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8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 9 of 14

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.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 8.10(C); 8.10(D) · 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 Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 9 of 14 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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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

    What is the main purpose of an outline?

    • To organize ideas before writing a draft
    • To print the final copy
    • To choose a font
    • To check spelling

  2. Question 2

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

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

  3. Question 3

    Which sentence is edited correctly?

    • Their team won the final, and they celebrated at Ravi's house.
    • There team won the final, and they celebrated at Ravi's house.
    • Their team won the final, and they celebrated at Ravis house.

  4. Question 4

    Tap the sentences in the best order.

    • Zoe grabbed her gear and ran to the rink.
    • She laced her skates and stepped onto the ice.
    • By the end of practice, her legs were shaking and she was grinning.
    • The alarm rang before sunrise.

  5. Question 5

    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

  6. Question 6

    Which edit fixes the run-on? “It was cold we wore jackets.”

    • It was cold we wore, jackets.
    • It was cold we wore jackets,
    • It was, cold we wore jackets.
    • It was cold, so we wore jackets.

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