Save 10% today on your lessons using the code GIVEME10

english rant assignment

Engaging Rant Writing Unit

Try this free Rant Writing Unit in your middle school ELA classroom today.

Have you tried my free Rant Writing Unit yet?

Sometimes, we, as humans, like to voice our issues or concerns about something with a good rant, so why not show our students that writing isn’t just essays but that it can be something fun, like writing rants. Try having students work on a Rant Writing Unit and see how much writing engagement you get in your classroom. 

Writing is such an important part of any language arts curriculum. Quality, well-developed writing skills are something that will serve students well not only throughout their academic careers but also throughout their entire lives. Writing encompasses so many aspects of our lives, including job applications, email writing and effective communication, and so much more.  

Despite this, writing can be difficult – both for teachers to teach and for students to learn.  

Two big reasons for this are: 

  • Learning to write well can be a lot of work.
  • Learning to write often does not hold students’ interest. 

One way to combat these challenges is by using my free Rant Writing Unit . Students rant and complain to each other (and often to you) daily, so why not channel these thoughts into quality writing? This unit will help you do just that. 

The unit’s engaging lessons bring persuasive writing (as well as public speaking) into your classroom in a manner that students are excited about and invested in. They will learn the success criteria for a good rant that will not only help them in this unit and their current studies but can also help them as they continue on with their education and go forward in their real-world careers. 

This classroom-tested Rant Writing Unit resource meets multiple curriculum expectations/standards and engages students in ways that typical persuasive writing and public speaking lessons do not. 

Click here to download this great resource for free!

How does it do that? 

  • It is creative and fun. 
  • It has great flexibility, so it works well as something you do in small chunks that fit in around other activities and topics in your classroom or as a focused unit over fewer days. 
  • Lastly, it teaches students that writing is so much more than essays. Writing can be fun and exciting!

Though designed for middle school students, this unit can be a fun way for older students to review persuasive writing, as well. Click here to download this great resource for free!

english rant assignment

Rant Writing Unit

In this Rant Writing Unit, you will find the following resources:

  • A unit overview
  • Daily lesson plans 
  • Writing process graphic organizers and answer keys
  • Rant video examples (must have reliable Internet access to view these examples)
  • An assignment sheet for students
  • An editing sheet
  • Rant assessment criteria 
  • Teaching slides
  • Google Classroom-ready PDFs
  • Google Slides graphic organizers for 1:1 technology schools

Don’t let writing get you down, and don’t let this skill continue to be a daunting task for your students.   Next time you are preparing to teach persuasive writing, I encourage you to give my free Rant Writing Unit a try!   Click here to download this great resource for free!

Related Posts

english rant assignment

This FREE persuasive writing unit is

  • Perfect for engaging students in public speaking and persuasive writing
  • Time and energy saving
  • Ideal for in-person or online learning

By using highly-engaging rants, your students won’t even realize you’ve channeled their daily rants and complaints into high-quality, writing!

FREE persuasive writing unit is

  • PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
  • EDIT Edit this Article
  • EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
  • Browse Articles
  • Learn Something New
  • Quizzes Hot
  • This Or That Game
  • Train Your Brain
  • Explore More
  • Support wikiHow
  • About wikiHow
  • Log in / Sign up
  • Education and Communications
  • Writing Genres

How to Write a Rant

Last Updated: May 19, 2023 Fact Checked

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 30 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 234,252 times. Learn more...

A good rant is just necessary every now and then. If you've got to shout something at the top of your lungs, though, you'll shred your vocal cords. Do it in writing and everyone will be a lot better off. You can learn to choose good ranting subjects, nail the tone of your rant, and some tips for avoiding an epic rant fail.

Outline and Example of a Rant

english rant assignment

Choosing a Subject

Step 1 Choose a subject about which you're well informed.

  • It's usually a good idea to do a little research to back up and bolster your already-familiar experience with the topic or issue. Even if you think you're sure, make your rant air-tight with specific facts.
  • Even if you think your opinion about an issue is iron-clad, try to make sure to bolster your strong opinion with facts, so your rant doesn't end up looking foolish. You may even end up becoming a passionate advocate for the other side, if you dig around in the issue. [1] X Research source

Step 2 Pick something with high stakes to rant against.

  • The stakes of something like hydraulic fracking and mountain top removal mining may be obvious, but may be less obvious about what so-and-so wore to the red carpet. That doesn't mean you can't rant about both effectively, you've just got to dig a little deeper.
  • Rants can be cultural, political, social, and address issues of class, race, sexuality, and any number of different topics. Find the serious issue behind the surface if you want your rant to go deeper.

Step 3 List out the negatives.

  • A personal story can lend a great amount of pathos to a rant. Do you have any personal experiences that could be used to your advantage? If you were recently stopped and frisked by a police officer for no reason, it might make your rant much more passionate to include the story.
  • Stick with your subject until you find something serious at the center of it. So reality TV annoys you. So what? Stick with it until you find something more interesting.

Step 4 Find a weak spot.

  • What is it that just doesn't make sense to you about your little irritation? If you can't stand the sitcom "Two and Half Men," you may instinctively want to say, "It's just stupid," but keep going to find the weak spot. Why is it stupid? What's stupid about it? How can you articulate the stupidity?
  • You might decide that the show you hate presents stereotypical versions of men and women. Start looking for examples of this to back up your rant. Pick on them specifically and your rant will be super-strong.

Nailing the Tone

Step 1 Use specific examples.

  • Every time you make a claim in your rant, get in the habit of asking yourself, "So what?" Then answer that question.
  • Highlight contradictions or logical fallacies. The best way to rant is to skewer the topic at hand by pointing out all the ways in which it's completely wrong, ridiculous, or terrible. Connect the dots for us.

Step 2 Use powerful adjectives.

  • It's important to bolster your railing with specific examples. You can only tell us something is bad so much without bothering to prove it to us. Give us quotes, specific examples, and discuss the thing in as much detail as possible.

Step 3 Use sarcasm to your advantage.

  • "The creator of 'Two and a Half Men' says that the show is 'populist.' This is true. The show should get full credit for being so populist as to be the best show on television that appeals to the sexist, racist, dunderheaded caveman instincts in its knuckle-dragging audience."

Step 4 Use irony and satire to your advantage.

  • If you want to rant against the twee stylings of Wes Anderson movies, say, you might try writing in an overly cutesy way about the panda bear you had to care for at short film camp, and how you locked eyes with a Brazilian folk singer doing covers of Kinks songs on a thumb piano.

Step 5 Embrace the big picture.

  • There's a fine line between an effective rant and a big exaggeration. You want to get as close as possible to it without going over. Saying that Facebook ruins dates and makes it more difficult to relate to one another, not easier, is right within the constraints of a good rant. Saying that Facebook is probably responsible for Ebola? That's a stretch.

Avoiding Common Mistakes

Step 1 Let it sit before you make it public.

  • Good rule of thumb: give it 24 hours. If you still feel the same way about the issue, and just as passionately, and are willing to stand behind it if you're called into question, post it.
  • If you were called onto national television and asked to defend your opinion, would you want to do it? If the answer is no, you might think twice about posting it for all the world to see online. [4] X Research source

Step 2 Address the issue from an intelligent point of view.

  • Again, it can't be stressed enough, if you're not informed about a particular issue, we don't need your opinion about it. Keep it to yourself.

Step 3 Don't make it personal.

  • A clear thesis
  • Supporting evidence
  • Good examples
  • Warrants and backing logic
  • A summary or conclusion

Step 5 Don't rant just to rant.

  • The bus was late again? Ok, so what? If you can answer that question with a good example, that it made everyone on your bus late for work, say, then you've got a good rant on your hands. If the only consequence is that it took you five minutes more to get to the coffee shop, save it.

Step 6 Keep it as clean as possible.

Community Q&A

Community Answer

  • Ranting is an art, and with every art, practice is necessary. Don't worry if you're not good at it at first, because you can only improve! Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 1
  • Making a rant with slight humor is not a bad idea, but no too much of it. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

english rant assignment

You Might Also Like

Are the Backrooms Real

  • ↑ http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/unique-everybody-else/201303/internet-ranting-and-the-myth-catharsis
  • ↑ https://ffstechconf.org/good-ranting/
  • ↑ http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolution-the-self/201404/6-virtues-and-6-vices-venting

About This Article

If you want to write a good rant, you’ll need to choose a topic that’s worth ranting about, like hydraulic fracking or mountain top removal mining. When picking a topic, make sure you’re well informed on the subject. Otherwise, you might embarrass yourself or accidentally win points for the very topic you’re trying to rail against. You’ll also want to pick something that has high stakes, otherwise, your rant may come off as whiney or unimportant. Once you pick a topic, list all the negatives you can think of so you can pick the most important ones to focus on. As you develop your rant, make sure to prove something. For example, every time you make a claim, ask yourself “so what”? Answering that question and including it in your rant will prevent you from repeating vague reasons. To learn how to nail the tone of your rant, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

  • Send fan mail to authors

Did this article help you?

Am I a Narcissist or an Empath Quiz

Featured Articles

Relive the 1970s (for Kids)

Trending Articles

What Do I Want in a Weight Loss Program Quiz

Watch Articles

Make Sugar Cookies

  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Info
  • Not Selling Info

Don’t miss out! Sign up for

wikiHow’s newsletter

  • International
  • Schools directory
  • Resources Jobs Schools directory News Search

Writing a RANT

Writing a RANT

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Lesson (complete)

MissCResources - Shop

Last updated

21 March 2018

  • Share through email
  • Share through twitter
  • Share through linkedin
  • Share through facebook
  • Share through pinterest

english rant assignment

A 14 slide lesson on the steps required to write a successful rant. Includes tips and advice as well as model RANT topics.

Suitable for GCSE prep!

Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

Charl_louize

I added loads to make it more skills based and less wordy - but a well presented powerpoint.

MissCResources

Thank you for your feedback, I hope the PowerPoint proved useful. Many thanks, Rose x

Empty reply does not make any sense for the end user

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource:

Please log in to save materials. Log in

  • Resource Library
  • Iowa K-12 E-Curriculum

Education Standards

Wyoming standards for english language arts.

Learning Domain: Language

Standard: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

Standard: Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Maryland College and Career Ready English Language Arts Standards

Learning Domain: Writing

Standard: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1���3 up to and including grades 11-12 on page 55.)

Common Core State Standards English Language Arts

Cluster: Knowledge of Language.

Cluster: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use.

Some Tips on Tone

Diction and tone: 100 word rant.

This lesson is for an AP Language and Compositon course and is focused on developing precision of language and tone in a student's writing.  It is the beginning of a process that will as students to be more purposeful with language.

Activate Background Knowledge

This is where you put information for the teacher to teach the task or support the task

Quickwrite:

What is tone?  How might an author convey tone? How might tone influence an argument?

Download “Some tips on tone”.  Review the information on the sheet (pay attention to the verbs that can take the place of show, utilizes, and uses and different ways writers convey tone).

Diction is another word for word choice.  

Tone is the author's attitude towards his or her subject.

Diction and tone are closely related.  Diction is one of the most effective tool a writer uses to create tone.  As we talk about precision of language, selecting the correct word for the correct idea is super important.

Creation of Tone:

What kind of tone would you expect a rant to be?

How might an author convey the appropriate tone of a rant?

Watch the example rants and think about how the tone of the rant is conveyed through language.

Auto-Correct Rant

Password Rant

Discussion:

Although the speaker of our rant has other tools like hand gestures and inflection, how does he use language to develop the tone of his rant?

100 Word Rant Assignment

Download the 100 word rant assignments .  

You will write Two 100 word rants for the next class meeting.

How does word choice and precision of language influence tone?  Why should we be conscious of tone in our personal argument essays?

100 Word Rant: Workshopping

Download 100 Word Rant Student Examples.

Read the student example 100 word rants and highlight word choice that you feel is especially precise or strong tone words.

Discuss the strengths and weakness of each rant and how language creates tone.

Peer Feedback:

Exchanage rants with at least two other students.  Provide feedback on the following:

Identify language that you feel is precise and effective in developing the tone of a rant.

Identify language that you feel could/should be more precise and doesn't really contribute to the tone of a rant.

Is the tone effective as a rant? How can it be improved?

Have a short discussion with writer to discuss your observations and suggestions.

Based on the suggestions provided, revise your 100 Word Rant and submit to turnitin.com as a final draft.

Version History

english rant assignment

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience.

FluentU Logo

73 ESL Writing Activities to Spark Your Students’ Creativity and Imagination

From a student’s point of view, writing assignments are something to dread.

But from an ESL teacher’s point of view, they should be a challenge worth accepting.

The challenge for you is to motivate your students enough to actually be excited about writing.

Sounds impossible? It’s actually quite simple.

The key is a strong pre-writing activity that boosts their confidence and adds to their vocabulary at the same time.

So, how do you get your students’ writing off to a great start?

In this post, we’ll look at some different ESL writing activities that will transform your students from hesitant writers to confident wordsmiths in their own right.

Writing Assignments Based on Stories

Writing activities prompted by music, writing practice exercises based on images or pictures, writing assignments based on food, writing activities based on mysteries, exercises to practice writing emails, activities to practice writing advertisements, assignments to practice writing reports, creative writing activity: class newsletter/newspaper.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

People of all ages love a well-told story, and using stories to teach ESL is a sure winner.

A story for a pre-writing activity could be in the form of:

  • A  movie . It could be a biography, sci-fi film, thriller, action-packed adventure, fairy tale or even a cartoon.
  • A  story read aloud from a book. If you’re using this, read in a way that brings the characters’ voices to life (including the narrator’s), hold the book up to show any pictures within or scan them and project onto a screen as you read. You can also search YouTube videos of famous authors or celebrities reading a book aloud, and show these in class.
  • A  story from the news . It could be from the TV, radio, newspaper or an online news site .
  • A story read by your students. In this case, you could let them read a story silently or with a partner, and take as long as they like to think about the important parts.

No matter what you choose, it’ll be a great lead-in to the ESL writing exercises below.

1. Re-tell the story as is, or summarize it. (This works best for beginners, who are still getting their feet wet in the waters of English comprehension.)

2. After watching “Finding Nemo” : Tell the story from the point of view of the whale, the dentist’s daughter or Bruce the shark.

3. Explain to Marlin how he should take care of Nemo better.

4. Make up a story about a farm animal/zoo animal/jungle animal. What if a baby ___ was lost? What if a child was lost in the city? What if you found a lost child?

5. After the story of “Goldilocks” : Tell the story from the baby bear’s point of view.

6. What if the baby bear and Goldilocks became best buds? What would happen?

7. After discussing “The Gingerbread Man” : Tell the story from the fox’s or gingerbread man’s point of view.

8. What did the old woman do wrong that made the gingerbread man run away?

9. How do you make a gingerbread man? What other shapes could be made instead?

10. After “Little Red Riding Hood” : Write the story in the first person—from the point of view of either Red Riding Hood or the wolf.

11. What should Red Riding Hood have done when she met the wolf?

12. After watching a “Lord of the Rings” movie: What would you do if you had the One Ring? Write about a magical quest you and several friends would have if you could.

13. After watching a “Pirates of the Caribbean”  movie: What if you were a pirate? What adventures would you have if you were a pirate?

14. After watching “Titanic” : Write about what you discover when you dive onto the wreck. Or imagine you were on the ship when it sank, and talk about how you escaped.

15. Whose fault was it that so many people drowned on the Titanic? What should they have done?

16. After watching a “Star Wars”  movie: Imagine you’re a space explorer and write about what happens when you meet some characters from “Star Wars.”

17. After watching a “Terminator”  movie: Imagine your teacher is a robot that has come back from the future. Or imagine you have come back from the future—what would it be like?

18. After watching a “Harry Potter” movie: Make up some magic spells and explain how you’d use them.

Everybody loves music! Watch your students’ faces light up as soon as they realize that they’re about to be treated to some songs rather than chalk-and-talk. Music stirs the emotions, after all, and can get your students excited about writing.

Here are some ideas for music you can incorporate into ESL writing activities:

  • Classical music. There are some pieces of well-known classical music that specifically tell a story , and many of these are available on YouTube.
  • “Fantasia 2000,” particularly “Rhapsody in Blue.” This wonderful, wordless animated story can kick off so much great writing!
  • Movie music. The music that goes with a movie tells watchers how they should be feeling, and could be a good jumping-off point for some writing.
  • Popular songs and music. Self-explanatory. Check out the most popular or trending artists on YouTube or Spotify for ideas.
  • Kids’ songs . There’s something about singing a catchy little tune that makes the words stick in your mind more than just saying them. These can lead to some interesting writing, too.

19. After Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” : Tell the story from Peter’s point of view.

20. After Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals” : Imagine walking through the scenes with the animals and interacting with them. Write a story from the point of view of one of the animals.

21. Describe the animals in “The Carnival of the Animals.”

22. After Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” : Re-tell this classic Shakespeare story, adding a twist.

23. After watching and listening to “Rhapsody in Blue” : Tell all/part of the story.

24. If you were the main character in “Rhapsody in Blue,” what would you do?

25. Listen to a piece of classical/instrumental music and tell the story that it might be a background to. Imagine that it’s the background music for a movie.

26. Tell the story (real or made up) behind some popular songs like Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams.”

27. Describe meeting someone special like in the aforementioned Taylor Swift song.

28. What happens in your wildest dreams?

29. What if you were a famous pop star or musician? What would it be like? What would you do?

30. Give instructions on how to find your favorite song on the Internet, both music and lyrics.

31. If you play an instrument, or have a relative who plays one, write about some of the basics of how to play. (This could also work as a speaking and listening activity, and then the whole class could write about it.)

32. What is your favorite genre of music, and why? (Be sure to explain what “genre” means !)

33. Do you think young children should be allowed to freely watch music videos?

Some pictures you can use for ESL writing activities include:

  • Pictures from social media. If you use social media at all, you doubtless have a barrage of amazing photos and videos on your feed, all of which make for excellent writing prompts.
  • Pictures from Google Images . A quick Google search on any (classroom-safe) image will turn up plenty.
  • Cartoons . If you have young students, they’ll definitely enjoy this one.
  • Pictures selected by your students. Not sure what to choose? Have your students pick their own pictures to write about. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how vibrant their writing can be when they’re writing about subjects they actually care about.

Regardless of the picture you (or your students) choose, here are some writing prompts you can consider.

34. Tell a story—real or imagined—of what is happening in the picture.

35. Write about what happens next from the pictured moment.

36. Write about what was happening just before the pictured incident.

37. What if that was you in the picture?

38. What if you were the person who took the picture?

39. What if you knew the people in the picture? What would you say to them?

40. Describe all of the elements in the picture. This is great for vocabulary practice.

41. Describe how someone in the picture might be feeling.

42. Explain how to get into  a pictured predicament (for example, in the picture here , how did he get into the boat without the crocodile eating him?) as well as how to get out of it.

43. Express an opinion about the rights and wrongs of the pictured situation. For example, for the same picture above: Should crocodiles be hunted and killed? What should happen if a crocodile kills someone?

Many of your students likely enjoy thinking and talking about food. So why wouldn’t they be motivated to write about it?

How you integrate food into your ESL writing assignments depends on your classroom arrangements and the amount of time you’re willing to put into preparation.

In any case, here are some ideas:

  • Start with the preparation and sharing of food before writing about it.
  • Look at pictures of food, and talk about them before moving on to writing.
  • Have students research food-related topics on the internet.
  • Start with a story about food.

Here are the specific food writing prompts:

44. After the story of “The Gingerbread Man”: Think about food that develops a life of its own, and what would happen with it. (This can also open up a discussion about cultural foods.) For example, make up a similar story about another piece of food (e.g., spaghetti or rice that comes alive). What if you felt something moving in your mouth after you bit into your burger?

45. Write a story (real or imagined) about being very hungry and/or finding/buying/stealing food to meet a desperate need.

46. Write a story about trying a new, unfamiliar kind of food—maybe in a (relevant) cross-cultural setting.

47. Write a story about finding and eating a food that has magical properties. (Maybe read or watch some or all of “Alice in Wonderland”  first.)

48. Describe interesting/disgusting/unusual/delicious/colorful foods, especially after a class tasting lesson. (Prepare students first with suitable taste vocabulary .)

49. Describe a food that’s unfamiliar to most students in the class. (This is particularly helpful for classes where there are students belonging to minority groups who hesitate to speak up.)

50. Describe an imaginary magical food.

51. Give instructions for preparing a particular recipe.

52. After a class activity or demonstration involving food: Write down what you have learned.

53. Give instructions for producing food—growing vegetables, keeping animals, etc.

54. Give instructions for buying the best food—what to look for, looking at labels, checking prices and the like.

55. Write about your opinion on food and health in First World and Third World countries. (Explain what makes a country “First,” “Second” or “Third World” first.)

56. Write about your opinion on the cost of food.

57. Write about your opinion on GMOs or genetically engineered foods .

There’s nothing quite like a good “whodunnit,” and students will always enjoy a good puzzle. You can base various pre-writing activities around the two games below to get the class warmed up for ESL writing practice.

  • Conundrum. This is an example of a game that can be played as a speaking and listening activity, and can lead into some good writing. The game starts with a simple statement or description of a situation like the ones described in situation puzzles . Students ask questions and receive yes/no answers until they work out the explanation for the situation.

After Conundrum, here are some of the activities your students can do:

58. Write a story about the sequence of events involved in a situation brought up in the game.

59. Devise and describe your own situation puzzle.

  • Putting their hands inside a cloth bag (or just feeling the outside) to guess what an object is.
  • Smelling substances in opaque jars with perforated lids, and trying to guess what they are.
  • Tasting mystery foods on plastic spoons (with blindfolds).
  • Looking at pictures of mysterious objects from obscure angles.
  • Listening to and guessing the origins of sound effects. (You can record your own, or use some from the Internet .)

(Important: Make sure that whatever you’re using for your guessing game is safe for your students, especially if they involve having to touch, taste or smell the object.)

After a guessing game, your students can:

60. Write about a possible mystery object and a magical quality it could possess.

61. Describe what you thought you saw, heard, felt, tasted or smelled.

For both games, here are some writing prompts you can do:

62. Give instructions for playing one of the games.

63. Give instructions for the perfect crime.

64. Give your opinion about a recent crime and the punishment for it.

Emailing can often be a scary task for your students, especially if they’re using a new, strange language like English. You can utilize an email writing activity to help your students build confidence and get more comfortable writing in English.

Email can also teach your students things like proper language (formal or informal), structure and format. Email-related writing activities for ESL students can offer ample opportunities to teach all of these three aspects.

Since emails involve two parties (the sender and the receiver), you’ll need to pair your students up for this activity. Here’s how to prepare for it:

  • Create one set of worksheets explaining details relevant to the sender. For example, it could contain information about a sender’s upcoming birthday party that they want to invite the receiver to.
  • Create another set of worksheets with the receiver’s details. The worksheets could contain questions about food dishes or gifts, or it could say that the receiver can’t make it for one reason or other.

Once the above has been done, give one set of worksheets to the “senders” and the other to the “receivers.” Then, here’s what your students will do:

65. Based on the senders’ worksheets, write an email inviting the receiver and explaining the key aspects of the event featured in the worksheet.

66. Based on the receivers’ worksheets, write an email explaining why you can or cannot make it to the party, and/or what other information you need about the event.

Advertisements are everywhere, and you can bet that your students have a few favorite ads of their own. Advertisement-related writing activities work across age groups and can be adapted to most students and their needs.

This great ESL writing assignment can help your students put the adjectives they’ve learned into good use, as well as showcase their creative writing and persuasion skills.

You can find advertisements everywhere, including:

  • YouTube videos
  • Newspapers and magazines

You can also bring an object (or handful of objects) to class that your students can write ads about.

67. After your students carefully examine the object(s) you brought into class: Write all the adjectives you can think of about it.

68. For a more challenging writing exercise: Write an ad about the object. How would you persuade someone who knows nothing about the object whatsoever to buy it? (Your students may or may not use the adjectives they wrote down earlier. Encourage them to be creative!)

Your students have likely already done some kind of report during the course of their studies. Also, writing reports is a skill that’ll be useful to them once they enter college or the corporate world (if they aren’t in it already). If you feel that they need a little more practice in this area, use this ESL writing assignment.

First, discuss how research and structure matter to reports—and perhaps show them a few samples. Then, give them a few questions to base their reports on, like:

69. What can you say about (insert topic here) in terms of (insert specific angle here)? (For example, “What can you say about the government’s efforts to improve the local park in terms of its impact on the general public?” Of course, you should adapt this question to the level of your students.)

70. After talking about a YouTube video on bears eating salmon : What would happen to the bears if the salmon ran out? 

This ESL writing activity is a bit more intensive and will allow your students to employ many different aspects of their ESL knowledge. Crafting a class newsletter will build collaboration, communication, listening, speaking and, of course, writing skills. If they’re not sure how to build a newsletter or newspaper from scratch, they can always swipe from premade templates like this one .

The newsletter/newspaper can follow a specific theme, or the articles can consist of a hodgepodge of random topics based on questions like:

71. What is the most interesting thing that happened in school this year? It can be the funniest/scariest/most heartwarming incident. Write a feature article about it. (Make sure to explain what a “feature article” is .)

72. Write a report highlighting the key events in some recent local festivals or concerts.

73. Going off of the last exercise, write an ad inviting the reader to buy a product or attend an event.

Once all of the articles are done, you can start putting them together. Make sure to walk your students through these newspaper layout tips . And when the newsletter/newspaper is finally published and circulated out there for the world to see, remember to congratulate your students for a job well done!

No matter what writing assignments you choose, make sure to keep the excitement level high so that your students are enthusiastic for your next writing session.

Whether they write by hand or type on a computer, remember to encourage them as much as you can by focusing on the good points rather than just running all over their mistakes with a red pen.

Lastly, find ways for them to share their efforts—whether online, on the classroom wall, bound together in a book to be passed around, etc.

They can also read aloud to each other, share with their parents and siblings and even share with other classes!

For more ESL assignment ideas, check out this post: 

Great ESL homework ideas can be difficult to come up with. So check out these 13 great ideas for ESL homework assignments that your students will love. Not only are they…

Enter your e-mail address to get your free PDF!

We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe

english rant assignment

Faculty Resources

Assignments.

decorative image

The assignments in this course are openly licensed, and are available as-is, or can be modified to suit your students’ needs.

If you import this course into your learning management system (Blackboard, Canvas, etc.), the assignments will automatically be loaded into the assignment tool. These assignments and quizzes come pre-loaded with specific assigned point values. We recommend changing the point values to match your course design .

This course includes a series of assignments associated with most modules, as well as essay assignments that can be included in the course as you see fit. Some instructors assign multiple rhetorical styles, while others scaffold just one or two large essays throughout the course. For this reason, the essay assignments are listed at the front of the course and can be easily moved into the appropriate places within the LMS. The different rhetorical style essays are each split into at least two parts, with one for prewriting and one for the final draft.  They could also be combined into one assignment or split into several smaller assignments; for example, you could divide each essay into a prewriting, drafting, and final draft stage (which is how the argument essay is currently organized).

The “Writing Process—Revising and Proofreading” module also includes a discussion assignment that has students peer review whichever essay is assigned during that module ( Discussion: CARES Peer Review).

  • Narrative Essay
  • Compare/Contrast
  • Illustration Essay
  • Cause and Effect Essay
  • Argument Essay

The optional “Essay Reflection” Assignment can also be paired with any of the rhetorical style essays listed above.

The assignments can also be broken down into smaller steps or combined/simplified as desired. Remember, these can be deleted, modified, or replaced within your LMS to meet the needs of your students.

  • Assignments. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
  • Pencil Cup. Authored by : IconfactoryTeam. Provided by : Noun Project. Located at : https://thenounproject.com/term/pencil-cup/628840/ . License : CC BY: Attribution

Footer Logo Lumen Waymaker

  • EXPLORE Random Article

How to Write an English Assignment

Last Updated: December 6, 2021

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 20 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 48,544 times.

Writing an English assignment can be troublesome at times. The students lack the proper information which is required to write an assignment. Apart from this there are many more things which are necessary for an assignment writing and such things are highlighted in this article.

Step 1 Understand the Topic.

  • Take second advice from a close friend. Some mistakes you may not see or be used to seeing, and a second opinion can help catch some of the mistakes that you won't see the first time through.

Step 9 Seek expert help if needed.

Community Q&A

ECEC

You Might Also Like

Become Taller Naturally

  • ↑ https://www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz/current-students/study-tips-and-techniques/assignments/step-by-step-guide-to-assignment-writing/
  • ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/understanding-assignments/
  • ↑ https://www.uq.edu.au/student-services/learning/structuring-your-assignment
  • ↑ https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/support/helps/self-help-resources/academic-writing

About this article

Did this article help you.

Become Taller Naturally

  • About wikiHow
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Info
  • Not Selling Info

IMAGES

  1. Grammar Rant Assignment Details

    english rant assignment

  2. ENG-4U-Ishmael-Rant-Assignment.docx

    english rant assignment

  3. Rant| Learn English word in Tamil meaning| Easy way to learn English

    english rant assignment

  4. English Assignment Class 10-1

    english rant assignment

  5. Rant Assignment by Palm Trees and Sunsets

    english rant assignment

  6. English Assignment Topics to Consider for Writing Well

    english rant assignment

VIDEO

  1. Reconnaissance Tactics

  2. English Rant

  3. English rant 2024

  4. Donald Glover's Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024) Misunderstood the Assignment COMPLETELY!

  5. Barons English Rant

  6. Oversharing on Social Media: RANT

COMMENTS

  1. Persuasive Writing; Rants

    Persuasive Strategies present: Claim ( clearly stating your opinion), Pathos (emotions) proper paragraph structure. blend of simple and complex sentences ( fluency ) proper punctuation, grammar, spelling. facts related to topic. Structure of a Rant: Introduction: states the specific topic. Second paragraph begins with clear statement of opinion.

  2. PDF Grade 7 ELA Rick Mercer Rant Handout

    YouTube channel. After we watch that rant, we are also going to view "Bullying," "Rob Ford," and "Seasonal Amnesia." You must complete the attached graphic organizer about 1 of his rants. For this assignment, you will write a Rick Mercer style rant. A rant: Introduces a problem/concern in the community/school/country

  3. Rant Writing Unit

    Biography Symbolism Assignment. Independent Reading Journal Assignment. Rant writing is an engaging way to bring public speaking and persuasive writing into the classroom. Rants are an engaging way to get students to write and share their thoughts and opinions in the classroom. This rant writing unit can be used for argument or persuasive writing.

  4. Engaging Rant Writing Unit

    Rant Writing Unit. In this Rant Writing Unit, you will find the following resources: A unit overview; Daily lesson plans Writing process graphic organizers and answer keys; Rant video examples (must have reliable Internet access to view these examples) An assignment sheet for students; An editing sheet; Rant assessment criteria Teaching slides

  5. How to Write a Rant: 15 Steps (with Pictures)

    1. Let it sit before you make it public. Twitter and Tumblr make it easy to be completely unfiltered in a very public way. If you're going to rant hard on a subject that you feel passionately about, feel free to do it, but don't post it online until you've had a chance to think about it for a while.

  6. Rant

    Rant - Writing with Punch. Today we read about why Rick Mercer rants and studied the art of ranting as a means of persuasive writing and oral communication. We observed the following rants by Rick Mercer, and did some reflections about what makes a good rant. We then started to brain storm our own personal rants using a graphic organizer.

  7. PDF www.twc.org • www.teachersandwritersmagazine.org Lesson Plan

    Today, we are going to be talking about rants. Does anybody know what a rant is? Most of us have voices that change depending on how we feel about something. When we are angry or annoyed, you might hear a different side of our voice. For some it is sarcastic; for some it is loud; for some it is very, very quiet. Today we are going to

  8. PDF 3201 Rant Assignment

    3201 Rant Assignment DESCRIPTION: Popularized by Canadian comedian, Rick Mercer, a "rant" is the sister to the soliloquy (monologue) and distant cousin of debate; it is an individual self-expression, or more ... A rant is usually done with wit and humour, at the same time expressing a position, a stance, or an issue that you think is ...

  9. Writing a RANT

    Writing a RANT. Subject: English. Age range: 14-16. Resource type: Lesson (complete) File previews. pptx, 3.06 MB. A 14 slide lesson on the steps required to write a successful rant. Includes tips and advice as well as model RANT topics. Suitable for GCSE prep!

  10. What are the guidelines for writing a rant and its purpose?

    A rant is generally a form of diatribe—in other words, a composition in which the speaker engages in focused vituperation about some pet peeve. It is a genre typically found in stand up comedy ...

  11. Diction and Tone: 100 Word Rant

    Download 100 Word Rant Student Examples. Read the student example 100 word rants and highlight word choice that you feel is especially precise or strong tone words. Discuss the strengths and weakness of each rant and how language creates tone. Peer Feedback: Exchanage rants with at least two other students. Provide feedback on the following ...

  12. non fiction

    A rant for the sake of ranting is most likely going to cause the reader to start skim. Since a rant could go on for some time, you may need to beware of too much dialogue or the whole thing could get tiresome. Try telling part of the rant instead of showing it all. Perhaps the POV person isn't the one ranting and his/her mind starts wandering ...

  13. Rant Writing

    Develop your GCSE English students' persuasive writing skills with our Rant Writing Lesson 1, perfect for English Language non-fiction writing. This lesson pack features everything students need to plan an argumentative piece of writing and adapt a counterargument to be more effective. Take a look at our Giving Your Opinion Word Mat. After completing this Rant Writing lesson, students will ...

  14. ELA2104-ABED: 1.3 Rant

    Identify your Rant Topic and jot some notes about why the topic is a concern to you. 4. Complete the Investigation Chart to organize your thoughts: ... Extend your discussion of the issue you chose by adding one of the following options to your 1.3 Rant assignment. You are still required to submit the original worksheet with this enhancement.

  15. Rant Writing Lesson 1: Planning (teacher made)

    Rant Writing Lesson 1: Planning. 2 Reviews. GCSE Writing Component GCSE Non Fiction Writing Persuasive Writing Activities. ... GCSE English Language Creative Writing Whole Unit Pack. Persuasive Writing Prompt Flashcards. Formal Letter Exemplar Resource Pack. Non-Fiction Writing 4: Formal Letter Writing KS3 ...

  16. Results for Rants

    Rant Writing Unit: Rant writing is an engaging way to bring public speaking and persuasive writing into the classroom. Students rant and complain to each other daily, why not channel that creative energy into some high-quality writing? Rants are an engaging way to get students to write and share their thoughts and opinions in the classroom. This assignment can be used for argument writing or ...

  17. 73 ESL Writing Activities to Spark Your Students ...

    Good ESL writing activities are worth planning out, and we're here to help! Keep this post bookmarked for ideas the next time you run out of ways to creatively dish out writing assignments for ESL students. Use these prompts wisely, and watch your students' love of written English grow!

  18. Alex's Rant

    For Alex's grade 10 English class. The assignment was to choose a topic and rant about it. He opted for a Youtube video instead of a doing a class presenta...

  19. Rant

    2nd Class Assignment - Rant. Subject. English. 388 Documents. Students shared 388 documents in this course. Degree • Grade High School - Canada • 9. School ... bachelor of secondary education major in english 100% (3) 3. Act 1 Scene 1 Witches Question. English 100% (1) 2. 18. Marooned on an island activity - Bonus. English 100% (1) 8. Story ...

  20. Assignments

    Assignment: Illustration Essay—Prewriting and Draft. Students choose from a list of statements and agree or disagree with it in an essay developed by using multiple and extended examples. This assignment consists of an initial brainstorm and the first draft. Assignment: Illustration Essay—Final Draft.

  21. How to Write an English Assignment: 10 Steps (with Pictures)

    Steps. 1. Understand the Topic. If you have the freedom to choose your topic, then go ahead and select that topic which holds your interest. Choosing an interesting topic will not only help you in developing an interesting assignment but also help you in making it more descriptive and informative. [1] 2.