16 Writing Apps for Students and Teachers

One day, some of your students will be trying to write the best dissertation, and some of them will become writers. Whatever path they choose, they will inevitably come across a writing task. That’s why you need to pay attention to their writing skills, regardless of the level they are currently at.

Teaching students how to write can be a problem. They all hate writing assignments, so you’ll have to find a way to make this skill attractive to them. Here are 16 apps that will help you do that:

• Popplet-The writing process starts with an idea. Your students’ minds can easily get chaotic at this stage, which is why they need a tool that helps them to organize their thoughts. Popplet lets them do that in a visually-appealing way.
• Toontastic-Storytelling is an important aspect of writing. You can’t start teaching your students by requesting an academic essay straight away. Stories make writing attractive, so you need to use Toontastic – an app that enables kids to draw, animate, and share visual stories.
• Writing Challenge-You can’t think of creative prompts that would serve as the foundation of the next writing project? Install this app and you’ll get great ideas that will spark your students’ inspiration.
• ABC Cursive Writing-Your students will be appealed to writing much more when they improve their handwriting. That’s where the magic starts. With this app, you can teach young students how to improve their cursive writing. The app uses zoo animals to make the entire process attractive. When you notice that your students have improved their handwriting, you can put them in the role of writers through an assignment that will look like a game.
• Clean Writer-Handwriting is cool, but your students will have to transfer the process to a computer sooner or later. At that point, they will become victims of distraction. MS Word and Google Docs have confusing features that distract their attention from the flow of thoughts. Clean Writer is an awesome app that eliminates all distractions and boosts the users’ inspiration through the clean screen that’s waiting for their text.
• Sentence Builder-Is there a way to make grammar fun? There is – you need to use this app, which has been crafted in a way that helps elementary students to understand the structure of grammatically correct sentences. The interface is simple enough for them to use it, and it encourages them to start building strong sentences through play.
• iCanWrite-This app is appropriate for young children who are just learning to write. If you’re getting your students through these early stages of writing, you can recommend this app to their parents. iCanWrite asks the students to trace the letters, and a new letter won’t show up until they get the current one right.
• Pages-This app is recognized as “the most beautiful word processor” for a mobile device. It really is. It’s a powerful word processor, but it’s also a cool-looking app that makes writing a breeze. You can recommend it to students who already know how to write on a mobile device.
• Writers App-This is a great writing app that even professional writers use. The interface will immediately put your students to a focused mode, and they will be inspired to translate their ideas into a great story. You can recommend it for storytelling projects, but it’s also cool for writing papers.
• Story Builder-With this awesome app, your students will practice storytelling with a purpose to improve the structure of their paragraph, enhance the logical flow of ideas, and boost the overall structure of the story. If you don’t think they are ready to write, you can use Story Builder to record their narrative and encourage them to go with the flow of ideas they get.
• Merriam-Webster Dictionary-This is a necessary app for every writer. Sometimes your students will have an idea, but they won’t be able to find the words to express it. Some of them may find their writing repetitive, so they will need to improve their vocabulary. This is the perfect dictionary app for everyone. It has great word games that are fun for all levels of students.
• Word Sort-This app makes proper speech fun through animated characters. Before mastering writing skills, your students need to improve their speech. The games are focused on improving the usage of nouns, adjectives and linking verbs, pronouns, prepositions and interjections, adverbs, conjunctions and action verbs.
• iWriteWords-This is another handwriting app that inspires your students to practice writing more and more. It’s an entertaining game, so they won’t even notice you’re making them learn through it.
• iDeas for Writing-When you can’t think of a cool prompt, this app will get you out of the block. You can use it to get a starting point for the assignments you give, but you can also recommend it to your students, so they can practice writing in their free time.
• Writing Prompts-We already suggested two apps for prompts, but they might not be enough. This is a third option you can rely on, so you’ll never run out of ideas for the next projects you assign to the class.
• Write-This is a great app for writing and taking notes. It’s really simple to use, so your students can rely on it when they want to take notes during class. However, they can also use it to write on the go, whenever inspiration hits them.

These 16 apps give you enough options for you to start teaching writing like a true master. Your students will love the new approach, so they will be ready to act in accordance with your instructions.
Joan Selby is an English grammar tutor. Former CalArts graduate and fancy shoelover. A writer by day and reader by night. Giving creative touch to everything. Check out her new Guide to Essay Writing. Find her on Twitter and Facebook.

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