pronoun-antecedent agreement;
subordinating conjunctions to form complex sentences and correlative conjunctions such as either/or and neither/nor;
correct capitalization;
punctuation, including commas to set off words, phrases, and clauses, and semicolons; and
correct spelling, including commonly confused terms such as its/it's, affect/effect, there/their/they're, and to/two/too; and
publish written work for appropriate audiences.
compose literary texts such as personal narratives, fiction, and poetry using genre characteristics and craft;
compose informational texts, including multi-paragraph essays that convey information about a topic, using a clear controlling idea or thesis statement and genre characteristics and craft;
compose multi-paragraph argumentative texts using genre characteristics and craft; and
compose correspondence that reflects an opinion, registers a complaint, or requests information in a business or friendly structure.
generate student-selected and teacher-guided questions for formal and informal inquiry;
develop and revise a plan;
refine the major research question, if necessary, guided by the answers to a secondary set of questions;
identify and gather relevant information from a variety of sources;
differentiate between primary and secondary sources;
synthesize information from a variety of sources;
differentiate between paraphrasing and plagiarism when using source materials;
examine sources for:
reliability, credibility, and bias; and
faulty reasoning such as hyperbole, emotional appeals, and stereotype;
display academic citations and use source materials ethically; and
use an appropriate mode of delivery, whether written, oral, or multimodal, to present results.