Explore Writing & Composition

Writing and Composition Lessons and Skills

Writing is an integral part of the school curriculum at all grade levels. Middle and high school students are often expected to produce quality writing related to their content learning, such as social studies and science. To do so, students benefit from practicing their writing skills. Writers need consistent, repeated opportunities to work on both mechanics and usage. Mechanics include skills such as spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Proper use of mechanics transforms a jumble of words into a body of information. Mechanics are necessary at all levels of writing and need to be explicitly taught to students and reinforced in various contexts.

Correct mechanics must be accompanied by proper usage. Usage covers grammatical considerations such as parts of speech, agreement, sentence structure, and paragraph writing. Examples of usage include consistent verb tenses, proper subject-verb agreement, and avoiding sentence errors such as run-ons and fragments.

Good writers also need to hone the skills necessary to write in individual genres such as narrative, argumentative, and expository writing. Argumentative skills include formulating a thesis, developing a cohesive argument, and drawing a clear conclusion. Narrative skills include developing a plot and creating characters and settings. Expository skills include good organization and sufficient supporting evidence. When students practice analyzing different types of literature, they begin to identify and understand the techniques necessary to produce different types of writing.

High school students can access a variety of skills practice on Study.com. Skills practice consists of questions sorted by category that can provide students with practice in their usage and mechanics skills. Students can choose to practice a single skill or several skills at once. In addition, teachers or parents can access the skills modules to put together an assignment that targets a student's specific goals or needs. These assignments can be used for homework, quizzes, or in-class practice.

The English language arts skills practice includes grammar, vocabulary, reading, and writing. Grammar topics include phrase and sentence structure, parts of speech, capitalization, punctuation, and more. Vocabulary topics include dictionary skills, word meanings, prefixes and suffixes, and word roots. Writing topics focus on editing, revision, and writing for specific genres. Reading topics include literary analysis, which is also part of writing for different genres. Use the following links to view skills practice topics by grade level: