorite electronic device? What would it say?
• Imagine you could build your own computer. What special features would it have?
• Write about a time when technology went wrong. How did you fix it?
• What if video games could become real life? Which game would you want to live in, and why?
• Imagine you could control all the technology in your house with your mind. What would you do with this power?
• Write about a time when you had to teach someone how to use a new piece of technology. How did it go?
• What if you could create a hologram of yourself to do your chores? How would it work?
• Imagine you discover a secret website that only a few people know about. What’s on it?
• Write about a world where everyone has a flying car. How does it change the way people live?
• What if you could create a virtual reality world of your own? What would it be like?
• Imagine you could talk to animals using a special device. What would they tell you?
• Write about a time when you used technology to stay in touch with someone far away. How did it help?
• What if you could invent a gadget that makes life easier for everyone? What would it do?
• Imagine a world where drones deliver everything you need. How does it change your daily life?
• Write about a time when you had to unplug from technology. What did you do instead?
• What if you could explore outer space using a virtual reality headset? Where would you go, and what would you see?
• Imagine you find an old piece of technology from the past. What is it, and how does it work?

Alien Writing Prompts for Kids

Aliens can come in all shapes and sizes! These prompts will help you imagine what it might be like to meet beings from another planet.

• Imagine a spaceship lands in your backyard. Who steps out, and what do they want?
• Write about a time when you discovered that your neighbor is actually an alien in disguise.
• What if you could communicate with aliens using a special language? What do you say to each other?
• Imagine you’re the first human to visit an alien planet. What do you see and do?
• Write about a day when aliens come to your school. How do they fit in?
• What if you discovered a mysterious object that turns out to be alien technology? What does it do?
• Imagine you could invite an alien to dinner. What would you talk about, and what food would you serve?
• Write about a time when you accidentally switched places with an alien. What was life like on their planet?
• What if aliens started sending messages to Earth? What do they say, and how do we respond?
• Imagine you find a tiny alien living in your backpack. What adventures do you have together?
• Write about a world where humans and aliens live together. How do they get along?
• What if you could travel through space with an alien friend? What planets would you visit?
• Imagine you discover an alien species that looks like ordinary household objects. What do they want?
• Write about a time when you helped an alien who was lost on Earth. How did you get them home?
• What if aliens had their own version of pets? What would they look like, and how would they behave?
• Imagine you could ask an alien any question. What would you want to know?
• Write about a day when you woke up to find that you’ve turned into an alien. How do you adjust to your new life?
• What if aliens decided to compete in the Olympics? What sports would they be good at?
• Imagine you could visit an alien zoo. What strange and wonderful creatures do you see?
• Write about a time when an alien visited your classroom. How did they teach differently from your regular teacher?
• What if you discovered that your favorite movie star is actually an alien? How do you find out?
• Imagine a world where aliens and humans work together to explore the galaxy. What discoveries do they make?
• Write about a time when you found an alien artifact buried in your backyard. What powers does it have?
• What if aliens had their own version of holidays? What would they celebrate, and how?
• Imagine you could travel through time with an alien companion. Where do you go, and what do you see?

Narrative Writing Prompts for Kids

Narrative writing is all about telling stories. These prompts will help you create tales that are full of imagination, excitement, and adventure.

• Write about a time when you had an unexpected adventure. What happened, and how did it change you?
• Imagine you find a secret door in your house that leads to another world. What’s it like, and what do you do there?
• Write a story about a time when you made a new friend in an unusual way.
• What if you could relive any day of your life? Which day would you choose, and why?
• Imagine you wake up one morning with the ability to talk to animals. What do they say, and how does it change your day?
• Write about a time when you had to make a difficult decision. What did you choose, and what were the consequences?
• What if you could visit any place in the world for a week? Where would you go, and what would you do?
• Imagine you’re the main character in a fairy tale. What challenges do you face, and how do you overcome them?
• Write about a time when you did something brave. What gave you the courage to act?
• What if you could switch lives with anyone for a day? Who would you choose, and what would you experience?
• Imagine you discover a hidden talent that you never knew you had. How do you use it?
• Write about a day when everything seemed to go wrong, but something surprising happened to turn it around.
• What if you could spend a day with your favorite book character? What adventures would you have together?
• Imagine you find a map that leads to a hidden treasure. What do you find when you follow it?
• Write about a time when you learned an important lesson from someone unexpected.
• What if you could travel back in time to meet a famous historical figure? Who would it be, and what would you talk about?
• Imagine you’re stranded on a deserted island. How do you survive, and what do you discover?
• Write about a time when you helped someone in need. How did it make you feel?
• What if you could live in any period of history for a year? Which time would you choose, and why?
• Imagine you receive a mysterious letter that changes your life. What does it say, and what happens next?
• Write about a day when you woke up with a special power. How do you use it?
• What if you could explore a place that no one else has ever been to? What do you find?
• Imagine you’re the hero of a story that takes place in a distant galaxy. What adventures do you have?
• Write about a time when you made a mistake but learned something valuable from it.
• What if you could bring one of your dreams to life? Which dream would you choose, and what would happen?

Persuasive Writing Prompts for Kids

In persuasive writing, the objective is to get others to understand and accept your point of view.

These prompts will help you practice your skills in making a strong argument.

• Write a letter to your school principal convincing them to make recess longer. What reasons do you give?
• Imagine you’re trying to convince your family to get a new pet. What arguments do you use to persuade them?
• What if you could choose the destination for your next family vacation? Write a persuasive essay explaining why your choice is the best.
• Write a speech to convince your classmates that your favorite book should be the next class read. What points do you make?
• Imagine you want to start a new club at school. Write a letter convincing your teacher to support it. What benefits does the club offer?
• Write an essay persuading your parents to let you stay up later on weekends. What are your main arguments?
• Imagine you’re trying to convince your friends to volunteer for a community project. How do you persuade them that it’s a good idea?
• What if you could change one rule at school? Write a persuasive essay explaining why the rule should be changed.
• Write a letter to your town’s mayor convincing them to build a new playground. What reasons do you give?
• Imagine you’re running for class president. Write a campaign speech that persuades your classmates to vote for you. What promises do you make?
• Write an essay convincing your teacher to have a field trip to your favorite museum. Why is it a great choice for a class trip?
• Imagine you’re trying to convince your parents to let you have a sleepover with your friends. What points do you make to persuade them?
• Write a letter to your favorite store asking them to carry a product you love. How do you convince them it’s a good idea?
• What if you could choose the next family movie night film? Write a persuasive essay explaining why your choice is the best.
• Write an essay convincing your school to start a recycling program. What benefits does it offer?
• Imagine you’re trying to persuade your teacher to have a class party. What arguments do you use to convince them?
• Write a letter to your favorite author persuading them to write a sequel to a book you love. What reasons do you give?
• Imagine you’re convincing your parents to let you take a special class or activity. How do you persuade them it’s a good idea?
• Write a persuasive essay explaining why your favorite season is the best. What makes it special?
• Imagine you’re trying to convince your school cafeteria to add a new food to the menu. What points do you make?
• Write a letter to your local library persuading them to host a special event or program. What reasons do you give?
• Imagine you’re trying to convince your teacher to give less homework. How do you make your case?
• Write an essay persuading your friends to try a new sport or activity with you. What makes it fun and worthwhile?
• Imagine you’re convincing your family to take a trip to a place you’ve always wanted to visit. How do you persuade them?
• Write a letter to your favorite TV network convincing them to create a new show based on your idea. What arguments do you use?

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts for Kids

Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude, family, and celebration.

These prompts will help you reflect on the holiday and create meaningful stories.

• Write about a time when you felt especially thankful. What were you grateful for, and why?
• Imagine you could invite any three people, living or dead, to your Thanksgiving dinner. Who would you choose, and what would you talk about?
• What if you could create a new Thanksgiving tradition? What would it be, and why?
• Write a story about a Thanksgiving where everything goes hilariously wrong. How does your family handle it?
• Imagine you’re a turkey on Thanksgiving Day. What do you do to avoid becoming dinner?
• Write about a time when you helped someone who needed it. How did it make you feel, and why are you thankful for the experience?
• What if you could travel back in time to the first Thanksgiving? What do you see, and how do you participate?
• Write a letter to someone you’re thankful for, explaining why they mean so much to you.
• Imagine you’re in charge of cooking the Thanksgiving meal. What do you make, and how does it turn out?
• Write about a time when you and your family worked together to prepare for Thanksgiving. What was the best part?
• What if Thanksgiving was celebrated in a different season? How would the holiday change, and what new traditions might arise?
• Imagine you could invite your favorite fictional character to Thanksgiving dinner. How do they fit in with your family?
• Write a story about a Thanksgiving where your family decides to have a potluck with all your neighbors. What surprising dishes do people bring?
• What if you had to explain Thanksgiving to someone who had never heard of it before? How would you describe the holiday and its meaning?
• Imagine you find a magical cornucopia that fills itself with whatever you wish. What do you put in it, and why?
• Write about a time when you felt especially connected to your family during Thanksgiving. What made the day special?
• What if your Thanksgiving meal came to life and started talking? What do they say, and how do you react?
• Imagine you’re responsible for setting the Thanksgiving table. What special touches do you add to make it perfect?
• Write a story about a Thanksgiving where everyone brings a dish from their culture. What new and exciting foods do you try?
• What if you had to host Thanksgiving in a totally different place, like a beach or a mountain cabin? How would the holiday change?
• Imagine you could give one Thanksgiving meal to someone in need. Who would you give it to, and why?
• Write about a Thanksgiving where your family decides to go on a trip instead of staying home. Where do you go, and how do you celebrate?
• What if you could create a Thanksgiving parade float? What would it look like, and what message would it convey?
• Imagine you could turn your Thanksgiving dinner into a fun competition, like a cooking show. Who wins, and what do they make?
• Write a story about a Thanksgiving where you discover a hidden family recipe. How does it change the meal, and what does it mean to you?

Fourth of July Writing Prompts for Kids

The Fourth of July is all about fireworks, fun, and celebrating freedom.

These prompts will help you create stories and reflections about this exciting holiday.

• Write about a time when you watched fireworks on the Fourth of July. What made the experience special?
• Imagine you could design your own Fourth of July fireworks show. What would it look like, and what would the grand finale be?
• What if you could travel back to the first Fourth of July celebration in 1776? What do you see, and how do people celebrate?
• Write about a Fourth of July parade where all the floats are based on your favorite things. What are they, and why do they make you happy?
• Imagine you could spend the Fourth of July in any city in the United States. Where would you go, and what would you do?
• Write a story about a time when you and your friends had the best Fourth of July barbecue ever. What made it so memorable?
• What if you discovered a secret about your family’s history on the Fourth of July? How does it change the way you see the holiday?
• Imagine you could invite any historical figure to your Fourth of July celebration. Who would you choose, and what would you talk about?
• Write about a time when the weather threatened to ruin your Fourth of July plans. How did you make the best of it?
• What if you could create a new Fourth of July tradition? What would it be, and how would people celebrate it?
• Imagine you’re in charge of organizing a community Fourth of July event. What activities do you plan, and how do people enjoy them?
• Write a story about a Fourth of July where you discover a time capsule from 100 years ago. What’s inside, and how does it connect to today?
• What if you could have a Fourth of July party with people from all over the world? How would they celebrate, and what foods would they bring?
• Imagine you’re writing a letter to a soldier who is away from home on the Fourth of July. What would you say to them?
• Write about a time when you saw the most amazing fireworks display ever. What made it stand out, and how did you feel watching it?
• What if you could create your own Fourth of July outfit? What would it look like, and why would it be special?
• Imagine you could bake a cake that represents the Fourth of July. What flavors and decorations would you choose?
• Write a story about a Fourth of July where your family decides to take a road trip across the country. What do you see and do along the way?
• What if you could invite your favorite superhero to your Fourth of July picnic? How would they help make the day even better?
• Imagine you discover a hidden park where only a few people know to watch the fireworks. What’s special about this secret spot?
• Write about a time when you celebrated the Fourth of July in a totally different way, like at a beach or in the mountains. How was it different from other years?
• What if you could create a Fourth of July playlist? What songs would you include, and why?
• Imagine you’re a reporter covering the biggest Fourth of July event in the country. What do you see, and who do you interview?
• Write about a time when you made or saw the coolest Fourth of July craft or decoration. What made it special?
• What if you could spend the Fourth of July with a family from another country who has never celebrated it before? How would you explain the holiday to them, and what would you do together?

Travel Writing Prompts for Kids

Traveling opens up new worlds and adventures. These prompts will inspire you to explore different places, whether real or imagined.

• Write about a time when you visited a place that took your breath away. What made it so special?
• Imagine you could travel anywhere in the world for a day. Where would you go, and what would you do?
• What if you could explore an ancient city that no one has visited in thousands of years? What do you find?
• Write about a time when you got lost on a trip but ended up discovering something amazing. What happened?
• Imagine you could take a journey through space to visit different planets. What do you see and experience?
• What if you could visit a place from your favorite book or movie? Where would you go, and what adventures would you have?
• Write about a time when you tried a new food while traveling. What was it, and how did you like it?
• Imagine you could go on a safari in Africa. What animals do you see, and what adventures do you have?
• What if you could visit a famous landmark that you’ve always wanted to see? How does it feel to be there in person?
• Write about a time when you made a new friend while traveling. How did you meet, and what did you do together?
• Imagine you could take a trip to a place that only exists in your imagination. What’s it like, and what do you do there?
• What if you could visit the bottom of the ocean in a submarine? What creatures and landscapes do you discover?
• Write about a time when you traveled to a place that was completely different from where you live. How did it make you feel?
• Imagine you could spend a week on a deserted island. What do you do to survive, and what do you discover?
• What if you could go on a road trip across the United States? What stops do you make, and what do you see?
• Write about a time when you traveled with your family. What was your favorite part of the trip, and why?
• Imagine you could visit a place where it’s always winter. What do you do there, and how do you stay warm?
• What if you could explore the jungles of the Amazon? What animals and plants do you encounter?
• Write about a time when you visited a place with a rich history. What did you learn, and how did it impact you?
• Imagine you could take a train ride through Europe. What countries do you visit, and what do you see along the way?
• What if you could go on an adventure to the North Pole? What challenges do you face, and what do you discover?
• Write about a time when you visited a place that felt magical. What made it so enchanting?
• Imagine you could visit a castle in Europe. What stories do you uncover while exploring its halls?
• What if you could go camping in a national park? What natural wonders do you explore, and what do you learn?
• Write about a time when you visited a bustling city. What sights and sounds made the experience unforgettable?

Language Writing Prompts for Kids

Language is powerful and fun to play with! These prompts will help you explore different ways of using words to express yourself.

• Write a poem about your favorite season. How do you capture the feeling of that time of year?
• Imagine you could create your own language. What are some of the words, and what do they mean?
• What if you could learn any language instantly? Which one would you choose, and why?
• Write a story where all the characters can only speak in rhymes. How does it change the way they communicate?
• Imagine you wake up one morning and can suddenly speak to animals. What do they tell you?
• What if you had to write a letter to someone using only emojis? How do you get your message across?
• Write a story where words have magical powers. How do the characters use them?
• Imagine you could read minds. What thoughts do you hear, and how do you react?
• What if you could communicate with people in the past using letters? Who would you write to, and what would you say?
• Write a story where a character has to solve a mystery using hidden messages. How do they decipher the clues?
• Imagine you find an ancient book filled with a forgotten language. What does it say, and how do you translate it?
• What if you could speak to someone who doesn’t speak your language? How do you find a way to understand each other?
• Write a poem that describes a feeling without using the name of the emotion. How do you express it?
• Imagine you could invent a new word that everyone starts using. What is it, and what does it mean?
• What if you could only communicate through pictures and drawings for a day? How do you tell your story?
• Write a story where a character has a secret language only they understand. How does it help or complicate their life?
• Imagine you could speak the language of trees. What would they tell you about the world?
• What if you had to create a code to send a message to a friend? How do you make sure they understand it?
• Write a letter to yourself from the future. What advice does your future self give you?
• Imagine you could write a story that comes true as you write it. What happens, and how do you control it?
• What if you could translate the sounds of nature into words? What messages do you hear?
• Write a story where the main character discovers they can speak any language but can’t remember how to speak their own. How do they cope?
• Imagine you’re in a world where people communicate through music. How do they express their feelings and ideas?
• What if you had to teach someone how to speak your language? What are the most important words you’d start with?
• Write a poem or short story using a word or phrase from another language. How does it add to the meaning of your work?

Black History Month Writing Prompts for Kids

Black History Month is a time to celebrate the achievements, culture, and history of African Americans.

These prompts will help you reflect on important figures, events, and contributions.

• Write about a time when you learned about an important figure in Black history. What did you learn, and why was it meaningful to you?
• Imagine you could interview any African American historical figure. Who would you choose, and what questions would you ask?
• What if you could create a museum exhibit dedicated to Black history? What artifacts or stories would you include?
• Write a story about a child who discovers a hidden family history connected to the Civil Rights Movement. What do they learn?
• Imagine you’re participating in a march for equality during the 1960s. What are you marching for, and what do you experience?
• What if you could have a conversation with Martin Luther King Jr.? What advice would he give you about making a difference in the world?
• Write about a time when you stood up for something you believed in, inspired by a figure from Black history.
• Imagine you could travel back in time to witness a significant event in Black history. What event would you choose, and what would you see?
• What if you could write a letter to Rosa Parks? What would you say to her about her bravery and its impact on the world?
• Write a story where the main character is inspired by Harriet Tubman to overcome a personal challenge. How do they succeed?
• Imagine you could visit a classroom in the past where students are learning about Black history. What are they discussing, and how does it compare to today?
• What if you could design a poster celebrating an unsung hero from Black history? Who would you choose, and what message would you highlight?
• Write about a time when you participated in a project or event that celebrated Black culture. What did you learn, and how did it impact you?
• Imagine you could create a book of poems inspired by the Harlem Renaissance. What themes would you explore?
• What if you could attend a speech by Frederick Douglass? What would you hope to hear, and how would it inspire you?
• Write a story where the main character learns about the importance of Black inventors and their contributions to society. How does this knowledge change them?
• Imagine you could design a monument to honor African American veterans. What would it look like, and what would it symbolize?
• What if you could visit a jazz club during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance? What music would you hear, and who would you meet?
• Write about a time when you learned about the history of African American music. What genres or artists stood out to you, and why?
• Imagine you’re writing a play about a pivotal moment in Black history. What scene would you focus on, and what message would you want to convey?
• What if you could have dinner with Maya Angelou? What would you talk about, and what wisdom would you hope to gain?
• Write a story where a young artist is inspired by the work of Jacob Lawrence to create their own masterpiece. How do they express their creativity?
• Imagine you’re part of a community project to restore a historic Black neighborhood. What stories and memories do you uncover?
• What if you could visit an African American church during the Civil Rights Movement? What would the experience be like, and how would it inspire you?
• Write about a time when you learned about the contributions of African Americans to science and technology. How did it change your perspective on history?

For even more writing prompts for kids, check out these video writing prompts:

Final Thoughts

Teachers, these prompts are just the beginning of a fantastic writing journey.

Encourage your students to take these ideas and run with them, exploring new worlds and expressing themselves freely. Kids, let your creativity soar—your stories are waiting to be told.

If you’re looking for a tool to automatically generate rubrics for writing assignments, check out my Grading GPT tool. If you’d like to customize lessons plans for different learners, try my AI Custom Learning Pro tool .

Read This Next

• 2,500 Writing Prompts to Ignite Your Creativity
• 200+ Opinion Writing Prompts & Examples
• 300 Book Ideas to Write (Ideas, Titles, & Story Prompts)
• 150 Best Fantasy Writing Prompts to Spark Your Creativity
• 150+ Christmas Story Ideas, Tips & Prompts (Fun & Festive)