assignment of ms word for students

Subject Explorer

School Subjects

Math & Science

Business & Technology

Electives & Health

Board & Administration

Teaching & Learning

Audio/Video Lectures

Books & Documents

Classifieds

Jobs & Resources

Discussions

Language & Literature

Practice Projects for Microsoft Word

Word 9 Table

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with a title and table. The table has two columns that have different font alignment and incluces various fonts. …

Word 8 Formatting Text

In this practice project for Word, students create a document using a different size and color font for the title than the rest of the paragraph. …

Word 7 Bullets

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with two different types of bullets showing points and subpoints. …

Word 6 Letter

In this practice project for Word, students create a letter. Included in the letter is a heading on the right, indented paragraphs, and the closing and signiture near the middle of the document. …

Word 5 Text And Outline

In this practice project for Word, students create a document that contains several paragraphs of text and also includes an outline with key points and subpoints. …

Word 4 Modified Text

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with the heading on the right, a boldfaced, centered title, and indented paragraphs. The document is double-spaced. …

Word 3 Basic Text

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with the heading on the right, a boldfaced title that is centered, and several paragraphs that are indented. …

Word 22 Preset Headings

In this practice project for Word, students create a document using the preset headings to create a title bar. The document has different alignment and font, blanks, and a short outline. …

Word 21 Formatting Options

In this practice project for Word, students create a document that shows some different effects that can be used with the same font. …

Word 20 Numbered List

In this practice project for Word, students create a document that includes a centered title followed by a numbered list. …

Word 2 Heading 2

In this practice project for Word, students create a document that has a centered title, a heading in the upper right corner, and indented paragraphs. …

Word 19 Advanced Table

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with a table showing a school schedule. The blocks in the table are different sizes and will take individual work within the blocks to …

Word 18 Columns

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with a header and two colomns. The columns include boldfaced and italic font and different alignment. …

Word 17 Columns

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with two identical columns in landscape orientation. Included in each are indented lines and different alignment and font. …

Word 16 Lesson Notes Handout

In this practice project for Word, students create a document like a student handout. This includes an outline with several levels, blanks for students to write on, and different font. …

Word 15 Lesson Notes

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with a header and two outlines. Students are asked to use the automatic numbering and outlining features in Word. They must use different …

Word 14 Table

In this practice project for Word, students create a scoresheet using a table. Students must use different sizes, colors and styles of font, including different alignment. …

Word 13 Outline

In this practice project for Word, students create an outline using the automatic outline in Word, including many levels of subpoints. …

Word 12 Formatting

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with a centered title in all capitals, the first letter of each word slightly larger than the rest. Throughout the document the font is …

Word 11 Formatting

In this practice project for Word, students create a document similar to a test or quiz. They must include points and subpoints, blanks, boldfaced text, tabs, and spacing. …

Resource Type:

Pass it on:

Leave a Reply

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Teaching Expertise

• Classroom Ideas
• Teacher’s Life
• Deals & Shopping
• Privacy Policy

20 Microsoft Word Activities For Middle School: Writing Exercises, Research, And Art Projects

November 9, 2023 //  by  Kaitlyn Punzalan

Microsoft Word is an effective tool in the classroom. The platform can assist in student learning, organizing, and the development of 21st-century skills. These skills develop critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. Microsoft Word helps develop and cultivate these skills in a variety of ways.

Students can use Microsoft Word to explore new content or deepen their understanding of the topic. It can also help students take notes or organize their learning throughout the school year.

Use the lessons, activities, and other ideas listed here to help enhance your students' learning using Microsoft Word.

1. My Life As a Movie

A great beginning of the year lesson is to have students create an autobiography in Microsoft Word. This project gets creative by asking students to create a DVD cover inside of a booklet to share about their life with their peers.

Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers

2. Name Acrostic

Another great beginning of the year project is an acrostic poem. Students type their name's vertically, then write adjectives that would describe them horizontally. Students can use bold, italics, colors, and shadows to express their personalities. This is a fun and easy activity to have students complete on the first day of school as you can display them throughout the year!

Learn more: Student Web

3. Annotate Digital Texts

Annotating the text, or highlighting and taking notes in the margin, is a literacy skill middle school students should develop. Students can annotate a text digitally in Microsoft Word using the highlight and comment feature. Students can highlight the text using a variety of colors and make digital comments on each of these highlights. This is an extremely valuable tool as it allows students to annotate a variety of texts, not just print!

Learn more: Groovy Post

4. Peer-Review and Writing Feedback

Microsoft Word is a great tool for peer review. Students can collaborate on their writing with their classmates by sharing the document and then using the track changes feature. This allows one student to provide feedback and changes to another student’s writing while allowing the original owner of the writing to keep the original document and see the writing suggestions.

Learn more: Microsoft

5. Resume Writing

Students can practice writing a resume in Microsoft Word. Since Word offers a variety of basic functions, tools, and templates, students can choose a template that would best represent a future career of their choice. This activity provides students with real-world practice and develops an essential skill they will need in the future.

Learn more: Resume Genius

6. Formal Letter Writing

Another amazing writing skill to practice with students is teaching how to write a formal letter. This lost form of communication is still incredibly important for students to learn. Students can learn how to properly format a letter to include the heading, address, body, and signature. Teachers can easily use the templates provided in Microsoft Word to help students learn the proper writing structure for formal letters.

Learn more: Lisa Doe

7. Write a Newspaper

Microsoft Word also has accessible templates to teach students how to write a newspaper article. Students can practice their expository writing skills by creating a newspaper article. This is a great assignment that teaches students real-world writing skills and is fun! Writing prompts could include both fiction and non-fiction and can be embedded in a variety of units.

8. Mini-Book Project

This project takes the idea of a traditional book report to a new level! Students use Word to create a mini-book using colorful templates and tables. This assignment asks students to demonstrate their comprehension of a novel while allowing the students to practice their technology skills as well!

9. Create Flashcards

Microsoft Word offers students a ton of amazing critical learning tools to help study and organize their learning. Students can create flashcards using Microsoft Word to help them study. These flashcards can be saved in OneDrive and students can access them at all times.

Learn more: Andrew Who

10. Digital Planner

Another great way to use Microsoft Word to help students organize is by creating a digital planner. Word offers a variety of planner templates to help students keep track of assignments, homework, and other important dates.

Learn more: Template.net

11. Online Notebook

Microsoft OneNote allows students access to a variety of features to create a digital notebook. Students can take notes, add photos, and include audio and video recordings in their notebooks. This is a great resource for students who attend online school. Teachers can also create OneNote notebooks for their students to allow them to all have the same note-taking experience or basic school report.

Learn more: Microsoft OneNote

12. Make a Family Tree

Students can create a genogram in Microsoft Word to learn more about their families. This project allows students to discover more about their ancestors through the formation of a family tree.

Learn more: It Still Works

13. Create a Word Cloud

Word clouds can be a great way to allow students to demonstrate their overall understanding or summary of a topic. Microsoft Word allows users to create a word cloud using one of the add-on features.

Learn more: The Tech Train

14. Create Digital Art

Microsoft Word allows students to practice their writing skills , but it also has a variety of features for creative expression. Students can create digital art using the drawing tools such as shapes, fill, shading, and other features in Word.

15. Create a Book Cover

This project is another fun deviation away from the traditional book report. Students can use Word to create a book cover connected to the theme of the novel. Using the borders, images, fonts, and colors students can demonstrate their comprehension of a book in a new way!

Learn more: Innovations in Techology

16. Invent an Animal

Students can get creative and invent their own animals. Students can draw the animal using the shapes and images in Microsoft Word. After drawing their own animal, students can use text to describe their animal and make connections to other cross-curricular areas.

Learn more: Innovations in Technology

17. Plan a Vacation

Students can research and budget their own faux vacation. This lesson idea teaches students real-life skills such as organizing and money planning. Students then compile their research in Microsoft Word and create a travel brochure.

18. Progress Monitor Student Work

While Microsoft Word offers a variety of ways to expand student learning, it also has many tools to help teachers. One way teachers can use Microsoft Word is to progress monitor student learning. Using the "activity" feature, teachers can view student progress including the date and time of each activity completed.

Learn more: Foetron Academy

19. Create Handouts

Teachers are always doing their best to individualize the learning for all their students. Microsoft Word is a great way to create handouts that best meet their students' needs no matter the lesson plan.

Learn More: Techwalla

20. Transfer Work Documents to iPad

Many students, teachers, and parents use Apple products, but that does not limit their ability to use Microsoft Word. Documents can be transferred to pages allowing for unlimited access to the resources for any school project.

Learn More: Trusoljahs

Watch Reimagine Education and learn what's new with responsible AI in education >

Watch Reimagine Education and learn what's new with responsible AI in education ›

Office 365 Education

Get started with Office 365 for free

Eligible institutions can sign up for Office 365 Education for the classroom for free, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and now Microsoft Teams, plus additional classroom tools.

Please enter your school email address (for example, [email protected]).

• Not eligible? See more options
• Learn how to buy for schools
• Microsoft 365 Personal College Student Discount 1

Affordable devices starting at $249

We reimagined Windows for a new era of digital learning, helping educators unlock the full potential of every student, giving them powerful tools to learn, collaborate, and create in a secure and trusted environment.

Powerful tools for the classroom

Office 365 works like you: everywhere. Familiar applications and always-accessible files update in real time to make building your curriculum seamless and easy on Android, iOS or Windows devices.

One place for organization

The ultimate digital notebook, OneNote helps you organize class materials and easily collaborate with students and colleagues.

Access anytime, anywhere, from any device

Bring conversations, content, and apps together all from a single Office 365 Education experience. Collaborate in real time without boundaries, and without worrying about lost formatting.

Simplify class management

Create classes and groups for Teams, Intune for Education, and more for free with School Data Sync.

Tools to save time and money

An affordable suite of powerful tools built for the classroom, Office 365 Education is accessible from your favorite devices.

Equip your school for success today and tomorrow

When you use Office 365 Education in the classroom, you can learn a suite of skills and applications that employers value most. Whether it’s Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Access or OneNote, prepare students for their futures today with free Office 365 Education for your classroom.

Cloud services to create a modern classroom

Create collaborative classrooms, connect in professional learning communities, and communicate with school staff with the power of OneDrive, Teams, and more -- all from a single experience in Office 365 Education.

School Data Sync

We then saw a major increase in student attendance once we had trained the parents on how to use Microsoft Teams. This helped them better support their children in their learning activities, and keep track of their engagement, progress, grades, and homework. – Omer Faheem: Head of Education Technology, The City School Network

Learn about pricing options

Pick the best pricing option for your budget and needs with free and low-cost plans.

Swipe to view more plans

Includes the web-based version of these apps.

Office apps

• Microsoft Outlook
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft OneNote

Services and Values

• Microsoft Exchange
• Microsoft OneDrive
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft Sway
• Microsoft Forms
• Microsoft Stream
• Microsoft Power Automate
• Microsoft Power Apps
• Microsoft School Data Sync
• Microsoft Visio
• Microsoft Yammer

Value for students

• Work together with real-time coauthoring, autosaving, and easy sharing in your favorite web apps, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Stay on top of your email with Outlook for the web and a 50 GB mailbox. 1
• Leverage Microsoft Teams, your digital hub that integrates the conversations, calls, content, and apps your school needs to be more collaborative and engaged.
• Improve learning outcomes with built-in accessibility features and Learning Tools that support reading, writing, math, and communication.
• Keep organized with OneNote, your digital notebook.
• Stay connected with Class Teams and OneNote Notebooks.
• Take authentic assessments with Forms.
• Enable digital storytelling with Sway.
• Never run out of space with unlimited personal cloud storage. 2
• Create professional-looking, educational diagrams with Visio for the web.

All the features in A1 plus full access to the Office desktop apps and additional management and security tools.

• Microsoft Publisher (PC only)
• Microsoft Access (PC only)
• Microsoft Bookings

Includes all the value for students in A1, plus

• Install Office apps on up to five tablets and five phones per user. 3
• Install Office apps on up to five tablets and five phones per user. 4

All the features in A3 plus Microsoft’s best-in-class intelligent security management, advanced compliance, and analytics systems.

• Microsoft Power BI

Includes all the value for students in A3, plus:

• Microsoft's best-in-class security management.
• Advanced compliance systems.
• Advanced analytics systems.

Values for teachers

• Stay connected with your colleagues with Class, Staff, and PLC Teams and OneNote Notebooks.
• Conduct and take authentic assessments with Forms.

Value for faculty and staff:

• Inform and engage with communication sites and team sites throughout your intranet using SharePoint.
• Support compliance with solutions from the unified eDiscovery center.
• Stay protected with rights management, data loss prevention, and encryption.
• Create, manage, and share videos securely across your school with enterprise video service.
• Develop apps without writing code to extend business data quickly with custom web and mobile apps.
• Utilize workflow automation across apps and services to automate business processes without writing code.
• Communicate easily with HD video conferencing.
• Unlimited email storage with in-place archiving.
• Get advanced email with archiving and legal hold.
• Maximum number of users: unlimited. 
• Create, edit, and collaborate on business processes and communicate them visually to students and teachers.   

Includes all the value for teachers in A1, plus:

• Install the Office desktop apps on up to five PCs or Macs per user. 3

Includes all the value for faculty and staff in A1, plus

• Host meetings for up to 10,000 people with Microsoft Teams live events.
• Help assess risk and gain insight into potential threats with Office 365 Cloud App Security.
• Let parents or guardians and students schedule appointments with faculty online using Microsoft Bookings.
• Gain insight into advanced personal analytics with Microsoft Viva Insights (personal insights).

Includes all the value for teachers in A3, plus:

Includes all the value for faculty and staff in A3, plus:

• Control how support accesses your mailbox with Customer Lockbox.
• Protect against sophisticated threats like phishing and zero-day malware with the ability to investigate and remediate attacks post breach.
• See advanced personal and organizational analytics with Microsoft Viva Insights personal analytics and Power BI Pro.
• Get enhanced visibility and control of your Office 365 environment.
• Create meetings with a dial-in number that attendees can join by telephone with Audio Conferencing.
• Make, receive, and transfer calls across a wide range of devices with an option to add Calling Plan. Learn more .
• Plan schedules and daily tasks with Microsoft Teams.
• Get email with 100 GB mailbox. 1
• Take advantage of unlimited personal cloud storage. 2

Get Office 365 Education for your entire school

Give every educator and student the power of Office 365 Education on all their devices, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Microsoft Teams, and free classroom tools.

Office + Microsoft 365 Education

The best way to buy Office is with Microsoft 365 Education.

Training and resources

Get help with office.

All the online resources you need to download and install Office, manage your account, and troubleshoot.

Office training tutorials

Learn how to get the most out of your Microsoft Office subscription, for all skill levels.

Office 365 promotional kit

Help students and educators get the full benefits of modern classroom collaboration with this free toolkit.

Office future ready skills

Help students learn the skills and applications that employers value most with Office 365 Education.

Microsoft Learn Educator Center

Learn how to integrate technology in your classroom with free online professional development and networking.

Frequently asked questions

You can use the plan as long as you are working at a qualified school. Your eligibility may be re-verified at any time. When your Office 365 Education plan expires:

• The Office applications enter a reduced-functionality mode, which means that you can view documents, but you cannot edit or create new documents.
• Online services associated with the school email address—for example, Office Online and OneDrive—will no longer work.
• If your plan expires, you can extend your plan by re-verifying your status as an educator, or by moving to an Office 365 personal plan.

In many cases, the response time is instantaneous through an automated verification process. In other cases where an institution needs to be verified, it may take up to a month to confirm eligibility. If you are nearing the end of your 30-day trial and have not received approval of eligibility, please contact customer support .

Office provides a range of options for students, so it’s easy to find one to fit your budget. Learn about ways you can get Office.

Microsoft 365 builds on top of Office 365 apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook and provides enhanced management, security, and compliance tools. Learn more about Microsoft 365

The OneDrive account is assigned to you but associated with the school and should be used for school-appropriate content. Permissions and access can be changed by the school’s IT administrator at any time.

Office 365 Education is individually licensed for use only by the eligible teacher. If you have colleagues who want to use Office 365 Education, they can get their own license on the Office 365 Education webpage .

To install Office 365 Education, your PC or Mac must meet the minimum system requirements. View the system requirements .

View the migration guide for: Windows 10 | Windows 8.1 | Windows 7 | Mac

• Have a school-specific email address provided by the school (for example, contoso.edu) that can receive external email.
• Be of legal age to sign up for an online offer individually.
• Have Internet access.
• SCHOOL STORIES
• MICROSOFT LEARN EDUCATOR CENTER
• CONTACT SALES

Follow this page

• Microsoft Education Facebook page.
• Microsoft Education Twitter page.
• Microsoft Education Instagram.
• Microsoft Education Linked In page.
• Microsoft Education Pintrest page.

Share this page

• Share this page on Facebook.
• Share this page on Twitter.
• Share this page on Linked In.
• Share this page on Pintrest.

• Make a Gift
• Directories

Search form

You are here.

• Teaching Resources

Teaching with Microsoft Word

Word provides a writing instructor with a wide range of ways to integrate word processing into the classroom. We have included a list of some of the most popular options here, but this list is certainly not exhaustive.

Option 1: Developing Close Reading Skills

Students can work individually or in groups, responding to guided questions about readings, or they can use the formatting and highlighting features of Word to visually ‘mark-up’ a passage. By taking a passage out of context, students can be forced to look much closer at the rhetorical “clues” provided in the text.

Sample Exercise: Close-Reading Textual Fragments

(Cindy Landwehr)

• Read the fragment of the story I’ve given you at least three times and very carefully. Don’t worry that it seems “out of context”—it is, and this may help you notice details that you wouldn’t notice if you were just reading for plot.
• Identify all the details or collections details that seem significant, troubling, important, or intriguing to you. These could be images, objects, specific words or phrases, ideas, relations. Mark on the paper as much as you want to—go ahead and underline words and make notes in the margins.
• Now, type out a list of the actual phrases or sentences that you have identified, and one by one reflect on what interests you about the details you have chosen. What is enlightening or puzzling or interesting about them? What do they reveal about the character(s) involved—judging from the passage that you are interpreting, how would you describe each character’s state of mind, personality, characteristics, and relationship with the other character(s)? What seems to be happening—plot-wise—in the story at this point?
• You will have the rest of the class period to compose your response. When you are finished, make sure to read over for things you may want to change or make clearer or add to, and of course proofread for typos and mechanical errors. You will be printing this out at the end.

INTEGRATED OPTION:  Including the passage in the file would allow students to mark up the passage on-line, eliminating the need for retyping phrases.

Option 2: Using Microsoft’s “Insert Picture” Feature to Stimulate Discussion and Teach Verbal/Visual Literacy

Using Word’s “Insert Picture” function is an excellent means to encourage close reading as well as to distinguish variations in student initial responses to literary texts is the interpretive pairing of graphic with verbal imagery.

SAMPLE EXERCISE: JUDGING BOOKS BY THEIR COVERS?

(Laurie George)

In the following example, a simple Google “Image” search for photographs used by Jon Krakauer in his book  Into the Wild  produced the following self-portrait of the book’s protagonist, Christopher McCandless, a photograph that Krakauer reprinted as the first image (notably graphic, not verbal) inside the book’s cover.

One of his last acts was to take a picture of himself, standing near a bus under the high Alaska sky, one hand holding his final note toward the camera lens, the other raised in a brave, beatific farewell. His face is horribly emaciated, almost skeletal. But if he pitied himself in those first difficult hours—because he was so young, because he was alone, because his body had betrayed him and his will had let him down--it’s not apparent from the photograph. He is smiling in the picture, and there is no mistaking the look in his eyes. Chris McCandless was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God.

(Krakauer, Into the Wild, 1996)

Downloading the image into a Word file and then pairing it with some of Krakauer’s verbal descriptions of the starving McCandless provide excellent pedagogical means of teaching assorted critical approaches to literature—that is, an instructor can pose questions to students that reveal biographical, cultural, and/or formalist reader predispositions toward the interpretation of literature, questions such as these:

Why did Krakauer decide to include this picture (rather than the one of McCandless waving at the camera) and how does it complement/contrast with the verbal description he fashions when characterizing McCandless in the final stages of the young man’s life, starving to death in the wilderness that he had so idealized?

Does the photographic self-depiction of McCandless mesh with Krakauer’s imagined verbal depiction of the young man’s final days, thoughts, and emotions? What matters about any variance in the two depictions—is one less “true” than the other? What does any difference reveal about Krakauer’s so-called journalistic objectivity?

Such questions provide an excellent means to start a discussion of any text, as students can be asked to “read” the photo in relation to any number of philosophical/theoretical approaches (Naturalism, Realism, or Romanticism, for examples) and contrast these ideals with the verbal textual representations before writing about them.

Undertaking these interpretive exercises in class, students are introduced to core concepts of visual literacy and reader-response theory and must address core questions:

Do these graphic depictions enrich readers’ (difficult) pleasure by accompanying verbal text, or simply entertain and reproduce cultural stereotypes?

Do graphic additions rob readers’ imaginations, which might otherwise conjure revelatory images of an altogether different kind?

Option 3: Using Microsoft's Comment Tool to Annotate Texts

As much literature can be found online (Amazon.com publishes lengthy excerpts of even the most recent novels in online advertisements), an excellent means of teaching students to read closely and annotate thoughtfully (not just circle and underline) is to copy and paste a portion of any text (poetry, prose, whatever) into a Microsoft Word read-only document, have students make personal copies of the document in class, annotate the excerpt, and then project students’ annotated texts for discussions of the text, either in the computer classroom or in the seminar room via the laptop.

Sample Exercise: Annotating Text with Microsoft Word

Note: The collaborative nature and in-class locale of this exercise is important, as students can easily and readily access databases from the English Library Web page ( http://www.lib.washington.edu /subject/English/) to provide biographical, etymological, and socio-historical glosses to a variety of terms and allusions in the text. All enrich class discussion and broaden students’ horizons about critical approaches to literary interpretation.

On Thursday we’ll be spending the first half hour of class annotating an excerpt of “The Lottery,” using various databases available to us via the UW Library—specifically, Literature Resource Center (to find biographical information about Jackson), Oxford Reference Online, and English Language Dictionaries.

The goal is not to find critical articles that provide a story interpretation for you, but for you yourself to build an interpretation of Jackson’s story by stopping at any word, phrase, or allusion that she chooses to include. Do this remembering that Jackson started with a blank page and was fastidious about the words she used to craft characterizations, setting, mood, conflict, etc.—always remember that she had choices, that she had designs on you as a reader to think and feel a certain way about the cast of characters and how things play out during the course of the plot. Words are her essential means of gaining your attention, especially through language connotations, denotations, and allusions.

When you find a word, also use the thesaurus feature in Word (in the Tool bar above, select Tools > Language > Thesaurus) to consider how Jackson might have chosen other words that would have attracted/distracted your attention to different character attributes and themes.

So in the first half hour tomorrow, I will have you comb the first part of this text, its exposition, highlighting words and phrases in which to insert your annotations, your commentary.

So in the first half hour tomorrow, I will have you comb the first part of this text, its exposition, highlighting words and phrases in which to insert your annotations, your commentary.  To do this:

Highlight the word or phrase in Jackson’s story that you are researching

Find the Tool Bar at the top of the page and left click on Insert

Drop the cursor down to Comment, selecting it

Keyboard your comment into the pop-up box that appears, briefly noting the information you researched and why you find it useful 

Option 4: Using Audio to Facilitate Textual Annotation

(Definition and sample assignment, Laurie George)

Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.

Gustave Flaubert

Although instructors think most readily of using DVD clips in classrooms, not as frequently do we consider audio without the visual—any number of sites online feature audio clips of poetry, short stories, speeches, and novels read by the authors:

In the following exercise, students are asked in the computer classroom to listen to a writer’s oral rendition of their text as the students read the written rendition onscreen, and then respond in writing to their audiovisual reading of authorial voice.

Some background: because it is important in audio sessions to have students focused on listening rather than distracted by other considerations, students arrive at the listening session (such as the one described below) well versed in the differences between indirect and direct modes of literary address, as well as generic differences between memoirs and fiction.

Students are also well aware of the basic plot line of the selected text featured: in the case below, a 41-year-old man describes his class meetings of Alliance Francaise in Paris, a class he enrolled in willingly to learn French despite his fears that the pedagogical model would be less than collaboratively constructive. His fears are realized; his instructor proves to be extraordinarily abusive towards all the students in the class, whatever their race, gender, or ethnicity: discipline and punish is one way of encapsulating the thematic core of this David Sedaris essay.

Plot in mind, students are asked to listen to the text in the computer lab as they read the print text from the screens in front of them, and to insert comments (from the Insert column of the shortcut bar on Microsoft Word) as they read and listen. The exercise works best if the clip is replayed at least once, and better twice.

Option 5: Using Word's Readability Tool to Evaluate Texts

Microsoft Word also includes a tool for checking a text’s readability, whether that “readability” concerns a student essay, a critical essay, a wall graffiti note, a blog entry, a presidential address, a short story, a novel, etc.

This tool is therefore enormously useful for checking the stylistic profile of any professional- or lay-authored text, including the fictional styles of characters and personae penned from whatever actual or virtual source.

Sample Exercise: Examining Texts with Word's Readability Tool

Any document saved into Microsoft Word can be scanned for certain “readability statistics” by configuring Word in the following ways:

Only after a text goes through the keyed-in process of running Spell Check does this program display information about the readability of the document—but it does, finally, and this is what it displays:

The most useful features of the tool relate to a student’s editing concerns for their own writing or a student’s need to analyze the stylistic features of a professional writer. Both goals apply to the three headings of “Counts,” “Averages,” and “Readability” in the following ways:

• In a student draft, does the text include enough words—or too many—slightly fitted or stuffed into paragraphs that match the writer’s rhetorical goals for a given reading audience?
• In the professional text, does the variance of word averages indicate a kind of authorial style—for example, the minimalism of a Raymond Carver story? Alternatively, does a high count of words in a page of dialogue reveal verbosity in a certain set of characterizations?  How many paragraphs are included in this passage—if there were more or fewer, would the emotional and logical effect on the viewer be different? Would the difference add to credibility in whatever fashion?
• If a character in a fictional work is speaking a piece labeled “readable” in this manner, how reliably literate is this character?
• If the character or the author writes in extremely brief or extensively long sentences, what does the simplicity or complexity of the style reveal about the character, or the author’s style or the author’s values?
• What about the character’s or author’s passivity or activity in sentence construction? What does this stylistic attribute reveal about the character or author—is the writer hiding culpability behind passive voice? Is the author implying thematically that a character is unwilling to take agency, the passive voice indicative of that resistance?
• If conventional criteria measure this writing excerpt as “low” in the conventional reading level of “Flesch-Kinkaid” grade levels, then what does this gradation imply about the readers’ values or the evaluators’ values concerning literacy?

Option 6: Brainstorming and Freewriting

Brainstorming and freewriting often work best when they are made a regular part of the class routine. Word makes it easy to do this. Some instructors start off every day in the computer classroom with a ten-to-fifteen minute freewrite or with an electronic journal response. Alternatively, students could be given time in class to brainstorm before a paper is due. Unlike a handwritten freewrite, both the student and the instructor can share the end product. Students can print out a copy or save a copy to disk, and instructors can review the class responses from their offices.

Sample Exercise: Working Toward an Interpretative Thesis

During this class period, you will be working toward a strong, interpretive thesis based on the evidence and ideas you’ve already collected about your topic. The following steps are designed to help you get started in the thesis process; feel free to skip or alter them—whatever will help you most. Have the people near you read what you have written and advise you on it; ask questions, and offer suggestions. There’s no need to be silent. Hold the mouse over highlighted text to see instructions on how to do various tasks. Remember to SAVE OFTEN.

Review your journal entry from last night and, in the space below, type in your “proto-thesis,” or a summary of what you think you want to write about. If you need a few sentences, that’s okay; this statement is just a place to get you started. 

II. Argument Brainstorm

As we’ve discussed in class, every argument breaks down into a number of sub-arguments—a series of subordinate ideas that are the building blocks of the larger argument. In the space below, begin to think about how your topic could be broken down. Start by looking at your topic statement above and listing off all the ideas that seem related to it. Or, if that doesn’t work, try listing a series of questions that you think you would need to answer in a paper about that topic. List these ideas, sub-topics, and questions in the left-hand column of the chart. In the column to the right, list two or three pieces of evidence that might be useful in developing a paragraph about each sub-topic. Try, whenever possible, to be very specific about your evidence. Don’t worry about whether or not you will use each one of these—at this point you are just generating ideas. If you run out of space, insert more rows in the table.

III. Speculations

Now, think carefully about the lists above. Generate a series of claims related to your topic that could serve as subtopics to organize and to develop your argument. Your goal here is to construct claims; write out complete sentences, as if these were going to be the topic sentences of your paragraphs. Use the top box to brainstorm freely, and come up with as many ideas as possible. Once you generate your list, cut and paste different claims into the bottom boxes, and experiment with organizing your ideas in different ways.

IV. Thesis Statements

Now that you have worked though your ideas and listed out both your evidence and possible organizational strategies, try to come up with two or three possible thesis statements. Look carefully at the lists you have made; you may have several more thesis options that you originally thought.

V. Peer Commentary

Review the worksheet, especially sections III and IV, and then comment on the thesis statements above. Consider whether or not the thesis seems broader than the ideas expressed in the brainstorming section. Does it seem arguable? How clear is it? Does it oversimplify? Is it too complex? Be sure to write your name in the gray box above your comments.

If you want to work with these reviews at home, be sure to print a copy of this file or save a copy to disk.

Integrated Option:

Additional instructions for how to add more rows to tables, print and save can be added using the comment function. When students move the mouse to the highlighted text, these instructions appear in a comment window.

Option 7: Peer Reviews and Self Assessments

Word gives you a number of options for peer-reviews and for student self-assessment. Students can read ‘hard-copies’ of each other’s papers, then write a peer review, assessing the strengths and weakness of the argument. Or they can comment on the paper electronically, making a copy of their partner’s file and inserting comments into the document itself. Word provides a number of features to help make their inserted comments stand out. Students can use the Comment feature or the Highlight feature, described below, or simply place all their comments in bold or in capital letters.

Sample Exercise: On-Screen Peer Editing

(Laura Kuske) Today you are going to workshop your peer’s paper and provide advice on how he or she could strengthen the argument. This time, your review will focus especially on organization, evidence, and paragraph structure. You will be working in pairs and using the prompts below to guide your responses to your partner’s paper. Before you begin, you will need to follow these initial instructions.

Getting Started

Step 1: Exchange file names with your partner, and open his or her document. Double-click on the “Word” icon to open Microsoft Word. Select Open from the File menu, and choose your partner’s file from the directory list.

Step 2: Make a personal copy of your partner’s file. Since you will be making changes to the file, you want to make sure you are working from a COPY, not the original. To do this, Select Save As from the File menu, and rename the file as directed by your instructor.

Step 3: Tell the computer who you are. The person you are reviewing will want to know who said what; you need to tell the computer who you are so it can attribute your comments to you. To do this, select Options from the Tool menu. From the window that pops up, select User Information. Type in your name and initials at the prompt.

Step 4: Begin your review. To insert comments, highlight the text you are commenting on and select Comments from the Insert menu. Type in your suggestions in the window that appears at the bottom of the screen. To add end comments, simply scroll to the end of the document, click the mouse at the bottom of the text, and begin typing. Use the following questions as your guide, and be sure to save your work periodically.

The Peer Review

1. Read the paper over once, fairly quickly. Do not make any comments. You are merely trying to formulate a general impression of the argument as a whole. At the end of the paper, describe your initial response to the argument. Without referring back to the essay, see if you can summarize the main points. What does the paper seem to argue? How persuasive did you find the argument? Thinking back, can you remember the logic of the argument, or is it all a blur? Was there anything about the paper that grabbed your attention? Were there claims that you strongly disagreed with or found insufficiently supported?

2. Reread the paper slowly and carefully, and comment on the introductory paragraph. First, find the thesis, and underline it. Next, insert a comment evaluating its effectiveness; consider both the myths and purposes of a thesis that we discussed in class last week.

3. Next, take a closer look at each body paragraph, and identify two that you feel might benefit from further revision. Considering all the structural issues we discussed today, think carefully about how the paragraph is put together:

Is there a topic sentence near the beginning of the paragraph? If so, highlight it, and comment on how well it fulfils its role. Does it present a concept or a detail from the story? Does it connect to the thesis?

Does it have a clear relationship to the ideas developed in the preceding paragraph? How well does it capture the main idea of the paragraph? If there is no clear topic sentence, comment on what you think the topic of the paragraph might be.

Look at the body of the paragraph. Insert your comment(s). Consider what type and how much evidence is used; is there enough? Is there too much evidence? Are claims being developed over the course of the paragraph? Does the writer do more than merely summarize from the story? Does he or she present you with specific details from the text? Does the writer explain what the evidence proves and WHY?

4. Insert a comment at the end of the paragraph considering the paragraph’s conclusion. Does the paragraph offer one? Does its conclusion offer any new perspective on the evidence and on how it relates to or develops the ideas expressed in both the topic sentence and in the thesis? Does the conclusion seem forced or obvious? Does it seem unrelated to the evidence offered? Do you see how the conclusion can be derived from the evidence offered?

Printing Your Comments

When you and your partner have finished commenting, you can print out a copy of the paper with all the comments. From the File menu, select Print. To select this option, you must use the menu; do not use the print icon. In the window that pops up, click on Options. Make sure that there is a check-mark next to Comments in the list that appears. If the check is not there, simply click the mouse in the box to insert the check-mark. Now, click OK to return to the print menu. Click OK again to send your file to the printer.

Sample Exercise: Self-Assessment of Organization in Film Analysis

(E.L. George)

In this revision of your essay, I'd like you to assess your own draft (before a classmate moves to your workstation to respond):

1. Make a copy of your essay and name it movie#OR

2. In the copy, above the title, use 14 pt. bold faced font to state your thesis (even if it appears again in the introductory paragraph). Then number the paragraphs in boldface in the space following each paragraph (create space as you need to).

3. Reread each paragraph, and in the space you've created, type out the main claim of the paragraph (if you use topic sentences in your paragraph, you would rewrite the topic sentence).

Examine the list, and ask yourself the series of questions noted in The St. Martin's Handbook.

What organizations strategies are used? spatial? chronological? logical? [compare & contrast?]

Are they used effectively and consistently?

Do the main points clearly relate to the thesis and to one another? Are any of them irrelevant [disunifying the essay]?

Can you identify any confusing leaps from point to point?

Do you need to provide additional or stronger transitions?

Can you identify clear links [either through a logical shift of ideas or obvious transitions or repeated words ] between paragraphs and ideas? Do any others need to be added?

Have any important points [about the likenesses and differences of movie x on corporate life vs. movie y] been left out? (63)

Sample Exercise: Self-Assessments Using Auto-Summary

(Laura Kuske)

Paper Title:

Today, instead of reviewing a partner's paper, you are going to do an extended assessment of your own writing… with a little help from Microsoft Word. Part of the point of today's exercise is to expand our discussion of paragraph structure and argumentative logic to include transitions -- which means that we are going to begin focusing on how to clearly express the connections BETWEEN ideas and between paragraphs. In order to begin to see why transitions are important, we are going to spend the first part of class today working on creating an abstract of our arguments. Ideally, an abstract can be formed by collecting the main ideas of an argument into a single paragraph. But for an abstract to MAKE SENSE, these ideas have to be expressed in ways that make the relationships between ideas clear, while still accurately reflecting the specific content of the paragraphs. That can be quite a challenge, and the attempt can often reveal quite a bit about the places where the connections are not yet clear enough in the larger argument.

What we do today may seem a little confusing at first, because you are going to move back and forth between two Word files -- this worksheet and your own paper-- and we are going to try out a few 'advanced' Word commands. If you have problems or get lost along the way, just raise your hand and I'll help get you back on track.

1. Begin by opening the file containing your draft. Do not close this worksheet before opening your paper. You will need to have BOTH files open to do this exercise. To move between the two files, click on the Windows menu and select to file you want to look at.

2. Once your paper file is open, select AutoSummarize from the Tools menu. AutoSummary will review your paper, collect what it takes to be your main ideas, and write an abstract of your paper. From the window that appears, select the option to hide everything but the summary, and set the percentage at 10%. Click OK. Word will create an abstract of your paper. Although the rest of your paper will disappear, it is still there. You may need to delete a few extra paragraph returns to format the summary. It should appear as a single paragraph. Creating/Critiquing/Revising your Computer Generated Abstract

1. Read carefully through the summary Word created. Does it seem accurate? Does the abstract read smoothly or is it choppy, abrupt or confusing? Pretend, for a moment, that this was not computer generated, but something written by you to be submitted (for instance) on the class Web page. Critique the abstract in the space below. Would you submit this abstract as representative of your paper and your writing? Why or why not? How would you revise it? Comments:

2. Now, return to your paper, and increase the percentage of the text Word uses to create the AutoSummary to 15%. Reread the summary. Keep playing with the percentage until you have what you consider to be the best 'raw material' for an abstract of your paper. You will be editing and revising this, don't worry if you have to include extra material to get in all the ideas you want to include. Cut and paste the text from your abstract here. Percentage: Abstract:

3. You are going to revise this material in a moment, but first, take a look at exactly what parts of your paper the computer selected to create your abstract. To do this, return to your paper file and click OK to clear away the summary and return to the argument itself. Select AutoSummarize again, but this time, select the option to hightlight key points and click OK. Set the percentage control window to the same percentage you used to create your abstract. Scroll through your paper and observe what parts of your paragraphs--and how much of the paragraphs-- the computer is using. Do the computer's selections reflect the topic sentence/conclusion pattern you might expect? How much 'other' material did you have to include to get a complete outline of your argument? Did the computer skip over some of your topic sentences and conclusions? Why? Comment on the patterns you notice and reflect on what they might suggest.  Comments/Observations:

Now cut and paste the raw material above into the box below and revise it into a concise and accurate abstract for your paper. Your abstract should be no more than 12-15 sentences (approximately 1 to 2 sentences per paragraph). It should provide a reader with a quick summary of all your main points, and the ideas should 'flow' together smoothly. It should not read like a list. It should read like an overview of an argument. Revised Abstract:

When you are done, print out a copy of this page (only this page.), and a copy of your paper. You will be giving a copy of your paper and your abstract to a peer partner to review.

Option 8: Writing Workshops

Word offers a range of powerful tools to help workshop writing, especially when used in conjunction with the overhead projector. Word allows you to highlight text in different colors, track editorial changes made to a document, or move text around in order to try out a variety of organizational or stylistic strategies.

Sample Exercise: Group Highlighting

(Kimberlee Gillis-Bridges)

Students participated in the following writing workshop during the class preceding the final draft due date. The essay assignment asked students to analyze a single scene from one of three early horror films, focusing on the narrative and cinematic elements at play in the scene. Before the workshop, I created a document featuring excerpts from students’ papers as well as links to digitized video clips of the scenes. The excerpts represented the three main problems students had with their drafts: their paragraphs tended to be diffuse discussing several technical elements that served different functions; paragraphs often had little discernible connection to the thesis; and formal film terminology was absent or misused.

As they viewed the projected essay excerpts, the class analyzed weaknesses and developed strategies for revision. During the workshop, students asked to view the linked clips to confirm details or to point out cinematic elements the writer had missed. I served as recorder, using Word’s highlighting function to mark passages as directed by the students. Writers whose paragraphs we analyzed could copy their marked passages and paste them into another document; a number of writers did so during the workshop, taking notes on their peers’ comments, then saving the marked passage once the class had completed the review.

The following example demonstrates how students marked the excerpts:

Scene:  Dracula; scene in which Dracula and Van Helsing Meet

Writer’s Thesis:  The scene separates Dracula and Van Helsing from the other characters as it pits the two against one another in a struggle between evil and good.

Explanation of Highlighting:  The yellow highlighting marks a passage connected with the first part of the thesis--that technical elements of the scene separate Dracula and Van Helsing from the other characters. Although the passage suggests that a pattern of alternating close-ups distinguishes these two characters from other characters in the scene, the class thought that the idea needed further explication, perhaps in another paragraph. The green highlighting indicates an idea that the class thought detracted from the analysis in the rest of the paragraph. The blue highlighting marks a passage the class viewed as connected to the thesis. Students suggested that the writer make this passage the focus of the paragraph. They also suggested that the writer connect the editing of the close-ups and the issue of knowledge. Van Helsing's growing knowledge is conveyed through editing, and it is this knowledge that pits him against Dracula.

Sample 2: Style Imposters

(Karen Kupka)

Read through the following passages carefully, using Word’s highlighter to note the distinctive features of the writer’s style. After you think you’ve grasped the stylistic differences between the two passages, try impersonating both authors. Pretend that you are Hemingway, and rewrite the excerpt from Carter’s  The Bloody Chamber  in your own inimitable style. When you’re done with that, transform yourself into Carter and elaborate on  A Moveable Feast .

Option 9: Reverse Outlines

Word also provides a range of outlining features that allow students to take a paper and convert it into an outline. An outline can help students to see the organizational structure of their papers in a “bare bones” format. Word also allows you to easily break down a student’s paper paragraph by paragraph and create a reverse outline exercise. This type of reverse outline allows students to visualize their paper’s organization as it is—and as they want it to be.

Sample Exercise: Reverse Outline

Step 1: Read the following paper. As you finish each paragraph, type out what you think the most important idea (in other words, the thesis) of the paragraph is. What is the general claim of the paragraph? Be sure to write out the thesis in a single, grammatically correct sentence.

Despite appearances, I believe that Imogene & Marya's friendship is not the most important thing in Joyce Carol Oates's story, "Theft." No character in the story has as important a role as Marya, but her friendship with Imogene does not play the most important role in Marya's life. Therefore that friendship cannot occupy the most important part of the story. While this friendship concerned Marya a lot, she eventually discovered that other things--her work and especially her writing--played a much more important role in her life. Marya gave up her friendship with Imogene because it took up too much time, time in which she could do more important things like writing. Marya saw writing as the most important thing in her life because writing overcame the destructive effects of time, while friendship just passed the time.

THESIS OF 1st PARAGRAPH:

It's hard to say exactly why Marya wanted to be Imogene's friends, but whatever the reason was, it wasn't the most important thing in Marya's life. Marya of course didn't initiate the friendship. Imogene pursued her. Marya never planned to be Imogene's friend; it happened to her like an accident. But Marya had some curiosity towards Imogene. Before Imogene ever approached her, Marya found herself staring "at the blonde girl in her political science class" who wore "a handsome camel's hair coat" and "an engagement ring with a large square-cut diamond" (476). This attraction, however, didn't seem to have any reason, or at least any particular importance. Marya throughout the story stared at a lot of people, but doesn't end up friends with any of them, except Imogene. Again I would say the friendship depended more on Imogene than Marya.

THESIS OF 2nd PARAGRAPH:

Though her relation with Imogene confused her for a while, Marya came to realize that work held more importance for her. "It occurred to her with a chilling certitude that every moment not consciously devoted to her work was an error, a blunder" (487). Marya worried constantly whether she did enough work. This didn't mean her work at the library. If anything, she regretted the time her job took from her. What worried her was schoolwork. She wanted to work hard at it. She even enjoyed it. But fear motivated her as well. She thought nothing mattered as much as success, even her own health. She felt that only "one's personal accomplishment" (493) mattered in life. In the story two kinds of accomplishment mean the most to Marya: school and writing. As I will explain later, because of the problem time created in her life, writing proves more important than anything else.

THESIS OF 3rd PARAGRAPH:

What created this preference from writing over schoolwork was her attitude toward time. The idea of time kind of scared her. In fact, Marya got quite hung up on the idea of time. "Time is the element in which we exist...We are either borne along by it, or drowned in it" (487). Here Marya reveals her fear that time would destroy her. But she thought that time could help her as well, if she did things right & worked hard. She asked herself, "Wasn't time the precious element that would carry her along to her salvation" (481)? Marya obsessed over the destructive effects of time. Her thoughts about the photographs of the old athletes express her feelings:

Another rowing team. Hopeful young men, standing so straight and tall; their costumes slightly comical; their haircuts bizarre. An air of team spirit, hearty optimism, doom (481).

Marya thinks of doom when she sees this picture because the picture reminds her that those men eventually died. I think Marya expresses this sense of doom in other places in the story as well, like when Phyllis's mother and sister came to clean out Phyllis's room: "And then the waters close over your head.--This phrase ran through Marya's head repeatedly" (491). Marya is thinking her about the doom that overcame Phyllis: doom comes like a flood, then washes you away into oblivion. Marya's obsession over this phrase is a sign that she considered this more than just Phyllis's problem. It was a personal problem for Marya too, because the source of the problem was time itself, something Marya couldn't escape. I believe Marya believes that "doom" was another word for "time."

THESIS OF 4th PARAGRAPH:

The first problem Marya experiences with the problem of time comes from not having enough of it, so she gets rid of Imogene in order to have more time for work. I think the writing was on the wall from the very beginning of their relationship. In the coffee house with Imogene's friends, when Marya thought she "should have been elsewhere" (481), that other place was back at her room or in the library working. She always felt that "she hadn't...time for 'wasting' on people" (478). In her journal she writes the following words on the subject of friendship: "She hadn't time...she hadn't energy for something so...ephemeral" (483). This last quote points out what really bothered Marya about friendship, that it isn't permanent. Eventually she thought conversations with anyone, whether Imogene or not, wasted her time.

THESIS OF 5th PARAGRAPH:

This sense of impending doom scares Marya, but she has a game plan. Just after she thinks the thoughts about the rowing team, she decides "she really should leave...she shouldn't be here" (481), because she feels this same doom closing in on her, and feels that only through work can she escape it. And the work that could save her is writing. Without writing, she's doomed to destruction like the rowers. But if she could become a writer, she'd have an indestructible existence. We know she believes this when she says "a writer's authentic self...lay in his writing and not his life; it was the landscape of the imagination that endured, that was really real" (474). By becoming a writer she too could have an "authentic self" that "endured." People would read her books long after she'd gone. People would know her "authentic self" long after the end of her "life." So what work she puts into writing is work toward eternity, while what work she puts into friendship is, as she says of sex, "as good a way as any of passing the time" (499). But Marya doesn't want to just pass the time. Marya's quotation of Thoreau expressed her need to avoid such frivolity: "How can anyone kill time without injuring Eternity?" (487)

Step 2: Retype each thesis statement below: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) What you have here is a reverse outline of the paper. It is called "reverse" because the outline was written after the paper was written. Based on this reverse outline, evaluate the argument of the paper by answering the following questions:

Was there a clear claim for the whole paper stated in the first paragraph?

How did the subsequent subordinate claims support the main claim? In other words, based on your reverse outline, describe how the supporting points that each paragraph brought out supported the main claim for the paper?

Do you get a sense of the progression in the subordinate claims? In other words, can you see how the supporting points follow one from the other?

Step 3: Pick out one paragraph from the paper to examine in further detail.

How has the writer signaled the transition from the previous paragraph to this one?

Evaluate the development & support of the paragraph. How did the details presented support the general claim of this paragraph?

How are the ideas within the paragraph related to each other? In other words, how has the writer tried to make the paragraph cohere, to make it flow together?

Has the writer considered possible objections to the general claim of the paragraph? How?

Option 10: Editing

Although the program has limitations, Word’s grammar and spell-check tools can assist students with the editing process. Moreover, because students can easily change their prose in Word, you can create exercises that allow them to explore a variety of options for word choice, syntax, and source integration.

Sample Exercise: Using Quotations

(Alison Tracy)

Make yourself a copy of this file called “quotex.doc” and be sure you are working in your own file. Go ahead and type your answers right into the prompts below.

The following exercise will give you some further practice in using quotations smoothly, effectively, and correctly in your own writing. Select a quote from the following passage to complete each sentence. First, read through the examples carefully.

I am not merely asserting that “We are not all alike.” Those who aren’t aware of that would not likely read this essay or anything like it. What I am saying is that generalizations from within are every bit as fragmenting as scrutiny from without. From my boyhood I have read and heard all manner of statistical facts and figures about black people. Really, they’ve told me very little about who I am, let alone who we are. We’re too big for that, and as individuals too complex. I’m not so sure we should ever find ourselves in the position of saying this general thing or that general thing about black people, expecting our words to discover the essence of our “true self-consciousness,” for when we do, we will be doing no more than talking about black people, talking around them, never quite getting it right, never pinning us down, never quite turning sound into substance, and never—much like the way sharks course around caged divers—ever able to sink our teeth into flesh. Reginald McKnight, p. 180

Try to use the quotes in several different ways throughout the exercise:

a) Use a signal phrase followed by a comma:

McKnight says,

McKnight claims,

b) Use your own  complete sentence, then a colon, followed by the quotation  (which must also be a complete sentence.) Notice that I’ve also left out a brief phrase by inserting the ellipses.

McKnight thinks that negative messages from his own black community are as bad as racist attitudes among other races: “generalizations from within are . . . as fragmenting as scrutiny from without” (180).

Work the quotation right into your own sentence  (and here I’ve used brackets to indicate a slight change in wording in his sentence):

He thinks that people who want to pin down “black people” as one thing or the other are like “sharks cours[ing] around caged divers” (180).

You need to be sure you are using the correct methods to add the quote to your sentence. Each sentence can be complete several ways; be sure that whatever way you choose, you use the correct signals and punctuation. You may add words or alter the prompt slightly.

1. McKnight doesn’t want us to think that he is just restating a cliché; he claims,

2. McKnight wants to show that statements made by other black people can be just as harmful as those made by white people:

3. He claims that all of the “facts and figures” he has heard don’t do much to explain his culture to him

4. McKnight wants us to see “black people” not just as a group, but

5. Trying to pin down “blackness” to a certain set of qualities doesn’t do justice to the complicated natures of black individuals

6. McKnight uses the image of sharks biting to explain how vicious people can be about each other

7. He doesn’t think words can ever explain our true selves

8. He doesn’t want us to continue the mistakes of the past

Option 11: Grading

Students can use Word to develop and modify evaluation rubrics. Creating such rubrics allows students to consider their audience’s expectations, and it gives them an active role in the grading process.

Sample Exercise: Grading Rubric

(Alison Mandaville)

Rationale:  In this exercise students use the  Insert Table  feature of Word to develop a grading rubric for essays which they will then apply to peer essays and, finally, to their own writing. Students work in groups at the computers to develop the rubric and then can either work in groups or alone to use the rubric to grade each other’s work. The nice thing about doing this on the computer is that students can then print out a copy which looks official and which all group members can read. In addition, the rubrics can be used later to project on the overhead for whole class discussion/modification. My students’ rubrics are fairly general, but you may also have students make rubrics that are very specific to a particular assignment/topic.

Spending the time making their own chart, agreeing on definitions and criteria for each score and then applying this rubric to their own work is a great way to both examine closely the elements of a good essay and begin to be able to systematically evaluate their own writing. For 104-5 students in particular, I think this exercise is useful in helpful empower students to evaluate their own work and begin to establish some control over their ability to understand and improve their grades. The group aspect reinforces all those good group skills and makes what could be a fairly dry exercise much more fun. There can be some tension around grading each other, so I retain final authority in assigning grades, but find that their grading gets more and more effective the more they do it until sometimes I have few changes to make.

The Exercise:  The easiest way to create a table in Word is to use the “Insert Table” icon on the pictorial toolbar. First place you cursor in your document where you want the table to be. Then Left click on the icon that looks like a mini-table with a blue band at the top--the one without an Excel symbol on it. Hold down the mouse as you draw the size of your chart. When your chart is the size you want, release the mouse button, and the chart will drop in where your cursor was.

Students work together (one student creates the table and types in information OR everyone makes their own after agreeing on criteria) to label the chart (terms to define on one axis and scores on the other) and define the criteria for scoring an essay. The terms you ask them to define will depend on what you’ve been working on—you may ask them only to do one or two to start, adding another criteria with each assignment.

Students work to evaluate a draft of each other’s essays based on their own rubrics.

Large group discussion following the group exercise can help fill out individual groups’ charts and pinpoint areas of fuzziness re: writing criteria.

NOTE:  Resist the impulse to create the chart for the students because first, it’s good to know how to make a chart, and second, the terms you ask them to define, and the scale you ask them to use will become much more firmly entrenched if you have them set it all up.

Option 12: Reflection

At the end of an assignment sequence, you can ask create a short reflection exercise that allows students to reflect upon both their essay and the usefulness of activities in the sequence. Students can type their responses into the document and save the file to an evaluation folder.

Sample Exercise: Reflecting on the Writing Process

1. How did the process of writing this essay help you to develop as a cinema studies thinker and writer? Did comparing and contrasting two films give you any insight into patterns and shifts in the horror genre?

2. Which elements of your first draft (thesis paragraph, use of evidence, organization, etc.) did you revise most extensively? How have those revisions made the essay stronger?

3. If you could still revise your essay, what would you revise? Why?

4. Which aspects of the writing process for this essay did you find easy? Which did you find difficult? Why?

5. Please offer a grade for each of your peer reviewers, using the following scale and explaining to what extent each reviewer's comments helped you to revise.

Plus:  An extremely useful evaluation Check:  A mostly useful evaluation Minus:  Not very useful overall (perhaps not complete)

6. How did the process of reviewing other writers' work influence your revision process?

7. Was the flexibility of the peer critiquing method (paper, Word) useful? Do you have any suggestions for organizing the peer critique process for Essay #3?

8. Did issues discussed in the conference and my comments on your paper or Web site help you to revise your work? Why or why not?

9. Which activities and homework (responses, brainstorming sheet, discussion of lecture arguments and responses, in-class clip analyses and comparison presentation, essay workshop) did you find most and least helpful in writing your first draft? Why?

10. What types of activities and homework would you like to do in preparation for our next paper, an analytical essay that incorporates research?

Useful Advanced Features

Word is a powerful program with more features than it is possible to cover in a manual of this scope. However, the following table highlights some of the features available through Word 2007that are most useful to a writing classroom. More extensive information on how to use these features can be found in the on-line Word  Help  menu and in the sample exercises in this manual that make use of these features.

•   Instagram
•   Newsletter

• Health Science
• Business Education
• Computer Applications
• Career Readiness
• Teaching Strategies

«  View All Posts

Computer Applications | Microsoft Office

Microsoft Word Lesson Plans and Activities to Wow Your Students

• Share This Article

January 7th, 2022 | 5 min. read

Print/Save as PDF

Computer applications teachers are always looking for new and exciting ways to teach Microsoft Word to their middle and high school students. 

Rather than spending hours upon hours creating your own lesson plans, you want something that you can simply integrate into your existing computer applications curriculum.

At iCEV , we work with thousands of middle and high school teachers who teach Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in their classes.

And while we provide a Microsoft Office curriculum, our solution may not be the right fit for everyone. Because of this, we've put together a list of other resources you can use to put together your Microsoft Word lesson plans.

In this post, you'll discover three popular places to find Microsoft Word lesson plans:

• Teachers Pay Teachers

We'll discuss what each resource is, the pros and cons, and what scenario it works best for. After reading this article, you should have a better idea if one would work well in your classroom.

Related Resource: Microsoft Office Lesson Plans Your Students Will Love

1. Microsoft Word Tutorials from GCF Global

What is GCF Global?

GCF Global is a database of teaching resources created by  Goodwill Industries . Their Microsoft Office curriculum includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access lessons for Office 2016, 2019, and 365 editions.

Specifically for Word, you'll find 35 lessons that range from the basics of opening a document to advanced features like mail merge.

These lessons include video walkthroughs and accompanying text for different aspects of the applications. After working through all of the lessons, students can then take a quiz.

Pros of GCF Global

• The material is free to access for teachers and students.
• GCF hosts their material online, allowing students to complete the work wherever they have internet access.

Cons of GCF

• The video-based modality leaves little room for interactions between you and your students.
• The material only covers the subject matter at a high-level.
• The content is open to anyone, which means it's not specifically designed for middle or high school students.
• There is no ability to track student progress or grade work outside of the built-in quiz.

Where GCF Global Might Work Best For You

GCF Global is a good way to get started with  teaching Microsoft Office  i f you want to explore resources without investing money. And t he ease of access to videos means that students can practice at home to reinforce classroom teaching.

While it won't serve as a full Microsoft Office curriculum, GCF can easily supplement an existing curriculum for teaching Microsoft Office.  

2. Teachers Pay Teachers

What is Teachers Pay Teachers?

Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) is an online marketplace where educators can share, sell, and buy resources like lesson plans, activities, and posters.

The resources are uploaded to the TpT marketplace by “Teacher-Authors” from around the world and cover a variety of subject areas and grade levels.

For Microsoft Word, you can find hundreds of lesson plans and activity ideas from vendors such as TechCheck Lessons, That Tech Chick, and Computer Teacher Solutions.

Pros of Teachers Pay Teachers

• You can choose from a huge library of Microsoft Word lesson plans and activities, with new items added on a regular basis.
• Many of the TpT materials are pretty affordable, especially if you're only picking a couple to add to your existing Microsoft Office curriculum.

Cons of Teachers Pay Teachers

• As an open education resource, there isn't much quality control to confirm the effectiveness or accuracy of the materials.
• Authors aren't required to update or maintain their materials. That means you may find some extremely outdated or irrelevant resources.
• Grade levels are chosen by the author, who ultimately wants as many people as possible to buy their resource. As a result, a single Microsoft Word resource could be listed as "appropriate" for elementary school, middle school, high school, and higher education.

Where TpT Might Work Best For You

Using the Microsoft Word lessons and activities from Teachers Pay Teachers depends on your needs.

If you're looking for supplemental resources to fill gaps in your existing curriculum, TpT is a great option.

3. Study.com

What is Study.com?

Study.com is a subscription-based educational website designed to give teachers resources to teach students in a variety of different fields, including career and technical education.

Study.com offers a lesson plan for Microsoft Word aligned to Common Core State Standards that allows students to learn through a tutorial video and interacting with the application.

Pros of Study.com

• The plan is straightforward and comes with a tutorial video to get students started.
• The lesson is aligned to Common Core standards, making it easy for teachers to see where it fits into their curriculum.
• The lesson plan comes with other Microsoft Office resources available on Study.com.

Cons of Study.com

• Beyond the introductory video, teachers will need to guide students in completing the lesson.
• There is only one hour's worth of material here, so you might need additional materials on Microsoft Word.
• You’ll need a subscription to Study.com to access this lesson plan and other resources.

Where Study.com Might Work Best For You

Study.com provides a good introductory lesson plan for students new to Microsoft Office.

If you already subscribe to Study.com or are interested in some of the many other CTE resources the site has available, it might be a good choice for you. Consider incorporating this lesson into your classroom as a supplementary resource.

Which Microsoft Office Lesson Plans are Right for Your Classroom?

Overall, GCF, TpT, and Study.com offer excellent supplemental materials to help you better keep students engaged when learning Microsoft Word.

However, if you teach Microsoft Word you likely also teach Excel, PowerPoint, and other technology topics.

If that's true for you, consider looking into a more robust computer curriculum option, like Business&ITCenter21 .

Business&ITCenter21 is a digital curriculum used by thousands of computer teachers like you to teach Microsoft Office, Google Apps, digital literacy skills, coding fundamentals, and more.

With this ready-made curriculum, teachers regularly save 5+ hours per week with planning and grading.

Wondering if Business&ITCenter21 could help you save time while better engaging students in Microsoft Office lessons? 

9 Microsoft Word Tips to Edit Your College Assignment Faster

Struggling to edit your college assignments efficiently? Here are some useful Microsoft Word tips to accelerate your editing process and save time.

Assignments at the college and university levels are research-heavy, and you’re often expected to produce write-ups with a significant number of pages. Just when you think you’re done with producing the required word count, the next step is equally challenging and time-consuming: editing.

From keyboard shortcuts to simple, built-in features such as Find and Replace and the automatic table of contents, here are several tips you can use to edit and format your college assignment more efficiently in Microsoft Word.

1. Leave Paragraph Spacing as Your Last Step

Let’s first start on the right track. When you have a 3,000-word essay or report ahead, it’s tempting to set double-spacing when you only write a few sentences or a paragraph at most. It gives the comforting illusion that you have done more work than you actually have.

But to be more efficient at the final editing stage, it’s best to leave paragraph spacing as your last step. This way, you save time because you don’t have to scroll up and down much more than you need to while navigating through different sections and pages of your text.

2. Learn to Utilize Keyboard Shortcut Keys

Keyboard shortcuts make editing and formatting much faster compared to using a mouse. For example, when you use your mouse to select some words, you’ll probably miss a letter or two and have to re-highlight, or overshoot and include a period when you don’t need to.

In this case, you can select text accurately by using Ctrl + Shift , and the left and right arrow keys in Windows. There are many more Microsoft Word keyboard shortcuts that will enable you to get most editing done on the keyboard, without having to switch to your mouse or trackpad. Don’t underestimate the amount of time you save with this method!

3. Hide the Headers and Footers

When you’re reading through a continuous body of text, the blank headers and footers may feel disruptive. To have a smoother reading and editing experience, hide the headers and footers to join all the pages together.

Hover your cursor over the gray space between your current page and the next, then double-click. When you need to use the headers and footers in Microsoft Word again, unhide them by hovering your cursor over the page separator line and double-click.

4. Collapse the Headings and Subheadings

For long report-style assignments, you’ll likely split your content into headings and subheadings. As you move from one section to the next, or jump between sections to rewrite and edit, make it easier to scroll through your text by collapsing the headings.

Hover over the heading title, then click the triangle icon that appears next to it to hide the content. If you want to hide all headings at once, right-click on any heading, and select Expand/Collapse > Collapse All Headings .

5. Automatically Sort References by Alphabetical Order

The works cited list is an essential section in any higher education assignment and is usually sorted by alphabetical order. You’ve likely added references to the list as you cite them in your essay, but when it comes to sorting at the end, it’s unfeasible and time-consuming to sort them manually. You can simply sort them automatically in Microsoft Word.

Select all your references and go to the Home tab. Under the Paragraph section, click the Sort icon (A and Z, with a downward arrow). In the Sort by field, choose Paragraphs . In the Type field, select Text . Then, select Ascending and click OK . The list will now be sorted by alphabetical order.

However, you might notice a couple of outliers. For example, when some references start with symbols instead of a letter, they will all likely be pushed to the very top. These are the few ones you’ll then need to manually reinsert into your list correctly.

6. Use Find and Replace to Avoid Spelling Mistakes

Whether they’re textbooks or journal articles, every student has probably encountered authors with surnames that are a little tricky to spell. Typing the name over and over for each in-text citation is prone to human error. To avoid misspellings, you can use Find and Replace.

First, use a unique abbreviation as a placeholder when you write your assignment. I recommend including a number in this abbreviation. This is because if your abbreviation only consists of letters, there’s a chance that this short combination of letters may have appeared elsewhere, as a part of a word, in your essay.

Once you’re done with the body content, it’s time to replace the abbreviation with the actual surname. In the Home tab, click Replace in the Editing tab. In the Find what field, type your abbreviation. In the Replace with field, type the actual author's name. Then, click Replace All . All your abbreviations will now be replaced with the correct author surname.

7. Insert Your Picture Into an Invisible Table

If you haven’t quite got the hang of formatting pictures in Microsoft Word, here’s a simple alternative that helps guarantee your image won’t cause your text to break up at weird places: insert your picture into an invisible table.

Go to the part of the text where you want your picture to appear. Press Enter to go to a new paragraph. Head to the Insert tab, click Table , and select one box to create a 1x1 table. With the cursor inside your table, click Pictures > Insert Picture > This Device to upload your picture into the document.

You can resize your picture within the table. Once you’re satisfied, highlight the table, go to the Table Design tab, click Borders > No Border . The black table border will then disappear. Your picture now appears to be perfectly fitted between two paragraphs of text.

8. Have an Overview of Multiple Page at Once

When you’re almost done editing, it’s best to scroll through all the pages to make sure there are no odd blank pages, separate sections, or incorrect image displays. But if you have more than 20 pages worth of content, scrolling through that much content quickly is just dizzying.

Instead, go to the View tab. In the Zoom section, click Multiple Pages . This zooms out your Microsoft Word document , so you can view two or three pages at once. You can also click the Zoom slider at the bottom right to zoom out even more and view more pages at once.

9. Automatically Create a Table of Contents

One of the final assignment components is the table of contents. If you’ve been manually keying in each heading, typing a line of periods that end with the heading’s corresponding page number, and double-checking the said page number yourself, it’s time to let Microsoft Word handle the task.

First, make sure you have applied the correct style to your headings. You can check this by clicking on each heading and see which style is selected in the Home tab. Then, number the pages of your Microsoft Word document .

Finally, go to the blank page where you want to insert your Table of Contents. Head to the References tab, click on Table of Contents , and select one of the Automatic Tables . Microsoft Word instantly generates a table of contents for you.

Improve Your Editing Process in Microsoft Word

By applying the above tips, you can revise your assignment more quickly and effectively without burdening yourself with eye fatigue. Cut down on the excessive scrolling and other manual tasks that can be done automatically by Microsoft Word.

Plus, saving time on editing means you have even more time to proofread and review your essays thoroughly, enabling you to produce higher-quality essays and reports.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Word Practice 1

Here is a video demonstrating the skills in this practice. Please note it does not exactly match the instructions: 

Complete the following Practice Activity and submit your completed project.

For our first assignment in Word, we will create a flyer to be printed or posted online. The flyer will advertise a volunteer opportunity for Health Sciences students at Paradise Valley Community College. Key skills in this practice are inserting text and pictures, textboxes, formatting text and footers.

• Start Word. Click Blank Document .
• Show formatting marks by navigating to the Home Tab, Paragraph Group, and selecting the Show/Hide icon. This is a Toggle Button . This means it has two modes, on and off.  To turn it on, click it once, to turn it off, click it again.
• Show the ruler by navigating to the View tab, Show Group, and selecting the Ruler Check Box . A Check Box is a type of input control . A checkboxes value is only included in the submitted data if the checkbox is currently checked. In other words, when the box is checked, the value is included.
• Navigate to the File Tab to enter Backstage View. In backstage view, select File, then Save As.  Click the Browse button. In the Save As dialog box , navigate to your file structure from the previous chapter, then open the Word folder. In the Name field, type Yourlastname_Yourfirstname_Word_Practice_1 as the file name, and then save.
• Type Volunteer Opportunity Available and press Enter twice.
• Type the following text: This fall, Paradise Valley Community College is offering a unique volunteer opportunity for Health Sciences students . Press spacebar.
• Navigate to the Insert Tab, Text group, and choose the Object arrow. Then choose text from file. In the Insert File dialog box, browse to the location where you saved the files from Canvas. Select the file Text_Word_Practice1. Click OK. The text will automatically update your document.
• Select all of the text in the document. On the Home Tab, Font Group, ensure the Font is Calibri and font size is 12.
• Select the title, Volunteer Opportunity Available, including the paragraph mark. On the Home Tab, Font Group, select the arrow next to Text Effects and Topography . In the third row, third column, a pply the Fill: Blue, Accent color 5; Outline: White, Background color 1; Hard Shadow: Blue, color 5 text effect.
• With the title still selected, change the font size to 36.
• On the Home Tab, Paragraph Group, choose Center to align the title centered on the page.
• On the Home Tab, Font Group, change the font color to Blue, Accent 1 for the title.
• With the title still selected, on the Home Tab, in the Font Group, choose the arrow next to the Text Effect and Typography icon. Apply a Shadow and under Inner, click Inside: Right text effect.
• Position the insertion point at the beginning of the paragraph that begins with This Fall.
• On the Insert tab, Illustrations group, choose Pictures . Navigate to your saved files from Canvas  and choose the HSPicture_Word_Practice1 image.
• Be sure the picture is selected, and apply the Square text wrapping  option.
• Using the sizing handle at the lower right hand corner of the picture, drag up and to the left until the bottom of the graphic is aligned at approximately 3.5 inches on the vertical ruler.
• Click Undo to return the picture to its original size. The Undo icon is located in the quick access toolbar in the upper left hand corner.
• On the Picture Tools, Format tab, in the size group, change the shape width to 4”.
• On the Quick Access Toolbar , click the Save icon.  Then, compare your document to the image below.

• Ensure the picture is still selected. Display the Layout dialog box by selecting the Layout Options  shortcut menu, then choose see more. In the Layout dialog box for the picture, make sure the Position tab is selected.
• Set the horizontal alignment to Left, relative to Margin.
• Set the vertical alignment to Top, relative to Line. Select OK to close the dialog box.
• With the picture selected, apply the Soft Edges 10 Point picture effect. This is on the Picture Tools Format Tab, Picture Styles group, under Picture Effects, Soft Edges.
• With the picture selected, on the Picture Tools, Format tab, in the Adjust Group choose the Artistic Effects arrow. Apply the Pastels Smooth artistic effect. Dese lect the picture .
• On the Design Tab, in the Page Background Group, select Page Borders. Add a page border selecting the:
• Shadow setting
• Triple Lines style
• Blue, Accent 1 color
• Whole document
• Position the insertion pointer at the blank paragraph below the title and press Enter six times.
• On the Insert Tab, in the Illustrations group, choose Shapes . Insert a Rounded Corners Rectangle shape at the left margin at approximately 1.5 inches on the top ruler. Click once to insert a 1-inch by 1-inch Rounded Rectangle, or use the drag and drop feature.
• On the Drawing Tools, Format Tab in the Size group, Change the shape height to approximat ely 1.8 and the shape width to 6.4.
• Select the Rectangle shape and type the following text: For more information, please contact Grace Smith at 602-787-6714. Or, email [email protected]
• Italicize the text, change the font to Calibri and increase the font size to 16. Deselect the text.
• Select the same text as above and explore the mini-toolbar , by clicking the Font Color button arrow and under Theme Colors, click on Blue, Accent 5, Darker 50%.
• With the shape still selected, go to the Drawing Tools, Format Toolbar, the Shape Styles  Group. Select the arrow next to Shape Outline and under Theme Colors, click on Blue, Accent 5, Darker 50%. Change the weight to 3pt.

Compare your document to the image below.

• Using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+END , navigate to the end of your document. If your keyboard does not have these keys, click to put your insertion point after the period on opportunity. Hit enter 3 times.
• Your insertion point should be approximately at the 8” mark on the side ruler. On the Insert tab, in the text group,  click the arrow next to the textbox and draw a text box at approximately the 1”mark on the vertical ruler.  Draw a text box by dragging down to create a text box that is approximately 1.5 inches high by 4.5 inches wide. Type the following in the text box: Volunteering is an excellent way to gain service hours. Service hours are required for entry into some Health sciences programs, and looks great on your resume. Dedicating your time as a volunteer helps you make new friends, expand your network, and boost your social skills.
• Select and Drag the textbox, by clicking and holding on the outer edge,  until the horizontal green alignment guide  displays above the first blank paragraph mark and the vertical green alignment guide displays in the center of the page. To be more precise:
• In the Layout dialog box on the Position Tab for the text box set the horizontal alignment to Centered, relative to Margin.
• Set the Vertical alignment by typing .25 in the Absolute position box and selecting Below Paragraph .
• On the Size tab, type 1.5 in the Absolute Height box and 4.5 in the Absolute Width box. Then, click OK.
• With the textbox still selected, on the Drawing Tools, Format Tab, in the Shape Styles group Apply the Colored Outline – Blue, Accent 1 shape style.
• Under Shape Effects , apply the Offset Center outer shadow shape effect to the text box.
• Select the text in the text box, change the font size to 13 italics, and center the text.
• Save the document. Compare your document to the image below.

• On the Insert tab, in the Header & Footer Group, choose Edit Footer. On the Header & Footer Design Toolbar, in the Insert Group, choose Document Info.  Use Document Info to insert the file name in the footer. Select the File Name Field . The File Name should display in the lower left hand footer of the document.  Do not type it in, rather use the Document Info Field.
• In Backstage view, click on Show All Properties, and type the following:
• In the Tags box: trainee, flyer, internship
• In the Subject box: Your course name and section number
• In the Author box: Your first and last name
• Turn off formatting marks. As a reminder, formatting marks are on the Home Tab, Paragraph Group.
• Take a moment to compare your document to the image below and make any modification based on what you have learned.
• Using Find and Replace, (Home tab | Editing | Replace), change all instances of pvcc and Paradise Valley to spscc or South Puget Sound.

• Zoom in to view the document in a larger size. Zoom is located in the lower right hand corner of the Word window.
• Save again, and ensure you have your file saved in a safe location. Take note of that location because you will need to find your file to upload it for grading.
• Submit the file for grading per your instructor’s instructions.

A starting point for creating a new document in Microsoft Word

Characters that display on the screen but do not print, indicating where the Enter key, the Spacebar, and Tab key were pressed, also called non printing characters

A button that can be turned on and off by clicking it once to turn on, and clicking again to turn it off

A small box which can be clicked to indicate a check is turned on or off to indicate an on or off response

Allows the user specify the drive, directory, and name of a file to save their file

Decorative formats, such as shadowed or colors that make text stand out

Images or graphics that are stored locally on a computer or flash drive and can be uploaded to a document to add visual interest

The manner in which text displays around an object

Located above the Ribbon (top-left) and provides access to commonly used features and commands, such as Save and Undo/Redo, and is customizable

Picture formatting options that control the manner in which text wraps around a picture or other object

Formats applied to images that make pictures resemble sketches or paintings

A decorative border that appears outside the margins on each page and can be solid, dashed, or an artistic style

Lines, arrows, starts, banners, ovals, rectangles, and other basic shapes with which you can illustrate an idea, a process or a workflow

Appears whenever you right-click text in Word, Excel or PowerPoint and provides a quick-access version of the Font group on the Home tab, plus a few extra buttons from other groups

Allows you to apply preset colors and effects to quickly change the appearance of your shape

Allows you to change the outline color, weight (thickness), and style of a the outline surrounding a shape

One or more keys used to perform a menu function or other common functions

A moveable, resizable container for text or graphics

A green vertical or horizontal line that displays when you are moving or sizing an object to assist with proper placement

A grouping of coordinating effects that can be applied to a shape including shadows, glows, reflections, soft edges, bevels, and three-dimensional (3-D) rotations

Placeholders that store and display data, and can perform simple tasks like returning the page number or current date and time

Any word, phrase, or number string related to the file that may help you locate the file later

Intro to Microsoft Office Copyright © 2021 by Abby Rusu & Maricopa Millions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

• WordPress.org
• Documentation
• Learn WordPress
• Members Newsfeed

20 Microsoft Word Activities for Middle School Students

• Middle School Education

1. Introduction to Microsoft Word: Begin by teaching students the basics of opening and closing documents, along with formatting text and paragraphs. This will give them a solid foundation for using Word in the future.

2. Font Exploration: Allow students to experiment with different fonts, sizes, and colors to create unique and eye-catching designs.

3. Personal Biography: Students can write a brief personal biography or autobiography, practicing their formatting skills, such as headers, bullet points, and indentation.

4. Themed Brochure: Students create a brochure for a fictitious event or destination utilizing images, text boxes, and different formatting options.

5. Creating Tables: Teach students to create tables in Word for organizing data or creating simple charts.

6. Collaborative Storytelling: Assign groups of students to create a shared story using Word’s collaboration feature, adding a sentence or paragraph one at a time.

7. Label Making: Instruct students to design their own labels or stickers using Word’s template library.

8. Interview Questions: Have students create a list of questions for an imaginary interview with their favorite celebrity, then format the document professionally.

9. Newspaper Article Writing: Students write a short newspaper-style article about an event occurring at their school or community.

10. Creative Book Cover Design: Using Word’s formatting tools and images from various sources, students design their own book covers inspired by their favorite stories.

11. Recipe Cards: Students type up and format a family recipe on card-sized documents that can be printed out later in class.

12. Class Newsletter: Assign different sections to groups of students who collaborate on creating a monthly class newsletter using Word templates and features like columns and page breaks.

13. Letter Writing: Teach students the proper format for writing personal letters or business correspondence while using Word’s various font choices and layout options.

14. Poetry Anthology: Have each student type up one of their own poems and combine them all into a professionally formatted anthology using Word.

15. Infographic Creation: Encourage students to create visually appealing infographics with Word’s Shapes, Clip Art, and SmartArt tools.

16. Market Research Survey: Students develop a survey in Word, utilizing tables or checkboxes for data gathering.

17. Reading Log: Have students create and maintain a reading log, documenting the books they’ve read and their thoughts or ratings.

18. Vocabulary Lists: Students can practice new vocabulary by creating weekly word lists complete with definitions, part of speech, and an example sentence.

19. Creating Forms: Teach students how to create fillable forms within Word, incorporating checkboxes, text boxes, drop-down lists, and more.

20. Resume and Cover Letter Tutorial: Provide students with guidance on crafting a resume and cover letter using Microsoft Word templates while cultivating valuable career skills for the future.

Related Articles

Starting at a new school can be an exciting yet nerve-wracking experience…

Introduction: As middle schoolers transition into more independence, it's crucial that they…

1. Unpredictable Growth Spurts: Middle school teachers witness students entering their classrooms…

Pedagogue is a social media network where educators can learn and grow. It's a safe space where they can share advice, strategies, tools, hacks, resources, etc., and work together to improve their teaching skills and the academic performance of the students in their charge.

If you want to collaborate with educators from around the globe, facilitate remote learning, etc., sign up for a free account today and start making connections.

Pedagogue is Free Now, and Free Forever!

• New? Start Here
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• Registration

Don't you have an account? Register Now! it's really simple and you can start enjoying all the benefits!

We just sent you an Email. Please Open it up to activate your account.

I allow this website to collect and store submitted data.

Templates for college and university assignments

Include customizable templates in your college toolbox. stay focused on your studies and leave the assignment structuring to tried and true layout templates for all kinds of papers, reports, and more..

Keep your college toolbox stocked with easy-to-use templates

Work smarter with higher-ed helpers from our college tools collection. Presentations are on point from start to finish when you start your project using a designer-created template; you'll be sure to catch and keep your professor's attention. Staying on track semester after semester takes work, but that work gets a little easier when you take control of your scheduling, list making, and planning by using trackers and planners that bring you joy. Learning good habits in college will serve you well into your professional life after graduation, so don't reinvent the wheel—use what is known to work!

404 Not found

Assignments

Create an assignment in Microsoft Teams

Assign quizzes in Microsoft Teams

Turn in an assignment in Microsoft Teams

View and navigate your assignments (student)

View and navigate your assignments (educator)

Manage assignments on a mobile device

Grade, return, and reassign assignments

Delete an assignment in Microsoft Teams

Add a tag to your assignment

Adjust assignment settings in your class team

Assign work to multiple classes at once

Create group assignments or assign to individual students

Create and manage grading rubrics in Microsoft Teams

Collaborate with other educators on a form or quiz

Edit an assignment in Microsoft Teams

Schedule work to assign later

Save an assignment as a draft in Microsoft Teams

Repost an assignment in Microsoft Teams

Add MakeCode activities to assignments in Microsoft Teams

Send weekly assignment summaries to parents and guardians

Turn-in celebrations in Microsoft Teams assignments

Use Turnitin with Microsoft Teams

Edit Word documents in Teams for Education

Use OneNote Class Notebook in Teams

Review student work in Class Notebook

Provide written, audio, or video feedback in Class Notebook

Deleting and restoring a OneNote Class Notebook that's linked to a Microsoft Teams assignment

Assign quizzes from Microsoft Teams without affecting individual Forms limits

Need more help?

Want more options.

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

Microsoft 365 training

Microsoft security

Accessibility center

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

Ask the Microsoft Community

Microsoft Tech Community

Windows Insiders

Microsoft 365 Insiders

Was this information helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

22 Basic Microsoft Word practice exercises for beginners

Microsoft Word Exercises for Practice: –  This article is very important for a basic computer course, for college and school students learning Microsoft Word online and offline. In this, you will get the best ideas on how to learn and practice Microsoft Word.  And you can explore the capabilities of Microsoft Word as a business software in this post.

The best way to learn anything is by doing exercises and creating samples of existing materials from experts. It’s ok that you know about Bold, Italic, Page Layout, Insert Menu, View options, etc. but it’s great if you can use such options in creating anything in Microsoft Word.

I mean tools are the same, but the field, seed, and process are changed. So, Can you do that with the same tools? I know farmers do it daily.

So, let’s explore how to learn Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word Exercises ideas that I think every student around the world should practice.

Microsoft Word practice exercises for beginners:

1. create and design admission/enquiry forms etc..

To create this kind of form, you need to use shapes, text boxes, colors, formatting options, tables, and horizontal lines in MS Word. This is a very good exercise to practice because it will give you an idea of how to use such options practically on various official documents that we use in our daily official life.

These days many people do not create forms and charts usually they download them. That makes the forms boring. And often you see similar kinds of formats in forms. But as a student or teacher or small business owner if you learn to create such forms not only do you expand your thinking and creativity but you can also utilize this ability in business and job.

See a sample in the image below.

2. Create bills/leaflets/brochures. See the sample below.

Everyone has various designs of bills such as your refrigerator shopping bill, computer bill, electricity bills, and various other kinds of bills. So you can practice in Microsoft Word to create that type of bill format. It’s good for practice in which you will learn the Insert menu option, text adjustment between the table, page size, and text boxes.

3. Design E-book cover pages / Magazine front/ books front/back page using the cover page option in Insert Menu.

This practice is an advance. But try to find the books and magazine cover pages. And try to make it similar in MS Word. Imagine if you’re the designer, how you will design the same content or front page. You will learn while practicing this about the Cover Page option in MS Word or you can design without using that option. The benefit of learning this is about understanding the various practical uses of Microsoft Word in our daily lives.

4. Create Business Cards using Shapes, text, and colors.

People use Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw, and websites to create business cards nowadays automatically and manually. You can also use that. But it’s about mastering MS Word options and skills. When you create and design anything in Microsoft Word. Your basic computer skills become strong. That helps you in the future when you start working on a Computer or MS Office or MS Word. Also, basic computer skills are very important before doing any degree course in IT. So, Design the business cards similarly you see in the below sample picture.

This is an advanced exercise, but if you do it and create cards then the options you’ve learned during your computer courses in MS Word remain forever in your brain.

Related: Importance of MS Word in Education

5. Use smart art and create organizational charts and showcase relations: 

Smart Art is one of the favorite options in Microsoft Word. Smart art is used to draw diagrams that are used to showcase the content visually that will be easy to understand and manage. As you see below the smart art image Hierarchy Diagram is used to create an organizational chart or structure of the Telecom company.

This is the best method to understand and teach certain things to students, teachers, parents, and companies. You will see such organizational charts in the company’s office and government head offices.

Radial Cluster:

I have created this radial cluster diagram and organizational chart using Smart Art in Microsoft Word to showcase the difference between Managed WordPress Hosting and Shared Hosting” in one of the latest published posts. You can practice and create a similar chart to showcase the relation or useability differences.

Structural Chart: 

I hope that you can see (if not zoom in the browser using (Ctrl+ + ) both WordPress hosting and shared hosting smart images that are created in Microsoft Word.

When you practice MS Word Option to create the above diagram or any other, you get many problems. Those problems were not there while you were learning MS Word. These are the problems such as font size adjustment, lines adjustment, etc. colors, shape adjustment, etc. when you use tools or Word applications to communicate your point of view.

So, when you solve these problems by yourself or with the help of your computer course instructor it will be great for your computer knowledge and MS Office skills. Because when you solve the problem you learn very important working lessons in MS Word. This is why you’re learning.

Related:   Steps to create a simple business plan using templates in Word App

6. Make book content page or index page

This is another idea in which you need to create an index or content page of the book. In this process, you will learn about the first-line indent, hanging indent, and the perfect use of the ruler bar in Microsoft Word.

And also about a page number, and a hyperlink (if it is an eBook). You can discuss this article with your computer teachers, to allow us or provide us with similar things to practice on.

7. Try to create a similar Header and footer that you’re seeing in the Book

This is the most important option and thousands of students find it difficult to use the header and footer. It’s easier to learn header and footer one time but if you’re not practicing it in various ways or the things such as books header and footer, it’s tough for you to explain it to others.

That’s why I am suggesting you try using the different styles of header and footer. And you will get such an example from the books.

8. Insert the Image into the shape

This is a little easy. But you must know easier things more than difficult things. Because in interviews especially related to IT, people ask easier questions than difficult ones.

So, practicing even on small things is also beneficial. You don’t know when it will be helpful for you in the future.

So, insert an image into the shape. Take and draw a shape from the Illustration menu, place it on a page a little higher in size, and then double-click on the shape. Go to the shape fill option and click on the picture. As an example, you can see the following image.

Related: – Top 10 powerful uses of Microsoft Word.

9. Practice hyperlinking and creating links between Word document texts to D: /, Play songs from Microsoft Word text, and create links between internal and external files.

This is the most important option in Microsoft Word. Most of the processes on the internet contain links. The hyperlink is the starting point in which you learn how things are connected.

It’s also a great option for Web Designers or web designing teachers to teach “How website links work” by using the hyperlink as an example.

As you can see in the image below, I am displaying the connection between the play song text to the location of the song.

Now you need to select the text in which have written the play song and then insert a hyperlink (Ctrl+K) and in the hyperlink address, put the path of the song. After that press, the Ctrl button and click on the blue link, so now any song that you selected will start playing.

Here is my complete article based on the Hyperlink option: – Hyperlink Example within Microsoft Word Document

10. Design a Happy Birthday Message by using Word Art and print it.

I think it’s the easiest thing for you. You can use the Word Art option for this. You can create the best wishes message in MS Word. After that, you can print. And give it to the person. It’s about creating small things at home. This is also a good way to make kids interested in learning the computer.

Also good for students and kids to create fun things and print or give them as a gift to parents. So, they will enjoy your creativity.

11. Create a chart and show the product price comparison between years:

The chart option is very important in Microsoft Word and Excel. However, the use of the chart option and any other option in MS Word depends on the demand for a certain content type.

For example, you’re writing a book or making notes about something in which you have to write and explain the price comparison between 3-4 years. Then you can use the chart for visualizations to analyze the data.

In visual format or the chart, it’s easier for people to understand, what you mean. Also, it gets more views or focus than the content.

So, try to create the chart you’re seeing in the above image.

12. Get the newspaper and see the text-based advertisement and Design

Design and create text or image-based advertisements that you saw in the newspaper. Designing such an advertisement will be a very beneficial role for Microsoft Word students or people learning Advanced Microsoft Word skills. Advertisement designs contain high-quality images, text, and layouts. And these designs are created by experts. When students practice expert material and create similar or better than that.

I think that movement is great for learners and teachers. So, try to create as many as you like. It will make you master MS Word. And I think doing exercises after completing the class topic is the best way to learn MS Word.

13. Take a double-column book or newspaper and design or create a similar paragraph style in the Word document .

Not all often type or create content in a double column. I know computer teachers can teach you such options. But they will not be able to explain the deepest or professional uses of such options for certain reasons.

So, I will suggest that you use the column option and find the newspaper similarly as you see below and create or type the text as you’re seeing in the newspaper. And if you’re having a problem, ask your teachers. So, when your teachers teach you how to do that thing or this thing, it will be great for your knowledge.

14. Create a letterhead or identity card of any company or institution that you have and insert the Watermark with that company name in the document.

You can create an identity card, visiting card or birthday card in MS Word. As you’re seeing below this is an example of cards and letterheads. But you can find such things. And practice your MS Word knowledge in creating an identity card, and letterhead.

This will give you an idea of how to adjust the text in different shapes and areas. Also, this is a good exercise in which you learn after printing, what size you need to adjust on the page. And when you do that, you learn very precious things in MS Word.

In this video tutorial, you will get basic ideas to create a letterhead. You will get ideas to insert letterhead content in the header and footer, you will also learn how you can use watermarks in letterhead, and how to print and adjust content on the page. The video tutorial is in Hindi, but even if you’re not familiar with the Hindi language, you can still learn and watch it for practice ideas:

Step by Step Guide to create printable letterhead in Microsoft Word and Google Docs

15. Decorate a Word document with a page border, and content border, add patterns, and write beautiful text in it.

This is the easiest page layout option, in which you can learn about page borders in MS Word, text borders, color or shading on the page, and pattern.

These options are very beautiful when you’re creating eBooks, making notes, and doing anything that requires the following type of style. See the image below and try to create something similar to this one.

16. Insert Images and Practice on Format Menu and Image Options.

You can use image options and style to decorate, retouch, and adjustment of colors and brightness in MS Word. As you can see, I have created various styles and image effects. These are easy to create.

But to learn more advanced effects later in other professional software, you need to learn and practice such things during your basic computer course.

17. Insert a template or download the new template in Microsoft Word from the Internet and edit those templates with your content.

There are 100+ templates almost for anything in the Microsoft Word Template option. The top benefit of using the template is that if you don’t know how to create or design a certain thing then you can just download the template and replace the existing text with your text. And it’s done.

This is the most important option that you should learn because it’s tough when you don’t know how to design or create anything, so try to practice on 10+ templates and see what it will look like.

Related: Uses and features of Microsoft Word.

18. Practice Typography

Write 10 lines or 10 sentences and then change the font, style, color, and size of each sentence. make each one different from than previous and next..

Fonts are the face of the text. The following image displays various fonts and styles. Just create similarly. During the practice, you will learn which font will be better for the specific text. Just write 10 lines and differentiate each one.

19. Create a Tenant management form in Hindi or your native language.

We use computers or technology mainly for two reasons the one is Innovation and the second is problem-solving. There are various ways of solving problems using computers. Some problems are solved immediately or some take time. For example, you can create an accounts management software to manage business incoming, outgoings, cash flow, balance, and taxes.

Similarly, there are software and mobile apps to manage tenants. I have created this form for my office space owner. He wanted a simple solution that they could follow and manage easily. They are not that much familiar with apps and other digital methods. I told them about digital options. But they want something that can be taken care of easily and also send tenants’ details for police verification when needed.

So we created the following form and this is also an example of immediate problem-solving using a computer and Microsoft Word. Now after printing one copy of this, they can photocopy it as per the number of tenants they want to manage.

So as beginners, you can try to create a similar form by using the Table feature in Microsoft Word. For the best practice 1st create and decide on columns on rough physical paper and the details that you want. You can create a better form than this and I expect that from you.

And for Hindi or your native language, even if you do not have Hindi font or French or Spanish font on your computer or in Microsoft Word. You can use Google Translate for this, convert the word into Hindi or Spanish, and then copy and paste it into the form table column.

20. Practice to design a brochure for an event

When you try creating this brochure design in Microsoft Word, you’ll learn basic and advanced techniques. This includes using image effects, grouping shapes, adding colorful bullets, and creating textures. These skills are valuable, especially if you plan to work with Word or as a virtual assistant. But even as a Word beginner, practicing these exercises is essential for building your Word skills.

Here you can watch a free video tutorial to learn brochure design : Brochure Design Practice in Microsoft Word | Word Exercise for Beginners | Hindi Tutorial

21. Learn and Practice creating business card designs in Microsoft Word

Today, there are plenty of software options available for creating business cards, such as online tools, Adobe InDesign, Corel Draw, Photoshop, Canva, and more. However, making a printable business card may seem straightforward but does involve some technicalities and creative flair.

As a student, it’s beneficial to tackle challenging and intricate design tasks in Microsoft Word, like this business card project. This practice will help you strive for excellence and mastery of Word skills. Consider it your 21st exercise towards becoming a Word expert.

Here you can watch a complete and detailed video tutorial on this: How to Create Modern Business Card Design in MS Word | Step-by-Step Detailed Tutorial

22. Practice to create a professional-looking certificate design

Practicing certificate design and Microsoft Word is essential because it empowers you with valuable digital skills that are increasingly relevant in today’s technology-driven world. By honing your proficiency in Microsoft Word, you not only gain the ability to create professional certificates but also enhance your competence in document formatting, layout design, and image manipulation. These skills have broad applications across various personal and professional tasks, making you more adaptable and capable in a digital environment.

Furthermore, practicing certificate design offers you a practical avenue for skill development while producing tangible outcomes. It allows you to create certificates for courses, achievements, or even for your own business, helping you develop an eye for aesthetics, attention to detail, and the ability to produce polished documents. Overall, this practice not only enhances your digital competence but also provides you with a versatile skill set that can significantly benefit your personal and professional growth.

By creating and practicing below certificate design below, you will be able to explore various design options to create a professional-looking certificate. This is just a sample but along with this design, you can take it’s design to the next level.

If you want to learn how you can do it please follow this step tutorial: How to create a professional-looking certificate design in Word | Step-by-Step Tutorial in Hindi

I think if you practice Microsoft Word by working on these exercises then it will be enough to make you above average among all the students around the world doing basic computer courses or learning Microsoft Word.

Because after learning Microsoft Word, you have to work with professionals or in companies. And almost all official works are related directly and indirectly to the above exercises.

So, this is the best method to learn Microsoft Word by doing exercises. And this is about practical knowledge.

I hope these Microsoft Word Exercises ideas will be helpful for you. To learn more visit:   Top 10 Basic and Advanced Microsoft Word skills

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating / 5. Vote count:

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

7 thoughts on “22 Basic Microsoft Word practice exercises for beginners”

good practical please send more practical in winword. Thanks

These are good Practical exercises. Please send list of practicals of MS Word in Vocational IT NSQF level-1 subject code-402 class IX

please send a book which covers exercises like this

Great content! Thanks for putting this out there!

This is very nice

I have recently joined a Private Computer classes at the age of 53. Can you guide me through WORD, EXCEL, POWERPOINT & INTERNET

Is it possible for you send step by step Assignments for all the above 4 courses, so that I can evaluate whether I am learning properly or not ?

Hi, That’s a very good concern as a student “whether I am learning properly or not” I think 80% students ignore this. I will contact you by email. Age is not a problem. I expect you have strong reason or specific task or goals to learn all these three + internet in this age. Yes, I can evaluate through giving you assignment and testing it.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Genuine software, legally FREE - no cracking required!

Edit Word, Excel, and PPT effortlessly

Read, edit, and convert PDFs with the powerful PDF toolkit.

Microsoft-like interface, easy to use.

Windows • MacOS • Linux • iOS • Android

• Articles of Office solution

Microsoft Word for Students: A Comprehensive Guide [2024]

Microsoft Word has become an integral part of modern academic life, offering students a versatile platform for creating, editing, and formatting documents. In this guide, we delve into the world of Microsoft Word, addressing common questions and uncertainties students might have. Whether you're wondering about its origins, seeking student discounts, or looking for effective usage tips, this article has you covered.

Part 1. What students will Qualify to Get Microsoft Word for Free?

In the realm of digital education, Microsoft recognizes the significance of equipping students and educators with the essential tools they need. As such, eligible individuals have the opportunity to access Microsoft Word for free. But who exactly qualifies for this invaluable benefit?

Qualification Criteria:

To avail of the free Microsoft Word offering, students and teachers must meet the following criteria:

Enrollment in an Educational Institution: You must be currently enrolled in an accredited educational institution. This includes K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and vocational schools.

Valid School Email Address: Having a valid school email address is a prerequisite. This email should be provided by the educational institution and usually ends with the institution's domain (e.g., [email protected] ).

Verification of Educational Status: Some form of verification might be required to confirm your status as a student or educator. This could involve submitting your school ID, class schedule, or other relevant documentation.

Geographical Availability: The availability of this offer may vary based on your geographical location. Microsoft may have different programs or offerings in different regions.

Benefits of the Program:

Microsoft's initiative to provide Word for free to students and educators aims to foster a conducive environment for learning and creativity. By offering a suite of powerful tools, including Microsoft Word, the program:

Enhances Learning: Students can access a professional word processing tool to create assignments, projects, and reports.

Facilitates Collaboration: Educators and students can collaborate seamlessly on documents, enabling efficient feedback and teamwork.

Promotes Technological Literacy: By using industry-standard software, students gain valuable digital skills that are applicable across various disciplines.

Supports Teaching Efforts: Educators can leverage the platform to create engaging lesson plans and educational materials.

Prepares for the Future: Familiarity with widely used software like Microsoft Word prepares students for professional environments where these skills are highly valuable.

Part 2: How to Get Microsoft Word for Students

In this section, we'll guide you through the process of installing Microsoft Word for Students and accessing your free Microsoft Office 365 student account.

Step 1: Access the Microsoft Education Products Page

Open your web browser and navigate to: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/office

Step 2: Sign Up for Microsoft 365 Education

In the provided field, type in your school email address, the one provided by your educational institution.

After entering your email, click on the "Get Started" button.

Step 3: Verify Your Identity

Microsoft will prompt you to verify your identity. Enter your phone number, and they will send a verification code.

Input the received code to verify your identity.

Step 4: Sign In to Your Account

Sign in once more using your school email address.

Step 5: Download and Install Microsoft Word

After signing in, navigate to the Microsoft Word download page.

Click on the "Download" or "Install" button to begin downloading the Microsoft Office suite, which includes Microsoft Word.

Step 6: Installation Process

Follow the on-screen instructions for the installation process.

Step 7: Launch Microsoft Word

Once the installation is complete, access Microsoft Word from your computer's applications or programs menu.

Part 3: How to Use Microsoft Word for Students - Step-by-Step Guide

Microsoft Word is a powerful tool for students to create, edit, and format documents for their academic needs. In this tutorial, we'll walk you through the basics of using Microsoft Word with step-by-step instructions and images.

Step 1: Open Microsoft Word

Open Microsoft Word by clicking on its icon from your computer's applications or programs menu.

Step 2: Create a New Document

Click on "Blank Document" to start a new project.

Step 3: Formatting Text

Type your content.

Highlight the text you want to format.

Use the toolbar at the top to change font, size, style (bold, italics, underline), and alignment.

Step 4: Inserting Images

Click on "Insert" in the top menu.

Choose "Pictures" to add images from your computer.

Step 5: Page Layout and Margins

Go to "Layout" in the top menu.

Adjust margins, orientation (portrait/landscape), and page size.

Step 6: Saving and Sharing

Click on the "File" tab in the top menu.

Choose "Save" to save your document. You can also select "Share" to collaborate with others.

Step 7: Closing Microsoft Word

Click on the "X" button at the top right corner to close Microsoft Word.

Use Word, Excel, and PPT for FREE, No Ads.

Edit PDF files with the powerful PDF toolkit.

Microsoft-like interface. Easy to learn. 100% Compatibility.

Boost your productivity with WPS's abundant free Word, Excel, PPT, and CV templates.

Part 4: How to Edit Microsoft Word for Free with WPS Office

Are you in need of a modern and powerful office tool that offers a seamless editing experience? Look no further than WPS Office. This versatile suite of applications is designed to meet your document editing needs with ease and efficiency. Whether you're a student, professional, or anyone in between, WPS Office provides a free and compatible solution for your word processing tasks.

How to Download WPS Office:

To get started with WPS Office, follow these steps to download and install the suite:

Step 1: Visit the Official WPS Office Website

Open your web browser and navigate to the official WPS Office website: https://www.wps.com/

Step 2: Choose Your Platform

On the homepage, you'll find options to download WPS Office for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. Click on the download link that corresponds to your operating system.

Step 3: Start the Download

Clicking on the download link will initiate the download process. The file size might vary based on your chosen platform.

Step 4: Install WPS Office

Once the download is complete, locate the downloaded file and double-click to run the installer. Follow the on-screen instructions to install WPS Office on your device.

Step 5: Launch WPS Office

After the installation is complete, you can launch WPS Office from your applications or programs menu.

Step 6: Sign Up or Sign In (Optional)

While you can use WPS Office without signing up, creating an account can offer additional benefits, such as cloud storage and syncing across devices. You can sign up or sign in within the application.

Step 7: Start Editing

Now that you have WPS Office installed, you can start creating, editing, and formatting your documents. Whether it's a school assignment, a professional report, or any other project, WPS Office provides the tools you need.

WPS Office's compatibility with Microsoft Word documents ensures that you can seamlessly work on your existing files and collaborate with others who might be using different office software.

FAQs: Microsoft Word Pricing and Licensing

1. do you have to pay for microsoft word every year.

No, you do not have to pay for Microsoft Word every year. Microsoft offers various pricing and licensing options for its Microsoft Office suite, which includes Microsoft Word. While there is a subscription-based model known as Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) that requires a monthly or yearly payment, you can also purchase a one-time perpetual license for Microsoft Office. The subscription model typically includes additional benefits like cloud storage, regular updates, and multi-device installations, while the perpetual license provides a single version of the software without ongoing updates or cloud features.

2. Can you get Microsoft Word for a lifetime?

Yes, you can get Microsoft Word for a lifetime by purchasing a one-time perpetual license. This means you buy a specific version of Microsoft Office, and you can use it indefinitely without the need for ongoing payments. However, it's important to note that the perpetual license may not include the same level of updates, cloud services, and new features as the subscription-based Microsoft 365.

Conclusion: Empowering Your Document Journey with Microsoft Word and WPS Office

In this comprehensive guide, we've delved into the world of Microsoft Word, exploring its features, installation process, usage, and even alternatives. Microsoft Word, a cornerstone of modern document processing, stands as a robust platform for students and professionals alike, providing a versatile toolkit to create, edit, and format documents for various purposes.

Furthermore, we've introduced you to WPS Office, a modernized and powerful alternative that stands as a worthy contender in the world of office tools. With its user-friendly interface, compatibility, and the ability to handle your word processing needs efficiently, WPS Office emerges as a valuable addition to your document editing arsenal.

• 1. Students Get the Microsoft Office Suite for Free —— A Comprehensive Guide
• 2. Microsoft Word for Students Free Download Guide
• 3. 10 Best Study Apps for Students in 2024 (A Detailed Reviews)
• 4. WGU Providing Microsoft Office 365 To All Students - A Comprehensive Guide
• 5. Microsoft Word 365 For Students: A Comprehensive Guide[2024]
• 6. Student Excel: How To Get Free Excel for Students (A Comprehensive Guide)

15 years of office industry experience, tech lover and copywriter. Follow me for product reviews, comparisons, and recommendations for new apps and software.

14 Best Steps on How to Make an Assignment on MS Word

Nowadays, it is very common for students to complete their assignments using Microsoft Word. Thus, they look up how to make an assignment on MS Word. Because of the numerous options provided by MS Word, it might be difficult for a beginner to handle. All you have to do is become familiar with MS Word’s options before moving on to the assignment. 

Here in this blog, we will explain 14 best steps you need to follow in order to know how to make an assignment on MS word.

How to make an assignment on MS word 

Table of Contents

Yes, we understand that completing an assignment is challenging for most students. Because some of them are worried about completing the task like write my paper , and even if they aren’t worried, they don’t know how to use Microsoft Word effectively, which can be disastrous for many. Similarly, we are publishing this blog to teach you how to make an assignment in Microsoft Word.

Yes, we understand that completing an assignment is challenging for most students. Because some of them are worried about completing the task, and even if they aren’t worried, they don’t know how to use Microsoft Word effectively, which can be disastrous for many. This blog is being published to teach you how to make an assignment in Microsoft Word.

1. Setting the layout of the page for your assignment

On the Toolbar, select the Page Layout tab. Likewise, Page Setup options will appear.

2. Set Margins

Set the margins as follows (Standard measure for the margin):

• Bottom: 2.5cm
• Left: 2.5cm (or 3.2cm)
• Right: 2.5cm (or 3.2cm)

3. Setting Orientation of the page

• Orientation: Portrait

4. Setting Size

• Set to A4 unless otherwise specified. 

5. Setting styles

Go Back to the Home tab, You will find the Styles options in the right of the toolbar you will need to use these steps to set the headings and paragraph text for your work.

6. For Headings

Always use the first three headings (Heading 1,2 and 3)

• H1: Arial 14 pt bold
• H2: Arial 12 pt bold, italics
• H3: Arial 10.5-11 pt bold

And the text type should be Normal text

• Times New Roman 12 pt (or equivalent) 

7. To set the headings styles for your work, you will have to

• Click the small Styles icon/button.
• Select/highlight the style to modify (e.g. ‘H1’), and then right-click >Modify. Likewise, the Modify Style dialog box will appear.
• Under Formatting, You can change the font style and size as per your need.
• Click OK. 

8. Setting up your assignment as the one document

Also, your Work, including the title page and references ( not the Assignment Attachment form*), must be aggregated as a single word (.docx) report. 

Therefore, it is simpler to make one record, embed your significant headings, and enter the content from that point. But, if you decide to make separate documents while setting up your task (for example, a different record for references), you will need to copy and paste the final contents into the one-word document and finalize the formatting there.

*The assignment attachment structure is either submitted electronically as a different document or attached to a submitted printed copy.

If you face any issues related to PowerPoint or find it difficult to complete your PowerPoint homework, use our PowerPoint PPT Homework Help by Experts .

9. Inserting section breaks, page breaks, and page numbers

The document has two sections

Section 1 Contains

• The title page
• Table of contents 

Section 2 Contains

• The remainder of the assignment.

There are then page breaks within each section i.e

(e.g. between ‘Abstract’ and ‘Table of contents’; ‘Conclusion’ and ‘References’). 

To insert the Section break (i.e. make two sections)

• Position your cursor at the end of the Table of contents. (Just have this as a heading; the actual table will be added at the end.)
• From the toolbar at the top of your document, open the Page Layout tab and select Breaks>Section Breaks>Next Page. Under Section break types, select ‘Next page’. This has now divided the assignment into two sections.

Now to insert the page breaks

• Place your cursor at the foot of the title (cover) page.
• Select the Page Layout tab>Breaks>Page Breaks>Page. This has now created a page break between the title page and Abstract.
• Place the cursor at the foot of the Abstract page and repeat to make the break between the Abstract and Table of contents.
• Place a page break between the Conclusion in the next section.

10. Now to add the page numbers

For section 1:.

• Place your cursor within the title page. Click on the Insert tab and then select Page Number in the Header & Footer set of options.
• Select Top of Page>Plain Number 3 (‘right’ alignment). Do not close the Header and Footer just yet.
• Check the box for Different First Page. (This will remove the page number from the title page.)
• In the Header & Footer group of options to the left of the toolbar, select Page Number>Format Page Numbers. Select i, ii, iii .. from the Number format
• Drop-down list. Under Page numbering, click the Start at the radio button (if not already activated) and select i. Click OK.
• Close the Header and Footer. [This will paginate slightly differently from the example, with Abstract on page ii. ]

For section 2:

• Go to the start of section 2 (i.e. beginning at the ‘Introduction’) and double click on the existing page number. This will open the Header settings options.
• In the Header & Footer options section on the toolbar, select Page Number>Format Page Numbers.
• Make sure the ‘Show number on the first page is selected (i.e. the box is ticked).
• Select 1, 2, 3 from the Number format drop-down list. Under Page numbering, Click on the Start at the radio button and set the start on page 1.

11. Inserting the Table of contents

• Move the cursor under the ‘Table of contents’ heading. 
• Check the checkboxes for ‘Show page numbers’ and ‘Right align page numbers’.In the (last) Show levels box, set it to either just ‘1’ (i.e. list only the heading 1 level headings) or ‘2’ (to show both H1, and H2 headings).
• To update the table anytime, right-click on the table and it’s almost done.

12. The title page

Follow these steps as the model for your work:

• Assignment title: Arial 28 pt, italics, centered
• (Assignment number): Arial 18 pt, italics, centered
• Other details: Times New Roman 14 pt, left-justified; single tab spacing for items on the one line.

13. Word count

Show the word count properly for the body of your assignment, because it’s’ important.

• Place your cursor on the Introduction title, hold the Shift key down, and got to the end of the Conclusion.
• And then Tools>Word Count and record the number of words. 

14. Spelling and Grammar Check

Always keep an eye on spelling and sentence structure and Before you get a printed copy of your task,

What you have to do is

• Run the word spell and sentence structure, and carefully look at your Work. (Tools>Spelling and Grammar.)
• Ensure the Dictionary Language is set to English (Australia, UK, Canada).

Get the Best Excel Assignment Help Now

6 Tips On How To Make an Assignment First Page Best

8 Best Steps On How to Write An Assignment Report

4 Tips on How to Write an Assignment Introduction

6 Tips on How to Make An Assignment For High School

To this end, now you know the 14 best steps on how to make an assignment on MS Word in detail. Many times students are worried about their assignments but we are here to assist you with all your problems. You can contact our experts anytime if you have an issue with MS Office assignment help.

As a result, Our computer science assignment help experts are available for you to provide help 24/7.

Related Posts

How to Hire someone to do my Statistics Homework for Me?

Students ask to do my statistics homework for me. Although there are many online tutors or statistics homework service providing websites available to help you…

How to Get Good Grades in Exams Tips by Experts

Here in this blog, Codeavail professional experts will help you to understand how to get good grades in Exams. Notice that not all the material…

MS WORD PRACTICE ASSIGNMENT

Post a Comment

All computer notes.

हमारे सोशल मीडिया से जरूर जुड़े

हमारे facebook page को like जरूर करें, हमारे द्वारा लिखें गये पोस्ट, फ्री में कंप्यूटर सीखने के लिए नीचे क्लिक करे.

• Basic Computer Notes (72)
• Computer Tips & Tricks (45)
• Advance Excel Course in Hindi (40)
• MS EXCEL NOTES (40)
• Advance Excel Training (39)
• Computer Tips (39)
• Computer Tips in Hindi (39)
• Computer Hardware Notes in Hindi (24)
• C LANGUAGE IN HINDI (18)
• HTML NOTES (13)
• Internet Notes (11)
• MS Word Notes in English (10)
• MS Word Notes in Hindi (10)
• Accounting Course (9)
• Internet Notes in Hindi (8)
• Computer Courses (7)
• MS WORD TIPS & TRICKS (7)
• SOFTWARE ENGINEERING NOTES (7)
• JavaScript Notes in Hindi (5)
• VBA Notes (4)
• C LANGUAGE IN ENGLISH (3)
• Computer GK (3)
• Tally Prime (Accounting) (3)
• Whatsapp Trick in Hindi (3)
• CCC Computer Course (2)
• HTML NOTES IN ENGLISH (2)
• HTML NOTES IN HINDI (2)
• HTML Questions & Answers (2)
• Artificial Intelligence (1)
• Biography (1)
• CONCEPT IT CARE (1)
• CSS NOTES IN HINDI (1)
• Digital Marketing Course (1)
• Google Tips & Tricks (1)
• Hardware Software Technology Course (1)
• Laptop Tips (1)
• MS Office क्या है ? पूरी जानकारी हिंदी में । (1)
• MS Word Notes in Englis (1)
• Photoshop (1)
• Photoshop Notes in Hindi (1)
• Questions & Answers (1)
• Sarkari Yojna (1)
• Syllabus (1)

No. 1 Computer Notes in India

Popular posts.

keyboard में कितने प्रकार की keys होती है ? पूरी जानकारी हिंदी में।

नमस्कार दोस्तों!   मै विनय आपका दोस्त   vinaytips.com में आपका स्वागत …

DFA Course क्या है ? DFA Course करने के फायदे। पूरी जानकारी हिंदी में।

नमस्कार दोस्तों  मै विनय आपका दोस्त  आपका बहुत बहुत स्वागत है  आशा करता हू…

Keyboard क्या है ? कितने प्रकार के होते है ? पूरी जानकारी हिंदी में।

नमस्कार दोस्तों!   मै विनय आपका दोस्त   vinaytips.com में आपका स्वागत ह…

Contact Form

Total visitor.

Total Pageviews

Most recent, most popular, social widget.

• Power BI forums
• News & Announcements
• Get Help with Power BI
• Report Server
• Power Query
• Mobile Apps
• DAX Commands and Tips
• Custom Visuals Development Discussion
• Health and Life Sciences
• Power BI Spanish forums
• Translated Spanish Desktop
• Power Platform Integration - Better Together!
• Power Platform Integrations (Read-only)
• Power Platform and Dynamics 365 Integrations (Read-only)
• Training and Consulting
• Instructor Led Training
• Dashboard in a Day for Women, by Women
• Community Connections & How-To Videos
• COVID-19 Data Stories Gallery
• Themes Gallery
• Data Stories Gallery
• R Script Showcase
• Webinars and Video Gallery
• Quick Measures Gallery
• 2021 MSBizAppsSummit Gallery
• 2020 MSBizAppsSummit Gallery
• 2019 MSBizAppsSummit Gallery
• Custom Visuals Ideas
• Upcoming Events
• Community Blog
• Power BI Community Blog
• Custom Visuals Community Blog
• Community Support
• Community Accounts & Registration
• Using the Community
• Community Feedback

Register now to learn Fabric in free live sessions led by the best Microsoft experts. From Apr 16 to May 9, in English and Spanish.

• Unable to get count of students who have submitted...
• Subscribe to RSS Feed
• Mark Topic as New
• Mark Topic as Read
• Float this Topic for Current User
• Printer Friendly Page
• All forum topics
• Previous Topic

• Mark as New
• Report Inappropriate Content

Unable to get count of students who have submitted all assignments using DAX

Helpful resources

Microsoft Fabric Learn Together

Covering the world! 9:00-10:30 AM Sydney, 4:00-5:30 PM CET (Paris/Berlin), 7:00-8:30 PM Mexico City

Power BI Monthly Update - April 2024

Check out the April 2024 Power BI update to learn about new features.

Fabric Community Update - April 2024

Find out what's new and trending in the Fabric Community.

Contribute to the Microsoft 365 and Office forum! Click  here  to learn more  💡

April 9, 2024

Contribute to the Microsoft 365 and Office forum!

Click  here  to learn more  💡

Word Top Forum Contributors: Stefan Blom  -  Charles Kenyon  -  Suzanne S. Barnhill  -  Doug Robbins - MVP Office Apps & Services (Word)  -  Jim_ Gordon   👍✅

April 17, 2024

Word Top Forum Contributors:

Stefan Blom  -  Charles Kenyon  -  Suzanne S. Barnhill  -  Doug Robbins - MVP Office Apps & Services (Word)  -  Jim_ Gordon   👍✅

• Search the community and support articles
• Microsoft 365 and Office
• Search Community member

Ask a new question

My work reverted back to its original state and deleted version history as well, I have a link in my history, how can I get it back.

I was working on an assignment in microsoft teams, when I undid hand in, the work reverted back to the state it was in when I handed it in months ago and deleted all the editing I had done since. Because it was teams online, I have the link to the document in my browsing history, but it wont open on my computer, can you please open it and retrieve the work. It isn't in my onedrive recycling bin or saved on my computer elsewhere.

***Personal information deleted by the moderator. Please see the  Microsoft Community Frequently Asked Questions for more information on how you can protect your privacy.***

• Subscribe to RSS feed

Report abuse

Reported content has been submitted​

Replies (1) 

• Microsoft Agent |

Dear Zoe Bailey

Welcome to the Microsoft Community, we are glad to assist you.

We understand that you are experiencing an unexpected rollback to a historical version of a file in Teams, and in order to better assist you, we need to confirm some information with you.

Are you using a school or business account, or a personal account?

If you are using a school account or a corporate account , the corporate version of Teams has an archive feature, so you can contact your school's or organization's IT administrator to assist you in archiving your files.

If you are using a personal account, unfortunately you can look in your personal OneDrive to see if there is a historical version of the file that was uploaded.

If you have uploaded a file, you can try to find it in OneDrive.

Find lost or missing files in OneDrive - Microsoft Support

We hope that the above information has been helpful to you. Please feel free to reply if you need further assistance.

Thank you for your understanding and patience and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regard

Tracy | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Was this reply helpful? Yes No

Sorry this didn't help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

Thanks for your feedback.

Question Info

• Norsk Bokmål
• Ελληνικά
• Русский
• עברית
• العربية
• ไทย
• 한국어
• 中文(简体)
• 中文(繁體)
• 日本語