CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.11-12.2c
The Standard
Use varied transitions and sentence structures to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts
What This Standard Means
Students need to connect parts of an informational or explanatory piece so the reader can follow complex thinking. They should use more than basic transition words. They need to vary sentence patterns, refer back to key ideas, and show cause, contrast, sequence, emphasis, and comparison clearly.
Mastery looks like writing that moves smoothly from claim to evidence to explanation across paragraphs and sections. Readers should not feel lost. Students often get stuck using repetitive transitions, dropping in evidence without context, or starting every sentence the same way.
Ways to Teach It
- Give students a printed draft and have them highlight transitions, then revise three weak links using a provided transition menu.
- Ask students to explain in writing how two pieces of evidence relate, using one contrast sentence and one cause-and-effect sentence.
- Collect one body paragraph and check for a clear link between topic sentence, evidence, explanation, and next idea.
- Show a news explainer article and have students label how the writer moves from background to problem to impact.
Before This Standard
If students are struggling here, check these first.
Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.2c
Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.2c
Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.2c
Use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts.
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