Writing Lab
The writing half of ENG0300. Build up from the sentence, to the paragraph, to a short response that answers the question actually asked. Practise here as much as you like — nothing on this page is graded, and nothing is submitted from it.
Sentence Skills — weekly focus
One skill per week, in the order that makes each one easier than the last. Every question explains why the wrong answers are wrong.
- Week 3FragmentsStart where every other sentence error starts: knowing when a group of words is finished.14 questions →
- Week 4Run-ons & comma splicesThe opposite problem. Once you can spot a complete sentence, you can spot two of them stuck together.14 questions →
- Week 5Subject-verb agreementNow that you can find a subject reliably, make the verb match it.14 questions →
- Week 6Punctuation & capitalizationThe marks that show a reader where your sentences begin, end, and pause.24 questions →
- Week 7Usage & confused wordsThe errors a spell-check will never catch, because both spellings are real words.24 questions →
The three tiers
Work them in order. Each tier assumes the one before it, and the short-response tier is where the Reading Lab and the Writing Lab finally meet.
- Tier 1
Sentence
The unit everything else is built from. A sentence that is complete, agrees with itself, and is punctuated so a reader knows where it starts and stops.
7 topics · ~40 minOpen → - Tier 2
Paragraph
A paragraph is not a group of sentences about the same topic. It is one idea, developed in an order a reader can follow, with words that mark the moves.
5 topics · ~45 minOpen → - Tier 3
Short Response
Where reading and writing meet. A short response answers a specific question, using evidence from a text, for a reader with a particular reason to be reading.
4 topics · ~50 minOpen →
Sentence Skills practice
90 questions across 7 skills, filterable by skill and difficulty. Every answer comes with the reasoning for all four choices — the explanation is the point, not the score.
- Fragments (14)
- Run-ons & comma splices (14)
- Subject-verb agreement (14)
- Punctuation (14)
- Capitalization (10)
- Commonly confused words (14)
- Usage (10)
How writing is scored — the 10-point rubric
This is the rubric attached to every writing dropbox in Brightspace. It is printed here so you can score your own draft before you submit it. Scoring yourself is not a grade and is never recorded.
- Focus · 3 points
- One clear controlling idea, stated early and held to. Every sentence belongs to that idea — nothing wanders off the question that was asked.
- Evidence & Development · 3 points
- Specific support from the passage — details, examples, or quoted words — and an explanation of what that support shows. Not just a detail dropped in and left alone.
- Organization · 2 points
- A sensible order a reader can follow, with transitions that signal how one sentence relates to the next. A beginning, a middle, and an ending that lands.
- Conventions · 2 points
- Complete sentences, subject-verb agreement, capitalization, and end punctuation. Errors do not stop a reader from understanding you.