CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.1d

ELA7th GradeText Types and Purposes

The Standard

Establish and maintain a formal style.

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students write arguments in a consistent academic voice suited to the audience and purpose. They choose precise language and remove slang, texting language, and chatty shifts.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students use precise words, complete sentences, and an objective, respectful tone from beginning to end. Their language fits an academic audience without sounding forced or overly complicated.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think academic writing requires long words or stiff, unnatural sentences. They may remove contractions but still use slang, vague wording, or chatty comments.
How to Assess It: Give students a four-sentence argument that shifts from academic to casual language. Ask them to revise it so the tone stays consistent and label three changes.

Lesson moves

Give pairs formal and informal sentence strips to sort, then have them rewrite two informal examples for an academic audience.
Ask students to compare two versions of a claim and explain which sounds more credible and why.
Play Tone Repair Relay, where teams revise slang, vague words, contractions, and chatty comments in a short argument.
Have students rewrite a casual product review as a formal recommendation to a school purchasing committee.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.1d, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

Learning progression

If students are struggling here, check these first.

Mastery here sets students up for these next.

Keep exploring

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