CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.5
The Standard
Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Informational Text
What This Standard Means
Students need to notice how an informational text or argument is built. They should track the order of ideas, headings, claims, counterclaims, examples, shifts, and conclusions. Then they judge how that structure affects clarity, persuasion, and reader interest.
Mastery looks like more than naming “problem and solution” or “compare and contrast.” Students can explain why the author placed a point where they did and whether that choice worked. They often get stuck summarizing content instead of analyzing structure, or they praise the writing without evidence from the text.
Ways to Teach It
- Give students a printed editorial, scissors, and envelopes, then have groups reconstruct the paragraph order and justify each placement.
- Ask students to write: Which structural choice made the argument clearer, and which choice weakened it?
- Use a three-question exit ticket: What is the structure, where does it shift, and how does one choice affect the reader?
- Bring in a college admissions essay or workplace proposal and compare how its organization helps or hurts the message.
Before This Standard
If students are struggling here, check these first.
Plan a Lesson for CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.5
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.5
Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.5
Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.5
Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to an understanding of the topic.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a...