Student work at the Exceeds Standards level demonstrates advanced knowledge and skills in writing. Students creatively apply knowledge and skills to solve problems and evaluate the results that contribute to the development of focus, support, and organization in writing and editing.
Focus/Topic Development
Students whose performance exceeds the Standards demonstrate advanced knowledge of topic development by analyzing the influence sentences have in effectively developing, supporting, and maintaining the focus of the text or in reaching a more difficult purpose. They determine if the result of adding new sentences will accomplish a specific purpose, such as providing explanations or descriptions, and they determine when it is necessary to delete unrelated material that interferes with the focus of the text. Students apply knowledge of focus and purpose to a variety of texts of varying degrees of complexity. Students evaluate writing to determine if the sentences they use effectively maintain the focus and logic of the writing and successfully carry out its desired purpose and goal. They produce writing that displays sophistication in developing and maintaining focus and logic throughout through use of literary elements such as anecdotes.
Organization/Coherence
Students whose performance exceeds the Standards apply a complete understanding of how effective use of transitions influences organization and coherence of the text. For example, they include transitions that successfully maintain the logic of the text and improve sentence fluency. They demonstrate a clear understanding of the writing task and successfully employ strategies, such as repeating words, phrases, or supplying transitions, to develop and support their ideas in a sophisticated way that creates strong overall coherence and cohesion. They apply these skills to develop writing that effectively incorporates strategies, such as examples, concrete details, facts, summaries, or quotations, to develop introductions, succeeding paragraphs, and closings that unify the writing.
Support/Word Choice/Sentence Structure
Students whose performance exceeds the Standards generate documents that display extensive depth of detail, enhanced word choice, and varied sentence structure. They produce writing that demonstrates sophisticated use of analytical and evaluative thinking by successfully including material that is consistent in subject and voice. They produce documents that exhibit a comprehensive understanding of the successful use of sophisticated writing techniques, such as explanations and evidence, that are appropriate to purpose and audience, and apply these techniques to develop and maintain clarity of focus, logic, and organization. They successfully use techniques, such as varying sentence structure, for stylistic effect.
Conventions/Usage/Punctuation
Students whose performance exceeds the Standards produce and edit a variety of texts in a way that reflects comprehensive knowledge of sentence structure, usage, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. For example, they apply their knowledge of punctuation to maintain the flow of sentences in the text. They apply basic rules of standard English in sophisticated ways to edit documents for clarity, subject-verb agreement, adverb and adjective agreement, and verb tense. They creatively apply these elements to create stylistic effect and organizational power in their writing.