CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.2e
The Standard
Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts
What This Standard Means
Students need to write informational pieces that sound serious, clear, and unbiased. They should avoid slang, jokes, dramatic words, and personal opinions unless the assignment asks for them. They also need to keep that same tone from start to finish, not switch between casual and formal language.
Mastery looks like precise word choice, third-person wording when appropriate, facts presented without exaggeration, and sentences that fit the audience. Students often get stuck using phrases like “I think,” “really bad,” or “a lot,” or they start formally and drift into a chatty voice by the end.
Ways to Teach It
- Give students a casual paragraph about a science topic and have them revise it into a formal, objective version using a checklist.
- Ask students to explain which sentence sounds more objective: “The law was unfair” or “The law limited voting rights for many citizens.”
- Show three student-style sentences and have students mark each as formal, informal, or biased on a sticky note.
- Have students rewrite a social media post about a school event as a short article for the school website.
Related Standards
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