South Dakota ELA 7.W.8.c

ELA7th GradeWriting

The Standard

Quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students use another writer's data or conclusion in their own writing. They either quote the words exactly or put the idea in new wording, and name the source.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student quotes a reported result exactly, uses quotation marks, and names the source. They can also put a source's conclusion in their own words without changing its meaning, and credit the source.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think changing a few words makes a paraphrase their own, or that numbers do not need a source. Some put quotation marks around a paraphrase or copy a conclusion without naming its author.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: Show this line by Maya Chen: "Of 80 students surveyed, 52 read every week; we concluded weekly reading was common in this group." Ask students to write two sentences, one quoting the data and one paraphrasing the conclusion, with Chen credited in both.

Lesson moves

Give pairs a printed survey excerpt and highlighters; have them mark a result, a conclusion, and the author before writing two credited sentences.
Ask students to write why changing a few words in a classmate's survey conclusion still requires credit.
Play Quote or Paraphrase: show six survey claims and have teams label each, fix missing quotation marks, and add author names.
Give students a mock school lunch survey; have them write a cafeteria proposal using one quoted result and one credited paraphrase.

Free download

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