HIGH SCHOOL WRITING MANUAL AND STYLE GUIDE - INTRODUCTION - BECOMING COLLEGE-AND CAREER-READY WRITERS

Sep 22, 2026

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High school writing manual and style guide explaining how students can become college- and career-ready writers by carefully considering task, purpose, and audience. The guide outlines baseline expectations for writing in Howard County public schools and supports consistent stylistic elements across classrooms. It introduces foundational frameworks such as 6+1 Traits of Writing and Big6 information literacy strategies, then previews core sections covering ideas, organization, research methods, citation rules, academic integrity, and writing for exams including SAT and Advanced Placement.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPaper Templates

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time7 min

AccessFree to download

6+1 Traits of Writing®

Ideas

Four Modes of Discourse

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

The Big6™

Academic Integrity

Writing for Exams

SAT Exams

Advanced Placement Exams

Ideas and Organization

#1-IDEAS

HIGH SCHOOL WRITING MANUAL AND STYLE GUIDE INTRODUCTION BECOMING COLLEGE-AND CAREER-READY WRITERS “For students, writing is a key means of asserting and defending claims, showing what they know about a subject, and conveying what they have experienced, imagined, thought, and felt. To be college-and career-ready writers, students must take task, purpose, and audience into careful consideration, choosing words, information, structures, and formats deliberately.!ey need to know how to combine elements of diﬀerent kinds of writing—for example, to use narrative strategies within argument and explanation within narrative—to produce complex and nuanced writing.” Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (41) . !e contents ofthis manual are designed to provide a baseline of expectations for writing at the highschool level in Howard County public schools and to standardize basic stylistic elements across all high schools for students and teachers.!is publication is intended to be a resource for students and to supplement classroom instruction. Incoming freshmen are generally familiar with much of the language in this manual, such as the “6+1 Traits of Writing®” and “!e Big6™ Information Literacy Strategies”that are introduced in elementary and middle school language arts classes. Other elements may be new and are taught as part of the essential curriculum. Individual teachers in various content areas may assign additional or modiﬁed requirements depending on the discipline, the course, and the speciﬁc assignment. !e development of this document was a team eﬀort of the Secondary Language Arts Oﬃce and the High School English Instructional Team Leaders. TABLE OF CONTENTS 6+1 TRAITS OF WRITING® Ideas ................................................................1 Four Modes of Discourse............................................... 1 !esis Statement/Claim................................................ 1 Organization ...........................................................1 Strategies for Developing Paragraphs .....................................1 Strategies for Writing Introductions and Conclusions ........................1 Transitions ..........................................................2 Voice ................................................................2 Rhetorical Devices ....................................................2 Rhetorical Appeals....................................................2 Word Choice ........................................................... 3 Historical Present ....................................................3 Active and Passive Voice ...............................................3 Figures of Speech .....................................................3 Sound Devices ....................................................... 3 Sentence Fluency........................................................4 Conventions............................................................4 Punctuation: semi-colon, dash, hyphen, ellipsis ..............................4 Titles ..............................................................5 Checklists for Revision and Presentation .....................................5 Proofreading Symbols ....................................................6 Presentation ............................................................7 RESEARCH TO BUILD AND PRESENT KNOWLEDGE !e Big6™ .......................................................... 8 Academic Integrity ...................................................8 Types of Plagiarism ................................................... 8 Quoting, Paraphrasing, Summarizing .....................................8 Research Terminology ....................................................9 Rules for Documenting Sources (MLA Style) ................................10 Parenthetic

FAQs

What is the main goal of the manual for high school writers?

To establish baseline expectations for writing at the high school level and standardize basic stylistic elements across Howard County public schools.

Which planning factors are emphasized for becoming college- and career-ready writers?

Students should consider task, purpose, and audience when choosing words, information, structures, and formats.

What frameworks does the manual reference from earlier school years?

It references the “6+1 Traits of Writing®” and “The Big6™ Information Literacy Strategies” introduced in elementary and middle school language arts classes.

Sep 22, 2026

Upload by James