CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.2e

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 choose words and sentence structures that fit academic writing. They avoid slang, casual phrasing, and distracting personal comments while keeping the tone consistent.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students use precise words, complete sentences, and an objective tone suited to academic writing. They keep that tone consistent from the opening through the conclusion.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think formal writing requires long words, passive voice, or stiff sentences. They may also remove all personality while missing slang, contractions, casual asides, or sudden shifts in tone.
How to Assess It: Give students a short paragraph containing slang, contractions, and an overly casual aside. Ask them to revise it for a school report and underline three changes.

Lesson moves

Have pairs sort sentence strips into formal and informal groups, then revise two informal sentences using precise, objective language.
Ask students to compare two versions of a paragraph and explain which better fits a school report and why.
Play Tone Detective by having teams find slang, contractions, vague words, and casual comments in sample paragraphs.
Students rewrite a casual text message as an email requesting information from a principal, librarian, or local official.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.2e, 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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