Text-Based Writing on NoRedInk

NoRedInk supports a broad range of text-based writing assignments. For any assignment, you have the option to:

• Use texts provided by NoRedInk
• Use your own texts

Use texts and prompts provided by NoRedInk

NoRedInk offers a varied selection of high-quality and engaging texts for your students to use in their writing, whether you’re looking to assign a short Quick Write or a full Guided Draft essay.

Quick Writes

Check out our Quick Writes for Text-based Writing. From poems to short stories to nonfiction, we offer varied texts paired with multiple engaging activities. Topics range from detecting fake photos on the internet to the reimagining of quinceañera traditions, and our texts are by a wide range of authors and reflect diverse narratives.

Choose one of the prompts, or assign a sequence of questions so students can engage with a text at multiple levels and in multiple ways. Here are the types of prompts we offer:

Reflect	Accessible questions that invite students to make personal connections or think more deeply about one part or idea in a text.
Analyze	Standards-aligned questions on the key ideas and craft choices in a text for students to analyze and support with evidence. Questions deepen students’ understanding of a text and allow teachers to assess student understanding.*
Argue	Engaging prompts that ask students to take a position on an idea based on a text and develop a short argument.
Create	Unique and fun tasks that use the text as the basis for making something new; for example, students might write a poem emulating an author’s style or reimagine a story in a new time period or from a new perspective.
Prepare to Discuss	Sets of 3-4 questions for students to brainstorm answers and evidence for ahead of a class discussion. Questions start out asking about key understandings of a text in order to align on these as a class, then move on to more open-ended or provocative questions that will lead to rich discussion.

*Note: Each analysis prompt is aligned and labeled with a Common Core reading standard. If you use another set of standards, we’ve added nicknames so you can find a prompt that meets your instructional needs.

You can also assign a mentor text prompt. These skill-building assignments present students with short, authentic pieces of writing that demonstrate a specific grammar or writing skill, and then help students apply that skill in their own writing. These activities help build stronger writers by:

• demystifying strong writing by showing students how authors use discrete skills in published works
• encouraging skill transfer so that students can practice using specific grammar and writing skills in authentic, low-stakes writing tasks

Many mentor text prompts include links to practice topics that can pre-teach or reinforce the skill in the prompt, as well as links to lessons and tutorials. Consider having students complete a practice topic before seeing the skill used in a mentor text and applying the skill in their own writing.

Guided Drafts

NoRedInk provides a selection of ready-to-use texts, text sets, and prompts for analysis and evidence as students write formal essays. These offerings can help you ensure your students read high-quality texts and use credible evidence in their writing while saving time on text selection and student research.

Each text or text set comes with a selection of prompts. Pick the one you like most, use multiple, or create your own prompt. You can also add or remove texts from any set.

Persuasive	Single texts and text sets that students can use as evidence in combination with their own real-world experience. Texts include nonfiction articles and op-eds.
Argumentative	Text sets made up of 2-3 texts which students can use as evidence. Texts include nonfiction articles, op-eds, and primary sources.
Expository/ Informational	Text sets made up of 2-3 texts which students can use as evidence. Texts include nonfiction articles and reports.
Literary Analysis	Selection of prompts to support analysis of ~30 of the most commonly taught novels.
Poetry Analysis	Poems from a range of authors and time periods that students can analyze.
Rhetorical Analysis	Rhetorically rich nonfiction texts that students can analyze. Texts include essays, speeches, and op-eds.
Compare and Contrast (Text Analysis)	Text pairings for students to compare. Texts include short stories and poems, as well as nonfiction memoirs, speeches, and essays.
SAT® Essay	Texts that students can analyze in preparation for the essay portion of the SAT. You can also find texts used on past SAT exams here.

💡 We recommend that students read the texts and complete pre-writing before they begin drafting their essays. You can find resources for pre-writing here, and each assignment comes with a pdf (click "View Text" from the Assignment Library) that you can share with students in advance.

Use your own texts

If you have your own text or texts sets that you want students to write about, you can add them to any assignment along with your own prompt.

Quick Writes

In Quick Writes, add a passage to your prompt in order to easily get students responding to texts daily.

To attach a passage, simply create your own Quick Write and add a link to your text in the prompt. Students will be able to open the link to the passage in a new window while they complete the assignment. 

You can also choose from our text-agnostic prompts, which are reusable stems that work with any text. These prompts are available for nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Choose a question that works for the text you're assigning, and add your link to the prompt!

Here is more information about creating a Quick Write: Learn about Quick Writes

Guided Drafts

In Guided Drafts, students can easily view up to 8 texts side-by-side as they write essays. Here are instructions for adding passages to Guided Drafts: Adding prompts and passages to writing assignments

💡 We also offer prompt stems to help you save time when writing prompts for your own texts. You can find these in the "For Any Text" sections throughout the Assignment Library.