730 FREE Writing Worksheets
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FREE Writing Worksheets

As ESL teachers, we’ve all had those students who do great on their grammar exams, speak up confidently in class, and are always first to raise their hands for activities - and yet, when it comes time for a writing assignment, they can barely squeeze out a few short sentences. This can be frustrating for the student and teacher alike - but it’s the symptom of a problem that’s well-known in every teaching community: Speaking and writing are two very different skills.

As with any new skill, practice is key - but students who have trouble writing aren’t usually keen to take on even more writing practice. After all, they might think, if their grammar and vocabulary are correct, and they don’t need to write in English for their jobs, what’s the point of drilling this skill? The answer is, of course, that the ability to write in English is key in the world and the workplace - from writing cover letters and CVs to drafting emails and client presentations. The responsibility is at least partly on you, the teacher, to provide assignments that draw your students into the writing process.

BusyTeacher.org is your number-one stop for exactly those kinds of assignments. Our 730 writing worksheets will provide your students with intriguing writing prompts, and with a variety of writing exercises that’ll help them watch their own improvement as it happens. Our worksheets even break down the writing process into its core components, so you can figure out exactly where in the process each student is struggling, and intervene with exercises to help him or her through that trouble spot.

The writing worksheets here on BusyTeacher.org will help familiarize your students with all the sub-skills involved in writing - from choosing a topic and constructing that first paragraph, all the way to writing movie reviews and short poems. Some of our worksheets even cover basics like handwriting and sentence structure - so no matter how much your students need to brush up on their fundamentals, we’ve got worksheets to meet them where they are.

You’ll find worksheets on any topic you can imagine, from daily routines and holidays to pop culture, news, and even poetry and song lyrics.  Some worksheets just help you lead simple fill-in-the-blank exercises, while others present thought-provoking topics for full essays, or include plans for your students to create their own newsletters. And for students who need help with English school assignments, you’ll also find worksheets on writing essays and test responses.

You can browse all of our 730 writing worksheets in thumbnail view, so you don’t have to wait for any of them to load to get an idea of what they’re like. As you scroll down the page, just click on any worksheet that catches your eye - they’re all completely free to download, print, and share in any way you like. And they’re all created and classroom-tested by real ESL teachers all over the world - which means you can be confident they’ll work in your classroom, too. If you’ve got a worksheet of your own that you’d like to share with your fellow ESL teachers in the BusyTeacher.org community, just click the “Submit a worksheet” button at the bottom of this page.

All of these writing worksheets are here to help you - so pick out a few that look interesting, and give them a try in your classroom today. We’re sure you’ll love them as much as the other ESL teachers in our community already do.

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The Man Who Traveled Around the World on a Motorcycle

The Man Who Traveled Around the World on a Motorcycle

This is a worsheet to use with intermediate to upper intermediate students to help them listen to a radio programme about the life of an American who traveled around the world on his motorbike. Th ...
12 Views 12,208 IntAdv
Cancel Trip to Europe- an E-mail to a Penpal

Cancel Trip to Europe- an E-mail to a Penpal

The students are required to write an e-mail to a penpal in 50 words. The e-mail is to explain why their long-awaited trip to Europe is cancelled. The student needs to choose one of the three choi ...
8 Views 19,344 Pre-IntInt
Movie Worksheet:The Butterfly (by A. Khrjanovsky, 1972)

Movie Worksheet:The Butterfly (by A. Khrjanovsky, 1972)

This is a worksheet based on the masterpiece of Russian animation. It gives food for young thoughts and boosts their creativity. In the first couple of tasks students should make up correct senten ...
4 Views 6,811 ElemPre-Int
Describe Your House : Writing Activity

Describe Your House : Writing Activity

This is a very simple writing activity for elementary students who are asked to describe their house in about 80 words (real or imaginary) anwering the given questions.
13 Views 26,671 Elem
Who Is the Leader in the Picture? (Writing/Speaking Picture Prompt + Discussion Questions)

Who Is the Leader in the Picture? (Writing/Speaking Picture Prompt + Discussion Questions)

Use the picture from the worksheet to make your ss think creatively and write a short essay or discuss orally “Who’s the leader in the picture?” If they find it hard to understan ...
13 Views 16,596 IntAdvExam
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Graphic Organizer

Graphic Organizer

It's a graphic organizer helping students with narrative and creative writing. Especially for the students who don't have a strong literary background, those can't describe the main parts like plo ...
8 Views 10,859 All
Writing a Film Review

Writing a Film Review

This is a guide for intermediate or upper-intermediate students with particular instructions on how to write a film review. I made up this document using several pages on the topic from the web . ...
17 Views 74,661 IntAdv
Technology Facts - Audiovisual and Writing Comments Online

Technology Facts - Audiovisual and Writing Comments Online

This worksheet corresponds to a video about 'how our world is changing through technology'. The video presents a large number of facts about our changing world. This worksheet could be used as a w ...
8 Views 9,401 IntAdv
Use of Apostrophe Worksheet

Use of Apostrophe Worksheet

This is a very simple worksheet for teaching the use of apostrophe at elementary level. There's a brief explanation at the top of the page followed by an activity in which students are asked ...
9 Views 27,542 ElemPre-Int
Fish Cheeks Story by Amy Tan

Fish Cheeks Story by Amy Tan

Students read the story "Fish Cheeks," which is included, and analyze the text based on meaning, language, and writing style. Students also do writing extension activities to make connections wit ...
7 Views 27,557 Adv
Dictation Exercises for Advanced Learners

Dictation Exercises for Advanced Learners

An alternative way to check vocabulary and derivatives through exercises. It is divided into different types of tasks. A derivatives chart, a fill in the blanks exercise and an exercise where they ...
11 Views 29,293 AdvExam
Punctuation Classroom Poster

Punctuation Classroom Poster

This is a colourful classroom poster which can also be used as a picture dictionary or a study sheet for teaching or revising punctuation related vocabulary at elementary level.
25 Views 46,650 ElemPre-Int
Advice to Debbie - Writing Activity

Advice to Debbie - Writing Activity

This is a simple activity for pre-intermediate and intermediate students to develop their writing skills. It is required from the teachers to pre teach students how to write a letter, what a lette ...
9 Views 15,359 Pre-IntIntAdv
Letter to a Friend

Letter to a Friend

This informal letter presents a gap-fill exercise where the task is to complete spaces with the correct form of the simple past or present perfect. As a follow-up assignment students might be sugg ...
21 Views 34,440 Pre-IntInt
Describe Your Family: Writing Activity

Describe Your Family: Writing Activity

This is a simple and easy writing activity for elementary and pre-intermediate students who are asked to write a small composition saying how many brothers or sisters they have got, how old their ...
7 Views 21,033 Elem
Make a Comic Story

Make a Comic Story

This is a cut and paste activity, children have to write a short dialogue in the bubbles on the food topic with the structure I like /I don´t like and paste the characters on the comic strip ...
15 Views 39,141 BegElem
Writing a Story

Writing a Story

Hong Kong Secondary 1 Worksheet . Look at the picture below. You are going to write a passage in not less than 300 words ,describing what you saw one day in a MacDuck’s Fast Food shop. Remem ...
6 Views 12,576 Elem
A Kangaroo Can Jump but It Can't Fly

A Kangaroo Can Jump but It Can't Fly

This worksheet was originally used as part of an enrichment activity to supplement a unit on animals in the New Parade 2 (elementary school) ESL textbook. At this stage, the students had already a ...
10 Views 14,548 Elem
The Causes and Effects of Smoking among Students

The Causes and Effects of Smoking among Students

This is an essay that is about causes and effects of smoking among students. It is composed of four paragraphs. The main ones in the body are about causes of smoking among students and its bad con ...
25 Views 121,252 Adv
Create a Superhero

Create a Superhero

What students have to do is create a superhero and his adversary. It works quite well with students on a Friday when they're really tired and they just want to relax. It really brings out their cr ...
9 Views 15,384 ElemPre-IntInt
News Report Writing Task

News Report Writing Task

This is a writing task (I personally used it for a test) that deals with news reports. This worksheet introduces the situation when a picture by Renoir was stolen, some details of the theft and gi ...
8 Views 30,563 IntAdv
Help Your Kid Write in a Good Handwriting

Help Your Kid Write in a Good Handwriting

Writing
Writing in a good handwriting is a hard task for both the teacher and the child. First step with good handwriting starts with the basic handwriting rules that can be taught to the little kids . As ...
13 Views 24,913 Beg
Help Your Kid Hold the Pencil Correctly

Help Your Kid Hold the Pencil Correctly

Writing
How can your kid hold the pencil to write if he's right handed or left handed ? You can easily get the answer from this worksheet . Training a little kid to have full pencil control is a hard task ...
4 Views 7,406 Beg
Create Dialogue Comic Strip

Create Dialogue Comic Strip

This is a simple worksheet with single comic strips for students to use their imagination and fill the speaking bubbles freely. There are no conditions except that they have to write at least 2 se ...
12 Views 42,172 BegElemPre-IntInt
Rebus Story 2

Rebus Story 2

My summer: this is a rebus story, that is to say, a story which combines words and pictures. Here, pictures represent entire words. There is a colour version, a B&W one and the key. This type ...
9 Views 16,805 ElemPre-Int

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