MyWritingLab Overview

MyWritingLab helps students become better writers through an online learning program of diagnostic tests, review materials, practice exercises, and writing assignments.

Diagnostic tests measure a student's knowledge of sentence structure, punctuation, usage, and basic grammar. Diagnostic pre-tests are typically taken at the beginning of a course, and MyWritingLab customizes a student's study plan based on the results of the pre-tests. Diagnostic post-tests, taken at the end of a course, provide a measure of a student's improvement.

The Study Plan presents a student with topics that will help to improve the student's skills. Each topic provides the following learning tools:

Watch illustrations are a student's starting point. These videos provide a refresher of concepts and examples from the current course. After viewing the Watch material, students work through progressive Recall, Apply, and Write exercises.
Recall exercises test students' knowledge of the subject at hand. These exercises are a series of multiple-choice questions, and students receive immediate feedback to their answers. The MyLab also grades students' answers and posts the grades in the Gradebook.
Apply exercises test a student's ability to identify concepts. The exercises present short essays and multiple-choice questions on the essays. Or, for a grammar exercise, students make inline corrections to a writing sample. The MyLab gives a student immediate feedback on whether the answer is correct and supporting information explaining why the correct answer is correct.
Write exercises show a student's comprehension of the writing concepts and provide an opportunity for you to communicate directly with each student. A student writes a draft based on a selected question or statement. As soon as the student submits the draft, it is available for you to review and grade. When you submit the review comments and grade, the student can review the comments and possibly submit another draft. (As part of customizing the Study Plan, you specify the maximum number of drafts a student can submit.)
Writing Practice exercises allow students to write and submit essays for automated feedback based on the six writing traits, grammar, and spelling.

Tip: Also see the video Question and Exercise Types in MyWritingLab for descriptions of the Apply, Recall, and Write exercises, the structure of each exercise's questions, the students' view of the questions, and how you access students' submissions for review and grading.

The MyLab courses provide a wide range of content for students working to advance their writing skills, and, as the instructor, you can customize the course, specifying course content, mastery levels, diagnostic testing, and which topics are available to students.