Writing guides
Short, practical lessons on how to plan, organise and polish what you write.
Planning and structure
- Writing Prompts for ESL Students: 60 Ideas by Level Sixty ready-to-use English writing prompts for A1 to C2 learners, sorted by level and text type, with links to full tasks.
- Plan Any Piece of Writing in Five Minutes A simple five-minute routine that turns a blank page into a clear plan, for emails, essays, stories and exam tasks.
- Paragraphs That Work: Topic Sentence, Support, Finish How to build a clear paragraph with a topic sentence, supporting details and a sentence that links to the next idea.
- Linking Words, Sorted by the Job They Do Stop using "and" and "but" for everything. A practical list of linking words grouped by what they do, with examples and common traps.
Style and language
- Formal or Informal? Choosing the Right Register How to recognise when to write formally or informally, with side-by-side examples of greetings, vocabulary, grammar and endings.
- Vary Your Sentences: Simple Ways to Sound More Natural How to mix short and long sentences, change sentence openings and combine ideas so your writing flows.
Text types
- How to Write an Email in English (Informal and Formal) Structure, openings and closings for informal and formal emails, with a checklist for answering every point in exam tasks.
- How to Write a Formal Letter in English Layout, opening lines, paragraphs and sign-offs for complaints, applications and requests, with a model and a checklist.
- How to Write a Story That People Want to Finish Build a short story with a strong opening, rising tension, a turning point and a real ending, using narrative tenses and dialogue.
- Opinion Essays: A Structure You Can Use Every Time A clear four- or five-paragraph structure for opinion and for-and-against essays, with phrases for each paragraph and common mistakes.
- How to Write a Review That Readers Trust Describe, evaluate and recommend: how to write reviews of films, books, restaurants and events that sound balanced and believable.
- How to Write an Article in English Titles, hooks, a conversational tone and a strong ending: how to write magazine and website articles for B1 to C2 and Cambridge exams.
- Reports and Proposals: Clear, Formal and Useful The difference between a report and a proposal, how to use headings, and the impersonal language that makes them sound professional.
Exam skills
- IELTS Writing Task 1: Describing Charts and Graphs How to write a Task 1 report: paraphrasing, the overview, grouping data and the language of trends and comparisons.
- IELTS General Training Letters: Formal, Semi-formal and Informal How to recognise the tone of an IELTS GT Task 1 letter from the prompt, with openings, closings and a plan for all three bullet points.
- IELTS Writing Task 2: Recognise the Question Type The four main IELTS Task 2 question types and exactly what each one asks you to do, with a paragraph plan for each.
- TOEFL Writing 2026: Email and Academic Discussion Tips What changed in the TOEFL iBT writing section in 2026, and simple plans for Build a Sentence, Write an Email and the Academic Discussion.
- Cambridge B2 First Writing: How to Pass Part 1 and Part 2 The B2 First writing paper explained: the compulsory essay, the Part 2 options, timing, word count and what examiners reward.
Polishing
- Edit Your Own Writing Like a Teacher A three-pass editing method (content, organisation, accuracy) that helps you find mistakes before anyone else does.
- Punctuation Essentials: Commas, Apostrophes and Full Stops The punctuation rules that cause most mistakes in student writing, with clear examples and quick fixes.