CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.8

By Anonymous (not verified), 12 March, 2026

Revising Research Reports

Revising Research Reports

After you write a first draft, you can improve your writing through a series of revisions. When you revise, you think about the “big picture,” including the overall structure of your writing (beginning, middle, and ending) and the focus, main ideas, and supporting details you use. These activities will help you revise.

Revising to Cite Evidence

As you revise your first draft, search for and replace general ideas and unsupported opinions with factual evidence from your sources.

  • General Idea: Sally Ride did some important things in space.

  • Factual Evidence: Sally Ride spent six days in space, where she helped place satellites in orbit.

  • Opinion: I bet Ride was surprised to see an advertisement from NASA.

  • Factual evidence: It was the first time that women were invited to apply to astronaut program (Smith).

Replace general ideas and unsupported opinions.

Find three general ideas or unsupported opinions from your report. Then find evidence from one of your sources to support each idea. Add the revisions to your report.

  1. General idea/opinion:

    2. Specific evidence:

  2. General idea/opinion:

    3. Specific evidence:

  3. General idea/opinion:

    4. Specific evidence:

By Anonymous (not verified), 12 March, 2026

Writing a Research Report

Writing a Research Report

Once you finish your planning and research, you are ready to write your first draft. These activities will help you hook the reader's interest at the beginning, explain important information in the middle, and end with a strong final point.

Writing the Beginning Paragraph

Write a lead.

Read each lead-writing strategy and example and write your own.

  1. Ask a question about the topic.

    2. Did you know women couldn’t become astronauts for almost the first three decades of the space program?

  2. Start with a surprising fact or detail about the topic.

    3. Before Sally Ride, space travel was mostly a club for men.

  3. Tell a little story about the person.

    4. Sally Ride didn’t always want to be an astronaut. When she was young, going to space was not a realistic aspiration for girls.

Write your beginning paragraph.

Write your lead and then give details that lead up to your focus statement. End the paragraph with your focus statement.

By Anonymous (not verified), 12 March, 2026

Prewriting for Research Reports

Prewriting for Research Reports

Of all the forms of academic writing, research reports require the most planning. The good news is that the extra attention you give to prewriting will make it easier for you to draft your report.

Prewriting to Select a Topic

For your report, you will research an important person from the past or present. As you consider topic choices, note people who truly interest you, because you will be spending a lot of time learning about them.

Create a cluster.

Create a cluster about historical figures from social studies, science, or math. Add names in the first branch of circles. Write a detail about the person in the second branch. Finally, put a star by the person you want to write about.

Cluster
  • Cluster
  • Cluster

Other Ways to Discover Topic Ideas

Search online or scan your school books for influential figures. Also try freewriting for topics.

Prewriting for Research Questions

Now that you have decided on a topic for your report, you need to find out what you already know about the person and what you want to learn.

Record what you know.

List all the things that you definitely know to be true about your topic. Then list any information you are not completely sure of.

By Anonymous (not verified), 12 March, 2026

Prewriting for Cause-Effect Essays

Prewriting for Cause-Effect Essays

Instead of just leaping into writing, you should spend some time gathering information and organizing your thoughts. That's prewriting. This lesson will help you select a topic and gather details.

Prewriting for Topics

Cause-effect essays explain how one thing leads to another. To brainstorm cause-effect essay topics, think about changes to your school, community, or environment. Also consider important events in history.

Explore writing topics.

Answer the following questions to consider possible topics for your cause-effect essay.

  1. What changed or is changing in my school or community?
  2. What changed or is changing in the world?
  3. What changed or is changing in the environment?
  4. What is one event or invention that changed history?

Choose a writing topic.

Review your answers to the previous activity. Consider the causes and effects of each topic. Choose the topic you find most interesting and that has the clearest relationship between causes and effects. Write your topic below.

Mir Pushed the Frontier of Space

Mir Pushed the Frontier of Space Before the International Space Station, the largest structure in space was the Mir space station. The Soviets (and Russians) built Mir in orbit from 1986 to 1996. The station lasted another five years before its orbit decayed and it burned up on re-entry in 2001. As the first modular space station, Mir pushed the frontiers of science, but as a result, living conditions inside weren't glamorous.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.8