SECTION 110.54. Practical Writing Skills (One-Half to One Credit)

(a) Introduction.

(1) The study of writing allows high school students to earn one-half to one credit while developing skills necessary for practical writing. This course emphasizes skill in the use of conventions and mechanics of written English, the appropriate and effective application of English grammar, the reading comprehension of informational text, and the effective use of vocabulary. Students are expected to understand the recursive nature of reading and writing. Evaluation of students' own writing as well as the writing of others ensures that students completing this course are able to analyze and evaluate their writing.

(2) For high school students whose first language is not English, the students' native language serves as a foundation for English language acquisition and language learning.

(3) Statements that contain the word "including" reference content that must be mastered, while those containing the phrase "such as" are intended as possible illustrative examples.

(4) The essential knowledge and skills as well as the student expectations for Practical Writing Skills, an elective course, are described in subsection (b) of this section.

(b) Knowledge and skills.

(1) The student uses the conventions and mechanics of written English to communicate clearly. The student is expected to:

(A) employ written conventions appropriately such as capitalizing and punctuating for various forms;

(B) use correct spelling;

(C) produce error-free writing by demonstrating control over grammatical elements such as subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, and appropriate verb forms;

(D) use varied sentence structures to express meanings and achieve desired effect; and

(E) use appropriate vocabulary.

(2) The student uses recursive writing processes as appropriate for self-initiated and assigned writing. The student is expected to:

(A) apply prewriting strategies to generate ideas and plan;

(B) develop drafts by organizing ideas such as paragraphing, outlining, adding, and deleting;

(C) use vocabulary, sentence structure, organization, and rhetorical devices appropriate to audience and purpose;

(D) use effective sequence and transitions to achieve coherency;

(E) revise drafts by rethinking content, organization, and style to better accomplish the task;

(F) edit as appropriate for the conventions of standard written English such as grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure in the final draft;

(G) use resources such as texts and other people as needed for proofreading, editing, and revising; and

(H) use available technology for creating, revising, editing, and publishing texts.

(3) The student reads and writes for a variety of audiences and purposes. The student is expected to:

(A) read a variety of informational text;

(B) write informational text; and

(C) practice effective, efficient note taking.

(4) The student evaluates his/her own writing and the writing of others. The student is expected to:

(A) evaluate how well writing achieves its purposes;

(B) analyze and discuss published pieces as writing models; and

(C) review written work to determine its strengths and weaknesses and to set goals as a writer.

(5) The student analyzes informational text. The student is expected to:

(A) use effective reading strategies to determine a written work's purpose and intended audience;

(B) identify explicit and implicit textual information, including main ideas and author's purpose;

(C) draw and support complex inferences from text to distinguish facts from opinions;

(D) analyze the author's quality of evidence for an argument;

(E) evaluate the use of both literal and figurative language;

(F) analyze the audience and purpose of informational and persuasive text;

(G) analyze how an author's use of language creates imagery and mood; and

(H) analyze insights gained from text to text, text to self, and text to world.

(6) The student understands new vocabulary and concepts and uses them accurately in reading, speaking, and writing. The student is expected to:

(A) apply knowledge of roots and affixes to infer the meanings of new words; and

(B) use reference guides to confirm the meanings of new words and concepts.

Source Note: The provisions of this §110.54 adopted to be effective September 1, 1998, 22 TexReg 7549; amended to be effective August 22, 2011, 35 TexReg 3261