The lesson defines tone and explains how word choice communicates an author's attitude, including a Skills statement that students will "analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., ... how it sets a formal or informal tone)." Students complete an imagery chart labeling descriptions as positive or negative and explaining how the descriptions serve as examples of imagery and tone. Students practice writing sentences with different clause types, which is presented as a way to "convey specific meanings and add variety and interest to writing or presentations."

The Skills section asks students to "produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience," and the Things to Know and revision steps explicitly list checking "clarity of the thesis, organization, support, errors in logic, style," and final editing for grammar and mechanics. Students use an Essay Rubric that evaluates Thesis, Support, Organization, and Grammar and Mechanics, and multiple "You Are the Editor" checklists prompt students to review pronoun use, verb use, sentence structure, punctuation, transitions, and "improvements in style, grammar, and punctuation." The outline/organizer pages require students to include introduction, thesis, topic sentences, textual evidence, explanations, and transitions, guiding formal organizational conventions for an academic essay.

Students are instructed to write a one-paragraph objective summary that must include the title and author in the first sentence, focus on central ideas and major plot points, and present information in their own words. The materials explicitly direct students to use the narrative present when discussing the work and to avoid personal thoughts or opinions, stating "Do not include your own personal thoughts or opinions." The objective-summary guidance and the Activity 1 prompts require students to identify textual evidence and describe how story elements develop theme, reinforcing discipline conventions for literary analysis.

Students are prompted to produce clear and coherent writing with style appropriate to task, purpose, and audience (Skills section). Students are given explicit conventions for quoting sources (place quotation mark, include author in parentheses, then a period) and are directed to use transitional words and phrases to organize their writing. The rubric and homework require students to check grammar, punctuation, and spelling and score minor errors, which directs attention to conventions of written academic work.

Students read explicit instruction on point-of-view shifts and practice correcting sentences to keep point of view consistent (e.g., changing second-person references to first- or third-person). Students are shown that writing requires more precision than speech for pronoun agreement (the "Everyone should wear their" example) and are given grammatical alternatives ("his or her" or rephrasing). Students complete exercises and create a poster or slideshow in which they must identify pronoun-reference errors, provide corrected sentences, and explain strategies for fixing them, practicing disciplinary conventions for pronoun use.

Students are taught detailed punctuation conventions (commas, parentheses, dashes) and asked to add each rule and examples to a personal comma guide, showing attention to disciplinary conventions. Activity 4 requires students to decide whether to use commas, dashes, or parentheses to punctuate nonessential elements and to explain why they chose one punctuation over the others, which links punctuation choice to tone and emphasis. The parent/skills notes explicitly state that students should "Choose punctuation for effect" and note that "Dashes tend to be less formal than other types of punctuation," connecting punctuation to formality.

Students are asked to "prepare a formal opening statement" and to "think of this as a persuasive argument delivered before a judge," requiring them to write well-developed, formal paragraphs. The Great Punctuation Trial directs students to provide claims and supporting examples (one example joining independent clauses, one with a conjunctive adverb, one of a complex list for the semicolon; examples introducing lists and quotations for the colon) and to defend those claims orally when questioned. The parent/judge prompts require students to explain rules with examples and evidence rather than memorized definitions, emphasizing use of disciplinary conventions for punctuation.

The Parent Plan lists the skill "Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience," which directly relates to attention to style. Students are asked to create a short paragraph for Option 2 of the mini-project (the quiz paragraph) and to produce visual or digital graphics for Option 1, which require applying conventions of standard English. The unit test and review focus on grammar, punctuation, and correct word usage, which support adherence to disciplinary conventions.

Students are asked to "provide an objective summary of the text" in the skills list and to "Summarize in your own words" on the Poetry Map activity, which requires composing an informational summary. Students must prepare a one-page biographical sketch that includes factual items (name, dates, known for, influences) and complete a journal response explaining what is happening in a poem and how cultural references enrich it. The assignment for the Poet Biography Boxes and the Poetry Map directs students to record and organize factual and analytical writing about poets and poems.

Students are asked to write a one-page, typed, double-spaced argumentative response about whether Bob Dylan deserved the Nobel Prize, and they are instructed to read supporting and opposing articles and to give credit for any quotations or other writers' arguments. The poetry explication choice describes that a "traditional poetry explication is a formal essay" and requires students to present findings (type, rhyme, meter, sound devices, speaker, tone, figurative language, etc.) in a structured digital presentation. Both assignments require students to use disciplinary conventions (e.g., citing sources, organizing an explication) and to produce formal written products.

Students are asked to write an informational paragraph that begins with a strong introductory sentence, uses transitional words and phrases, links ideas smoothly, and ends with a concluding sentence, which targets organization and appropriate writing style. The Parent Plan explicitly states students will "produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience." The lesson also instructs students to paraphrase (avoid copying and pasting) and, for slide presentations, to note the source under each image, which practices academic conventions.

The lesson requires students to use the APE strategy: "Answer" in their own words and include part of the question; "Prove" with specific examples and quotations from the text; and "Extend" by explaining how the evidence supports the answer. The Parent Plan explicitly instructs students to provide quotations with page numbers and to write answers as complete sentences. The Student Activity Page directs students to analyze decisions using the Answer/Prove/Extend structure and to be prepared to discuss their opinion and reasoning.

Students read and analyze Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," answering journal questions about the most persuasive arguments and listing steps of a nonviolent campaign, which exposes them to a strong model of formal persuasive writing. Students complete written activities that require them to state positions and reasons, such as the "Just and Unjust Laws" double-entry diary, the "Students in Action" pro/con organizer with an overall opinion, and Part II of the African-American Authors page where they write sentences about each author's contribution. These tasks ask students to articulate claims and support them in writing.

The Parent Plan Skills section explicitly lists: "Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing." Students are asked to analyze excerpts and "explain the overlapping ideas" (Activity 1) and to "decide which of the two men you agree with more, and explain" (Activity 2), and to complete written homework answering questions about excerpts. The student activity pages include spaces labeled "Your Views" and lined areas for written responses, indicating students will produce written analysis.

The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill: "Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline." Activity 4 directs students to create a museum wall and specifies that "the writing should be in a formal tone, as a real museum would display." Students are also asked to draft a paragraph comparing Wiesel with other thinkers and to quote sources, which implies practice in composed, formal responses.

The lesson teaches specific conventions that support formal writing: students learn three methods for integrating quotations (complete sentence + colon, short phrase + comma, integrate into sentence) and practice correct punctuation, use of square brackets, and ellipses. The Student Activity Page and Part I multiple-choice items require students to select correctly punctuated quotation examples, and Part II asks students to introduce a quotation with contextual framing rather than simply writing "Beah says." The Parent Plan Skills list also includes "Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing."

The lesson explicitly tells students to write an expository (informative) essay and instructs them to avoid the word "should" and qualitative adjectives like "good" or "bad," which guides them to an objective tone. The Parent Plan Skills list includes "Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline." The unit requires in-text citations and a Works Cited page in MLA format, gives specific formatting rules (12 pt Times New Roman, double-spaced, 1" margins), and includes a rubric category for Style and Sources/Documentation, all of which address formal conventions.

Students practice disciplinary conventions for academic writing in Part V where they must introduce and correctly quote a Wordsworth excerpt and paraphrase passages, demonstrating how to integrate and punctuate quotations. The grammar section has students correct punctuation, pronoun usage, subject-verb agreement, and article use, which requires applying standard English conventions. Part IV asks students to write thorough paragraph responses to discussion prompts and to revise those paragraphs, which requires producing organized academic prose. The Parent Plan skill list explicitly includes "Produce clear and coherent writing... appropriate to task, purpose, and audience" and "Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English..."

Students read unit review sheets and a comma guide and complete targeted practice that focuses on conventions (e.g., parts of speech matching and a Mad-Libs parts-of-speech activity). Students insert needed commas and semicolons and correct subject-verb agreement and pronoun errors in provided paragraphs (Option 1) and may create their own paragraphs with intentional punctuation and grammar errors and supply answer keys explaining the applicable rules (Option 2). Students also match grammar terms to examples and identify auxiliaries, transitive/intransitive verbs, conjunctions, appositives, and other conventions in scaffolded activities.

Students practice and record conventions that apply "in most formal writing situations" when they complete the "Writing Numbers" page and are instructed to choose and be consistent with a number style (e.g., spell out numbers up to nine vs. use numerals). Students identify and apply capitalization conventions by marking correctly capitalized sentences and writing the rule that explains each pair on the Capitalization activity page (titles, seasons, compass points, quotations, relatives). Students correct commonly confused words through fill-in-the-blank exercises and note-taking, which supports correct word choice in formal writing.

Students practice conventions of standard English by identifying and correcting sentence fragments and run-on sentences and by completing activities on verbals and commonly confused words. The lesson explicitly notes register guidance for the adverb 'hopefully,' telling students that "in a formal paper, you should use the word only in the sense of 'in a hopeful manner,'" which addresses formality of word choice. Students apply these conventions in exercises, quizzes, and a Creative Writing Challenge where they must use target words correctly and check usage against an answer key or parent feedback.

Students read explicit rules and examples for hyphen and apostrophe use and are asked to take notes in their journals. Students complete activity pages that require rewriting sentences with correct hyphenation, dividing words at syllable boundaries, using en and em dashes, and marking up a travel-influencer post to correct apostrophe errors. The lesson states that suspended hyphens are a "style issue" and tells students to consult dictionaries and reference sources to improve grammar and punctuation.

Students are asked to use standard English and formal language for essays and formal assignments and to read the OWL Purdue page on levels of formality. Students practice choosing appropriate language by identifying and replacing clichés, redundant phrases, and wordy expressions in multiple activities and the College Essay Editor task. Students also practice punctuation and clause conventions (that/which; restrictive vs. nonrestrictive clauses) that support formal academic prose.

Students are explicitly told that "in most academic writing, you should use the active voice" and are given examples showing how to change passive constructions to active ones. Students complete an online exercise that requires them to revise passive constructions and see explanations for correct forms. The lesson's skills list and activities require students to recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood and to produce work free of grammar and punctuation errors (rubric criteria).

Students are asked to choose target audiences for projects (e.g., an elementary poster or a teen/adult explanatory guide) and to make information appropriate for that audience. Project instructions require students to define terms, provide examples, and use their own descriptions and explanations (Explanatory Guide). The rubric asks that project information be appropriate for the target audience and that finished products be instructional and free from grammar and punctuation errors.

The Parent Plan lists that students will "produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience" and that students will "write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames." Students are asked to write in a journal (brainstorming factors for sports success) and to answer homework questions that require explanatory written responses (e.g., explain the 10,000 rule and relate it to examples in the text).

The lesson's Skills list explicitly asks students to "produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience" and to "provide an objective summary of the text," which requires attention to tone. Activities 4 and 5 require students to read a critical blog and Gladwell's response and then prepare either an oral summary (Option 1) or a written analysis and chart evaluating Gladwell's responses (Option 2), which engage students in analytical writing. Several reading-and-questions tasks ask students to draw evidence and explain authors' claims, prompting students to write analyses that could be rendered in an objective register.

Students are asked to "provide an objective summary of the text" and to "cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis," which requires attending to tone and evidence. The homework/mini-project directs students to produce a polished infographic that is "neat, attractive, and free from grammar and punctuation errors," and students must "draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research." Students also must "present your findings to a parent" and share numbered examples from the reading, implying practice in explaining claims with supporting details.

Students analyze Lincoln's rhetorical strategies with explicit attention to his choices regarding tone, organization, and word choice ("You will analyze Lincoln's rhetorical strategies including the choices he made regarding tone, organization of ideas, and word choice"). Students identify and label literary devices (parallelism, antithesis, allusion) and explain their intended effects on the audience via the Lincoln's Literary Devices activity and answer guided questions about the speech's tone.

Students are asked to write arguments focused on discipline-specific content (skills list) and to introduce precise claims and organize claims, counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. In Option 2, students compose an editorial that persuades readers using facts from sources to back up points. Students also evaluate speakers' point of view, reasoning, and use of rhetoric and cite textual evidence to support analysis, which requires attention to how language and evidence are used in argumentative writing.

The lesson explicitly lists "objectivity (being impartial)" as a characteristic of good science writing and describes discipline-appropriate methods (example, explanation, analogy, illustration) for clarifying terms. Student tasks ask them to evaluate how the author supports claims (e.g., assessing support for "Noncontact forces are invisible" and why "centripetal force is often called a fictitious force") and to judge audience appropriateness for a middle-school audience. The Skills section directs students to assess the extent to which reasoning and evidence support an author's scientific analysis and to analyze the author's purpose and use of domain-specific language.

Students are told explicitly they will learn about "organizational structure and appropriate tone" for technical writing in the Introducing the Lesson section. Activities require students to avoid or explain jargon, create a glossary, and convert specialized phrasing into language accessible to a general audience (Activity 4). The Guide Checklist, Works Cited instructions, and the MLA citation example require students to include an introduction, conclusion, and properly formatted citations, and Activity 6 asks students to add navigation aids and proofread for errors—practices tied to disciplinary conventions.

The Skills list explicitly requires students to "Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing." The Essay Rubric includes a "Style" criterion that asks for varied sentence structure, specialized vocabulary, and appropriate pronoun use, and the materials state that first-person pronouns are improper in the essay. The unit requires MLA in-text citations and a Works Cited page and gives specific formatting and proofreading expectations (12 pt. Times New Roman, double-spaced, 1" margins), which connect students' writing to disciplinary conventions.

Students are asked to produce written components that follow disciplinary conventions: the News project requires a masthead and at least four article leads that answer who/what/when/where and include captions for images, and the final project instructions require citing outside sources and attaching a Works Cited page. The Parent Plan and rubric ask students to produce clear, coherent writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience and evaluate mechanics (spelling, punctuation, grammar) and use of sources. Several projects require formal elements of genre writing (e.g., article leads, scripts with planned wording, and explanatory paragraphs for set/costume designs).

The Skills section explicitly asks students to "produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience." Part V: Grammar and Usage includes exercises that require students to rewrite wordy sentences for brevity, choose active voice over passive, correct clichés, and fix parallelism and modifier errors. Discussion and short-answer prompts require students to write 1–3 paragraph responses and to revise previous Informational Texts essays, implying practice in composing organized written responses.