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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Great Kid Inventors

Great Kid Inventors

An Assessment for kids to improve English Spelling. Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb, and sixth-grader Zachary Anglin improved it. He didn’t like being stuck in the dark w ...
11 Views 9,323 Elem
The Egg: Creative Writing Worksheet

The Egg: Creative Writing Worksheet

Writing
There are 4 activities in this worksheet. They are reading and creative writing, sorting shapes, phonics activity, and a transformation task where learners need to make new words. We would like t ...
4 Views 8,013 ElemPre-Int
Cinquain: Writing A 5-Line Poem With Your Students

Cinquain: Writing A 5-Line Poem With Your Students

Writing
A cinquain is a five-line poem. The traditional cinquain follows a syllable count, with lines of cinquain cinquain 2 syllables, 4 syllables, 6 syllables, 8 syllables, 2 syllables. Selecting word ...
6 Views 18,447 ElemPre-IntInt
4 Square Writing 4b

4 Square Writing 4b

Writing
4 Square writing is an easy way to teach students to write a paragraph or a 5-paragraph essay. Students follow these simple steps each time to write complete paragraphs with topic sentences and tr ...
2 Views 9,302 Elem
4 Square Writing Worksheet 4a

4 Square Writing Worksheet 4a

Writing
4 Square writing is an easy way to teach students to write a paragraph or a 5-paragraph essay. Students follow these simple steps each time to write complete paragraphs with topic sentences and tr ...
3 Views 6,918 Elem
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Pumpkin: Halloween Writing Lesson Plan

Pumpkin: Halloween Writing Lesson Plan

, , Writing
This is a series of elementary writing activities for the Halloween lesson.  They are for three types of writers: emergent writers, beginning writers, independent writers.  This worksh ...
18 Views 44,477 BegElemPre-Int
4 Square Writing Worksheet 3

4 Square Writing Worksheet 3

Writing
4 Square writing is an easy way to teach students to write a paragraph or a 5-paragraph essay. Students follow these simple steps each time to write complete paragraphs with topic sentences and tr ...
5 Views 12,869 Elem
4 Square Writing Worksheet 2

4 Square Writing Worksheet 2

Writing
4 Square writing is an easy way to teach students to write a paragraph or a 5-paragraph essay. Students follow these simple steps each time to write complete paragraphs with topic sentences and tr ...
5 Views 6,780 Elem
4 Square Writing Worksheet 1

4 Square Writing Worksheet 1

Writing
4 Square writing is an easy way to teach students to write a paragraph or a 5-paragraph essay. Students follow these simple steps each time to write complete paragraphs with topic sentences and tr ...
1 Views 9,263 Elem
Thanksgiving Poetry Worksheet

Thanksgiving Poetry Worksheet

This Thanksgiving poetry worksheet challenges students to record their feelings in a beautiful and inspiring way in 12 lines. It may be written as an expression of thankfulness or as a prayer. Thi ...
15 Views 81,321 Pre-IntIntAdv
Controlled Writing: Description of People

Controlled Writing: Description of People

This is a controlled writing activity for children, where they use the information in a simple form to write a short description of a person. After practising with different forms, they are asked ...
9 Views 22,766 Beg
In the Garden: Spelling Practice for Kids

In the Garden: Spelling Practice for Kids

This is a full 11-page lesson plan for younger learners - all about spelling. This lesson was kindly provided by Evan-Moor Corp. and can be also downloaded from their website. It has a small read ...
8 Views 15,993 Beg
Writing Couplets: Project for Young Learners with Full Lesson Plan

Writing Couplets: Project for Young Learners with Full Lesson Plan

, Writing
This worksheet offers a great (and creative, too) activity for you to try with young learners. A couplet is a two-line poem that rhymes. Each line contains the same number of syllables. I found ...
11 Views 44,053 BegElem
Proffessions - Writing Template

Proffessions - Writing Template

This is a worksheet for kids to write about their future job. It can be used as an exercise in writing and it encourage kids to think and write creatively. It could be also used in a test paper ...
9 Views 7,466 Elem
Camping: Full Writing Lesson Plan

Camping: Full Writing Lesson Plan

, Writing
This 7-page lesson plan involved several pre-writing activities, as well as individual and group writing tasks that your learners will enjoy. This lesson plan was kindly provided by Evan-Moor and ...
11 Views 24,396 ElemPre-Int
Expository Writing Worksheet

Expository Writing Worksheet

Writing
This great 7-page expository writing worksheet teaches your students to write non-fiction that informs, explains or compares something - by offering simple step-by-step instructions and a lot of s ...
12 Views 34,532 Pre-IntIntAdv
Chewing Gum Worksheet: The Sticky Truth

Chewing Gum Worksheet: The Sticky Truth

This 11-page worksheet was kindly provided by Evan-MoorCorp and contains a reading text about chewing gum, spelling activities, vocabulary matching and a page (writing a letter) on using commas co ...
31 Views 38,846 ElemPre-Int
56 Helpful Phrases

56 Helpful Phrases

, Writing
To use in compositions and oral topics: formulas to start, to give opinion, to grab attention, and to finish a text\speech.
34 Views 14,060 All
Inventions Lesson Plan

Inventions Lesson Plan

Today we have a complete 6-page lesson plan about dreat kid inventors. The worksheet contains a reading piece, spelling practice activities, 'which word?' activities, quotations, and then a templa ...
20 Views 46,085 Pre-IntInt
Verbs, Subjects and Nouns

Verbs, Subjects and Nouns

Writing,
Ss have to circle or underline the verbs, objects and nouns in the sentences given. At the end they have to write five sentences by themselves. They can use the pictures to help them. I hope it's ...
6 Views 9,153 Elem

Gorilla Mountain: Making a part of a comic and writing a story

A set of materials for practicing both direct and reported speech: punctuation marks cards, comic worksheets, story lines, teacher's notes and answers.
23 Views 15,077 Elem
My Hero: Jonathan Ive (with Teacher's Notes)

My Hero: Jonathan Ive (with Teacher's Notes)

, Writing
An integrated listening (with 8 multiple choice questions) and writing worksheet good for higher elementary or pre-intermediate students. The audio is embedded into the document. For flexibility, ...
10 Views 7,641 Pre-Int
Captain? Or Not?

Captain? Or Not?

This is an integrated listening, speaking and writing task based on a true news story about a famous football player. The news story is taken from an online magazine. The students listen to the em ...
9 Views 8,346 Pre-Int
Bullying in Schools (with teacher's notes)

Bullying in Schools (with teacher's notes)

The lesson is suitable for elementary to low-intermediate learners. It's basically a reading lesson with some vocabulary, speaking and writing integrated into it. It pre-teaches some key voca ...
27 Views 26,620 Elem
Invitation Letter Gap-fill

Invitation Letter Gap-fill

There's an answer for invitation. Students should complete the text with one word in each gap.
28 Views 39,125 Pre-Int

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