How do students use writing templates to complete assignments?

Webtexts may contain writing templates. Some templates guide students through an assignment step by step, then compile their responses into a document to download and submit. Other templates are standalone activities, such as reflections or practice exercises.

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Students respond to each prompt directly within the template. As they write, their work is saved automatically.

When they’re finished, they click the Add button. For templates that compile into an assignment, this adds their response to the final document. For standalone templates, clicking Add marks the template as complete and saves their response in the webtext.

If students haven’t completed each portion of the template, the Add button will not be clickable. It will appear in a lighter color until the template is complete.

Students can also change their responses after they’ve clicked Add by clicking the Edit button. They’ll just need to click the Add button again after making their changes to make sure their work is updated.

Some webtexts include revision templates, where students update the work they completed in previous templates. Once students begin their revision process on these templates, their previous templates lock and can no longer be edited. This prevents work being edited in multiple places and creating conflicting drafts.

If a student tries to edit a locked template, they will be directed to the revision template.

Depending on the webtext, some templates include a citation tool that allows students to quickly add in-text citations to their work. After clicking the part of the sentence where they’d like to place the in-text citation, students click the Add Citation button at the top of the template.

They will then choose the source they’d like to cite and respond to the prompts that follow.

Once they’ve responded to each of the prompts, the Create Citation button will become clickable.

The citation will then appear in the writing template.

If students would like to make a change to their citation, they can click on the citation and the box with citation options will reappear, allowing them to make new selections. Clicking the X button in the citation will remove it from the template.

Writing templates must be completed in order. If students do not complete the templates in order, they’ll see a message directing them back to the previous template that needs to be completed before they can move on.

A template is only considered complete once the student has clicked the Add button, so an “incomplete” template could refer to a template they’ve filled out but haven’t yet added.

Some templates combine student work into a single document, which they’ll download after adding all content to the final template. For standalone templates, students may have the option to download individual responses or, in some cases, their collected work at the end of the webtext.

Once their templates are complete, students can click the Download button to save the file to their device. The file will typically save to their Downloads folder.

If the Download button isn’t available, they’ll need to click the Add button first.

Students can then review, edit, and submit the downloaded assignment.

If students would like to quickly find the templates in their webtext, they can view the Index of Writing Templates at the bottom of the webtext’s Table of Contents. The Index of Writing Templates has a list of every template in the webtext and the page number where it is located, as well as the location of every download button.

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