When you're in high school, there are a lot of demands on your time and attention, and one of these will be the need to write lots of essays. As you move through high school, just about every class will make you do writing assignments, and your teachers will expect you to be able to create in-depth academic essays and research papers that show a better, more sophisticated grasp of grammar than you had in middle school. You'll also need to be able to write a killer college admissions essay that can help you get into the school you want to go to. Writing college essays can be stressful if you don't understand things like the rules of grammar, why certain types of papers use certain citation styles, or even how to approach writing an essay versus writing a research paper. Thankfully, you still have plenty of time to learn all of these things before you earn your high school diploma. With the help of online resources, you can improve your mastery of grammar, learn how to cite your sources properly, and get a better understanding of what you need to do to ace any type of writing assignment.
- 20 Grammar Rules: These 20 rules form the foundation of good writing.
- APA Quick Citation Guide: APA style uses in-text citations versus footnotes or endnotes.
- MLA Citation Generator: MLA style is most commonly used to cite sources in English classes. This generator allows you to pick the style you need and then enter the information about the website, book, or article you need to cite to see how you should format the citation.
- Components of a Good Essay: A good essay begins with an introduction that grabs the reader's attention and sets expectations for what the rest of the essay will cover.
- Confusing Words and Homonyms: Words that look and/or sound alike but have very different meanings are known as homonyms.
- Daily Grammar, Lesson 1: Verbs: If you're looking to improve your grammar skills, you can start with the basics here and work you way up to more complex topics. There's a full archive of free lessons on this site, so no matter what your weak points might be, you'll find help here.
- Relative Clauses: Learning about types of clauses can help you make sure that your sentences are always grammatical.
- Order of Adjectives in English Grammar: Have you ever noticed that adjectives tend to be written or said in a certain order? There's actually a rule that can help you figure out which words go where!
- Conditionals: The "If" Clause: A conditional sentence usually includes "if" and "then." It's a sentence in which an action relies on another thing.
- Interactive MLA Practice Template: The MLA website offers this online template that can help you learn how to create citations.
- Exercise 1: Tense Consistency: The Purdue Online Writing Lab created these grammar exercises to help you keep your verb tenses consistent and grammatical.
- Hemingway Editor: Much like the writer it's named for, this website prioritizes bold, clear, succinct writing. It also assigns a grade level to any writing you paste into the box, which can be helpful for students who struggle with achieving a certain tone.
- How Do I Cite Sources? Properly citing sources protects you against accusations of plagiarism.
- Idiomatic Expressions: "Kick the bucket" is an example of an idiomatic expression whose understood meaning is different from the literal meaning of the words in the phrase.
- The Only Four College Essay-Writing Tips You'll Ever Need: Admission essays are a fact of life but also a cause of stress for most high school students. These tips can help you to create a college essay that reflects who you are.
- Common Errors in English Usage: A lot of people tend to make the same mistakes in their writing, but this guide can help you avoid them.
- Academic Writing Style: Writing an academic paper requires a much more formal tone than many other types of writing.
- Parenthetical Statements: Parenthetical information can add details and clarity to a sentence, as long as it's punctuated correctly.
- Prepositions Quiz: Learning the right prepositions to use in different contexts is difficult for many students.
- Six Simple Steps for Writing a Research Paper: A research paper is a complicated type of assignment, and it's important to leave yourself enough time to pick a topic, conduct research, write an outline, draft your paper, and still have time for edits before the due date.
- Transitioning: Beware of Velcro: Using transitions effectively is an important part of creating a piece of writing that's easy to follow.
- Verb Tenses: Verbs are written in the past, present, or future tense, and these categories can also have a variety of more complex subtypes.
- Writing a Research Paper: Developing a topic and locating good sources are key steps when writing a high school or college research paper.
