Author Miriam Moore believes that good teaching invites students into a dialogue through which they discover, practice, build confidence, and learn to trust themselves as readers, writers, and thinkers. Writing Essentials Online: A Macmillan Launchpad has been developed to provide a space where students can begin this dialogue—with their teachers, their peers, and themselves. It helps students build strong academic writing skills and prepares them for the kinds of writing they will be required to do in college courses and in their careers.

Macmillan’s LaunchPad platform combines formative and summative assessments with opportunities to study, practice, and review specific skills. Students gain confidence by working at their own pace through sequenced units that guide them from concept to mastery. In addition, diagnostics provide opportunities to assess areas for improvement and assign additional exercises based on students’ needs. Visual reports show performance by topic, class, and student as well as improvement over time. Writing Essentials Online can be used on its own or integrated with your school’s learning management system so that your class is always on the same page.

Numerous models of student and professional writing address real-world issues and concerns (e. g., answering challenging job interview questions, commuting to school, and addressing plagiarism), illustrating the importance of mastering writing skills for college and workplace success, engaging students’ interest, and giving them the confidence that good writing skills are achievable.

As reading is essential to successful writing, students are taught how to preview, read, and respond to text, as well as how to apply critical reading and thinking strategies. They learn how to recognize and question assumptions and biases and how to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and summarize what they read in preparation for a variety of writing assignments.

The Four Basics boxes present skills in manageable increments by breaking down the essentials of topics such as reading, drafting, and revising. This approach to complex reading and writing topics helps students target, remember, and apply concepts without feeling overwhelmed by them.

A focused approach to the four most serious grammar errors that students struggle with--fragments, run-ons, subject-verb agreement problems, and verb-tense problems—provides concise, step-by-step instructions for fixing common problems in grammar and punctuation. Find and Fix boxes walk students through the editing process from problem identification to solution.

A wealth of exercises and activities provide students with ample opportunity for practice. Exercises are integrated into each module, and many modules include online adaptive LearningCurve quizzes.

Supplemental readings on a range of topics and of varying lengths and levels of difficulty allow instructors greater flexibility and choice for reading practice and writing assignments.

Plentiful ancillary instructional materials include a Guide to Grammar Terminology, charts of commonly used transitions and word parts, graphic organizers, and more than 1,000 downloadable exercises and activities.