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The Oxford iWriter is an interactive tool designed to help you write more effectively in English. It provides models of many different types of writing and takes you through the key features of each one. It provides outline structures or frameworks for all the different types of writing, into which you can add your own content. For comparison and argument essays there are extra frameworks which allow you to structure your own essay in a slightly different way from the model essays. The iWriter helps you to plan, choose vocabulary, write, and check your own written work.
From the Home page, choose Models to view the menu of different models available.
If you select the information icon next to each model, a panel containing a brief description of the model will be displayed.
To open, just select the title of the model you are interested in.
When the model opens, you will see a guided tour of the model. Clicking on or tapping the headings in the guided tour of the model will take you through some features of the model. As you select each heading, different parts of the model will be displayed.
The panel above the model will give you more information about what is displayed below. Sometimes you will see one or more checkboxes in the upper panel which, if selected, will highlight the specific part of the text that is being referred to. You may need to scroll down to see the highlighted text. Deselect to remove the highlighting.
You can choose which parts of the model you would like to show and hide using the coloured options displayed in the bottom left or when you select the lower tab next to the Guided tour of the model menu.
Select Show structure to display the outline structure or framework that was used to organize the piece of writing. This will always be displayed in red. It gives a brief description of each section of the piece of writing, and its function. Deselect to hide the structure.
Select Show notes to display the notes that the writer of the model took before starting to write. Notes will always be displayed in green italics. Deselect to hide the notes.
Select Show content to display the content of the model. Content will always be displayed in blue. Deselect to hide the content.
You can show and hide any combination of the three elements.
From the Home page choose My Writing to view the menu of the different types of writing available.
If you select the information icon next to each title, a panel containing a brief description of the type of essay will be displayed.
Select the title of the essay you are interested in to see the files that you can open for this type of writing.
If you have not practised this type of writing before, the only option available will be Create a new project. If you have already created some projects, their names and when they were created will be listed underneath. Select the file that you want.
When you have chosen to create a new project or opened an existing project, you will see a list of headings that can be expanded to show checklists of what you should consider while creating your project. You can then use the suggested framework to structure the type of writing you have chosen. This will be displayed in the right-hand panel or when you tap the three horizontal bars in the top left. The framework will always be displayed in red. There will be spaces for you to add your own notes and then your own content. Notes will be displayed in green italics and your content will be displayed in blue.
Add text in the spaces by clicking or tapping in the box and starting to type. You can copy and paste between boxes.
Checklists
The iWriter offers help with planning, choosing vocabulary, writing, and checking your work.
The headings displayed when you open or create a project in My Writing can be expanded to see checklists of what should consider during each of these four stages. You can check off each point as you do it. To close a checklist, select the heading again
Tell me more...
In many of the checklists, you will see yellow tell me more... buttons. Click on or tap these buttons for extra hints and key words and phrases that you can use in the particular type of writing you are doing. To close a tell me more... panel, select X in the top right.
TIPS
In My Writing the red frameworks will also include extra TIPS suggesting things to think about when writing particular paragraphs.
You can choose which parts of your project you would like to show and hide using the coloured options displayed in the bottom left or when you select the lower tab next to the Checklists menu.
Select Show structure to display the outline structure or framework. This will always be displayed in red. Deselect to hide the structure.
Select Show notes to display the notes that you have written. Notes will always be displayed in green italics. Deselect to hide the notes.
Select Show content to display the content that you have written. Content will always be displayed in blue. Deselect to hide the content.
You can show and hide any combination of the three elements.
You can save your work at any time by selecting the Tools icon on the top toolbar and choosing Save or Save As. A window will appear where you can type your filename. Select OK to save.
There are three ways to reopen a project that you have already created.
You can select the relevant type of writing and then choose the name of the file from list of files that appears. Or, if you are already looking at a My Writing framework, you can select the Tools icon on the top toolbar and then select Load. This will show you all the existing projects you have for the type of writing you are looking at. Select a filename to display the project.
You can also access a saved project from the home page by selecting My Saved Writing and choosing the relevant project title.
If you are using the iWriter on a PC, exporting a project allows you to save the text that you have written, excluding your notes, to your hard drive. This feature works best on a PC. Select the Tools icon on the top toolbar and then select Export. Exported files will be saved into your download location as a text file (.txt).
If you use the Export function on a mobile device, your text may be displayed in a new browser tab.
The iWriter works on the latest version of the following Internet browsers:
- Chromium browsers (Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Opera, Brave, ...)
- Mozilla Firefox (in Private Browsing there're some issues)
- Safari (macOS, iOS, iPadOS)