Frequently Asked Questions

Right now, Writelike is completely free to use. Yay!

But if you like Writelike and want to see more lessons and features produced more quickly, then you can support us by subscribing to Frankenstories, our online multiplayer writing game.

Frankenstories is great: it's fast, fun, like writing at TikTok speed in a creative hivemind.

Where Writelike is a content-heavy interactive textbook, Frankenstories is an open-ended collaborative writing tool that you can apply to any text type, genre, subject, or writing skill.

Frankenstories is free for casual play; subscriptions give you access to teacher tools that let you turn the game into a powerful, intentional teaching tool.

Subscriptions are a simple, flat, per-teacher price—and all revenue funds work on both Frankenstories and Writelike.

So if you want us to produce more lessons and features more quickly, subscribe to Frankenstories!

Account creation, student logins, and school email filtering

There are two ways to log into Writelike:

  • Email & password

  • Student code

What’s the difference? 

Email & password is the default method and provides the greatest flexibility—but it requires email authentication, which can mean spam filter headaches (and school students need to remember their password, although they can reset it themselves). 

Student codes let you skip email authentication. Teachers/moderators simply enter student names and we create six-digit codes that become each student’s unique login. However, students need to record their code and only the teacher/moderator can reset it, so there is a trade-off.

WHICH IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Using email and password

If you’re not trying to avoid email headaches, then it’s easier to get group members/students to create their own Writelike user accounts with email & password. 

Group moderators/teachers don’t need to do anything except provide the group code, and members can reset their own password if they forget/lose it.

Using student codes

If you are a teacher and want to avoid school email spam filter headaches, use the student code system, but be aware that you will have to do a bit more setup and administration yourself. 

You can create student codes by typing in names directly or via a CSV upload (if you want to upload a class roll) in the group’s management view.

You can then print a list of student names and codes, and distribute these to students.

Important security info

It is critical to understand that these codes are each student’s combined login and password, so students need to record them somewhere and protect them (because if anyone else has the code they can access the student’s account).

We recommend each student to type their code into a draft email (e.g. “Writelike student code 123ABC”) and save that for reference, and then to save the code in their browser on first login, if their browser permits it. 

If a student loses their student code, they'll need to ask the teacher/moderator tell them again.

If a student's account is compromised, they teacher/moderator can generate a new one in the Manage Group view and then provide it to the student.

Writelike and Frankenstories share a user account system:

  • If you create an email login on Writelike, you can use it to login to Frankenstories, and vice versa.
  • If you create a group in Writelike, that group will also be created in Frankenstories, and vice versa.
  • If a student has a student code, they can use it to access both Writelike and Frankenstories (and they will see their relevant groups).

However, Writelike lessons, Frankenstories games, and associated student replies are kept separate on each tool:

  • Writelike lessons and student responses are only visible on Writelike.
  • Frankenstories games and student responses are only visible on Frankenstories.
  • If you are using Writelike and Frankenstories, you can quickly jump to completed Frankenstories games for a particular group from your Manage Group view in Writelike.

Three questions:

  1. Are you logged in?
  2. Are you in Preview mode?
  3. Have you clicked Next?

Logging in

You have to be logged in!

Preview mode

Check if you are in Preview mode for the lesson by looking at the top of any lesson page. (If you open the lesson from the Home Page or the Browse page, then you'll be in Preview mode.)

If you are in Preview mode, nothing will save. You need to have the lesson assigned if you want to save your work. How you do that depends on your situation:

Are you doing the lesson for your own interest? Cool! Just hit the Assign button at the top of the page.

Are you doing this lesson as part of a class? Go to My Lessons and see if you can find your class. The lesson will be there if your teacher has assigned it. Click that version of the lesson and you will be able to save your responses. 

Click Next

At the bottom of each lesson page, the Next button saves your responses. If you want to save even when you're not finished writing, click Next and then go back and keep writing.

The short answer to this question is we take privacy and data ethics seriously, so we do our best to follow best practices. We ask for as little personal data as possible, we do our best to keep the data we hold secure, and we don't share any identifying information with third parties.

We do sometimes gather examples of user generated content on the site to show funders or other third parties how Writelike works, but we don't share any user information. If we wanted to share user attribution for any content (for instance, in promotional materials) we would ask permission first.

If you want more information, here's a link to our full Privacy Policy.

Writelike contains content from three sources:

  • Content from the Writelike team, including lessons, instructions, highlighters and worked examples
  • Content from authors and artists, including snippets and inspiration images
  • Content from users, including snippet responses and comments

Each one of these groups retain their own copyright. We use third party content under Fair Use in an educational context, with attribution. Via our Terms & Conditions, users grant us license to use their content without attribution—for instance for research or marketing purposes—though in practice we would usually ask permission and give attribution unless there was a compelling reason not to.

Check our copyright section for more information.

‘–’ Em dashes

On Mac

Hold down Shift + Option and then type a hyphen - .

On PC

Desktop

Hold Alt and type 0150 on your number pad.

Laptop

Hold Alt and type 0150 on your number pad. Alternatively, hold the Fn key and select the key for em dash, usually shown in blue (on selective laptops).