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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This worksheet is an introductory task on creative thinking and writing in relation to the initial events that sparked the First World War. Teachers who will use this worksheet will have to be fa ...
This worksheet follows my presentation. The examples have been taken from the book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". There are two pages, each having fifteen sentences for practice. I hope y ...
Let’s Talk 1 Practises verb tenses: Present Continuous, Past Simple, Future Simple This worksheet can be used for conversation practise and preparation for oral exams. My adult students fi ...
Easter is approaching and many of us will present some traditional recipes to our students. But first let's make sure they know necessary vocabulary. This worksheet represents a fun way to revise ...
The handout includes several pictures connected with happiness. It can be useful while telling about happy moments in people's lives. Excellent for speaking in classroom as well as during individ ...
This is a worksheet I prepared to my teens students who were studying simple present and daily routines, adverbs of frequency and free time activities. Nice one to practice grammar, they have to w ...
Students are provided with the introduction and body paragraph. First they will read these parts and then complete the remaining part which is conclusion. While writing it is important to use conc ...
Simple worksheet which uses Toby Keith's video to have students practice classification. I use it a a precursor to a classification paragraph. Since it mentions bars and the video has a brief glim ...
This worksheet is designed for pair work (but can be changed to one on one or a bonus if needed). The first sentences have students combining two different sentences with appossitives. The last fe ...
Students need to find three reasons of why nuclear energy is dangerous for world. Their sentences should be related to the thesis statement of the introduction paragraph. I have supplied the signa ...
19 rules: explanation of how to separate words into syllables. Intermediate and advanced levels. Really helpful fo those who are teaching how to separate words in syllables in English. Including e ...
This is a worksheet for teaching restaurant related vocabulary. There is a study sheet with restaurant vocabulary, useful words and phrases and food related adjectives followed by an activity in ...
This PowerPoint presentation presents punctuation marks in a fun way. The following punctuation marks are presented: period, comma, question mark, exclamation point, semi-colon, quotation marks, p ...
This is a mixed skills worksheet that you can make use of according to your focus. There are reading, speaking, writing, and pronunciation activities. All the activities are designed according to ...
This worksheet/template is designed to guide Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate ESL learners to write personal responses to a wide range of literary genre. It strikes a balance between what the t ...
This is a worksheet for practising should have/shouldn't have. The verbs are given and there are picture prompts as well to help the students complete the sentences. The key is included. Who says ...
A simply designed page for you students to create their own inventions. It includes a space for drawing, and is good for language focus on question words "Why?" and "What?" It works well for any s ...
Inductive approach to teaching speech marks, using extracted text as a reference point. Collaborative learning exercises are encouraged so that target audience can learn from and clarify with each ...
Two worksheets for practising transforming sentences from direct into reported speech and vice versa. Distribute worksheet A to one half of the class (they should report the dialogue in their note ...
Even though it's a three page long magazine article, it's one of my favourites to give my students for homework to read. It is very captivating and they all seem to like it. I want to make them sp ...
Here is another set of 24 flashcards, this time for practising reported questions. There are 12 cards containing yes/no questions and 12 containing wh-questions. They can be used after the student ...
Here is a set of 24 flashcards for practising reported statements, commands and requests. Cut them and laminate them. You can use them any way you want. I usually put my students into groups of si ...
Some easy plans, explanations and topics in order for students to tackle more efficiently the Writing Part of the ECCE examination. There is an explanation of every possible essay or letter type r ...
This is a guided task for intermediate students attending level 6 - it may be done through pairwork. It allows students to make a gist about the possibilities and the odds involving space explorat ...
A very thorough worksheet dealing with business e-mails: how to address different people depending on your relationship, giving reasons for writing, reminding the reader of any previous meetings, ...
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