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11-12.RI.2.C

Description: Craft and Meaning Evaluate how the author's word choice and use of syntax contribute to a text's overall meaning and tone.
Maps to Reading Plus skills: 4B, 5A, 6A

Exemplars

4B: Interpreting Analogies

4B: Interpreting Analogies

Description: Interpreting Analogies

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-13

K-13

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2110 words
Author: Katherine Menard
Synopsis: A growing segment of the population is becoming more knowledgeable about food sources and purchasing produce directly from local farmers.
Excerpt: One of the most significant elements of CSAs is the concept of shared risk. This is most obvious in the way a CSA operation is financed. Shareholders' up-front payments, like all investments, are based on potential, not actuality. Nobody can predict with certainty how much the farm will produce in a given year.

Question: When a consumer joins a CSA, the process can be compared to
  1. buying a stock whose profitability is determined by future conditions.
  2. joining a club that requires members to spend a certain amount on food.
  3. taking a part-time job that helps people in your community.
  4. coaching a sports team to get the best results during the season.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Describe how metaphor, simile, hyperbole, or personification is used in a selection and explain how it enhances or distracts from the selection.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

5A: Examining Text Structure

5A: Examining Text Structure

Description: Examining Text Structure

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-39

K-39

Grade level: 11
Word count: 1650 words
Author: Christopher Morley
Synopsis: If you have ever been asked to write a certain number of words on a topic, you'll certainly understand the frustration expressed by the newspaper reporter who penned this essay.
Excerpt: (We ask you to observe our self-restraint. We might have said "drenching downpour of silver Long Island rain," or something of that sort, and thus got several words nearer our necessary total of 1100. But we scorn, even when writing against time, to take petty advantages. Let us be brief, crisp, packed with thought. Let it stand as drench, while you admire our proud conscience.)

Question: Irony occurs when words are used to convey a meaning that is the opposite their usual meaning. What is ironic about this part of the essay?
  1. Morley says he is writing succinctly, yet he rambles on for a paragraph about doing so.
  2. Morley describes a drenching downpour, yet there is no proof it has rained.
  3. Although he meets his own deadlines, Morley encourages others to take more time to write.
  4. While he has a talent for writing, Morley has decided to seek work that does not require any writing.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Explain an author's use of description in a selection, and how the description shaped the way you viewed and understood the person, object, or event described.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

6A: Recognizing Author's Intent

6A: Recognizing Author's Intent

Description: Recognizing Author's Purpose

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-39

K-39

Grade level: 11
Word count: 1650 words
Author: Christopher Morley
Synopsis: If you have ever been asked to write a certain number of words on a topic, you'll certainly understand the frustration expressed by the newspaper reporter who penned this essay.
Excerpt: We thought of some books we had seen up on East Fifty-ninth Street, in that admirable row of old bookshops, particularly Mowry Saben's volume of essays, "The Spirit of Life," which we are going back to buy one of these days, so please let it alone. We then got out a small notebook in which we keep memoranda of books we intend to read and pored over it zealously. Just for fun, we will tell you three of the titles we have noted there: "The Voyage of the Hoppergrass," by E.L. Pearson, "People and Problems," by Fabian Franklin, and "Broken Stowage," by David W. Bone.

Question: Why does Morley list the names of the books he purchased on Fifty-ninth Street in this essay?
  1. Listing the books adds words to the essay and brings him closer to meeting his word count.
  2. He wanted to make sure the books received some publicity.
  3. Listing the books allows him to demonstrate he is a well-read person.
  4. He was friendly with the authors of the books he mentions.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: How effective were the words and writing style used by the author of a selection? Explain why.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions