CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.1d
The Standard
Establish and maintain a formal style.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts
What This Standard Means
Students need to write arguments with a school-appropriate, objective tone. They should avoid slang, texting language, jokes, first-person opinions, and emotional exaggeration. Their word choice and sentence structure should sound clear, serious, and suited to the topic and audience.
Mastery looks like a student keeping the same formal tone from the claim through the conclusion. They use precise verbs, evidence-based language, and transitions that fit an argument. Students often get stuck by slipping into “I think,” using casual phrases like “a lot,” or sounding too dramatic instead of reasoned.
Ways to Teach It
- Give pairs a casual paragraph and have them revise it into a formal argument using a word bank of academic verbs.
- Ask students to explain which sentence sounds more formal, then write a rule they can use in their own argument writing.
- Show five sentences and have students mark each as formal or informal, then fix one informal sentence.
- Bring in a school board letter or science article excerpt and have students highlight words that create a formal tone.
Related Standards
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