Writing Standards: Strengthening Writing for Purpose and Audience (CCSS.W.11-12.5)
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Common Core High School ELA › Writing Standards: Strengthening Writing for Purpose and Audience (CCSS.W.11-12.5)
Critical responses to the canonical Renaissance play often pivot on the axes of power and nature, yet this essay contends that the text is fundamentally about thresholds. The island is a laboratory of thresholds—between freedom and obedience, speech and silence, self and other—which, if followed closely, clarifies how its characters negotiate identity. Postcolonial readings emphasize domination, while eco-critical approaches foreground the environment's agency; invoking both frameworks can be illuminating. For instance, the storm can be read as political spectacle and as meteorological force, which together destabilize certainty. Additionally, the magician's books symbolize knowledge, but also the allure of withdrawal from the world. The play thus speaks to our time. Before turning to scenes, it is important to remember that genre conventions of romance permit reversals that tragedy would foreclose. The essay will address several scenes that demonstrate liminality and transformation. A discussion of reception will show how audiences have variously identified with different figures. In conclusion, the play unsettles categories that modern criticism sometimes takes for granted.
For an academic audience expecting a clear, complex argument, which revision approach would most effectively strengthen this draft's purpose and organization?
Replace most complex sentences with simple sentences to improve readability.
Insert more quotations from the primary text without additional commentary.
Develop a precise, arguable thesis and reorganize body paragraphs around distinct analytical claims that synthesize the frameworks with targeted evidence and clear transitions.
Add a creative personal anecdote about first encountering the play to hook readers.
Explanation
The draft gestures at multiple frameworks but lacks a precise central claim and coherent structure. Establishing a focused thesis and reorganizing analysis around clearly signposted claims and synthesized evidence targets the most significant needs for an academic audience.
Our city should implement fare-free bus service immediately. If you've stood at a stop and juggled coins while the driver waits, you know how demeaning and slow the current system is; my neighbor told me she skipped appointments because fares felt like a tax on hardship. Meanwhile, traffic is unbearable, and climate deadlines loom. Free buses would speed boarding, reduce car use, and signal that we value mobility as a right. Critics will say it's expensive, but investing in people pays off. Think about the time saved when no one argues over transfers. Riders will flock to transit once it's free, and that crowds-out pollution. Other cities have tried versions of this and loved it. We cannot keep piloting tiny programs that insult urgency. The budget already wastes money on consultants and glossy brochures; redirect that to service. We should also launch a public campaign that shames chronic solo drivers. In short, the moral case is obvious: transit should be free, fast, and universal, and excuses should no longer stand in the way.
For a policy paper aimed at decision-makers, which revision approach would most effectively align the draft with its purpose and sophisticated audience?
Convert the proposal into a colorful infographic to grab attention.
Replace anecdotal appeals with comparative, credible data; add cost–benefit and feasibility analysis; address counterarguments; and establish evaluation criteria aligned with the agency's mandate.
Add more emphatic adjectives and exclamation points to stress urgency.
Shorten paragraphs by deleting transitions without changing the content.
Explanation
Policy audiences require evidence, analysis of trade-offs, feasibility, and criteria for evaluation. Substituting data-driven reasoning and structured analysis addresses the major weaknesses, unlike cosmetic changes or heightened rhetoric.
Hey team, I'm super excited to share that our compliance dashboard pilot is basically the best thing since sliced bread. We pulled an all-nighter, and the charts are gorgeous. Legal will adore the colors, I promise. I popped a few quick wins into the deck, and we can riff on the rest in the meeting. The way the API pings our microservices at 500ms intervals is honestly next-level, and customers will feel that magic when they click around. I think we should just ship it and see what happens, because you can't argue with momentum. Also, I know finance wanted a plan, but plans are kind of overrated; vibes matter. If we get pushback from the board, we'll tell a story about innovation and show them how slick the hover states are. Anyway, I'll CC everyone and loop in the vendor later. In the meantime, poke at the sandbox and drop comments. We'll figure out pricing, governance, and access policies after launch—it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
For senior executives expecting a professional brief that supports governance, what revision approach would most effectively improve purpose, tone, and usability?
Reframe as an executive brief: state purpose upfront, present a clear recommendation with 2–3 decision criteria and risks, adopt a neutral professional register, and move technical details to an appendix.
Insert inspirational quotes from industry leaders to make the message more motivational.
Keep the conversational tone but add emojis or bold formatting to highlight key points.
Expand sales language to heighten excitement while leaving the recommendation implicit.
Explanation
Executives need an explicit recommendation, decision criteria, and risk/governance context in a professional tone. Restructuring and retuning the register addresses the core audience needs; cosmetic or motivational changes do not.
To explore whether screen time harms sleep, we did a survey-experiment that shows phones ruin rest. We asked people online how much they use screens and then told some to use them more and others to use them less; many participants didn't follow directions, but this reflects real life. The average age was adult, and people came from various places. Using a mix of correlations and comparisons, we found compelling patterns, like when screen time goes up, bad sleep also goes up, which means screen time causes bad sleep. The instrument was a quick questionnaire we designed, plus notes from a few interviews when we had time. We also peeked at some fitness tracker data that a subset emailed us. Limitations are inevitable and will be mentioned. The methods and results are discussed together here for flow, because readers care about what happened, not labels. Future work should replicate these results in the lab.
For a research manuscript intended for scholarly peer review, which revision approach would most effectively strengthen methodological rigor and clarity for the audience?
Add more references to famous studies in the introduction without altering the methods section.
Move limitations to the conclusion and shorten methods to a single paragraph for brevity.
Combine Methods and Results into one section to streamline the narrative and reduce headings.
Rewrite the Methods to specify the research question, operational definitions, sampling frame and size, instruments and procedures, and analytic plan, and separate Methods from Results with precise, discipline-appropriate language.
Explanation
Peer reviewers prioritize transparent, replicable methods and clear sectioning. Detailing design elements and separating Methods from Results addresses the most significant shortcomings; the other options are cosmetic or reduce rigor.
Ambiguity, which some might call "intentional fuzziness," shows up in works as different as Donne's Holy Sonnets and Stevens's "Sunday Morning," and it obviously does a lot of things. First we see speakers saying things that mean two things, and then readers react (sometimes online) by debating it, which is interesting. Also, there is history in the background, like religion, and markets too, which is probably relevant. The poems perform a kind of double-talk that both invites certainty and refuses it, which sounds paradoxical, but paradox is a literary thing, so that's fine. At the same time, authors might be hiding from censorship, or else just playing, or else signaling to friend groups; all of these can be true without me having to pick one. My plan is to compare a few lines and then circle back to the question of whether ambiguity is ethical, but there might not be time, and there are a lot of quotations to get through. We should keep in mind that ambiguity keeps literature fresh, which is a nice takeaway.
Which revision approach would most effectively strengthen this academic analysis for a scholarly audience and purpose?
Proofread for comma usage and convert some sentences to active voice.
Add a paragraph summarizing both poets' biographies to provide context.
Formulate a precise thesis about how ambiguity functions in the two poems, reorganize paragraphs around conceptual claims supported by integrated close readings and scholarly sources, and remove colloquialisms to sustain a formal analytical tone.
Replace complex terms with simpler synonyms to make the essay accessible to general readers.
Explanation
The draft lacks a clear thesis, coherent analytical structure, integrated evidence, and an appropriate scholarly tone. Option C targets these significant needs by establishing a focused claim, restructuring around conceptual analysis with evidence, and aligning tone to a scholarly audience. The other options either address minor surface issues or shift the piece toward an unsuitable audience.
City traffic is unbearable, and everybody knows it. When I drove my cousin to work last week, it took forever, which proves the point. Therefore, we should make buses free for a while because it would be popular and probably cut down on cars. I haven't run the numbers yet, but neighboring cities seem happy about their pilots. The main obstacle is that some people will say it costs money, but other people spend money on coffee every day, so this is similar. Anyway, if we brand the campaign well and put fun decals on buses, riders will come. I spoke to three friends who said they'd ride more if transit were free, and that seems like a sufficient sample. I'm not getting into revenue structures or union constraints here because that's complicated and might derail the conversation. The council wants results, not spreadsheets, so let's pass a resolution quickly and iron out details later. Obviously no one wants traffic, so this seems like an easy win.
For a policy memo intended for city council decision-makers, which revision strategy best addresses the most significant issues of purpose and audience?
Reframe the memo with a neutral, professional tone; lead with a concise problem statement and clearly defined policy objective; incorporate cost estimates, funding mechanisms, ridership data, and stakeholder analysis (including labor and equity impacts); and address counterarguments before recommending a time-bound pilot with evaluation metrics.
Add eye-catching graphics and slogans to make the proposal more memorable.
Shorten the memo to a single paragraph to keep attention high.
Include more personal anecdotes from commuters to humanize the issue while leaving fiscal details for later.
Explanation
Effective policy writing requires evidence, feasibility, and a professional tone tailored to decision-makers. Option A restructures the memo around data, costs, stakeholders, and evaluation, directly serving the audience and purpose. The other options prioritize superficial appeal or anecdotes while neglecting core policy analysis.
Dear Board, Our team will totally revolutionize the organization's data situation with a next-gen platform that basically blows the doors off legacy pipelines. Picture a rocket: we light the fuse and—boom—efficiency. I've worn many hats, so trust me, I've seen things. The platform will harness synergy between AI widgets and a slick dashboard; everyone will feel the difference. Details are being finalized, but the vibe is strong: rapid wins in month one, then we'll iterate. We'll ask for a budget later (not huge), once we scout vendors in the wild and see who vibes with us. Compliance shouldn't be a blocker because lots of companies do this. We'll circle back with metrics once it's live, because measuring now would be premature. To show momentum, I'd love to demo some mockups (colors pending). If we move fast, our competitors will be shook. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment, and we need buy-in, not nitpicking, so let's greenlight the idea and figure out the gritty stuff along the way.
What revision approach would most effectively align this professional brief with an expert board's expectations and the document's approval-seeking purpose?
Add a motivational quote and a longer narrative about the team's past struggles.
Replace technical terms with general metaphors so non-experts can follow.
Append a gallery of colorful interface mockups to create excitement, leaving specifications for a later phase.
Retarget the brief for an expert board by adopting a precise, professional tone; specify scope, deliverables, timeline, budget ranges, risk/compliance plan, and success metrics aligned to strategic goals; and structure the document with an executive summary followed by evidence-backed justification before requesting approval.
Explanation
The draft suffers from an informal tone, vague promises, and missing essentials (scope, budget, risks, metrics). Option D addresses these substantive gaps and structures the brief for expert decision-makers. The other options increase hype or storytelling without improving decision-relevant content.
This study looks at community health outcomes in relation to neighborhood greenspace, which is a timely and inspiring topic. First, some results were encouraging—residents near parks reported better moods—so that gives momentum. The survey I used was adapted from several places; I changed wording when it sounded off. Participants were mostly adults who saw the flyer; some kids filled it out too if they were around. Sampling was hard, so it was kind of convenience with a dash of snowball. I think a regression will be the plan, unless the data are messy, in which case we can just do comparisons. The central idea is that greenspace helps, but obviously it depends, and it would take too long to spell out all the variables now. I didn't collect addresses because of privacy, but I can figure out distance to parks later, maybe by asking people after the fact. The IRB said light review was fine. To keep things short, I combined Methods and Results and put most of the details in an appendix the reader probably won't need.
To meet research-writing expectations for clarity and replicability, which revision strategy should the writer prioritize?
Switch all sentences to passive voice so the Methods sound more scientific without changing the content.
Separate Methods from Results; articulate the research question and operational definitions; specify sampling frame, inclusion criteria, instruments, procedures, and analysis plan (including how distance is measured and protected); justify choices with citations; and present sufficient detail for replication in formal past tense.
Append the full survey to the main text and remove most narrative description to save space.
Delete subordinate clauses and shorten the section to half its length to improve readability, even if some procedures remain implicit.
Explanation
The draft conflates sections, omits key methodological details, and under-specifies measures and sampling. Option B directly improves organization, transparency, and replicability for a research audience. The other options are surface-level or would further weaken methodological clarity.
City heat is a slow emergency, and frankly, the council's past dithering is embarrassing. Everyone with a window knows summer sidewalks feel like stovetops. Instead of playing politics, leaders should "just plant trees already," because trees are good, period. Residents are "over it," and so am I. A few blog posts and satellite screenshots prove the hottest neighborhoods are the poorest, which should be enough to pass a sweeping ordinance next week. Sure, there are "budget realities," but those are excuses, and if agencies balk, we can shame them on social media. Also, green roofs seem cool; I saw a viral thread about them. This paper, aimed at decision-makers, proposes a mandate that every commercial block add canopy immediately. Timelines are intentionally aggressive because delay is the enemy. In conclusion: we know what to do, so do it. The bibliography will be filled in later, once staff dig up the numbers.
For a policy-maker audience seeking credible, actionable options, which revision strategy would most improve this draft's effectiveness?
Reframe for a policy audience by adopting neutral, solution-oriented tone; integrate peer-reviewed heat-island data, equity impact analysis, and cost-benefit modeling; map stakeholder roles and constraints; and present phased recommendations with funding mechanisms.
Insert a personal story about a hot day to make it more relatable and add more exclamation points to convey urgency.
Expand the bibliography with web links but keep the current mandate language and timeline.
Add colorful adjectives to the description of sidewalks and include a photo of a tree.
Explanation
Decision-makers need credible evidence, stakeholder analysis, and feasible, funded recommendations presented in an even tone. Option A directly addresses major deficiencies in evidence, tone, and implementation detail. The other options focus on anecdote, cosmetics, or superficial additions that do not meet policy audiences' needs.
Below please find some preliminary noodling about the client's data platform, which, to be honest, is kind of a mess but also maybe fine if you squint. We could, like, replatform to a modern lakehouse (buzzword alert) or not; there are tradeoffs either way that we'll unpack later. Anyway, our team can help with some stuff—we have lots of experience, trust us—and the costs are TBD until we poke around more. Attached are screenshots, an 18-tab spreadsheet, and a sandbox link. The goal here is to open a convo and vibe-check appetite for change. Budget implications deserve a deeper dive but can wait for now. The main thing is to get vibes, see what people think, and keep it light. If leadership digs it, cool; if not, no biggie, we'll pivot to maintenance. We're also thinking about governance (maybe a council?) and security (zero trust is hot right now), but that's for another deck. Thoughts?
To align this professional memo with an executive audience and a persuasive purpose, which revision approach is best?
Increase technical depth by adding database schema diagrams and a glossary of acronyms.
Replace all instances of "we" with passive voice to sound more formal.
Keep tone conversational to build rapport and add emojis to the bullet points to signal friendliness.
Front-load a one-page executive summary that states the recommendation, business rationale, risks, costs, and timeline; restructure the memo with clear headings and prioritized options; adopt concise, professional tone calibrated for senior decision-makers.
Explanation
Executives need a clear recommendation, rationale, and implications up front. Option D addresses the document's lack of purpose, structure, and tone. The other options either overload with technical detail, degrade clarity, or further misalign tone.