Level 3

Building-Blocks-of-Academic-Writing-1660151368._print (1).pdf

BC Open Collection academic writing textbook for early secondary

"Building Blocks of Academic Writing covers typical writing situations for developing academic writers, from prewriting and research through expressing themselves online. Developmental work in different types of paragraphs—descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive—allows students to build capacity for longer essays. Each chapter includes review questions with a Canadian focus that instructors can assign to help students practise the skills developed in the text."

Level - British Columbia ABE Intermediate or approximately Grade 10

CC BY-NC 4.0 

Writing-for-Success-1614013885.pdf

Writing textbook for later secondary and post-secondary 

Writing for Success is a writing textbook that covers a variety of topics including paragraph and essay writing, grammar and tips for English language learners as they prepare for senior secondary and post-secondary writing. It is available in a variety of formats including Open Document/Word. Also available is an HTML version.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Templates for structuring an essay argument

Templates for structuring argumentative essays with practice exercises and solutions is a very useful online resource that is part of a comprehensive collection from Simon Fraser University's student learning commons. The resource contains a frame or template and sentence starters for essay writing, similar to a few resources at Level 2 for paragraph writing.

No copyright or licensing information provided.

Write essays to develop arguments and support claims

The College, Career and Community Writers Program (C3WP), also featured in Level 2, contains numerous instructional routines at the secondary level that support argument writing and making claims.  We have reviewed all of the resources for secondary students and are highlighting those that might work with continuous intake. They are available in our Google Drive:

Connecting Evidence to Claims

Finding a Topic and Researching the Conversation

Writing and Revising Claims


Level - Grades 9-12

No copyright or licensing information provided.

TVO Learn Open House: Not-for-credit secondary courses

You can access 141 secondary courses through TV Ontario, all of which are designed to provide 110 hours of study. Although credits aren't awarded if one of these courses is completed, they could be used in various ways to

You might also want to become familiar with the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course. Either the course or the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test must be completed to receive a diploma.

Copyrighted. Link sharing supported.

Level - Grades 9-12

Note on levels: Elementary courses are also available but topics, graphics, videos and activities are geared to children, and likely aren't suitable for adults.

College-level online writing lab

The Excelsior Online Writing Lab is a comprehensive open educational course for college-level writing. We've featured a college-level resource to assist those who are preparing for post-secondary education and for those who have to meet more complex writing demands at work. Educators can easily pick and choose relevant sections. An online reading lab is also available and featured in our collection.

Check out the educator resources that will help you embed the materials in your course and quickly access topics using an index. A customization tool will help you create your own mini-collections or "owlets." Assessment rubrics at the college and university level are also available.

CC BY 4.0

Do you know of other OER that we can add to this page? Get in touch: info@alphaplus.ca