CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.6
The Standard
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Informational Text
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify a writer’s viewpoint and intended purpose. They explain how style and content choices make an informational text persuasive, powerful, or memorable.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can state the writer’s viewpoint and purpose precisely. The student uses quoted details to explain how diction, syntax, tone, evidence, or rhetorical devices influence readers.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often name the topic instead of the writer’s viewpoint or purpose. They may label rhetorical devices without explaining their effects. They may also confuse their own reaction with the writer’s intended effect.
How to Assess It
- Give students a 150-word editorial excerpt. Ask, “What is the writer trying to make readers think or do, and how do one style choice and one content choice support that purpose?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a printed speech to color-code claims, evidence, repetition, and charged words, then label each choice’s intended effect.
Write one paragraph explaining how two word choices or sentence patterns shape the reader’s trust, emotions, or judgment.
Play Rhetoric Match by pairing excerpt cards with purpose cards, then defending each match with a style or content clue.
Compare two advertisements for the same product and identify how images, claims, and tone target different audiences.
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Printable RI.11-12.6 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.6, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
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Where This Standard Sits
See the whole path on the Reading: Informational Text progression map.
Before This Standard
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.6
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.6
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.6
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
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