Create a variety of written communications using various elements of discourse (e.g., purpose, speaker, audience, form) in narrative, expository, persuasive, informative, and/or descriptive texts:

• Address audience needs, stated purpose, and context
• Develop a thesis statement
• Create an organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context
• Include relevant information and exclude extraneous information
• Provide facts and details, describe or analyze subject, explain benefits or limitations, compare or contrast, or provide graphics or illustrations
• Clarify and defend positions with relevant evidence, including facts, expert opinions, quotations, and/or expressions of commonly accepted beliefs and logical reasoning
• Use a variety of rhetorical devices to support assertions (e.g., appeal to logic through reasoning, case study, and analogy)
• Anticipate potential misunderstanding, problems, or mistakes that might arise for audience
• Structure drafts using standard forms and predictable structures (e.g., headings, white space, and graphics) and customary formats (including proper salutations, closing, and signature when writing a letter)
• Provide a coherent conclusion.

Select, use, and evaluate deliberately a wide variety of before, during, and after strategies to communicate meaning when writing.

Apply accurately and effectively the language cues and conventions to construct and communicate meaning when writing.

Write a position paper (convincing argument):

• Address an issue the writer feels strongly about
• Introduce topic and state position in beginning
• Support writer's position with the most important facts, details, and logical reasons arranged in a coherent and convincing order
• Defend position against an important objection
• End with a strong restatement of the writer's position
• Defend position well and compel reader to act
• Create confidence in position through a clear and strong voice
• Use inclusive and respectful language
• Use "fair" words and qualifiers
• Ensure all parts work together to build a thoughtful convincing position.

Write a comparative essay:

• Reveal new insights about topic because of the comparison
• Capture reader's attention and provide details that lead up to thesis or focus statement in a well-developed introduction
• Discuss each topic point by point in the body
• Sum up, reflect on, or comment on the comparison in a coherent, convincing conclusion.

Write a letter of inquiry (or request):

• Explain adequately what the inquiry is about and what the reader is to do in response to the letter (e.g., advice; information from a government agency; information on a product or service; copy of an official document; request for credit; application materials; estimates or bids)
• Make letter courteous and clear
• State who the writer is and give status or position
• State what the inquiry is about and explain specifically what the recipient should do
• Include the necessary details (e.g., date information is needed, services, etc.)
• Thank the recipient for his/her time
• Follow a standard letter format.

Write a story or essay using parody, satire, and/or irony:

• Choose one scene from a print text
• Use a tone that seems straightforward but leads the reader to know that the real intention is to criticize or ridicule and, in the end, illuminate a problem.
• Use exaggeration and/or understatement.

Write a critique of an author's style:

• Consider purpose and intended audience
• Address author's treatment of subject (specific, concrete, direct, general, abstract, philosophical)
• Analyze form chosen to express ideas: tone (e.g., informal, conversational, professional critical, satirical, amused, encouraging, pensive); point of view (e.g., first person or third person); arrangement and organization of ideas; sentence structures; diction (e.g., formal or informal; colloquial or technical); images and symbols; use of rhetorical devices; other distinctive mannerisms
• Identify the writer's overall, distinctive approach or "style."

Experiment with different forms and formats (e.g., proposal, script, letter to government officials advocating change) and techniques, and explain their appeal.