This year, we are studying the Six Traits of Writing, which are broken into two categories: COS & CON.
COS stands for Content, Organization, Style and includes five traits:
word choice, organization, ideas, fluency, and voice
CON stands for Conventions and includes grammar & formatting concepts such as:
capitalization, spelling, grammar, punctuation, complete sentences (no run-ons or fragments), correct headings, double spacing, correct font, font size, & color, etc.
Unless specified otherwise, each paper will receive two scores:
COS: ___/4+
CON: ___/2+
The explanation for each possible number earned is shown below.
COS = Content, Organization, Style
COS 4+ 100% Exceeds Standard
COS 4 96% Exceeds Standard
COS 4- 93% Exceeds Standard
COS 3+ 92% Meets Standard
COS 3 88% Meets Standard
COS 3- 83% Meets Standard
COS 2+ 82% Approaching Standard
COS 2 78% Approaching Standard
COS 2- 73% Approaching Standard
COS 1+ 72% Below Standard
COS 1 68% Below Standard
COS 1- 65% Below Standard
CON = Conventions
CON 2+ 100% Exceeds Standard
CON 2 93% Exceeds Standard
CON 2- 88% Meets Standard
CON 1+ 83% Approaching Standard
CON 1 78% Approaching Standard
CON 1- 73% Below Standard
Students will always have the opportunity to meet with Miss Dempsey to go over their paper and re-do it if they are not satisfied with their original score.
Over the year, students will learn three forms of writing, which we consider the 3 main purposes an author may have to write:
narrative - to entertain/tell a story - fiction, usually
expository - to expose/explain - non-fiction, usually
persuasive - to persuade/convince - fact based with a mixture of feelings/opinions, usually
We will explore these forms while writing:
letters, essays, paragraphs, a research paper (Night of the Notables), prayers, free-writes, journal entries, and poems