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8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 9 of 12

Write It Better

Voice, revising and proofreading

What your child practices

Choosing the right form and tone for an audience, using reliable sources and giving credit, building voice, acknowledging other perspectives, and revising, editing and proofreading drafts.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 8.20; 8.R4 · revising and proofreading

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Use an outline to organize ideas before you draft.
  2. Revise to add evidence and cut wordiness. Edit and proofread for errors.
  3. Match form and tone to your audience, use reliable sources and give credit.

Example: Remove the wordiness: “Due to the fact that it was raining, the game was postponed.” “Due to the fact that” uses five words. “Because” says the same thing in one. Answer: Because it was raining, the game was postponed.

Write It Better in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 9 of 12 in 8th grade English Language Arts, after Digital Citizens and before Precise Words & Spelling.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which sentence has the right voice for a letter to a city councillor?

    • Yo, can u fix that road thing?
    • Hey, you guys need to put a crosswalk on Maple Road!!
    • Crosswalk. Maple Road. Do it.
    • I am writing to request that the city install a crosswalk on Maple Road.

  2. Question 2

    Which source should you cite in a report?

    • A friend's guess
    • A book you used to learn the facts
    • Nothing at all
    • Only your own opinion

  3. Question 3

    A writer reads a draft aloud. Why?

    • To skip revising
    • To hear awkward sentences and missing words
    • To make it longer
    • To change the topic

  4. Question 4

    You want to share holiday news with a close friend. Which tone fits best?

    • formal and legal
    • friendly and casual
    • scientific and technical
    • stiff and distant

  5. Question 5

    What is the best way to give credit when you use someone else's idea?

    • use it without mentioning it, because ideas are free
    • change a few words and skip the credit
    • name the source in your text and list it in your sources
    • mention it only if you copy exact words

  6. Question 6

    Which sentence has a strong, personal voice?

    • My stomach did flips as I walked on stage, and my knees felt like jelly.
    • I was nervous and went on stage.
    • There was a stage, and I went on it.
    • A person walked onto a stage.

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