HSWriting

How do you feel about your writing? Can you communicate effectively on paper or with a keyboard? Do you write with style and impact? Do you write slowly or quickly? These are all questions that writers ask themselves. As with any pursuit, practice is essential. When in doubt, write more. Along with that, read more. Learning fundamental writing conventions and techniques are also important.

This is a reference website with three main sections: academic writing (papers), fiction writing, and poetry. Information provided is generally consistent with U.S. high school and university guidelines. However, writing is a vast field, and each instructor and institution has their own set of preferences. When in doubt, ask your instructor for their expectations. Finally, make your own decisions and find your own voice.

• Papers – academic writing with a focus on multi-page essays

• Fiction – reading and writing short stories can be fun and rewarding

• Poetry – a section on understanding and writing poetry

• Tools – an APA style guide, academic integrity information, useful websites, and more

• Advice – assorted bits of writing advice

Open Educational Resources

This site was written by Douglas Perkins. It was first created in 2024 and has been updated over time according to students' needs. All files created by the author are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are materials created by educators with the intent that they are free to use, and typically free to adapt and reuse, by students and other educators. The content found in these pages is drawn from many places, including several OER university literature textbooks and several OER university writing center websites. See the References section on each page for information about source materials.

About

Douglas is an English teacher in Kanagawa, Japan. Since 2007, he has been teaching English at primary and secondary schools, including five public schools in Yurihonjo, Musashino Joshigakuin JHS & SHS, Musashino University JHS & SHS, and a private JHS & SHS in Kanagawa. If you have any questions or comments, please contact the author. See ESL Tokyo for more information about the book, including mirrors and ePub and PDF versions.

Updated: May 9, 2025.